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WORKING IN ITALY

‘Italy is an ideal base for remote working’: minister

Italy's business minister Adolfo Urso on Tuesday announced new plans to promote the country as a destination for remote workers - but didn’t say whether a planned ‘digital nomad’ visa would become reality.

Published: 14 March 2023 17:16 CET
'Italy is an ideal base for remote working': minister
There's a growing number of remote workers worldwide, but there's no word on whether they can get an Italian visa. Photo by Ostap Senyuk on Unsplash

Urso told a business conference on Tuesday that his ministry plans to market Italy to the growing number of remote workers, or digital nomads, worldwide.

“In the coming months we will draw up a comprehensive legislative proposal making it clear that the best place to live is Italy, even if you are based in Silicon Valley, under the slogan ‘Work in the world and live in Italy’.” he said.

READ ALSO: Will Italy follow Spain in introducing a digital nomad visa?

He said the ministry is looking at “exploiting the opportunities offered by remote working – opportunities that we learned about during the pandemic,” according to Italian news agency Ansa, and claimed that there is “a growing awareness from Silicon Valley to the London Stock Exchange” that Italy is “the best place to live”.

Though the minister didn’t give any details of the plan, his words raised hopes among the many international professionals worldwide who would like to live in Italy short-term but currently have no good options for visas that would allow them to work legally for companies based abroad while in Italy.

A growing number of southern European countries, most recently Spain, have brought in special visas aimed at attracting these mobile workers, but Italy has yet to do so despite approving a law allowing for the creation of a ‘digital nomad’ visa almost a year ago.

According to a study by Nomadi Digitali, Italy’s association for digital nomads, 42 percent of remote workers interested in moving to Italy would like to spend between one and three months in the country, while another 25 percent are looking to stay for up to six months and 20 percent would like to spend longer in the country.

But, under existing rules, non-EU nationals can only spend up to 90 days in Italy without needing a visa and anyone wishing to work legally while in the country must apply for a visa and work permit. 

The current visa options available are usually not viable for self-employed freelancers and remote workers, immigration law experts say, due to the strict quotas and requirements involved.

Nomadi Digitali has warned that legislation around remote work should not “consider digital nomads as mere tourists who come to visit our country” and said Italy instead must learn to “consider them as new temporary inhabitants of our communities.”

Keep up with The Local’s news updates on this topic in our working in Italy section.

Member comments

  1. Never mind visa status, Italy will not become an attractive country in which to start any kind of business activity until inexpensive, high speed Internet is readily available to all. I pay around 10% of the cost for Internet service in Bulgaria for twice the bandwidth here in Italy.
    It is a national disgrace.

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For members

VISAS

Will Italy follow Spain in cancelling its ‘golden’ visa?

Italy is one of a handful of EU countries still offering a 'golden' or investor visa option to wealthy would-be residents. As Spain moves to stop issuing these visas, how likely is the Italian government to follow suit?

Published: 25 July 2024 10:22 CEST
Will Italy follow Spain in cancelling its 'golden' visa?

‘Golden passport’ schemes have become an increasingly controversial topic across Europe amid concerns that they’re fuelling inequality and offering some criminals a gateway to life in the European Union.

Following a push from the European Commission, several countries have now limited or pledged to scrap these visa schemes; most recently Spain, which said this week it plans to eliminate all types of golden visas.

Spain’s culture minister recently described the existence of golden visas as a “European disgrace… which creates first and second-class citizens.”

Italy however continues to offer its ‘investor visa’ allowing non-EU nationals to move to the country, in exchange for paying anything from €250,000 to invest in an Italian start-up to €2 million in government bonds, under four different investment options.

Although some immigration experts argue that the Italian investor visa is not technically the same thing as ‘golden visa’ schemes elsewhere in Europe, it’s commonly known as the visto d’oro regardless.

It does allow successful applicants to become residents – although this is entirely optional – and then to apply for citizenship via naturalisation after ten years. It also allows freedom of movement around the Schengen zone, which is another major draw for applicants.

READ ALSO: Interest in Italy’s investor visa is growing – but who can actually get it?

With growing interest in moving to Italy from outside the EU, the number of would-be residents looking into this option after struggling to meet strict criteria for other visa types is also thought to be on the rise.

But, as neighbouring countries retract similar offers amid a Europe-wide trend towards tightening immigration rules, could the Italian investor visa’s days now be numbered, too?

Housing crisis

Spain’s initial reasoning for scrapping golden visas was the impact they’re having on the property market, in the wake of protests over a widespread lack of affordable housing.

Many believe the issue is partly linked to an ever-rising number of foreigners buying property in Spain, who are willing to spend more and more on a Spanish home, although the proliferation of short-term holiday lets in residential buildings is shouldering most of the blame.

According to the Spanish government, 94 in every 100 golden visas issued were linked to homes bought in cities such as Barcelona or ​​Madrid, where property prices and rents have risen exponentially.

EXPLAINED: How Spain has found a way to officially axe its golden visa

But there’s no parallel in Italy, where the investor visa does not offer an option to apply based on a property purchase.

While Italy’s cities are also seeing a rise in rents and property prices, leading to a shortage of affordable housing in many areas, there’s no clear link here to visas or international buyers.

Plus, there’s very little political interest in this issue in Italy: there’s been no discussion so far at the national level of limiting or further regulating tourist rentals to free up housing for local residents – much less limiting investment.

Easy route?

As well as the property option, Spain’s golden visa is – for now – also open to those who invest €1 million in shares in Spanish companies, or €2 million in government bonds, or transfer €1 million to a Spanish bank account.

These options have led to Spain’s golden visa becoming known as one of the easiest ways of gaining Spanish residency as a third-country national – at least for those wealthy enough.

Since Spain’s golden visas were made available in 2013, some 15,450 have been granted – and that’s not including authorisations for family members of golden visa holders who have also gained Spanish residency through the scheme. 

But again, the situation in Italy is very different: the number of investor visa applications here is miniscule by comparison.

Since 2018, when Italy’s investor visa was introduced, only a few dozen have been approved each year. The number has steadily increased, but according to the latest available data in 2021 the total number of applications was just 64.

The largest number were from American and Russian citizens (14 of each), and Italy has since stopped issuing the investor visa to Russian nationals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There is also no data available on how many of these applications were successful.

Visa consultants and previous applicants say the process of obtaining an investor visa is opaque, complex, and involves a thorough investigative process, and warn that there’s a high risk of being turned down.

At the moment, there’s no discussion of scrapping Italy’s investor visa – the low number of applicants and limited investment options seems to mean it simply isn’t viewed as a problem.

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