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RESIDENCY PERMITS

How many people get Italian residency every year?

If you’re thinking of becoming a legal resident of Italy, or are mid-way through the process, you may wonder how many others do the same each year and where they come from.

Published: 7 February 2024 14:13 CET
How many people get Italian residency every year?
The number of international residents obtaining residency premits has not changed much in recent years. Photo: Imagedepotpro/Getty Images

Italy has official data showing how many permits are issued in total every year, and to whom – though this includes renewals, and it only gives us part of the picture.

According to Istat, Italy’s official statistics bureau, a total of just over 3.7 million residency permits (permessi di soggiorno) were issued in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.

That’s almost 1.5 million temporary residency permits, and 2.2 million permanent or long-stay permits.

The number has been stable since at least 2016, Istat data shows, with no major increase or decrease in the number of permits issued. There is no official cap on the limit of residency permits available.

Obtaining a residency permit can be a lengthy process involving a large amount of paperwork, which means many applicants are likely to have moved to Italy some time before their first permit was issued.

READ ALSO: What’s the difference between Italian residency and citizenship?

Most residency permits issued in 2022 were for citizens of Morocco (roughly 399,000), Albania (389,000), Ukraine (383,000), China (343,000) and India (164,000).

The data showed that some 36,000 US citizens received Italian residency permits in 2022, 9,183 of which were permanent residency permits.

The numbers of permits given to Brits, Australians, Canadians and South Africans were not specified.

EU nationals are not included, as they are not required to apply for Italian residency permits.

READ ALSO: A complete guide to getting Italy’s residency permit

Istat’s population data meanwhile shows that there were roughly five million foreign nationals living in Italy in the same year, making up 8.5 percent of the population. This figure has been stable since 2014.

The majority of foreign-born residents in Italy were citizens of European countries (some 2.4 million), with more than half of that number (1.4 million) from EU member states.

They were followed by roughly one million people from African countries, one million from central and east Asia, and 370,000 from south and central America.

Broken down by country, the largest groups of international residents in Italy were Romanians (1,081,836) followed by Albanians (416,829), Moroccans (415,088), Chinese (307,038) and Ukrainians (249,613).

READ ALSO: Do foreigners in Italy have to carry their residency documents?

After Romania, the European Union countries with the most citizens registered as living in Italy were Poland (74,387), Germany (34,003), France (29,942), Spain (27,854) and the Netherlands (8,820).

Meanwhile Italy had some 27,758 residents from the UK, 15,582 from the USA, 2,230 Canadians, 1,518 Australians, 769 from South Africa and 354 from New Zealand.

Italy also recorded 1,235 resident citizens from the microstate of San Marino, and 16 from the Vatican City.

Data also shows that Italy’s foreign residents overwhelmingly choose to live in the north of the country: 83.8 percent live in the centre or north, according to Istat.

The Italian region home to the largest number of foreigners was the north-west, with 1,755,332 international residents. One million of those live in Lombardy, the region surrounding Milan.

See more in The Local’s Italian residency section.

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RESIDENCY PERMITS

‘Huge setback for non-EU workers’: Plan to make it easier to move around Europe fails

EU governments have failed to agree on a reform of EU long-term residence rules that would have made it easier for third-country nationals to move within the European Union.

Published: 8 March 2024 13:33 CET
Updated: 8 March 2024 21:34 CET
'Huge setback for non-EU workers': Plan to make it easier to move around Europe fails

Opposition to the planned changes from France and Belgium – which holds the rotating Presidency of the EU Council this semester – proved decisive. In the end negotiations reached a deadlock and the planned reform – which would essentially have made it easier for non-EU nationals to live and work in other Schengen area countries – was dropped.

German MEP Damian Boeselager, the lead negotiator for the European Parliament,  was left angry by the failure and shared the news this week with colleagues in the home affairs committee.

“This is a huge setback for everyone who hoped Europe would finally understand the necessity to update its migration laws and become more attractive for international talent,” he said.

“The long-term residence directive… was adopted first in 2003 and has not been updated since. But the Council was not willing to accept any of the substantial improvements that the European Commission proposed… Instead, it seems that one national government, in particular, threw all its negotiation power and size to build a blocking minority,” he added.

“I am of course super sad for all the work that has been put into this… But I think the real tragedy lies outside this house and that is, in two different areas.

“First, for the millions of third-country nationals already living in Europe who would have been subject to the improvements, but also for all those who are considering to come to Europe and now might decide against it. And second, for the thousands of businesses and start-ups that hoped that there would be easier procedures and less waiting times and who have been deprived of the chance to make Europe more competitive.”

Little-known EU residence status

Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can acquire EU-wide long-term residence if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years. They also must not have been away for more than 6 consecutive months and 10 months over the entire period. (British citizens covered by the Withdrawal Agreement benefit from different rules on absences in comparison to permanent residence, but it is not clear what impact they would have on qualifying for EU long term residence. We are seeking clarification.)

In addition, they have to prove to have “stable and regular economic resources”, health insurance and can be required to meet “integration conditions”, such as passing a test on the national language or culture.

In theory the status, which was created to “facilitate the integration” of non-EU citizens who live in the EU on a long-term basis, grants some free movement rights. However, in practice, this is not the case as different rules on residency apply in each EU country and most applicants are simply unaware the EU status exists.

In an interview with The Local last year, Damian Boeselager, a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, said that free movement for non-EU citizens was still an “illusion”.

“The truth is that Europe needs labour migration in all areas and all skill levels and therefore, if we want to be more attractive, we should make it easier (for non-EU citizens) to move from one member state to the next,” he argued.

In 2020, 23 million third country nationals – 5 percent of the EU’s population- were living in EU member states. Of these, more than ten million held a long-term or permanent residence permit.

INTERVIEW: Why it must be made easier for non-EU citizens to move around Europe

‘Time was against us’

The European Commission had proposed in 2022 to simplify EU long-term residence rules. Under proposed measures, non-EU citizens would have been able to cumulate residence periods in different EU countries to reach the 5-year requirement, instead of resetting the clock at each move. The plan would have meant all periods of legal residence would have been fully counted towards the 5 years, including those spent as students, beneficiaries of temporary protection or on temporary grounds – which is currently not the case.

Integration tests should not have been too burdensome or expensive, nor should they have been requested for long-term residents’ family reunifications. The Commission had also proposed to extend from 12 to 24 months the possibility to leave the EU without losing the status, with facilitated procedures to re-acquire it after longer absences.

READ ALSO: What is the EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non-EU nationals?

The Commission’s proposal had to be agreed by the European Parliament and Council, which is made of representatives of national governments.

The Parliament supported the Commission and sought to further relax rules, asking to cut the residency requirement to obtain EU long-term residence from five to three years.

But when it came to the EU Council it proved harder to reach an agreement.

The representatives of EU governments only agreed to cumulate residence periods of up to two years in other member states and only in certain circumstances, such as for EU Blue Cards or other permits for highly qualified employment.

EU governments also wanted to continue requiring “integration conditions” and to “assess the situation of their national labour markets.”

The Council and the Parliament had to reconcile their positions to agree the final text of the law. But after months of discussions, the Belgian Presidency said this week there was not “enough support” from EU member states to continue talks.

Belgium’s Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole De Moor, said: “We have to realise that time is against us on this subject. We are nearing the end of the legislative term… we had a lot of discussions, but unfortunately at this point in time the water is too deep.”

A key factor of disagreement was the possibility to cumulate residence periods in different EU member states. France in particular was against it as this would have clashed with the idea of integrating long term into French society, an EU diplomat told The Local.

Other countries were concerned by the ability to exchange information to verify residence periods. Austria, on its part, was against the inclusion of family members in the scope of the directive.

Overall, The Local understands, with the European elections looming there was not appetite among EU governments to relax such measures.

What happens next

The file could now remain pending until another presidency puts it back on the Council agenda, but this is unlikely to happen soon, as the next Presidencies will be held by Hungary and Poland. The European Commission could also decide to withdraw the proposal with a view of presenting a new one, but that won’t happen until the next Commission takes office.

The article is published in cooperation with Europe Street News.

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