Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

RESIDENCY PERMITS

EXPLAINED: Can you lose your right to residency in Italy?

It’s no secret that becoming a resident in Italy takes time, costs money and is full of bureaucratic red tape. But can residency ever be taken away from you?

Published: 28 February 2024 17:36 CET
Updated: 7 March 2024 08:57 CET
EXPLAINED: Can you lose your right to residency in Italy?
Could you ever be at risk of losing your Italian residency? Photo by Frederic Christian on Unsplash

There are many reasons for internationals to get Italian residency, from the practical – such as accessing healthcare, opening up bank accounts and not having your passport stamped – to feeling like you belong in the country you plan on calling home for the foreseeable future.

Not only does taking up Italian residency provide a sense of security, it’s also a legal requirement for those who live in the country for more than six months of the year largely due to tax purposes. According to Istat, in 2022 alone 3.7 million residency permits (permessi di soggiorno) were issued, almost 2.2 million of which were long-stay or permanent.

However, the Italian authorities can deny a request to renew your permit if you no longer satisfy the requirements or have been out of the country for too long a period, and you might have your permesso revoked if – in extreme circumstances – you’re considered a threat to public safety.

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

There are also a few circumstances in which your residency can be revoked on a local level by the comune (town hall) where you’re registered.

While getting struck off your comune‘s register won’t invalidate your stay permit or get you kicked out of the country, it can be a nuisance as you’ll no longer have an official registered address and you’ll have to re-register as a resident locally.

Let’s take a look at the reasons you might have either your Italian stay permit or your local residency registration revoked.

Being untraceable

Revocation of residency with your local comune can occur if a person is proven to be untraceable following repeated checks over the course of a year (which might happen, for example, due to a census).

The prerequisite for this type of revocation is when there is reason to believe the person has moved from their home of registered residence or when it’s deduced they are on their national territory.

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

When this happens a procedure is started making it difficult to obtain residency certification (which affects access to healthcare) and the possibility of losing any voting rights.

Failing to renew declaration of habitual residence

Foreign citizens not belonging to the European Union can also be automatically cancelled from a comune‘s register for failing to renew their habitual residence.

Current legislation says third country nationals have an obligation to submit a declaration of renewal of their habitual residence to their comune, together with a copy of the new permit, within 60 days of renewing their permesso.

Staying outside of the country for long periods

Under Italian law, all foreign citizens who move abroad or return to their country of residence must declare it to their comune.

However, it is important to remember if you have a residency permit of less than two years and are a non-EU citizen you can leave the country for six months continuously without declaring it, or for a continuous period of no more than half the duration of your permit if your permit is for two years or more.

Breaking this rule means the government could refuse to renew or extend your stay permit.

If you’re a Withdrawal Agreement (WA) beneficiary and have resided in the country for less than five years, meanwhile, you can go abroad for a maximum of six months at a time.

If you have surpassed this time for reasons that do not include being sent abroad for work, study or health (in which you are allowed to leave for one year if you are a WA beneficiary), the government can refuse to renew or extend your stay permit.

No longer meeting the requirements for a residency permit

There are many different factors to take into consideration when meeting the requirements for a residency permit, a common one being aware of when to change your permit according to your needs. For example, you wouldn’t renew your student visa when you finished your studies two years ago, would you?

Then there’s making sure you continue to meet the requirements for an existing permit when it’s up for renewal.

READ ALSO: ‘Arduous process’: What to expect when applying for Italian permanent residency

If you’re in Italy on an elective residency visa, for example, you’ll initially need to renew your stay permit every one to two years. The minimum passive income threshold for this visa is around €31,000 per person per year (though the authorities can stipulate higher amounts in individual cases) – if your income falls below the threshold, your renewal application will likely be rejected.

Other requirements such as healthcare and salary must also be met. For instance, not having your health covered privately or by the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (Italy’s national health service) is a breach of residency terms. 

Committing a serious crime

This is rare, but having your Italian stay permit revoked on a national level due to committing a serious crime is a possibility under Article Nine of the Italian Immigration Law. The law states that the Italian authorities can refuse to renew a residency permit for those people who are “dangerous for public order or the security of the State.” 

Such crimes include mafia-related felonies or offences and threats against public bodies.

Of course revoking residency is a rare but often distressing procedure for all those involved. Whilst there have not been any cases that have been reported recently in the news, it’s always best to double check with your comune or a lawyer to check the specific terms. The Local cannot assist with legal inquiries.

If you or someone you know has had their residency revoked get in touch via the comments below or at [email protected]

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS