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AMERICANS IN ITALY

Americans in Italy: Hiring an ancestry detective and bringing pets from the US

How can you bring your pet from the US to Italy and what's the role of an 'ancestry detective' in helping you uncover your Italian origins? We explore in our latest Americans in Italy newsletter.

Published: 21 March 2024 11:49 CET
Americans in Italy: Hiring an ancestry detective and bringing pets from the US
If you want to learn more about your Italian heritage, an ancestry detective could help. Photo by Lawrence Chismorie on Unsplash

Welcome to our regular look at everything you need to know about life in Italy for The Local’s readers from the US. This newsletter is published monthly and you can receive it directly to your inbox before we publish by going to newsletter preferences in ‘My Account’ or following the instructions in the newsletter box below.

If you’re a pet owner who’s planning on relocating from the US to Italy, one of the first things you’ll want to do is make sure you can bring your furry friend with you.

Bringing a domestic animal into Italy from the US means getting to grips with plenty of rules and paperwork – but the good news is you most likely won’t have to quarantine your pet on arrival, and most Italian ports and airports are authorised entry points.

The rules for dogs, cats, and – interestingly – ferrets are the same when it comes to importing a pet into the EU; you’ll need an animal health certificate from a USDA-authorised vet and to make sure they’re vaccinated against rabies.

If you have a rabbit, bird, turtle or other animal, on the other hand, there are slightly stricter rules in place, but you should still be able to bring your pet over without too much difficulty.

Can I bring my pet from the USA into Italy?

What’s involved in bringing your dog from the US to Italy? Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

If you’re vaguely aware of having Italian roots and want to learn more – either out of personal interest or to pursue an Italian citizenship application – you may want to engage the services of an Italian ancestry detective, a profession that’s increasingly on the rise in Italy.

Fabio Cardile, from Palermo, Sicily has been working in the field for over 25 years, and has investigated the Italian ancestries of the likes of John Travolta and Jill Biden.

He starts by searching state records online and then going in person to local parishes, churches and graveyards, where the only documents available are sometimes hundreds of years old and in Latin.

“In the hardest cases all clients are able to give me is their last name and I need to trace back in time the origin of it and the location in Italy where still nowadays there are similar-sounding names,” says Cardile.

How ancestry detectives help Americans and Brits find their Italian roots

Putting together your Italian family tree often involves visiting local authority offices and churches in person to access records. Photo: Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Under incoming changes to the EU’s border system, Americans and other third country nationals will soon have to pay a fee to enter Italy.

The charge won’t set visitors back by too much, however: it costs just €7 (free for over 70s and under 18s) and is valid for multiple trips to the EU over a three-year period.

There’s also currently no fixed date for the introduction of the ETIAS system, which is modelled on the US’s ESTA visa waiver program; it’s provisionally scheduled to become active in 2024, but there have already been multiple delays, and it could well be pushed back until 2025.

That hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from getting worked up about the scheme and promising to put an end to it if he were reelected – something that would in fact be beyond any US president’s powers.

Will American tourists need to pay a fee to visit Italy?

Have your say: If you’d like to share your opinion or tell us about an experience you’ve had while living in Italy, please leave a comment below this article or get in touch by email.

And if you have any advice for other American readers who are considering moving to Italy, or questions of your own, you can add them to our ongoing survey here.

Thanks for reading and please get in touch with us by email if you have any feedback on this newsletter.

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AMERICANS IN ITALY

How much money do Americans need to become residents in Italy in 2024?

If you're a US citizen who's looking to move to Italy on a retirement or digital nomad visa, here’s how much money you need to be allowed to live in the country.

Published: 15 April 2024 13:16 CEST
How much money do Americans need to become residents in Italy in 2024?

From Edith Wharton to Gore Vidal, a number of famous Americans down the decades have fallen in love with the Italian lifestyle and made Italy their second home.

Though Italian immigration policies are stricter than they once were, US citizens can still obtain residency in Italy, even if you don’t have family ties or a job offer.

As of 2024, Italy has more than one visa available to self-employed or remote workers from outside the EU, and others for retired people and investors.

What you will need for each of these is a minimum annual income sufficient to reassure the Italian authorities that you can support yourself financially without the assistance of the Italian state.

Here’s what those thresholds are in 2024.

Elective residency visa

Often known as Italy’s retirement visa, the elective residency visa, or ERV, is for people who don’t need to work (you’re not allowed to work on this visa), and can support themselves on a passive income.

The government’s official minimum threshold is €31,000 per person or €38,000 per married couple plus five percent per dependent minor.

However, as Italian immigration experts have told us in the past, individual consulates have the power to raise this limit much higher than this.

READ ALSO: Five expert tips for getting your Italian elective residency visa approved

Giuditta Petreni at Mazzeschi Legal Counsels says that in her experience it’s “typical” for consulates to require three to four times the official threshold.

Digital nomad visa

As of April 2024, Italy finally has a digital nomad visa along the lines of those offered by countries like Spain and Portugal.

The decree doesn’t provide a number, but says that an applicant’s annual income must be no less than three times the minimum amount that would exempt them from paying for healthcare.

According to multiple immigration experts, that amounts to just under €28,000. 

Nick Metta from Studio Legale Metta notes that the decree doesn’t specify that this income has to be from work, meaning that in theory it could come “from any source, for example, rental income, corporate dividends, etc.”

READ ALSO: Q&A: Your questions answered about Italy’s digital nomad visa

As with the ERV, he cautions that “each Italian Consulate might apply its own interpretation about qualifying sources of income and might require a higher amount as well.”

Investor visa

As you might expect from the name, an investor visa requires the largest outlay of any of these permits.

The scheme allows Americans and other non-EU citizens the right to live in Italy if they meet the key requirements, namely a minimum investment of €250,000 to €2 million in certain start ups, companies, charities or government bonds.

Unlike other Italian visas, the investor visa doesn’t require the holder to make Italy their primary place of residence.

You also don’t need to spend the money at the outset; according to Giancarlo Ostetto from the Italian office of Lexidy Law Boutique, “the Italian investor visa is considered a safe option as you pay the investment three months after you get your visa rather than beforehand.”

Self-employment visa

According to the Italian consulate in London, Italy’s self-employment visa requires an annual income “higher than the minimum level provided by the law for exemption from participation in medical and health public assistance” – that is, €8,500.

You might be wondering why anyone would choose to apply for the new digital nomad visa over the self-employment visa given how much lower the income threshold is for the latter.

The answer is that unlike the digital nomad visa, Italy’s self-employment visa is subject to annual quotas that hover around 500 per year.

This, combined with the fact that consulates tend to be very hesitant to approve the visa without proof of a stable and substantial income, makes the self-employment visa notoriously difficult to obtain in practice.

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