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AMERICANS IN ITALY

LISTED: The visa options Americans can apply for to live in Italy

Moving to Italy is a dream for many US nationals who have fallen in love with the country, but which Italian residency visa should Americans opt for depending on their circumstances?

Published: 27 March 2024 16:55 CET
LISTED: The visa options Americans can apply for to live in Italy
What kind of visa will allow you to move to Italy as a US citizen? Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

It can be quite confusing for Americans who want to move to Italy as there are a number of different visa options available and a whole raft of requirements in order to be eligible for them. 

US nationals don’t have the automatic right to get a job in Italy or anywhere else in the EU because of their status as third-country nationals within Europe’s single market, but thankfully some visas will allow you to work here. 

Elective residency visa

The elective residency visa, or ERV, is designed for those who want to live in Italy and have the financial means to support themselves without working. Because you can’t work while on the ERV, it’s sometimes referred to as a retirement visa. 

You’ll need to prove you receive an annual passive income of at least €31,000 euros per person or €38,000 for married couples, plus five percent per dependent minor, though some consulates require more.

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

This can be rental income, a pension, annuities, or some other source, but simply having significant savings in the bank doesn’t count: it has to be in the form of a fixed and reliable passive income stream.

Find out more about applying for an Italian elective residency visa.

Family visa

The family visa is available to US dependents of either an Italian citizen or a US citizen with an Italian stay permit. It allows entrance in Italy to the spouse, children or dependent parents.

You will need to provide evidence of your relationship with the person whose dependent you will be, for instance marriage or birth certificates.

Find out more about applying for an Italian family visa.

Employee work permit

This option has the obvious drawback that you need to have received and accepted an offer of a job in Italy in order to be eligible.

The good news is that your employer will then complete most of the visa application process for you – all you need to do is provide them with the relevant paperwork.

Your employer will apply for permission to hire a migrant worker from the immigration desk at their local prefettura (prefecture, the regional office of the central government). Once you get authorisation, the prefettura will inform the Italian consulate or embassy in your home country that your application can go ahead.

Student visa

To apply for a long-stay (type D) student visa, you’ll need to be accepted onto a course that lasts longer than three months.

When applying you should provide a letter of acceptance to your course in Italy, as well as proof of accommodation, sufficient financial means and health insurance.

There is no age limit, and the visa allows you to work up to 20 hours per week and bring family members to live with you.

Find out more about applying for an Italian student visa.

A student visa can be one way to enter Italy on a longer-term basis. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

Golden visa

Italy does not technically offer a golden visa, but this is how its investor visa is often referred to. This scheme allows non-EU citizens such as Americans the right to live in Italy if they meet the key requirements, namely a minimum investment of €250,000 to €2 million in certain companies, charities or government bonds.

This visa entitles you two years’ residency, renewable for further three-year periods, and special tax benefits. Investors’ families are eligible to apply for dependent visas.

READ ALSO: Does Italy have a golden visa?

To obtain a visa, US investors must obtain a nulla osta (certificate of no impediment) issued by the Investors Committee for Italy (IV4I); you then have six months from its issuance to make the application for an investor visa.

Other visas

The above visas are the main ones suited to Americans looking to move to Italy longer-term, though there are a number of other visas available, including the internship visa, the startup visa, and the self-employed visa.

These visas all have stringent requirements that make them challenging to obtain.

To successfully apply for the internship visa, you must have been offered a paid vocational training course of between three and 12 months by a host organisation that will commit to paying your food and board and funding your repatriation in case of an emergency.

The self-employed visa might sound like an ideal solution if your job allows you to work from anywhere, and is currently the closest thing Italy has to a digital nomad visa.

In reality, however, experts have told us that successful applications for these visas are extremely rare, so it isn’t an option for most people.

The startup visa requires you to apply through a startup that is headquartered in Italy and less than four years old, and has a team composed of one third PhD students or two thirds MA students, or holds a patent, industrial property right or original software registered with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE).

On arrival

Remember that your visa isn’t the only permission you’ll need if you want to live in Italy. 

After you enter Italy with a long-stay visa, you have eight days to apply for a residence permit (permesso di soggiorno). The length of time this document will remain valid depends on the type of visa you have.

You’ll also need to apply for a tax code and register as resident with your local comune, or town hall.

Find out more about what you’ll need to do once you land in Italy here.

Please note The Local is unable to advise on individual cases. For more information on whether you are eligible to apply for a visa, contact the Italian consulate in your country or consult an immigration law specialist.

Read out more about applying for a visa in our Italian visa section.

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RETIREMENT IN ITALY

‘The visa process was painful’: How easy is it to move to Italy for retirement?

Spending retirement in Italy is a dream for many, but what are the potential obstacles you should be aware of when planning your move? The Local's readers share their experiences and advice.

Published: 2 May 2024 10:02 CEST
'The visa process was painful': How easy is it to move to Italy for retirement?

Moreish food, a mild climate and a multitude of art and history are just a few of the reasons people choose to retire to Italy. Plus, there’s the relatively low cost of living and potential tax breaks retirees can benefit from.

But some who have made the move to Italy for retirement tell The Local it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, particularly for those coming from outside the European Union.

READ MORE: Five big reasons people choose to retire to Italy

When we asked in The Local’s Living in Italy Facebook group for readers’ experiences, we had an overwhelming response from retirees who told us that bureaucratic issues and other practical hurdles had made things less than straightforward in their experience.

Steve Knowles, a British citizen residing in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, said the visa process almost prevented his move to Italy. 

“The visa process was quite painful,” he told us. “Getting an appointment in the UK at [visa application portal] VFS Global took ages because their website was faulty which took a whole month to be fixed, so we lost time.”

Steve applied for an elective residency visa, which is the Italian visa most aspiring international retirees will need to get, after the Brexit transition period.

He tells us everything was time-consuming, especially as he had to provide two copies of relevant documents as he applied as part of a couple.

“Our first application was rejected due to issues over our ‘passive income’. This, in my opinion, was due to a lack of common sense on the part of the consulate,” Steve continues. 

READ ALSO: Retirement in Italy: What you need to know about visas and residency

Luckily for him, he was granted another appointment three months later and got his visa issued – but more of Italy’s long-winded bureaucratic processes awaited him when he arrived.

“When we got here, we had the joys of Italian bureaucracy to navigate with regards to getting a permesso di soggiorno. We now have this and our identification cards, but getting the permesso di soggiorno renewed is an annual joy,” he writes sarcastically.

Mary Hanson, a United States citizen living in Italy, also ran into visa-related issues. 

“The consulate can deny any visa application with no further indication of why or how to correct errors,” she says.

READ ALSO:

She applied for her elective residency visa three times before getting it accepted. She cites an unsuitable letter of hospitality and financial documents in the improper format being the reasons why her first two attempts were rejected. 

“All decisions are at the discretion of the consulate and each one has different interpretations,” she adds.    

“It’s frustrating. I am going to bet that every single US expat will report similar experiences although we have now formed large enough communities on social media to help each other through that particular version of bureaucracy hell.”

Better weather is one of the major draws of a new life in Italy. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

She concludes that nowadays consulates seem to be friendlier than they were five years ago when she applied. 

“They’re simply kindergarten compared to the Questura.”

Carl Lobitz, a US national resident in Chieti, commented he had to deal with the Texas state bureaucracy before getting his visa, because the Italian consulate requested his place of birth on his marriage certificate.

Mark Hinshaw, a retired architect also from the States and resident in Marche, said it took him four months to collect all the documents required by the consulate for the elective residency visa and then another three months to receive it.

“It was nothing compared to the insanity of the bureaucratic complexity, confusion, and craziness here,” he writes. 

READ ALSO: How and why Italy’s elective residency visa rules are getting stricter

“I tell newcomers they must learn to laugh. Laugh a lot. After you finish crying of course.”

British citizen Margaret Tyler arrived in Italy before Brexit and has a half-Italian spouse, so visas were not the issue. The problem for her is the lack of financial clarity.

“The tax we have to pay is very high, more than the UK. It seems the government will tax anything and everything. There is no complaint process if you receive bad service which does happen,” she says. 

“Nothing is properly explained and if you are given the wrong information and if you make a mistake it’s your fault.

“Sometimes I feel we are taken advantage of because we are not Italian, which is sad.”

As well as bureaucracy, assimilating into another community and culture was another common theme.

READ ALSO: Five essential things you need to do when you move to Italy

Briton Linda Baker, an artist retired in Veneto, writes: “Probably the most important thing I have learnt is that a community is needed if you are to survive, at least at the outset to cushion the difficulties. To be honest it was terrifying in the beginning.”

Mary Hanson added that the pandemic hindered her chances of assimilation. 

“Originally we were ‘the Americans’ but by the time we crawled out from under our masks? The ship had sailed,” she says.

Dual Italian-American citizen Scott Fabbri said it’s the everyday tasks which were difficult at first, such as getting keys cut or finding an electrician.

However, all of the respondents, when asked, were more than content with the decision to retire in Italy, with the majority saying they would never return home. Perhaps, in all the bureaucratic confusion, there’s a silver lining after all.

Have you moved to Italy for retirement or are you in the process of doing so? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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