Here at The Local we’re an international team living in Italy – which means we’ve either grown up navigating Italian bureaucracy or been through the simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking process of moving countries.
Our new newsletter is aimed at people who are in the process of moving, have recently moved and are still grappling with the paperwork or perhaps are just thinking about it – and we’ll share a regular selection of practical tips. Our team is also available to answer questions from subscribers to The Local.
Things you need to do before moving to Italy
With its warm weather, beautiful natural landscapes, and unparalleled cultural and culinary heritage, Italy is a popular destination for people looking to move from abroad.
But if you are thinking, or even just daydreaming, about upping sticks and relocating to the country, it can be hard to know where to start in your preparations.
Though checking your residency rights will likely be the first step of the process if you don’t have citizenship of a country covered by EU freedom of movement rules, there are several other things that you should consider, including exactly where in the peninsula you’d like to live (starting from the north v south dilemma) and local housing options.
Speaking of housing, choosing between buying and renting a property when you first arrive in the country is a difficult decision to make.
Both options have significant benefits and drawbacks, with the decision ultimately coming down to your own needs and long-term plans.
How to apply for Italy’s notoriously difficult self-employment visa
Italy’s self-employment visa (or visto per lavoro autonomo) is one of the options available to workers from outside the EU looking to relocate the country.
But while it comes with numerous benefits, getting one can be far from straightforward as Italian visa experts describe the process as “extremely hard and uncertain”, with a slim chance of success.
That’s partly because the self-employment visa falls under Italy’s quota-based visa system (or decreto flussi) – a set number of work permits made available to non-EU citizens every year.
Of the work permit slots available in Italy for non-EU citizens in 2024, only 700 were open to those with self-employment visas.
That said, successfully applying for a self-employment visto isn’t totally impossible: Grammy-nominated duo Zeneba Bowers and Matt Walker recently told us how they used it to move to the Lazio countryside in 2019.
And if you’re planning on giving it a try yourself, we’ve handily rounded up all the essential info on how to apply in our guide.
Questions
The Local’s Reader Questions section covers questions our members have asked us and is a treasure trove of useful info on all kinds of practical matters. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, head here to leave us your questions.
Member comments