22 May Two-minute Guide: Residency in Italy for citizens not from the EU
Non-Europeans can’t stay in Italy beyond 90 days right?
Unless you’re married to an Italian, or descendant from one, you’re going to require a non-tourist visa.
Whilst millions of people would love to linger longer in Italy, enjoying La Dolce Vita and the best of art and culture to discover anywhere, more and more people are at the same time looking to wind down a little, to escape from a frenzied pace of life elsewhere, and all of you need to know if you can stay in Italy for longer than a tourist visa allows.
It can be done. This is your 2 minute guide.
However this is A) not a tourism advertisement, and B) not an immigration lawyer’s guide or taken from an Italian government website. It’s the down-to-earth, tell it like it is-reality of what it takes to gain the freedom to stay in Italy for longer than an (extended) holiday.
The Elective Residence Visa (ERV) for Italy is the most common route allowing you to stay, and it’s great for those non-Europeans looking especially to retire or semi-retire here (including Brits who weren’t fast enough last year to claim their rights to stay) and who will not be able to obtain :
*a working visa,
*a student visa;
or,
*the Investor Visa available to those who make a capital (lump sum) investment into a startup business or listed investment in Italy (starting at €250,000,) to obtain a visa to stay longer than a tourist visa allows.
The Elective Residence Visa requires you to show your ability to sustain yourself in Italy without work (however after one year on the visa you can also apply for a work permit) by proving a non-employment income stream of €31,000 annually (or €38,000 for a couple), as well as other administration requirements including showing an existing Italian residential address at time of application.
You know, Italy’s current tax incentives to move are great! But you can’t have them if you can’t legally stay!
For freelancers, online consultants, authors and coaches, digital nomads and the like, who don’t have Italian residency rights already, you will need to join a sort-of queue, to apply for a visa to stay, similar to a work visa, and contained within the self-employment work visa rules. These particular rules are contained within the “Decreto Flussi” which is an Italian regime that allocates employment visas for non-EU nationals under a quota system.
I’ll write more about that later, however as a starting point, the number of visas available that make up the quota for self-employed change each year. In 2019 approximately 2,500 visas were allocated and in 2020 none were alocated (Covid-affected year).
That’s a two minute Guide! For more information, reach out.