I generally avoid wading into the murky waters of politics here, but I suspect that if you weren’t already contemplating a move to Italy, following the results of the U.S. election, some—perhaps many—of you, dear readers, may be looking for a way out of the United States. It certainly has not escaped my attention that the lead stories on some major travel publications have headlines reading “Here’s How to Buy Citizenship in Another Country” and “The 7 Easiest Countries to Get Citizenship, from Europe to the Caribbean.”
In the latter article, published by Condé Nast Traveler, Italy is the first place on the list. “As one of the most popular destinations in the world for American travelers, Italy is an appealing option for a second passport,” it says. It goes on to state that anyone born to an Italian mother or father can become an Italian citizen and adds that Americans with Italian grandparents can also apply for citizenship, even if their parents were born in the U.S.
That’s sort of true, but it’s not the whole story. And it’s also not the only way to move to Italy or become an Italian citizen. So today I’m breaking down a few of the types of long stay visas you can apply for if you’re not an E.U. citizen and you want to move to Italy for more than 90 days in a 180-day period.
According to the law of Jure Sanguinis, foreign-born descendants of Italian citizens can apply for citizenship if the blood line was never broken. So, yes, your parents and even grandparents or possibly great-grandparents can pass their Italian citizenship on to you, but only if your ancestor was still an Italian citizen when their child was born. A lot of my American friends who live in Italy have gotten their citizenship this way.
Until 1992, Italian citizenship was exclusive. So if, say, your Italian grandparents immigrated to the U.S. and naturalized as American citizens before 1992, they would have had to renounce their Italian citizenship. If they did, that might disqualify you from obtaining Italian citizenship by descent. If you think you might qualify, I highly recommend consulting an expert who helps people with citizenship applications.
The article goes on to note that if you don’t qualify for citizenship by descent, you might be able to get an investor visa, sometimes called a “Golden Visa.” Portugal was famous for this, but I hadn’t heard about this in Italy, so I fact checked that claim and found that there is indeed a two-year visa for investors with enough cash to qualify.
The minimum requirements are €250,000 if you invest in an innovative start-up, €500,000 if you invest in an Italian limited company, €1 million if you invest in a philanthropic initiative, or €2 million if you invest in government bonds. The sources I found don’t address how this might affect your taxes, but Italy is notorious for high tax rates, so you might want to look into that before considering this type of visa.
Another way to get a visa to live in Italy is by applying for a work visa for either subordinate work (i.e. your company sponsors you) or self-employment. These types of visas are subject to the quota system and can be very difficult to obtain, especially the self-employment visa.
The subordinate work visa may be a bit easier. If, say, you work for a multi-national company with offices in Italy, you might be able to request a transfer and get your employer to sponsor you. Or you could try to get a job with an Italian company that’s willing to sponsor you. Just keep in mind that getting this kind of visa means you’ll be subject to Italian taxes.
One notable exception is F.A.O., i.e. the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, whose headquarters are in Rome. According to my sources, if you can get a job at F.A.O., they will give you a visa letter and because it’s part of the U.N., you wouldn’t have to pay taxes in Italy.
You might have also read that Italy recently introduced a so-called digital nomad visa. This is a huge deal for freelancers and remote workers, who previously would have had to apply for the very complicated and hard-to-get self-employment visa. This is a very new visa, so there are still a lot of question marks about how to get it, but it does seem like the process is becoming clearer than it was when this visa was announced a few months ago.
In order to qualify, you must have a post-secondary degree or at least three years of professional experience in your field; have a letter or certificate of travel medical insurance with coverage of at least €30,000; have a lease, rental contract, or deed in your name for the entirety of your stay in Italy (an Airbnb or hotel will not cut it); provide proof of legal income of at least €24,789 (though I’ve heard that in reality you need to make more like three times that amount); and provide proof of at least six months of prior experience in your field. You might also need a letter from your employer if you’re a remote worker or proof that you have regular clients if you’re a freelancer.
In the past, a student visa was considered one of the easiest visas to get, but the government has beefed up the requirements in order to prevent people from just signing up for a beginner Italian class in order to get a student visa. Now if you want to come to Italy to study Italian, you have to pass the CILS language exam at a B1 level. You can, of course, also enroll in an Italian university for a bachelor’s, master’s or other post-secondary degree.
One of the benefits of this visa is that it allows you to work for up to 20 hours per week while you’re completing your studies. And when you finish your studies, you might be able to convert it into a work visa.
Then there’s the Elective Residency visa, which is essentially meant for retirees or trust fund babies who have the means to support themselves without working in Italy. I’ve heard that this type of visa is also becoming harder to obtain, but if you have passive income from a steady, reliable source such as a pension, annuity, social security, or rental properties, you might qualify for this visa. Sources differ on the exact amount required, but the consensus seems to be that you need a minimum of around €32,000 per year in passive income.
It’s not sufficient to show that you have enough cash in the bank to support yourself for a year or two—the source of your income must be consistent. The consulate’s concern is that if they grant you a visa because you have more than €32,000 in the bank, you could use it all to buy a villa or something and have nothing left to live on. They want to see that you’re receiving income at regular intervals from a passive source.
If you’re not retired, you might be able to set up a trust that would fulfill this requirement. You must also prove that you have a place to live in Italy, so you must have a rental contract, lease, or deed in hand when you apply.
Lastly, family members of Italian citizens or legal residents can apply for a visa/residence permit for the purpose of family unification. So if all else fails, you can marry your way into Italy.
Jokes aside, this means that if you’re married and one of you is able to get one of the above types of visas, your spouse can move to Italy with you by applying for a family unification visa. And yes, you can bring your kids too.
It’s important to note that buying a house in Italy does not mean you qualify for a visa. Even if you buy a house here, you’ll still need to apply for one of the visas listed above. No matter what type of visa you apply for, you can expect to have to jump over a bunch of bureaucratic hurdles in order to get it, but when you finally succeed, it will feel even sweeter.
You can read the aforementioned Condé Nast Traveler article here.
While researching this issue, I found some useful information about the jure sanguinis law here and some information about the investor visa here.
The requirements for the digital nomad visa, according to the Consulate General of Italy in New York, are posted here. Note that individual consulates have a lot of latitude when it comes to granting these visas.
For Apartment Therapy, I wrote about some of the things to consider if you’re thinking about moving to Italy.
If you’re serious about moving to Italy and want some professional help, you should talk to Damien O’Farrell, the expat coach who I interviewed here.
Samantha Wilson also dispenses advice about moving to Italy on her podcast and helps people prepare their visa and citizenship applications through her company, Smart Move Italy.
