Student Visa • Residency Visa • Family Visa • Work Visa
All 15 signatory countries of the Schengen agreement, which includes Italy, allow U.S. residents to circulate freely within their borders for a maximum of 90 days at a time. If your vacation fits into that category, all you need are a passport and a plane ticket. But Italy still has its own immigration laws, and even those Americans planning to stay for as little as two weeks are required, in theory, to apply for a stay visa within eight days of their arrival. Few people bother with the formalities. There are literally millions of Americans who come every year for two-week vacations in Italy with no paperwork other than a passport.
If you’re planning a six-month vacation, you should consider the short-stay permit. A three-month permit can be renewed for an additional three months. But beyond six months, you are required to apply for a long-stay permit in Italy, the infamous permesso di soggiorno. Before you can apply for your permesso, you will need to have obtained the appropriate visa from the Italian Embassy or local consulate in the United States. There are weeks, perhaps months, of footwork on that front to be done at home before you leave. Some cases have been known to drag on for more than a year.
There are 12 types of visas in all, ranging from airport transit to sports-related, some easier to obtain than others. Americans looking to live, study, or work in Italy are most likely to apply for one of three types: a residency visa, a student visa, or a work visa. Different documentation is required for each, so check with your local consulate or the Italian Embassy’s website (www.italyemb.org) before you make an appointment. All visas will require a passport valid for at least three months past your application date.
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Student Visa
Student visas are relatively easily obtained, provided you have been accepted to an Italian or Italy-based university and can provide proof of financial independence during that stay. Many American-sponsored programs will handle your visa requirements for you.
At last count, there were more than 360 American programs in Italy, and other Italian universities meant for foreigners. The best known among the latter are the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, and the programs in Siena and Urbino.
If your program is more self-styled, you’ll need to do the paperwork yourself. Be sure to bring to the embassy or consulate a letter of acceptance to an Italian university, proof of health insurance, and bank account information (it can be your parents’ account) that shows you have enough money to live on once you’re there.
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Residency Visa
Residency visas also require proof of independent income. It is, in fact, the operating principle behind this kind of visa, which does not allow you to work in Italy. You must prove that you have enough money to support yourself through the length of your stay, independent of any salaries you may be receiving at the moment. You also need to show either ownership of a home in Italy or a rental agreement. Plus, you will be asked to provide your criminal record, or proof of lack thereof. This can be tricky if you don’t have a record, which, of course, is what the authorities are hoping for in the first place—thus creating a Catch-22 with no immediate solution.
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Family Visa
The family visa is for immediate family (spouse and/or children) of someone already working legally in Italy. If that person is an EU resident, the paperwork is quick: All you need is a letter from your spouse and the marriage certificate. You will also need a nulla osta (“no obstacle”) document from the local police headquarters if your spouse is a not an EU resident but legally working there, plus any children’s birth certificates if they are coming, too.
If, on the other hand, your spouse is still in the process of obtaining a work permit, you will need additional paperwork, such as proof of suitable family housing. In general, it is always easier applying for such residency once your family member has the job.
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Work Visa
The work visa is the most difficult to obtain. It is divided into three subcategories for the following types of applicants:
• performing arts work: for musicians in a planned concert series, actors in a planned film, etc.
• dependent work: for those employed and paid by an Italian company
• independent work: for freelancers, such as programmers and consultants
There are a limited number of such independent work visas afforded to Americans every year, and experience has shown that they disappear within a few hours after the quota is announced. The major challenge in landing a work visa is that you must have letters from the company saying it intends to hire you, or else bring you on as a consultant. This would be an unusual windfall for someone not already living in Italy.
In order to solve this paradox, many Americans arrange job contacts while on shorter vacations in Italy, and then fly back to the U.S. to straighten out their visas. Keep in mind that you should not overstay your three-month visit or your renewed six-month permit to be successful with this approach. For even more time, some people choose to sign up for a bona fide course in Italy, and then apply for a student visa. Many people manage to parlay the student permit into a work permit once the course is over.
Again, finding an employer who is willing to file the paperwork for an American has become more difficult recently, as there are new quotas set for foreigners allowed to fill Italian jobs. If you manage to qualify, you need to have your employer send the Labor Ministry a letter that says the company intends to hire you. When that has been approved, the Ministry will issue a nulla osta document to police headquarters. The company will also send you a work contract to present to the embassy or consulate, along with proof of Ministry approval, for your visa.
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Again, only after you have the visa and are in Italy do you apply for the corresponding permesso di soggiorno. For student visas, you apply for the permesso di soggiorno per studio; the permesso di soggiorno per dimora is for those with a residency visa; and the permesso di soggiorno per lavoro is for those with a work visa.
All of the permits are obtained at the local questura (police headquarters). There, you will be asked to fill out an application, which includes three passport photographs plus a marca di bollo (a sort of administrative tax stamp available at the post office). You will also need some proof of health insurance.
If you are applying for a residency permit or student permit, the bureaucracy ends there. In the case of the work permit, upon presenting your visa, police headquarters will provide you with an interim work permit that is good for 90 days. In the meantime, acquire a codice fiscale (tax ID number), which you can do at the ufficio delle imposte dirette (local tax authority), to be found in the town’s municipal buildings. It is an important card, as you will also need it for all kinds of purchases, such as a cell phone, a car, or a moped, and when opening a bank account. The documents you will need to show for the codice fiscale are limited to a passport and sometimes a stay permit, although many Americans are not asked for the latter, especially in small towns. The card will then be sent to you by mail.
The final step is to present your signed work contract to the local employment office, the Ispettorato Provinciale di Lavoro, for final approval of your application. (Ironically, that office represents the Labor Ministry, which issued the “no obstacle” document in the first place.) Once you have all those documents—the temporary permit, the codice fiscale, and the approval of the labor office—the questura will then award your efforts with the permesso di lavoro, available in two-year or five-year permits, or else the time period specified on your work contract, if any.
If you lose your job before the permit expires, you will need to find another one quickly. Recently passed legislation now gives employees just six months to land another job, or else the permit becomes void, whereas previously they could ride out its duration.
There is a legal alternative to the job hunt if you care for more time, though it’s not entirely convenient. Once your work permit is up, you can apply as an independent worker for the permesso di soggiorno per lavoro indipendente, provided you have all the necessary skills.
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