Excerpt from theflorentine.net

Over the past two years, while the world was struggling with lockdown restrictions and many of us were forced to work from home, my law firm faced an unprecedented number of requests from people internationally wishing to move their life, family and business to Italy as soon as possible. A new visa scheme for digital nomads is about to make that move easier.

Each person had his or her own reasons, but many of them shared the idea that since I can now work remotely and I can choose where to set up my business, I’d rather do it in Italy, where the cost of living and the quality of life is unparalleled. Probably one of the few “positive” things that Covid will leave behind is the flexibility that many people can now work wherever they want.

What should foreign professionals do and know if they intend to establish their professional life in Italy? Over the years, I’ve covered the self-employment visa on many occasions in The Florentine, but it is still worth remembering some basic principles.

In Italy, the rules and requirements to obtain a self-employed work visa are set by the consolidated immigration law and a legislative decree (known as Decreto Flussi), enacted annually by the government that sets the specific conditions to work as liberi professionisti or imprenditori as well as the maximum number of applications that are accepted every year (known as quotas).

Under the current rules, if the applicant does already not live in Italy, legally under a different visa scheme, the application must be submitted at the Italian Consulate of the place of permanent residency. This means that if you’ve entered Italy as a tourist, you will have to go back to your home country to apply for your work visa. You cannot apply in Italy, during your 90-day period as a tourist.

Additionally, the self-employed visa application (besides a few exceptions set out in art. 27 et seq. of the immigration law) can be submitted only when the Decreto Flussi sets the new quotas. As quotas are released annually (but we don’t know when) and because the process of compiling all the documentation takes a few months, we always recommend to start working as soon as possible in order to be ready when the quotas are announced and before they are already over. While it seems complicated (and it is indeed tricky seen from the outside!), under this scheme, we have helped hundreds of clients to successfully obtain work visas through the Italian Consulates and move their businesses in Italy in a matter of a few months.

 

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