Italy, promised land of baroque bureaucracy, is one of roughly a dozen European Union countries pushing forward with a 21st-century type of temporary residence permit that caters to highly skilled foreign workers who want to live an EU country while working remotely for companies based elsewhere. This is the Digital Nomad Visa.
Digital nomads are those people whose laptop is their office and the world is their oyster.
The requirements for obtaining a Digital Nomad Visa differ from one country to another, but the idea of the DN Visa is similar across Europe: to allow non-EU nationals to live in EU member countries while working remotely.
Two years ago, Italy’s previous center-left government , during its waning days, passed a law adopting the DN Visa. But Italian immigration officials couldn’t agree on the specific terms after the passage of the enabling legislation. Several ministries responsible for its implementation debated the appropriate process and the requirements. Meanwhile, the visa languished in bureaucratic limbo.
In March this year, Italian consulates were informed that they could list the DN Visa on their websites. That triggered a whole new wave of confusion. Some consulates set to the task while others seemed unmotivated. Gradually, most consulates have adopted application procedures and requirements. And people have been submitting applications, and some have already received them.
In the past, non-EU citizens interested in moving to Italy to live and work soon discovered there were very limited paths. Student visas are one path. That visa allows the recipient to work up to 20 hours per week. The Investor Visa (aka Golden Visa) is another option. That allows working but requires first handing over $250,000 to an Italian start-up company. Few Americans have chosen that pricey method.
One of the most well-used paths has been the Elective Residency Visa. But that requires a predictable source of passive income (such as social security). Recently, some consulates have been requiring as much as €31,000 annually for each adult. Moreover, under that visa, no working in any form is allowed. Hence, the ER Visa has been used mainly by fully retired people.
Unless one could attain dual citizenship by proving an Italian bloodline, there have been few other options for people between student age and retirement. Indeed, during the seven years that my wife and I have lived in Italy, we have seen few Americans in those age groups living here unless they were dual citizens or married to a citizen.
Ostensibly, the Digital Nomad Visa opens the door to younger and middle-aged people to live and work in Italy. Given the popularity of Italy, many people have anxiously waited for this door to open. Nonetheless, there are a few catches. As always, the devil is in the details.
First, the law creating the visa states that it is for the express purpose of attracting “highly skilled” individuals. Each consulate has the authority to determine what that means. Some have indicated they will develop lists of preferred professions. Regardless, the regulations in the law require advanced degrees, professional credentials, and proof of past work experience. Recipients must provide private health insurance at their own cost up front. And a signed lease for an apartment in Italy is also required – no small endeavor. The visa is good for a year and can be renewed.
A cynic might speculate that these high bars to entry are a way for the current center-right Meloni government to limit foreigners, given its highly public, anti-immigration position. Many in the governing coalition consider the current number of foreigners — almost 9% of the population — is enough. Nationalism, as in other countries, is on the rise.
Aside from the immigration issues, a cynic might further speculate that this is a clever way to capture income tax from newcomers whose taxes would otherwise go to their home countries. The DN Visa applicant must commit to paying tax to Italy. (Italy taxes residents on all income worldwide; that requirement is nothing new.) This new visa could be seen as a way for Italy to fill its treasury by transferring tax funds from wealthier countries to itself.
Many highly skilled foreign workers can easily make double the median household income in Italy of €31,000. From this perspective, the DN Visa is a cash cow, with no cost to the public fisc.
Meanwhile, the dam has burst. Facebook groups aimed at expats, current and prospective, are now awash with posts by people eager to get in on the new visa. Some hope it will lead to long-term residency, no matter if that seems at odds with the idea of being a nomad — digital or not. Qualifying for permanent resident status also requires an applicant to commit to not being outside Italy more than a total of 10 months for the first five years. That maximum would be pretty easy to exceed for people who travel often for pleasure or work or frequently return to their home countries.
Several recipients have been willing to talk about their experience in applying for this new visa.
Chelsea Lisette Waite and Ken Cousins are two of the initial recipients. They told me how they navigated the process through Italy’s San Francisco consulate. Both of them provided a wide array of documents showing degrees, professional credentials, and work experience, including contracts and examples of work. They furnished lease agreements and health insurance. They were highly organized, diligent, and persistent, staying on top of the steps, from getting an appointment to presenting their cases. The approval period for Chelsea was weeks; for Ken it was several months. The timing of appointments and decisions is not predictable; it depends on the staffing and backlog of applications at any moment.
With a similar effort in organization and persistence, Aurelia Lugo was recently approved through the consulate in New York. She described a byzantine process involving a previous failed attempt to secure a work visa and then multiple trips to the consulate to work through the requirements of the DN Visa. Her perseverance paid off after many conversations with officials and collecting many different documents. She told me the key was a Declaration of Value, in which she showed certified copies of degrees, professional memberships, typical tasks on any given workday, schedules and meetings with clients – a veritable blizzard of paper. “Go the extra mile and provide more than is required,” she advises.
Other applicants have reported similar arduous efforts. Clearly, the DN Visa is not meant for anyone who simply wants to work from a laptop while living in Italy.
As I can personally attest, a combination of diligence, focus, and thoroughness is needed for other visas as well. It’s also necessary to keep up that attitude after arrival, in dealing with Italy’s myriad bureaucracies, public and private. We counted more than 150 discrete tasks in the first year alone.
Italian immigration agencies welcome applicants who are clearly prepared and respectful of the process. On the other hand, they can also easily reject applicants who are poorly prepared or show up with an entitled attitude. Consular officers have the authority to make the outcome positive or negative. I still recall a person ahead of me in line at the consulate being rejected. She left in tears, passing through the clutch of waiting applicants. (The interview takes place not in private but at a bank teller-like counter – in earshot of everyone waiting.)
It’s worth noting that, under Italian administrative law, each consulate has the authority to impose its own interpretation of the regulations. So, what one person experienced at one place and one time may have little bearing on what another person might experience elsewhere. That makes it difficult to give advice that is consistent and transferable. There are few universally applicable rules.
Is it all worth the effort? For those who can meet the test of being “highly qualified,” definitely yes. Others may be sorely disappointed.
