Living and working in Italy is a dream for many, but has always been challenging for non-EU nationals to obtain a work permit or a self-employment visa.
The “elective residence” visa offers an alternative means to live in Italy, but is only available to those who can show the availabilty of accommodation in Italy and who have substantial sources of wealth or income (from sources other than from employment) which will enable them to comfortably support themselves.
The Italian government recently passed new legislation (Legge n. 55 del 28 marzo 2022) with a set of measures to support industry, boost the job market and encourage regrowth of the post-pandemic economy. One of these measures is to introduce a new work visa for “Digital nomads and remote workers” (Art. 6 – quinquies – Ingresso in Italia per lavoro dei nomadi digitali e lavoratori da remoto).
The legislation will introduce this new category of work visa for third country nationals seeking to enter Italy, by amending Article 27 of the existing Immigration Law (Testo Unico D.Lgs. 286 del 1998) which sets out a list of visas for other types of “highly-skilled workers”.
The visa will be available to citizens of non-EU countries who already carry out “highly-qualified work through use of technological instruments allowing them to work remotely, autonomously or even for a company not based in Italy“. The applicant would need to provide comprehensive health insurance and undertake to comply with tax and social security regulations in Italy. Once a visa is granted, the person would then obtain a residence permit for one year on entering Italy.
There will be no limit on the numbers of visas which can be issued unlike work permits which are restricted by annual quotas (decreto flussi).
Further guidelines are due to be issued shortly which will contain more details of the rules, including the minimum income requirement and means of verifying the work that will be carried out.
