By Julia Buckley | CNN
It’s the important thing to your very personal slice of dolce vita: a visa that permits distant employees to up sticks and transfer to Italy. However though the Italian authorities’s digital nomad visa launched in April 2024, to this point there have been few accounts of individuals securing one.
For these prepared to take a position time, effort and never inconsiderable quantities of cash, the rewards will be life-changing, in response to one fortunate recipient.
Italy’s digital nomad visa scheme was first introduced in 2022 and launched in April 2024. Followers of the nation had been fast to dream of a life working remotely: a gathering with a superbly ready cappuccino, lunchbreak on the seaside, and a day of working laborious — earlier than clocking off for a effectively earned spritz.
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However six months on, Italy has not been overrun with foreigners Zooming from the piazza, and lots of would-be movers say that there’s so little details about the visa on the market, they’re starting to doubt it even exists.
Properly, it does — and one lady from California is the individual to show it. Chelsea Waite, a self-employed PR, relocated from San Francisco to Milan in July.
Her new life — confirmed for a 12 months — sees her dwelling in a classy condo in some of the elegant components of town, working remotely for her California-based enterprise, and getting out and about to fulfill everybody from the baristas on the cafes close to her condo to fellow migrants. She’s studying Italian — however has discovered that in Milan, at the very least, it’s doable to start out making a life in English.
That life is one she has lengthy felt drawn to — however had feared she would by no means obtain, having been turned down for a visa to Italy up to now.
This time, with persistence and overpreparing, she has struck gold — and says she resides her Italian dream.
‘I was meant to live here’
Chelsea Waite moved to Milan in July and is already having fun with the dolce vita on Lake Como. (Chelsea Waite by way of CNN)
Waite fell in love with Italy on her first go to in 2017, when she took a visit to Florence and Tuscany.
Not like many foreigners who’ve the romantic concept that they will simply up sticks and transfer to Italy, Waite knew it was as troublesome to to migrate to the Bel Paese as it’s for these dreaming of transferring to her native United States.
“I really fell in love with everything Italy had to offer, but knowing I’d have to find sponsorship or employment, it didn’t feel feasible,” she says.
Aside from the rest, she had a full-time job in San Francisco on the time.
However then got here the pandemic. In 2020, she transitioned to working remotely. Two years later, she went it alone, beginning her personal PR firm working with tech startups.San Francisco was, after all, the apparent place to be.
Then, in 2023, she visited Milan for the primary time.
“I had this deep feeling that I was meant to live here,” she says.
“They stated that as a result of I used to be self-employed it was much more difficult now.
“I needed to find an Italian company to become my client and have a collaboration contract saying it’d be beneficial to their business if I was in Italy, but it wasn’t something I was able to pursue.”
Waite parked her dream.
After which got here April’s authorities announcement. After two years of hypothesis, the digital nomad visa was lastly launching.
‘Nothing less than a miracle’
Milan, folks and trend outlets in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II with folks. (Giuliano Benzin/iStock Editorial/Getty Pictures)
“I was so excited,” says Waite, who instantly did a deep dive into easy methods to get a visa.
Not solely was there little or no data; getting an appointment at an Italian consulate to use for a visa is notoriously troublesome.
Waite seemed each day for six weeks, drawing an entire clean. However in late Could, she had a breakthrough. “I randomly looked at a different time of day and it brought me into a portal,” she says. Though the web site warned of a minimal four-month wait time, she noticed an accessible slot on the San Francisco consulate for 10 days later.
So she booked it — imagining it extra as an preliminary appointment to get sufficient data to reapply sooner or later. Particulars on the visa and easy methods to acquire it had been extraordinarily skinny on the bottom, and she or he thought one of the simplest ways to search out out precisely what she wanted to use was to use — and threat getting turned down.
“The lack of information was the biggest thing I struggled with,” she says now. “There’s no one online sharing their experience, nothing showing what you needed to receive the visa. I knew 10 days was a tall order — I would need a lease [on an apartment], health insurance, tax returns, client contracts and certification of my degree.”
But — name it luck, name it future — every thing got here via. Her father, who works in actual property, related her with an agent in Milan which was able to take a punt and signal a contract with somebody who may not be capable to take it up. She paid a deposit of three months’ hire, trusting that she’d be capable to claw it again ought to she not get the visa.
She purchased medical health insurance, and received her diploma licensed — it took a few days, despite the fact that different folks she is aware of have taken months to get theirs.
She received documentation displaying that she’d been working remotely since 2020, and added her contract together with her earlier employer, plus all her present consumer contracts to “not only to show that I have active clients but that I’m consistent and reliable.”
She added her tax returns — the required minimal revenue set by the federal government is round $32,000, however she had heard on the grapevine that in observe, to get permitted for a visa you’d want an revenue of triple that quantity.
And since she describes herself as a power over-preparer, she added background checks from her state and the federal government, in addition to her resume.
In complete she took a package deal of 120 pages of paperwork to her appointment on June 7 of this 12 months.
“They said, ‘We’ll’ let you know.’ Processing time would be seven to 14 days,” she says. “However 10 days later I had my visa.
“By nothing less than a miracle, everything fell into place.”
Uprooting the world over in 48 hours
Chelsea Waite together with her finest good friend from San Francisco visiting Milan this Summer time. (Courtesy Chelsea Waite)
It was the outcome she’d been dreaming of. However the path of true visa love by no means runs clean. It was June 17 when she obtained the visa; and on June 19 she’d be leaving for London, the place she had a month-long journey deliberate.
Most individuals would have determined to cope with the Italy transfer after getting back from London, and even canceled that journey throughout the pond.
Not Waite –— she determined to go straight to Milan from London. That’s proper — she packed up her life in 48 hours. Not solely that, however she additionally organized for her two rescue canines to fly out together with her.
Waite has not been again to San Francisco since receiving her visa and jetting off to London. Earlier in September she “officially moved out” of her previous condo, hiring an assistant and enlisting associates to clear her issues out for her.
She had additionally carried out a “purge” in between her appointment and receiving affirmation of the visa in a bid to “think positive.”
Her suitcases together with her final belongings had been shipped by her associates and arrived in September in Milan.
In the meantime, Waite has swapped her “astronomical” one-bedroom condo in San Francisco for a two-bedroom condo in Milan –— and is saving $1,500 monthly.
“I love Milan,” she says. “I work in tech, and I think it’s the most business-minded city in Italy. I definitely see myself staying here. I’ve been able to meet a number of expats and foreigners and am beginning to create a community.”
Pals of associates (and associates of associates of associates) have come in useful, she says. And he or she is ruthlessly placing herself on the market, attending workshops, health club courses and chatting to folks in her native café to make new connections.
She’s additionally beginning to discover Italy and past, and has already made a number of journeys to Lake Como (an hour from Milan), dropped right down to Florence and Tuscany, and has even made a few flights to Greece.
The digital nomad visa is for as soon as 12 months, after which it may be renewed for the standard permesso di soggiorno, or allow to remain. After 5 years, she will qualify for everlasting residency; and after 10, she will apply for an Italian passport. Underneath the visa guidelines, she pays a 5% flat tax on her revenue to Italy, and in addition pays a proportion of taxes within the US.
“So far my experience is extremely positive. I’ve made some new friends, other expats, and live in a wonderful apartment complex with very kind neighbors,” she says. Assuming these rose-tinted glasses don’t fall off within the subsequent 12 months, she plans to use for a renewal.
The trick to snagging the visa
The Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral) with the Piazza del Duomo (MaxBaumann/iStockphoto/Getty Pictures)
So why does it appear to be so uncommon to get the digital nomad visa? Waite is in varied teams on social media for these making use of however has but to listen to of one other profitable applicant. CNN has requested the italian overseas ministry what number of visas have been issued to this point, however has but to listen to a reply. The Italian consulate in London has issued 13 to British residents.
Whereas she says she’s “extremely grateful” that she managed to snare a visa, she believes there are methods that candidates to make themselves look most tasty to the authorities.
Confirming a longterm lodging is essential, she says: “At first I thought maybe I can rent an Airbnb for a few months, then figure out permanent accommodation, but that wouldn’t suffice.” Candidates should take a leap of religion and stump up a deposit to get a signed contract – however will want to verify the contract has a clause permitting them to cancel earlier than transferring in, and put together to should struggle for his or her deposit again in the event that they don’t get the visa.
She additionally thinks candidates ought to exhibit a minimal wage effectively in extra of the official determine of 25,500 euros or $27,000. As a part of her paperwork, she confirmed proof that she had met or exceeded that concentrate on for the previous three years.
Lastly, she advises getting your diploma {and professional} {qualifications} licensed. “It’s a huge requirement to assert your professional standing and expertise,” says Waite –— whose diploma is in PR, the identical as her job. Coming overprepared offers you the very best probability for achievement, she says.
As is apparent from the above, this isn’t for the fainthearted. It’s not for the cash-strapped, both — Waite paid $124 for her visa software alone and reckons the entire price got here to between $5,000 and $10,000, together with getting her paperwork licensed, forking out on background checks, and placing down the condo deposit.
However in the event you don’t succeed the primary time, you may all the time strive once more, she says — with information of what went flawed the final time. Within the meantime, Waite is engaged on an e-guide for potential digital nomads perplexed by the dearth of readability in regards to the visa.“Italy is excited to have these new individuals come into the country but it’s not as simplistic as made out to be,” she says.
Regardless of her travails to get the visa, Waite says it was price it. “There are high highs and low lows, and it was very emotional,” she says of the appliance course of.
“Just stay positive.”
