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🇮🇹 Italy visa and residence routes
A new nomad visa finally opened the door in 2024 — plus a classic passive-income route for retirees.
The lowest published bar starts from €2,350 a month in income, or from €250,000 in savings or capital. Documented routes cover remote work / self-employment, passive income or pension and investment. Naturalisation becomes possible after roughly 10 years of qualifying residence.
How Italy compares
Living costs sit mid-table for this list, at roughly €1,900 a month for one person. English will not carry you far in daily life or administration — expect to need the local language. Healthcare is among the strongest on this list. As an EU member state, it also opens the rest of the Union to anyone who eventually naturalises here.
Who these routes are built for
Based on the routes currently included in our database for Italy, these options suit people earning from remote work or their own foreign clients; retirees and those living on pensions, rents or dividends; investors with capital to commit.
What the bar means in practice
The lowest income requirement, €2,350 a month on the Digital Nomad Visa, sits against living costs of about €1,900 a month. That is close to what one person actually spends here, so qualifying and living comfortably amount to much the same thing. If that is out of reach, the nearest lower bar in Europe is 🇫🇷 France, which starts at €1,500 a month.
Routes at a glance
| Route | Built for | Financial bar | Processing | Leads to residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Nomad Visa | Remote work / self-employment | €2,350/mo | 2–4 mo | Yes |
| Elective Residence Visa | Passive income or pension | €2,650/mo | 2–4 mo | Yes |
| Investor Visa | Investment | €250,000 saved | 3–6 mo | Yes |
The financial bar is the main money test for that route — a monthly income floor, or the savings to show where no income floor applies. Figures are for a single applicant; most programmes scale upward for a partner or children.
Which of these would actually take you?
This page lists the routes currently included in our database for Italy. The free 3-minute check compares those rules against your own passport, income, savings, age and family, and stamps each route clear, stretch or blocked — with the reason.
No account, no card, results in 3 minutes.
Routes in our database, in detail
Digital Nomad Visa
~€28k/yr from remote work plus a degree or 6+ months' relevant experience and 6 months' history with your employer/clients.
Elective Residence Visa
~€31k/yr of passive income (pensions, rents, dividends). No work of any kind allowed.
Investor Visa
€250k into an innovative startup (€500k company shares, €2M bonds); 2-year renewable residence.
Before you rely on any of this
Visa and residence requirements on this page are compiled from the linked official sources and current as of 2026-08-07. Cost of living, English, healthcare and cross-country comparison indicators are ExpatSuccess estimates, not government figures. Governments change immigration rules without notice and consulates apply them with discretion, so confirm on the linked official portal before making decisions or spending money. This page is research, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
Other Europe destinations
🇵🇹 Portugal · 🇪🇸 Spain · 🇫🇷 France · 🇩🇪 Germany · 🇳🇱 Netherlands · 🇬🇷 Greece · 🇲🇹 Malta · 🇨🇾 Cyprus