Italy
Rome · Southern Europe
An EU and Schengen member that opened a remote-worker visa for highly qualified workers in 2024, runs most employment immigration through an annual quota system, and substantially narrowed citizenship by descent in 2025.
- European Union
- Schengen Area
- Eurozone
- G7
- Capital
- Rome
- Currency
- EUR €
- Language
- Italian
- Population
- 58.9M
- Long-stay routes
- 4
- Route to permanent residence
- Yes
- Unemployment
- 6.3%
- Drives on the
- Right
Euro
2024 estimate
Soonest, 5 years
2025, indicative
+39
Entry and short stays
What your passport allows before any long-stay permission is involved.
Reading your passport selection…
Can I live here?
Every long-stay route this country publishes, checked against what you tell us. The checking happens in your browser.
About you
Stored in this browser only. Never sent anywhere.
Before tax, in the currency you earn.
Reading your answers…
Nothing here is an approval, and nothing here is advice. Only the authority deciding your application can tell you the answer, and it will weigh things this tool does not model.
Long-stay routes
Stored as structured records, so the same data drives the checks above, the comparison view and the checklists.
Digital nomad and remote worker visa
Remote workOpen since 2024 to highly qualified remote workers and freelancers working for organisations outside Italy. It sits outside the quota system, which is what makes it useful.
- Income needed
- €28,000 a year
- Leads to settlement
- After 5 years
Elective residence visa
Retirement and passive incomeFor people living on substantial passive income who will not work in Italy. Consulates apply it strictly and expect the income to be genuinely passive and permanent.
- Income needed
- €31,000 a year
- Leads to settlement
- After 5 years
EU, EEA and Swiss free movement
Freedom of movementNo visa or permit. Stays beyond three months require registration with the local anagrafe.
- Income needed
- Not stated
- Leads to settlement
- After 5 years
Citizenship by descent
AncestryItaly recognised citizenship through an unbroken Italian line with no generational limit for decades. A 2025 decree narrowed this sharply, and the route now generally reaches only people with a parent or grandparent born in Italy.
- Income needed
- Not stated
- Leads to settlement
- No
Cost of living
An estimate you can shape. It is not survey data and it is not a quote.
| Category | Monthly range |
|---|---|
| Housing | €600 – €1,300 |
| Food | €270 – €450 |
| Utilities | €140 – €260 |
| Internet | €25 – €45 |
| Transport | €35 – €100 |
| Healthcare | €40 – €150 |
| Everything else | €180 – €420 |
| Total | €1,290 – €2,725 |
| Suggested monthly buffer | €3,270 |
Modelled from a baseline for one adult and scaled, not sampled from households. Figures are shown as ranges because that is the honest shape of the data.
Worth knowing. Modelled estimate. The north-south gap in Italy is large: the same budget goes considerably further in the south.
Housing
Foreign nationals may buy subject to a reciprocity condition, which is satisfied for most nationalities and automatically for EU citizens and legal residents. Purchase taxes differ sharply depending on whether the property will be your main home.
What landlords usually ask for
- Codice fiscale
- Proof of income
- Sometimes a guarantor
- Registration of the lease with the tax agency
Immobiliare.it (opens in a new tab)Idealista (opens in a new tab)
Worth knowing. The standard residential lease runs four years plus four; shorter transitional forms exist.
Healthcare
A regionally administered national health service funded from taxation, with strong outcomes and wide regional variation in waiting times and quality.
- If you live there
- Registered residents can enrol in the SSN, either automatically through employment or by paying an annual voluntary contribution.
- If you are visiting
- Emergency care is available to anyone. EU, EEA and Swiss visitors use the European Health Insurance Card.
Tax
- Tax residency threshold
- 183 days
- Taxes worldwide income
- Yes, for residents
- Income tax range
- 23% – 43%
- VAT or sales tax
- 22%
Residency follows from being registered with the anagrafe, or from having your domicile or habitual abode in Italy, for more than half the tax year.
Remote workers. The digital nomad visa makes remote work lawful, and holders become Italian tax resident. Italy operates an inbound worker regime and a flat-tax option for high-net-worth new residents.
Social insurance. Contributions are high on the employer side. Regional and municipal surcharges are added to national income tax.
Capital gains. A substitute tax generally applies to financial income and gains.
Special regimes
Impatriate workers regime
Partial exemption from income tax on qualifying employment and self-employment income for new residents, subject to conditions that were tightened in 2024.
Flat tax for new residents
An annual substitute tax on all foreign income for qualifying high-net-worth individuals transferring residence to Italy.
Worth knowing. Orientation only. Italian inbound regimes changed materially in 2024 — confirm current conditions.
Work and the labour market
Conditions in the labour market, which is a different claim from how many jobs are open right now. This product does not pretend to know the second from static data.
- Unemployment
- 6.3%
- Youth unemployment
- 19%
- Average earnings
- €2,400 / mo
- Minimum wage
- None set
Worth knowing. Italy has no statutory minimum wage; pay floors are set by sectoral collective agreements. Regional variation in employment is among the widest in the EU.
Sectors
- Advanced manufacturingstableMachinery, automotive components and packaging, concentrated in the north.
- Fashion and designstableCentred on Milan and Florence.
- TourismstableA very large employer, strongly seasonal.
Cities
A country-wide average hides a lot. Where we have city data, use it instead.
Milan
The financial and design capital, with the deepest professional job market in Italy and the highest housing costs.
One adult, monthly: €1,900 – €2,900
Bologna
A university city in the industrial north, cheaper than Milan with strong engineering and food manufacturing.
One adult, monthly: €1,500 – €2,300
Sources
Every claim on this page traces to one of these. If something here matters to a decision you are making, read it there.
Authorities for Italy
- Visto per l’Italia — visa categories and consular requirements (opens in a new tab)Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale · Foreign ministry
- Portale Immigrazione — permesso di soggiorno applications (opens in a new tab)Ministero dell’Interno · National immigration authority