Long Stays in Italy

Staying longer than a vacation

Plenty of Americans dream of a year in a Tuscan farmhouse or a retirement apartment in Lecce, and many make it happen. What it takes is a long-stay visa applied for in the US, a pile of Italian paperwork after you land, and a clear plan for taxes on both sides of the Atlantic.

This page covers the main routes and the steps in order. Rules and income thresholds are set nationally but applied by individual consulates, which differ in what they ask for, so always work from the checklist of the Italian consulate that covers your US home. If you might qualify for Italian citizenship through a parent or grandparent, read Italian ancestry first; a citizen needs no visa at all.

The 90-day rule

As a US passport holder, you can spend up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen area without a visa. The count covers all 29 Schengen countries together, so a month in France and two months in Italy use up your whole allowance. The 180-day window moves with each day, so you look back 180 days from any given date and count the days you were inside.

The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) now records every entry and exit of non-EU travelers electronically, with fingerprints and a photo, so overstays are flagged automatically. Penalties in Italy can include a fine, an expulsion order and a ban on returning to the Schengen area. There is no tourist extension: if you want to stay longer, you need a national long-stay visa (visto nazionale, Type D) issued before you travel. Details on the count and on ETIAS, the EU's planned travel authorization, are in entry requirements.

Choosing a visa

The elective residence visa

This is the classic route for American retirees. It lets you live in Italy on income that arrives without you working: pensions, Social Security, annuities, dividends, rental income from property you own. Italy's government wants assurance you will support yourself without a job and without public assistance.

Requirements

• Passive income. Consulates generally look for at least €31,000 (about $34,700) a year per applicant, documented with pension and Social Security award letters, investment statements and tax returns. Many consulates want regular income, and large savings alone are often not accepted. Married couples applying together have usually been asked to show a higher combined figure; a Rome administrative court ruling in July 2025 found it unfair to apply the full amount to minor children, yet consulates still decide case by case.
• Housing in Italy. A registered lease or a deed for property you own. Hotels and short-term vacation rentals do not count. Yes, this means signing a lease, often for a year, before you know whether you will get the visa.
• Health insurance valid in Italy for the visa period, with a minimum coverage your consulate specifies.
• A cover letter explaining why you want to live in Italy and how you will support yourself.
• The application form, a passport photo and your passport, with enough validity left and blank pages. Some consulates ask for a flight reservation.

The visa fee for a national visa is set by Italy and paid in dollars at the consulate; it has been about €116 (about $130). Consulates can take up to 90 days to decide, and appointment slots can be booked out for months, so start early.

The visa is issued for one year. After arrival you get a residence permit, renewable as long as you still meet the conditions. After five years of legal residence you can apply for a long-term EU residence permit.

The digital nomad visa

Italy launched its visa for digital nomads and remote workers in April 2024. It is for highly qualified people who work remotely for employers or clients outside Italy, as employees or as freelancers. It sits outside the annual work quotas, which makes it far more accessible than an ordinary work visa.

Requirements

• Income of at least three times the minimum level Italy uses for exemptions from health-care charges. Current consular guidance puts this at roughly €25,500 to €28,000 (about $28,500 to $31,400) a year; your consulate's checklist gives the exact figure.
• Qualifications. You must count as highly qualified, which in practice means a university degree or recognized professional qualifications, and you need at least six months of experience in the work you will do remotely. Some foreign degrees need a statement of comparability from CIMEA, Italy's credential-recognition center.
• Proof of the work: an employment contract or freelance contracts, and evidence the work can be done remotely.
• Health insurance covering medical treatment and hospitalization in Italy for the whole stay. The New York consulate, for example, asks for at least €30,000 (or $50,000) of coverage.
• Housing in Italy, documented with a lease or other proof, depending on the consulate.
• A clean criminal record for recent years.

Self-employed applications can take up to 120 days to process. The residence permit is issued for up to a year and can be renewed if you still meet the conditions. Spouses and children can generally join you. Living in Italy for most of the year will almost certainly make you an Italian tax resident, so read the Italian tax section below before you apply.

The permesso di soggiorno

The visa gets you in. The permesso di soggiorno (residence permit) lets you stay. You must apply within eight working days of arriving.

1. Pick up the application kit. For most permit types, including elective residence and study, you collect a kit (the envelope with a yellow stripe) at a post office with a Sportello Amico counter. Some permit types are handled differently, so ask your consulate or the local Questura (police headquarters) which applies to you.
2. Fill it in and send it from the post office. You pay a €16 revenue stamp (marca da bollo, about $18), a fee for the electronic card, a postal fee and a permit contribution that depends on the permit's length. Keep every receipt.
3. Keep the receipt (ricevuta). With your passport and visa, it proves you are legally in Italy while you wait.
4. Attend the Questura appointment for fingerprints and photos, on the date printed on your receipt or sent by text message.
5. Collect the card when you are notified, which can take weeks or months. You can check status online with the code on your receipt.

Registering as a resident

Once you have the permit or its receipt, register your address at the comune's Ufficio Anagrafe (registry office) to obtain official residence (residenza). A local police officer usually visits to confirm you live there. Residence unlocks an Italian ID card, public health enrollment and a local driver's license, and it is also one of the tests for Italian tax residence.

The codice fiscale

The codice fiscale is a 16-character tax code built from your name, birth date and birthplace, and Italy asks for it everywhere: leases, utility contracts, a bank account, a phone line, enrollment in the health service, even some online purchases. It is free.

You can request one before you go from many Italian consulates in the US, which is useful because you may need it to sign a lease for your visa application. In Italy, take your passport to any office of the Agenzia delle Entrate (the tax agency); it is usually issued on the spot. Getting a code does not make you a tax resident.

Renting a home

Italian leases are regulated and come in a few standard types. Knowing them helps you avoid paying for a long lease you do not need, or signing a short one your consulate rejects.

Expect to pay a security deposit, legally capped at three months' rent, plus the first month. If an agency finds the apartment, its fee is commonly around one month's rent or a percentage of the annual rent, plus 22% VAT. Condominium fees (spese condominiali) and utilities (bollette) usually come on top. The landlord must register the lease with the Agenzia delle Entrate; an unregistered lease is worthless for your visa and for residence registration.

Start your search on the big Italian portals such as Immobiliare.it and Idealista, and through local agencies. Milan and central Rome, Florence and Venice are the most expensive; smaller cities in Puglia, Sicily, Abruzzo and Le Marche cost a fraction. Never wire a deposit for an apartment you have not seen, in person or by live video with a verified agent, and make sure the person you pay is the owner or a registered agency. For furnished short stays of a few months, see where to stay, which covers apartment rentals and the national CIN registration code.

Health insurance and care

Every long-stay visa requires private health insurance valid in Italy. Choose a policy built for expats or long stays rather than a trip policy, and make sure it covers the full visa period, hospitalization and repatriation, and pre-existing conditions if you have any.

Once you are a resident, you may be able to join Italy's national health service, the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN). Employees with Italian contracts are enrolled automatically. Others, including elective residents, can usually enroll voluntarily by paying an annual contribution; since 2024 the minimum is €2,000 (about $2,240) a year, with lower rates for students. Enrollment runs by calendar year at your local health authority (ASL), gives you a family doctor (medico di base) and a health card (tessera sanitaria), and covers care at public rates. Whether you can switch from private insurance to the SSN at renewal depends on your permit type, so ask your ASL and Questura.

Medicare does not generally pay for care in Italy. Many retirees keep Medicare Part B anyway, to avoid late-enrollment penalties if they move back to the US. More on doctors, pharmacies and emergency care in health.

US taxes while living abroad

The US taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so moving to Italy does not end your US filing. What changes is the set of tools that keep you from being taxed twice.

• File a federal return every year. If you live abroad on the April due date, you get an automatic two-month extension to file (to mid-June), though interest on any tax owed still runs from April.
• The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), claimed on Form 2555, lets you exclude wages and self-employment income earned while living abroad, up to $132,900 for tax year 2026. You qualify by being a bona fide resident of Italy for a full tax year or by spending at least 330 full days abroad in a 12-month period. It does not cover pensions, Social Security, dividends or interest, so it does nothing for most elective-residence retirees.
• The Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) credits Italian income tax against US tax on the same income. Because Italian rates are high, many Americans in Italy come out better using the credit than the exclusion.
• The FBAR. If the combined value of your foreign financial accounts tops $10,000 at any point in the year, file FinCEN Form 114 electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System, separately from your tax return. It is due April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15. Penalties for not filing can be severe.
• FATCA (Form 8938). Americans living abroad must also report foreign financial assets on their tax return above higher thresholds; for a single filer abroad, $200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time.
• State taxes. Some states keep treating you as a resident unless you clearly cut ties, for example by giving up your home and driver's license there. Check your state's rules before you leave.

The US and Italy have an income tax treaty and a Social Security agreement, which prevents you from paying into both social security systems for the same work. Under the treaty, US Social Security benefits are generally taxed only by the US. Hire a tax preparer who handles US-Italy returns every year; generic US software rarely gets these right.

Italian taxes

You become an Italian tax resident if, for most of the year (more than 183 days), you are registered as a resident at the comune, have your habitual residence or main personal and economic ties in Italy, or are physically present there. Residents are taxed on worldwide income at progressive national rates from 23% to 43%, plus regional and municipal surcharges, and must declare foreign assets each year on the tax return's RW section.

Two wealth taxes surprise Americans: IVAFE, a small annual tax on the value of financial assets held abroad (0.2% on most investment accounts), and IVIE, an annual tax on property owned abroad, such as the house you kept in the US. Italy may also not recognize the tax-free status of US accounts such as a Roth IRA. Get Italian advice before you move.

Tax breaks for newcomers

• The 7% regime for retirees. Foreign pensioners who move to a town of under 20,000 people in Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise or Puglia, or in certain earthquake-hit towns of central Italy, can pay a flat 7% on all foreign income for up to about a decade, if they were not Italian tax residents for the previous five years. It is popular with Americans, but it interacts with the US foreign tax credit in ways that need professional modeling.
• The flat tax for wealthy new residents. A fixed annual tax on all foreign income replaces ordinary Italian tax on it. The amount has been raised more than once in recent years, to €200,000 (about $224,000) a year for people arriving from August 2024, so check the current figure.
• The regime for workers moving to Italy, which exempts part of earned income for qualifying highly skilled workers for several years. Its conditions were tightened in 2024.

Everyday life: banks, cars and bureaucracy

Banking. Some Italian banks are reluctant to open accounts for US citizens because of the extra reporting FATCA imposes on them. Bring your passport, codice fiscale and permit or receipt, and try several banks or online banks. Keep a US account and a no-foreign-fee US card for transfers and backup; see money.

Driving. Once you become a resident, your US license plus an International Driving Permit is valid for only one year. Italy has no license exchange agreement with US states, so after that you must pass the Italian written and road tests, in Italian, to keep driving. Start early. More in driving.

Bureaucracy. Offices keep short hours, appointments are often booked online through regional or national portals, and the answer can depend on which clerk you see. Bring originals and copies of everything, carry €16 revenue stamps from a tobacconist (tabaccheria), and accept that some steps simply take time. A local accountant (commercialista) and, for permits, a patronato (free or low-cost citizen-assistance office) are worth finding early.

Language. Outside big-city expat circles, daily life runs in Italian. Classes help you integrate and are required if you later seek long-term residence or citizenship. Start with useful Italian.

A moving timeline

1. 6 to 12 months out

   Decide and document

   Choose your visa, read your consulate's checklist, talk to a cross-border tax adviser, gather pension and income letters, and request a codice fiscale through the consulate.

2. 3 to 6 months out

   Housing and appointment

   Find and sign a registered lease (often on a scouting trip within your 90 visa-free days), buy health insurance, book the consulate appointment and apostille any documents your consulate needs.

3. 1 to 3 months out

   The visa

   Attend the appointment, wait for the decision, then book flights. Arrange mail forwarding and decide what to do about your US home and state residency.

4. First 8 working days

   The permit

   Send the permesso kit from the post office and keep the receipt safe.

5. First 3 months

   Settle in

   Register residence at the anagrafe, open a bank account, enroll in the SSN if eligible, attend the Questura appointment and start Italian classes.

6. Each year

   Renew and file

   Renew the permit before it expires, file Italian and US returns and the FBAR, and keep insurance and income documents current.

If a move is still years off and you want a long taste of Italy now, a series of stays within the 90-day limit works well; use the trip builder and budget calculator to plan, or ask our trip planning service about a scouting trip.