As a family member of an Italian citizen, you have a full right to enter and stay in Italy. Depending on your nationality and current residence, you may need an entry visa. The most important information is gathered here in 3 steps.
#1 Check
Are you eligible for residency in Italy? You have such right if you can prove one of the following family relations:
- spouse (or same-sex registered partner)
- children and grandchildren (up to 21 years) of the Italian citizen and those of the spouse
- parents and grandparents of the Italian citizen and those of the spouse
- siblings of the Italian citizen
#2 Prepare
If you are a national of a country listed for visa requirement to Italy/Europe, you need to apply at the closest Italian Consulate for a visa for family members (Visto d’ingresso per familiari di cittadini italiani). Such a visa clears your entry through the border checks upon arrival in Europe (more precisely, in the Schengen area). The terms and requirements for this kind of visa are often not published on the Italian Consulate’s websites. In general, the conditions are more favorable than any other visa, the process is free of charge and shorter. The documents to attach to the application may vary from Consulate to Consulate. Documents required for your visa application: In general, this is what the Italian Consulates require:
- Application form filled in with your data (download here) 1 photo in ICAO format (4.0 x 3.5 cm, color photo with white background, taken within the last 6 months)
- Proof of family relation, e.g. official marriage record. The record must be in full format (i.e. including the names of the parents of each spouse or parents, for birth certificates), legalized/apostilled and translated into Italian. Marriage records must be issued less than 6 months before. That is a requirement, in case the Italian citizen did not register the concerned vital record in Italy as yet (at the municipality in which he is a resident or, if not residing in Italy, at the municipality of Rome);
- Invitation letter signed by the Italian citizen (Dichiarazione di ospitalità, download here) your passport + 2 copies (the passport must be valid for at least 3 months after the planned departure date from the Schengen area and was issued less than 10 years before. The passport must have at least two blank and unmarked visa pages)
- Italian citizen’s passport (copy)
- Flight reservation: The reservation document must indicate the applicant’s name, departure city, and destination. In order to avoid any unnecessary expense, flight ticket confirmation can be done after visa issuance.
- Health care insurance: insurance must be valid for the whole Schengen area. It must cover medical fees, hospitalization and repatriation costs of up to 30,000 euros. The insurance must fully cover the initial period of stay within the Schengen area.
- Letter of authorization for visa application/passport return (in case the applicant does not submit the application in person). For those who choose to submit the application by a representative, it is mandatory to provide a letter of authorization, signed by the applicant, mentioning the name of the representative and his/her contacts. The representative ID must be shown and a copy of the ID must be submitted.
#3 Follow The Process
After submitting your application, you are entitled to obtain a visa within 90 days. This term might be extended one time to 30 more days. Please note that, if your application wasn’t complete from the start, the Consulate can stay the process for the time needed for you to give the missing document (max 90 days).
FAST TRACK: The process goes much faster when the Italian citizen has registered in Italy the document proving the relation. For example, if the Italian citizen has married or had a child outside of Italy, it is very important to register the marriage or birth record at the Italian Consulate (if the Italian citizen resided abroad) or in Italy (at the municipality of residence, office of Stato Civile).
What happens next?
In order to secure your residence in Italy, you are expected to apply for a residence permit or a residence card upon your arrival. The family members within the 1st and 2nd degree (spouse, children up to 21 years, parents, grandparents and grandchildren) can obtain a five-year residence card. The other family members are entitled to obtain a two-year residence permit. You may read here about the differences between the two. It is required to prove that you depend on the Italian citizen for your maintenance and to register your residence at the same address.
Would you like to know more?
Download my Free Guide “4-Step Strategy” to obtain a residence permit for family members, complete with the official forms: Invitation statement by the Italian citizen for the family member to show at the border (or to obtain an entry visa, where applicable): Dichiarazione di alloggio e garanzia
- “Dichiarazione di ospitalità” to be submitted to the immigration police within 48 hours
- “Dichiarazione di presenza” to be submitted to the immigration police within 8 days
+ the list of documents required by the police for the application.
Request your Free Guide here:
Hi, how long do they keep someone’s passport? I am hoping to start the process before I move to Italy to make it easier to apply for jobs in advance. I will be in Italy for 6 weeks in July – August and I have to be back to work in the UK by 1st Sept.
The Italian authorities are not supposed to keep an applicant’s passport. Applicants show the original and leave photocopies at the immigration office. The process should take up to 90 days, according to the law. However, there are long delays and the waiting time varies across the Italian provinces.
My wife is an Italian National & myself a Bangladeshi National.
I have leave to remain in the United Kingdom till July 2024. We are planning to visit Italy in August for two weeks. Do I need to obtain a Schengen visa to go to Italy? Or I can get a visa on arrival to Italy.
Kindly advise me what I need to do on my situation.
You should apply as soon as possible for a visa at the closest Italian Consulate to your area of residence.
Hello, am i was born Italy and was brought to Nigeria at age 2 ever since then have not visited. I want to go back to Italy since its my birth country am over 21 and am married as well. How do i go about it?
Hi, Osas! If you have a close family member who has an Italian passport, you may obtain a (short-term) visa and then acquire residency by registering at the same address as that person, as explained in the article on this page.
Otherwise, you should apply for a work or study visa, in order to obtain residency in Italy. Unfortunately, it makes no difference if you were born within the Italian territory.
Hi thanks a lot for all the information. My mother arrived last Sunday to Torino, Italy, from her resident country Peru, invited by her twin sister who has Italian citizenship. She got there with the invitation letter from her sister, and today went to the police to inform of her stay and obtain the residency to stay with the soggiorno. However they said it is impossible to do that, due to changes of policy related to Covid and conflict in Ukraine. Is that so? I dont find any official decree or anything that indicates any change. This is so stressful.
The law is unchanged. The offices might introduce temporary limits to access to the procedure due to various emergencies, but they cannot deny the right stated by the law. It is important to obtain a reply in writing. In any case, I recommend seeking the support of one of the various good help services for immigrants in Torino and repeating your application as soon as possible.
I am moving to Italy from the UK. I am a dual-national British/Italian and I have accepted a job in Italy.
My unmarried British partner would like to move with me. How would this be possible? Eventually, he would also like to work in Italy.
If your partnership is registered, your partner can obtain a residence card as a non-EU family member of an Italian national according to Articles 3-5-6-7 and 23 of Decreto legislativo of 6 Feb 2007 no. 30 and Article 28 section 2 of Decreto legislativo of 25 July 1998 no 286.
No visa is required: your partner will enter on a short-term visitor basis and apply for a long-term residence card within 90 days. If you dispose of the requirements of the local Questura (including partnership registration, sufficient income, accommodation, etc…), your partner will obtain a residence card. More information here: Is your family member an Italian Citizen? Get your 5 years residence card
They told me at the Questura that in order to be eligible for a Card, I needed to first have a Permesso!
That is not strictly correct. However, many immigration offices say that. They maintain that the applicant needs to prove that they are maintained by the Italian citizen and the evidence should be in their tax report. Since tax reports are given every year, these immigration offices suggest granting the applicant first a Permesso (residence permit for family reasons for 1 or 2 years). They will receive a residence card application the following year, along with the Italian citizen’s tax report showing that the concerned non-Italian family member is in fact in charge of the Italian citizen. Since no law provides that the tax report is the only acceptable evidence, the immigration office should accept any other official document that proves the requirement (to be in charge of the Italian citizen).