Italy:the investor visa with four prices

Who this suits

The Investor Visa for Italy suits a reader who wants to put money into a business or into the Italian state rather than into bricks, and who may later decide to live in Italy. Its four routes span the widest price range of any open programme, from €250,000 to €2 million, and the visa states no minimum stay while leading to permanent residence after 5 years.[1] It does not suit anyone who wants property as the asset, or who wants to make the investment before arriving: the money must be committed within 3 months of entering Italy.

What you invest

Article 26-bis of Decreto Legislativo 286/1998 sets four routes.[1] €2 million in Italian government bonds, held for at least 2 years. €500,000 in the equity of an Italian limited company, an S.p.A. or an S.r.l. €250,000 in the equity of a company registered as an innovative start-up. Or €1 million as a donation to a project of public interest in culture, education, immigration management, research or heritage. The bonds and equity are held; the donation is spent.

The sequence is unusual. The Investor Visa Committee approves the investment plan first, the visa is issued, and the applicant then enters Italy and completes the investment within 3 months.[1]

What you get

The visa and the first permit run for 2 years, renewable for 3 years while the investment is held.[1] Permanent residence follows 5 years of legal residence, and citizenship by naturalisation asks for 10 years of residence. The family admitted is a spouse, minor children, dependent adult children and dependent parents.[1]

The programme states no minimum days of presence. That is a rule about keeping the permit; the 5-year and 10-year clocks for permanent residence and citizenship still turn on residence in Italy, so a holder who stays away keeps the permit and gets nothing further.[1]

What it costs beyond the investment

The dataset behind this site carries no verified figure for the visa fee, the permit fee or the cost of the health cover the permit requires, and the programme site does not publish a consolidated schedule in English. Ask the Investor Visa Committee for the current amounts, and ask a tax adviser about Italian tax residence before you decide to spend more than half the year there.[1]

What people get wrong

The €250,000 start-up route is not a €250,000 investment in any company: the company must be registered as an innovative start-up, a status with its own conditions, and equity in an ordinary S.r.l. costs €500,000.[1] A second error is to buy the bonds first; the investment comes after the visa, not before, and within 3 months of entry. A third is to read "no minimum stay" as a shortcut to a passport. Italy's 10-year naturalisation count is one of the longest in Europe and it counts residence, so a holder cannot use the light presence rule and reach citizenship at the same time.[1]