Visa 101.4

When we hear the word "freelance" we envision someone who goes out and drums up their own business, assignment by assignment... In the days of black-and-white TVs it was pounding the pavement, going door-to-door, beating the bushes, but now it's more likely Fiverr, personal networking, and social media advertising. At any rate, these folks are braver than most because they have made a commitment to live on the assignments they can find themselves and they know that there may be times of feast and times of famine... times when they may be waiting to get the next assignment before they can hit the store for beer and Cheetos.

This is the usual and customary interpretation of the word "freelance", but this is not the meaning of the word "freelance" in the context of Italian National Visas.

In your campaign to qualify for a Freelance Visa to Italy, you don't just say 'hey, ho, I'm pounding the viales of Rome to get a job as a web designer, so uh, gimme that Visa', oh no....

You must gather one (or more) legally executed hourly contracts for your services from businesses in your hot little hand. These contracts will have a start date and an end date and the rate of payment. These contracts taken together must add up to a pre-tax payment amount of at least 700 Euro per month or 8,400 Euro per year (as of 2019).

But don't get too excited just yet, because the contracts are just the first baby step. Next you have to take these contracts and some other legal documents from EACH of these companies who want to give you contract employment, and take them to an office within the Police Department (of the city where you'll be working in Italy) called the Questura, where they will review the docs to determine if these are real companies who actually have the wherewithal to hire and pay you.

(I've dumbed this process way down. Important points to take away are that the Questura is an office in the police department in Italy, where people speak Italian and probably don't have fluency in English... and that this process follows Italian law, which is not some subset (superset? any kind of set...) of English Common Law (as most of us English speakers are used to), so it's probably going to feel very chaotic to you. It may behoove you to engage an Italian immigration attorney to help you though the process in Italy.)

After about 10 days, if the Questura decides everything is A-OK, they will issue a document called a "Nulla Osta", which you'll bring with you to the Visa application appointment you'll have at a Consulate inside your home country.

If your application for the Visa is then successful, you will be be granted a Visa for the length of time that your combined contracts will pay you the minimum as stated above. To repeat - your Visa will last only as long as the contracted employers (altogether) will be paying you minimum amount.

Head spinning yet? More details here.

Visa 101.3

When I first started my Italy Visa Quest, the conventional wisdom was that getting a Student Visa was a piece o' cake. A student visa could be had by enrolling in and paying for 20 hours per week of almost any kind of instruction in almost any private school in the land. Massage therapy school, tai chi school, cooking school...

Then there were the work-studiers. I've heard anecdotes first hand of people enrolling in private schools for 20 hours of Italian language lessons per week and then teaching English for that same school 20 hours a week (allowed within the Student Visa)-- and conveniently forgetting to attend the Italian language lessons.

But the times they are a-changin'. In this era of sea-based and overland poverty-, drought-, or violence-fleeing migrants, wall-builders, and the global passage of translucently-veiled jingoistic government policies, Visa requirements in Italy have been beefed up and enforcement has clamped down.

Today it is difficult to be approved for a Study Visa without enrollment in a University full-time.

This could actually be an interesting option for parents because University tuition in Italy will more than likely be less than the in-state tuition of your local university. But that's a conversation for a different day.

(Visas are apparently no longer issued for private school programs in basic language instruction.)

The Study Visa application needs to be accompanied by two copies of a letter in Italian from the accredited academic institution on official letterhead and bearing the official seal, stating that you have been accepted and admitted, and specifying the exact period of study. It also needs to include an official transcript of the most recent completed studies, and a letter of enrollment from the home academic institution indicating the student’s current status (full-time in good standing) and expected date of graduation.

Further your Student Visa research here.

Visa 101.2

There are many different longer-stay Visas available, which are considered "National Visas" and are controlled by the sovereign country.

(It's important to note from the git go that meeting all the requirements does not guarantee the issuance of a visa.)

First we'll look at the "Elective Residence" Visa, which we lust after from watching movies such as "Under the Tuscan Sun".

Sounds pretty easy, huh, to say I think I'll just move to Italy? Easier said than done!

First, to get an Elective Residence Visa you must be "retired persons, persons with high self-sustaining incomes and financial assets - who have chosen Italy as the country of permanent residence and who are able to support themselves autonomously, without having to rely on employment while in Italy, whether as dependent employees, as self-employed employees or employees working remotely online. You cannot finance your residence in Italy through any type of work."

The applicant must have a minimum monthly income of Euro 2,596.60 generated from investments.

No work is allowed to be done while in residence in Italy under the Elective Residence Visa. Not even online work.

Visa 101

It's a little confusing to jump right into the middle of the Visa process (Apostille) without providing the background info, so let's take a dive into my Visa research.

And let's start from the very beginning. Italy is a member of both the EU (European Union) and Schengen Agreement. What are those, you might ask, and how do they differ? I'm gonna tell you.

The EU is a political and economic union, wherein the member countries are bound by a certain group of law. The "single market" aspect of the EU allows for free movement of people, goods, services and money. At this writing there are 28 countries in the EU.

The Schengen Agreement allows for no internal border control among the member countries. There are 26 Schengen countries at this writing.

A country in Europe can be EU but not Schengen (UK and Ireland), Schengen but not EU (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechenstein), both, or neither.

Most American citizens who travel to Europe are taking advantage of a "Schengen Visa Type C", which is basically a tourist Visa which you don't need to apply for, in which you can stay in Europe 90 consequtive days in a 6 month period. Beginning in 2021, the no-application Schengen tourist visa will be replaced by the ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System). The ETIAS will have an online application process, and applicants will be screened by Interpol. Let me state this clearly - beginning 2021, Americans will need to apply for tourist Visa online before traveling to Europe.

Takeaway from this is that the Schengen border control agreement controls tourism and airport/transit visas.

Visa Quest

Monday was a major score in my knightly quest to land a visa.

You may remember in April my ignorance led me to take a trip to the US Embassy in Warsaw, hoping to get a Power of Attorney notarized and then get a document called an Apostille. Came away with nothing in hand, but lots of new knowledge.

Here is the dealio with an Apostille.

Whenever you sign a contract or other important document, you must have the signing of the document "notarized". Research tells me that notarization by an impartial (and governmental-ly sanctioned) person is legal assurance that the signature is genuine and that the signer was acting without duress.

This single step of notarization is enough for contracts within your own country. However when sending said important documents across borders, there is an extra step of certifying that the person doing the notarization is legitimate (and therefore, by extension, the signing of the document was legal in the country in which it was signed). For this purpose we use an Apostille.

The Apostille is issued by the Secretary of State (of the geographical place where you are at the time of the notarization) and is attached to your notarized document (in my case it was stapled). It attests to the document's validity and basically states that the notary is authorized to notarize right here right now. The Apostille is accepted (and required!) in 116 countries around the world for contracts crossing borders.

Why couldn't I get it done in Warsaw, you may ask... So, I could have gotten an American notarization at the Embassy in Warsaw, but I couldn't get an American Secretary of State Apostille issued in Warsaw... And you cannot take that contract notarized in X-country to a different country for Apostille.

I contacted 6 different notaries in Poland via email, not one responded. That would have been the easiest route, but the level of service just wasn't there.

Finally, had I been able to get a document notarized by an Italian notary (even in Poland) I would not have needed the Apostille. I sent emails to the Italian Embassy in Warsaw, explaining my situation and asking if I could come there for the notarization.... but apparently the Embassy Notaries are only available to Italian citizens.

And so, after over 8 weeks of trying, I finally got the Apostille in my hot little hands and sent it off to my immigration attorney. Score! Woot! Woot!

Adventures in getting an Italian visa!!! More to come I'm sure!