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Getting residency in Italy before Brexit

By Gareth Horsfall - Topics: BREXIT, Italy, Residency
This article is published on: 16th June 2020

In this E-zine I am going to provide anyone who is still wondering about residency in Italy, before Brexit, with a quick, hassle-free guide how to obtain it.

I was hoping that I could try and avoid the ‘B’ word again in my lifetime, but alas we are not quite there yet and a number of people have contacted me in the last two weeks to ask about the process of getting residency in Italy before Brexit day arrives (currently 31st Dec 2020, although I have my suspicions it might be extended again – watch this space!).

You may know that the process of getting residency in Italy once the UK leaves the EU will get considerably more complicated. If you are unconvinced then ask an American resident in Italy, they should be able to tell you! Therefore, if you are a British citizen and thinking of making the move to Italy, and are in a position to do it now, then you may want to consider applying before Brexit day to simplify your life. Equally, I know there are many people who are living in Italy but are procrastinating about taking residency. This will act as a useful guide for anyone still sitting on the fence and feel free to share it where you see fit.

Before I give an explanation of the things to watch out for, here is a summary of the much more complicated process of elective residency, if you choose to do so POST Brexit

***This guide is mainly for people who are choosing to move and sustain themselves economically, i.e. retired individuals or those living from savings. It is not relevant for anyone considering self/employment in Italy. Different rules may apply in those cases***

Post Brexit (non EU citizen) elective residency application process

Step 1: Make an appointment at the Italian Consulate in your home country – this can takes months!

Step 2: At this appointment you need to complete a request for a visa granting you a right to live in Italy for more than three months in any six month period. You will be required to submit information on where you intend to stay (a property or rental, and evidence of specific accommodation), proof of your ability to support yourself financially, with evidence of income of at least €31000pa per single person or €38000pa for a couple, although this may be flexible depending on a) who you are speaking with and b) which region of Italy you may be moving to. You will also be required to prove that you have sufficient private health insurance cover and will not be a burden on the Italian health care system. The visa will be granted within 90 days of application being submitted.

Step 3: Once you receive the visa and make your move to Italy, within eight days you will need to make your request for a Permesso di Soggiorno (right to stay). This can be obtained from the post office. This process can take weeks, even months to issue and you will be informed that you need to go to your local Questura once it is granted, to pick up the certificate. The permission will normally be issued on a one or two year renewable basis for five years, after which time you can apply for a long term permission.

This is a very brief overview of the procedure, but as you may have understood, the process from start to finish is likely to take months, possibly years, and will probably need a lot more planning to make the move. In addition, there are much higher minimum income and savings requirements. However, as things stand you can still apply as a EU member state citizen until 31st December 2020 and most of the EU member benefits will carry forward after Brexit provided that the application is submitted before Brexit date.

Residenza Italy

The NO-HASSLE guide to getting residency in Italy before Brexit

So let’s examine the process of attaining residency as things currently stand and see why, if it is possible for you, it might be better to try to get residency before Brexit.

Going along to the comune/municipio office and requesting residency is a relatively easy process, but can be cumbersome if you are not prepared (it took me five visits to the Municipio in Rome to receive my residenza). You will inevitably run into people who have formed opinions about Brexit already and may refuse your application on the basis of the UK having left the EU already. This is incorrect and you would do well to go armed with the Italian ministry circular which says as much. You can find that document HERE. There are a few simple things you need to provide, but they may deem your evidence unsatisfactory for their requirement. Knowing the pitfalls of each criteria can be the difference between multiple failed visits to make the residency request or one successful visit.

The three basic items which you will require (apart from identification) are:

1. Evidence of sufficient economic resources to stay in Italy
2. Evidence of health insurance to cover at least the first year in Italy
3. Evidence of a place to stay

Whilst these three items might seem at first glance to be relatively simple to provide, there are some idiosyncrasies that trip people up and which can cause delays. Given that time is no longer a luxury then knowing the details could help. So, let’s deal with each one in turn.

  • 1. Evidence of sufficient economic resources to remain in the country

    The first thing to understand is that this requirement is governed by regional authorities and is very much at the discretion of local services as to whether they will accept you in their comune or not based on your evidence of income, savings, pensions etc. Rome or Milan, for example, will have very strict rules and will adhere to them rigidly. A small comune in Abruzzo, for example, might be more relaxed as they are happy to have an influx of foreign money into the area. However, it is worth checking with your local comune first to see if they have any minimum income levels for which they would need to see evidence. At the time of writing, the minimum income requirement for the Roma Capitale comune is €5.824,91pa and they would typically expect to see approximately €10,000 in savings as an emergency reserve. However, these figures can be subject to interpretation depending on who you are speaking with on any particular day! So be prepared.

    Make sure you take both the original and copies of any documents with you to any meetings, including bank statements showing regular income payments, or pension statements demonstrating the amount of money you have in the fund and any regular income payments from it. Additionally, if you have any savings and/or investments then take recent statements along as well.

    Remember to only present documentation that you are asked for, so as not to open a can of worms which could generate requests for additional documentation.

  • 2. Evidence of health insurance to cover at least the first year in Italy

    This factor seems to be the one that trips most people up when making an application for residency and it comes as no surprise. The EU requirements for a change of residence clearly state that when transferring EU member state, you must have sufficient health cover provision to not be a burden on the health care system. (If you are employed then this doesn’t apply as you will be automatically enrolled in the health care system when paying social security contributions.)

    The confusion derives from the following factors:

    i) That all EU citizens have an emergency health card which would cover you for travel within the EU area. This is correct. In Italy it is known as the TEAM card and is link to the tessera sanitaria and in the UK it is called the EHIC. However, this card only provides temporary emergency cover for medical care during visits as a tourist in the EU area and not any longer term protection. Therefore, making an application for long term residency cannot, by definition, be covered by a short term medical provision agreement.

    ii) Another assumption is that once you are resident in Italy you can apply to make a voluntary contribution to the health care system to receive full medical care (see document HERE). This is correct and the price is relatively cost effective depending on your annual total income. However, here is where a classic Catch 22 exists. You cannot register for and pay for healthcare in Italy until you have residency and you cannot have residency until you can demonstrate that you have adequate medical insurance cover in place. Therefore, an interim arrangement is needed as per point iii) below:

    iii) It is assumed that a health care insurance needs to be a full provision medical insurance policy, e.g. Bupa. This is not the case and could cost thousands for full medical care benefits which are not needed for the purposes of making a residency application. In fact, we need to refer, once again, to the EU rules regarding residency. The rules state that if you are not working and have sufficient economic resources to live on then you need to provide yourself with the equivalent S1 reciprocal agreement on healthcare for retired member state citizens, until such time as you are eligible for the S1 or have alternative arrangements, e.g. annual voluntary payment into the Italian health service.

    To resolve this you need to take an insurance policy on a one year renewable basis, which is acceptable for the purposes of obtaining residency and that can be cancelled from the second year in the case that you can make the application for the annual voluntary payment.

    Speak with a good insurance agent and ask for cover for the codes: E106, E109, E120 and E121. These are the specific codes which need to be covered for insurance purposes. However, it would be sensible to ask the insurance agent to check with your local comune in the case that they have additional regional or local provisions that they would also want to cover. My advice has always been to stick to one of the main insurance companies in Italy rather than going through smaller companies. The main players would be Generali, Zurich, Allianz, Groupama and UnipolSai, as examples. A policy of this nature may cost a few hundred instead of a few thousand depending on your age and pre-existing health conditions.

  • My tips for a better residency application

    In addition to the above, here are a couple of tips which you might find useful.

    An email pec
    You might be thinking, what is an email pec? It actually stands for Posta Elettronica Certificata and I find it is one of the most useful things to have in Italy. A few years ago the government introduced legislation to allow electronic communication between individuals and municipal offices/agencies, police and also companies. However, they rightly had suspicions about the efficacy of traditional email channels because of the inability to confirm the identity of the individual sending the email. Enter: pec email.

    Pec email is an email account that can be opened for about €30pa with a lot of service providers and during the opening process you are required to provide identification (copy of passport and/or ID card) to clear a security check. Once passed, the account is opened and you will be able to communicate freely with most official offices. Any email you send is certified as having been sent from you, but in addition you receive a receipt when the email has been received and accepted by the receiving party.

    This is useful in many ways, but specifically with regards to residency it does mean that you can submit an application to your comune by sending all the necessary information via the pec email. (Check the comune website for their specific email pec to which you can send documents). For instance, if you are unable to return to Italy, for whatever reason, and want to submit your application before Brexit date, then it can be done via pec email.

    Residency applications will be backdated to the date which you officially submitted the application (with correct documentation), so for any applications submitted by pec, or in person, before Brexit date, but then formally approved afterwards, you ‘should’ be granted residency from the moment of application.

    You will also find an email pec useful if you have to submit documentation to the police, other government agencies and even some companies. For the cost of approx €30pa I think it’s worth it, although responses to your emails will be few and far between and any follow up may need to be done in person or on the phone. Expect to do some follow-up!

italy tax

The best tax day of the year 2020
July 5th

A little known point about residency and tax, in Italy, is reference to the 183 day rule.

This rule states that if you are considered resident in Italy for less than 183 days per annum, then you are not considered tax resident in the country for the full tax year (different rules apply to employed persons). So, for calendar year 2020, if you take residency after the 5th July then you are assured to be considered non resident for the full tax (calendar) year and your first taxable year will be 2021.

This might be important for anyone who is thinking of applying now, but might like to remain tax resident elsewhere for the year 2020.

It will not affect your ability to get residency in Italy in 2020, but it will merely mean that your taxable year of residency will not start until 2021.

A useful piece of information if you need to look at your financial arrangements and how you can streamline and simplify them to make them more tax effective for life in Italy. The transition year is always the most important because of the ability to use cross border financial planning opportunities to their fullest.

And that, in brief, is your no-stress guide to to obtain residency in Italy as an EU citizen. However, whilst I write the words ‘no-stress’, they don’t correspond with my experience of municipal offices in Italy, or indeed the experience of many others. Always expect the unexpected.

I wish you or anyone you know all the best of luck making an application for residency in Italy, pre-Brexit, and who knows, we may even be in for an extension again. My guess would be at the witching hour on Dec 23rd so as not to ruin Christmas too much for the retailers and companies that will suffer most from a hard Brexit. Non vedo l’ora!

Article by Gareth Horsfall

If you live in Italy and or have financial interests in Italy you can contact Gareth Horsfall directly on: gareth.horsfall@spectrum-ifa.com to request more information about how he may be able to help you. Alternatively you can complete the form below and a message will be sent to him. If you would like to read more about Gareth's work you can follow his blog on tax and financial planning in Italy HERE

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