Italy Digital Nomad Visa

The threshold on this route is not a fixed figure but a formula, and the distinction matters because the number will change without any amendment to the law.

The statutory condition is annual lawful income of at least three times the minimum for exemption from healthcare co-payment in Italy — and the decree governing this route gives no euro figure at all, as the tax cell of this table records.

The figure appears only in the mission guidance: at the time that guidance was drafted in 2024, that minimum stood at no less than EUR 24,789 per year.

The threshold therefore tracks the healthcare exemption level, so a figure copied from a 2024 document goes stale as soon as that level is revised, and anyone calculating must return to the formula rather than keep the number.

The remote worker branch, for someone employed by an employer, carries a separate figure that does not follow that formula: annual gross contractual pay must be no less than EUR 33,000.

And the nature of the income is policed more tightly than its amount: it must arise from the very work the applicant will perform in Italy, while passive income does not count — the authority names three excluded kinds: social security pensions, rental income and shares.

Someone living off assets therefore cannot enter this route however high their total income.

The visa is open only to highly specialised workers under article 27-quater of Legislative Decree 286/1998, that is, careers requiring a post-secondary degree or at least three years of professional training or experience, together with proof of six or more months of prior experience in the field.

After entering Italy the holder must apply at the local Questura for a residence permit within the first eight working days. The permit is issued for one year and renewed locally, provided employment, lodging and health insurance are maintained.

The visa has two categories. Digital nomads are freelancers, consultants or other independent specialists; remote workers are employees of a company who can work entirely remotely, and they face two additional requirements.

There are three ways to show a qualifying profession. One is a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree recognised through CIMEA or a Declaration of Value; another, for licensed professions such as architects, engineers or teachers, is an attestation from the competent Italian authority under Legislative Decree 206 of 2007.

The third is a higher professional qualification with at least five years of experience in the field, documented for each employment by the public authority of the country where the experience was gained.

The visa is only the door in; what confers the right to stay is the residence permit, and the clock for obtaining it is short.

After entering on a national visa the holder must attend the Questura, the provincial police headquarters, to apply for a Permesso di Soggiorno within the first eight working days of arrival, and it must be the Questura with jurisdiction over their home in Italy.

The permit is a plastic card and it replaces the visa, so no further visa application is needed while it remains valid.

The permit issued to digital nomads runs for one year at the time the document was drawn up, and is renewable locally at the Questura provided the holder maintains their employment, lodging and health insurance — and provided the employer is not convicted of the offences listed in the file.

Two technical constraints at the visa stage are worth recording:

The passport must be valid at least fifteen months past the intended date of travel and carry at least two blank pages for the visa; and the fee depends on the length of stay, with the national visa fee payable for stays over 90 days and the Schengen visa fee for stays of 90 days or less.

The authority also states that the number one reason for visa rejection is inadequate medical expenses coverage, the minimum being EUR 30,000. The file submitted to the Questura largely duplicates the visa file, so the authority recommends photocopying the whole packet before submitting it

Accommodation is the heaviest residence condition on this route, and it is not a formality. The file must contain a lease, rental contract or deed for property in Italy; that document must be in the applicant own name and must cover the entire duration of the visa.

Where renting, the applicant must present an original "Contratto di Locazione ad Uso Abitativo" together with proof that the landlord has registered it with the Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian Tax Authority — meaning an undeclared tenancy cannot support the application, and that condition lies outside the applicant control.

On changing residence the holder must notify the same Questura that issued their residency permit. A geographic condition also applies at filing: the applicant must prove residence within the consular jurisdiction of the receiving office.

On experience, the applicant must show six or more months of prior work experience in the field — digital nomads may evidence this with tax returns, client invoices or membership of professional or industrial associations; remote workers with tax returns, pay slips or a letter from the employer.

And the income relied on must derive from the very work the applicant will perform in Italy; passive income such as Social Security, rents or stocks will not be considered

The list is unusually narrow against other long-stay European routes.

Once in Italy, the holder of a digital nomad or remote worker visa may sponsor a spouse from whom they are not separated or separating, and a child under 18, including a spouse child from a previous marriage or born out of wedlock, provided the other parent consents to the issuance of the visa.

Beyond those two there is nobody — at the time the document was drawn up, digital nomads and remote workers cannot sponsor children over 18 and cannot sponsor parents to join them in Italy, even where those individuals are genuinely dependent on them.

Procedurally, sponsorship does not begin at the mission abroad but in Italy, at the very Questura where the sponsor applied for their residency permit, and the mission directs every question about sponsoring family members to the Questura entitled to receive the application.

In practice the family cannot travel with the sponsor: they must wait for the sponsor to arrive, obtain the residency permit, and only then start their own file

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Italy passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Italy passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Italy passport reaches 203 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The decree governing this permit creates no concession, exemption or special rate; it does the opposite, making tax compliance a condition of the permit surviving.

The instrument is the Decree of 29 February 2024 of the Ministry of the Interior, countersigned by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Tourism and Labour, published in the Official Gazette on 4 April 2024 under reference 24A01716 and applying from the day after publication.

Its legal basis is Article 6-quinquies of Decree-Law No. 4 of 27 January 2022, converted into Law No. 25 of 28 March 2022, which inserted point q-bis and paragraph 1-sexies into Article 27 of Legislative Decree 286/1998.

Paragraph 1-sexies sets the condition of grant: the permit is issued for no more than one year provided the holder has health insurance and that the tax and contribution provisions in force in national law are complied with.

And here is the strongest part, at Article 4(4) of the decree: A residence permit already issued is likewise revoked where the tax and contribution provisions in force are not complied with.

Not the loss of a concession, but the loss of the permit.

The enforcement mechanism is written as a closed loop between two authorities. Article 6(1): the tax code is generated by the provincial police headquarters itself and notified at the moment the permit is issued, under Article 11 of Presidential Decree No. 394 of 31 August 1999.

Article 6(2): digital nomads specifically must in addition obtain a VAT number under Article 35 of Presidential Decree No. 633 of 26 October 1972 — an obligation the decree does not place on remote workers employed by an employer.

Article 6(3): the police headquarters notifies the Revenue Agency electronically of the permit issue. Article 6(4): compliance checks apply Article 31 and following of Presidential Decree No. 600 of 29 September 1973 and Article 51 and following of Decree 633.

Article 6(5) closes the loop: on finding a breach of tax rules, the Revenue Agency notifies back, electronically, the very police headquarters that issued the permit.

On social contributions, Article 5 has the police headquarters transmit the employment contract to the National Social Security Institute and the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work.

Where a bilateral social security agreement with the third country exists it applies, and where none exists Italian law applies for the duration of the permit.

Other parameters: Article 3(1)(a) requires an annual income from lawful sources of not less than three times the minimum exempt from healthcare co-payment, and the text states no figure in euro;

Article 4(3) provides that the permit bears the wording digital nomad — remote worker, is issued for no more than one year and is renewed annually while the conditions persist.

Read this cell within its scope: the source covers entry conditions, grant and revocation of the permit and the tax-checking machinery attached to it; it gives no rates, states no tax-residence threshold, says nothing about the inbound-worker regime, and does not say whether a holder may benefit from any other tax concession

Travel medical insurance must carry coverage of not less than EUR 30,000, equivalent to USD 50,000, covering medical expenses, hospitalisation costs and repatriation for medical reasons.

The issuing authority states that inadequate medical expenses coverage is the number one reason for visa rejections, and that an insurance card is not sufficient proof.

The applicant must also hold a lease or property deed in their own name covering the entire duration of the visa, and where it is a lease, proof that the landlord has registered it with the Italian Tax Authority.

The visa fee is non-refundable. Those intending to stay more than 90 days pay the national visa fee, those staying 90 days or less pay the Schengen visa fee, and current fees are posted on the consulate's website.

The passport must be valid for at least 15 months beyond the intended travel date, with at least two blank pages for the visa.

A holder who changes residence after receiving the residence permit must notify the Questura that issued it.