Case: João and Carolline are two Brazilian citizens, they are married, they have lived all their lives working hard, and now they have retired. They always dreamt of moving to Italy and spending their elderly years in a beautiful house in the countryside of Tuscany.
Carolline and João have a retirement pension, and they also receive a certain income during the year from the renting of real estate properties located in their home country and abroad. They are seeking a solution that would allow them to move and settle down in Italy indefinitely.
Question: what are the options for Carolline and João to obtain a visa and a residence permit for Italy to make their Italian dream come true?
Solution: Considering that Carolline and João are retired and that they would like to move to Italy not to carry out any business or working activity, the elective residence visa and residence permit might be particularly interesting and appealing for them.
The elective residence visa program has been structured to give third-country nationals the possibility to move to Italy as long as their plan is not to work. Indeed, the main conditions that someone interested in an elective residence visa, like Carolline and João, need to take in consideration are the following:
• be sure to have sufficient economic resources to live in Italy and not be a burden for the Italian social system;
• be intentioned not to carry our any work activity.
Carolline and João shall prepare all the documentation to demonstrate that they match the requirements and submit their application to the competent Italian Consulate/Embassy in the place where they live in Brazil.
They need to prove that (i) they have housing in Italy (purchased or leased property) and (ii) they have more than a substantial amount of regular and stable financial resources and income that are proved to be likely steady in the future.
The amount of the financial resources cannot be less than Euro 31,159.29 per year, and they shall derive from revenues such as annuities and pensions, property ownership and stable economic activities not deriving from employment i.e. such resources shall be passive income. For each dependant – spouse, minor children or parents over 65 years of age – the amount of proved income shall increase of around 20 percent.
The Italian Consulate/Embassy will decide to grant or not the visa: some Consulates are more strict than others concerning the economic requirements. They may, for example, decide to set the bar higher and require proof of availability of higher amounts of passive income.
In Carolline and João’s case, the chances to obtain the visa will depend on the number of financial resources that they will be able to demonstrate to have.
Once the Italian Consulate/Embassy approves their visa application, they will be able to move to Italy and apply for a residence permit of an initial duration of 2 years, renewable for further periods as long as the economic conditions and the other requirements are proved to be maintained.
