Case: Erick is a 48-year old Canadian business journalist from Montreal, he has graduated in economics and political sciences from the University of Toronto and has been working as an anchorman for Ontario’s most popular real time TV network for the past 20 years, hosting the economic and political evening news. In order to increase the audience and the international exposure of the network, the executive committee has dediced to send Erick to Italy for some months, so that he might keep a close eye to and cover the delicate Italian political situation and report, from both an economic and strictly political stand point, the main challenges that the recent-installed Italian Government is now called to face over the next few months, both domestically and internationally.
Question: what are the options for Erick to obtain a visa and a residence permit for Italy that would allow him to temporarily move to and work in Italy as a correspondent for the Canadian network?
Solution: Considering that Erick is a higly recognized and popular journalist employed by a national TV network, and that he is planning on moving to Italy for some months, he might find particularly interesting and appealing for his case the Italian visa and residence permit journalists, reporters and correspondents.
This particular residence permit is provided for by Italian Immigration Law, by means of article 27 letter Q of Legislative Decree 286/98, and can be applied for by those third-country recognized journalists who work for newspapers, TV networks, media organizations and/or radios or as self employed freelance journalists and intend to temporarly move to Italy in order to carry our journalistic activities in the national territory by either covering specific and determined events for short periods of time or on a more stable and long basis.
The procedure for the issuance of the above-mentioned residence permit starts with the submission to the Italian competent authorities, namely the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, of the nominative request for the obtainment of the so called “press accreditation” (accreditamento stampa), by means of the dedicated web portal, which has been recently developed, updated and fully digitilized.
Before applying for the entry visa in front of the Italian diplomatic authority in Canada, Erick will therefore have to necessarily obtain the aforementioned press accreditation with the Minister of Foreign Affair, by completing the registration process and submitting all the requested information and documents, among which the most crucial are:
- a passport-size photograph;
- copy of his passport;
- copy of his journalist badge;
- cover letter signed by the TV network’s legal representative, on the company’s letterhead; and
- nota verbale (verbal note) issued by the Canadian Embassy in Rome and addressed to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the purposes of the press accreditation.
After the press accreditation procedure is duly completed, the Italian Ministry of Foreign affairs will issue the so-called nulla osta stampa (press authorization), which will be automatically transmitted to the Italian Embassy/Consulate in Toronto, in front of which Erick will be entitled to apply for the entry visa.
After entering Italy with the visa duly stamped on his passport, and within 8 days following his entrance, Erick shall file the application for the issuance of the final Italian residence permit to the competent Police station (Questura), by sending the so-called postal kit, through any Post Office.
Since the residence permit is issued for the purpose of performing journalistic activities only, Erick will not be allowed, for the entire duration of his stay in the national territory, to carry out any further or different work activity, neither as salaried employee nor as self-employed worker.
The duration of Erick’s residence permit shall depend on the duration of his assigment, as specified in the above-mentioned press accreditation process and in the cover letter signed by Erick’s employer, and cannot be converted, under no cirmumstances, into any other type of Italian residence permit. Should his assignment in Italy be longer than expected, Erick is expressly entitled by the law to apply for a temporary renewal of the residence permit, by submitting to the authorities the application for the renewal, along with all the requested supporting documents and updated information.