Investor Visa for Italy — the Italian Golden Visa
The programme most people search for as Italy’s golden visa has a legal name — the investor visa — and four ways in, from €250,000 to €2 million. Two of its features no competing golden visa offers: you invest after the visa is granted, and the permit does not require you to live in Italy. This page sets out what the law requires, what the State charges, and what the Committee is really reading when it looks at your file.
Figures verified 10 September 2026 · Article 26-bis, Legislative Decree 286/1998 · Law 232/2016 · Interministerial Decree of 21 July 2017 · investorvisa.mise.gov.it
Which route fits
The four categories in article 26-bis, with the holding period each one carries.
Is the “Italy Golden Visa” the same thing as the investor visa?
Yes. They are the same programme, and there is only one. “Golden visa” is the name the international press and the relocation industry use for any residence-by-investment route in Europe; Italy’s is called the investor visa in the statute that created it and on the government portal that runs it. If someone offers you an “Italian golden visa” that is not article 26-bis, ask which law they mean, because there isn’t another one.
The distinction is worth a paragraph because the two names carry different expectations. People arrive at “golden visa” from the Portuguese and Greek programmes, which were built around buying property, and assume Italy works the same way. It does not: Italy’s golden visa has no real-estate route and never has had one. You cannot buy a house in Tuscany and receive residence for it, at any price.
What Italy offers instead is the only major European programme where the money moves after the decision, and where the residence permit carries no obligation to actually live in the country. Those two things are the reason this page exists, and they are covered in full below.
What the investor visa is, and what it is not
The investor visa is a two-year national visa for a non-EU citizen who commits capital to one of four categories the Italian State has defined as strategic. It was created by article 26-bis of the immigration act, inserted by the 2017 Budget Law, and it is run online by an interministerial Committee sitting at the Ministry of Enterprises.
It is not a property programme. Italy has no residence-by-real-estate route and never has. Buying a villa in Tuscany, at any price, does not qualify you for this visa. That absence is why the Italian programme has survived the political wave that abolished Spain’s and stripped the property option out of Portugal’s.
It is not citizenship by investment. Italy has no such programme. The investor permit is a residence route: two years, renewable for three, and after five years of continuous residence an EU long-term permit can be applied for.
It does not require you to move. This is the part most guides get wrong, including our own earlier page. The ordinary rule that a residence permit lapses if the holder spends more than half its validity abroad is expressly disapplied for investors: the Ministry’s policy guidance states that obligations related to continuity of presence in the Italian territory do not apply in the period after obtaining the residence permit
. Investors are also exempt from signing the integration agreement that other permit holders sign. For the first five years, the permit is genuinely a right of residence you hold rather than a residence you must perform.
What it is, for the right client, is the most applicant-friendly of the surviving European programmes: the lowest entry threshold, no money moved until the visa is in the passport, and a thirty-day statutory decision.
Ingresso e soggiorno per investitori, inserted by Law no. 232 of 11 December 2016 with effect from 1 January 2017, and implemented by the Interministerial Decree of 21 July 2017 signed by the Ministers of Economic Development, the Interior and Foreign Affairs. The procedure is run through the government portal investorvisa.mise.gov.it, which publishes the operational manual and the policy guidance in English.
The same 2016 Budget Law created article 24-bis of the income tax code — the flat tax for new residents. The two were designed together, which is why they are so often discussed together and so often confused.
What qualifies, and for how long you must hold it
The amounts are set by statute. The wording below is quoted from the law itself, because two of these categories are routinely described incorrectly in English-language guides.
| Category | Minimum | Holding period | What the law actually says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innovative startup | €250,000 | at least two years | Shares in an Italian innovative startup registered in the special section of the business register. The statute sets the figure at almeno euro 250.000 nel caso che tale società sia una start-up innovativa. Note that Law 193/2024 narrowed what qualifies as an innovative startup and how long a company can stay in the register — the visa threshold is unchanged, but the pool of eligible companies is smaller than it was. |
| Italian company or venture capital fund | €500,000 | at least two years | strumenti rappresentativi del capitale di una società o di un fondo di venture capital costituiti e operanti in Italia. The venture-capital fund option is part of the same category and is routinely left out of the guides you will read elsewhere. The company must be incorporated and operating in Italy. |
| Philanthropic donation | €1,000,000 | not applicable — the donation is made outright | una donazione a carattere filantropico di almeno euro 1.000.000 a sostegno di un progetto di pubblico interessein one of five fields: culture, education, immigration management, scientific research, and the recovery of cultural and landscape assets. The last limb is wider than the English guides suggest: recupero di beni culturali e paesaggistici. |
| Italian government bonds | €2,000,000 | at least two years | titoli emessi dal Governo italiano e che vengano mantenuti per almeno due anni. The largest ticket and the simplest file: no company, no due diligence on a target, no notary — but it needs a custody arrangement with an Italian intermediary. |
Two corrections worth having. The €500,000 category is not limited to companies: the statute reads una società o di un fondo di venture capital costituiti e operanti in Italia
, and the venture-capital fund option is usually omitted elsewhere. And the fifth field for the philanthropic route is recupero di beni culturali e paesaggistici
— cultural and landscape assets, which is wider than the “restoration of cultural heritage” you will read on most sites.
What the process costs, apart from the investment
No other law firm publishes this table. Everything below is what you pay to the Italian State or to third parties; our own fee is quoted per file, and we tell you the number before you engage us.
| What you pay the Italian State | |
Application to the Investor Visa Committee (nulla osta)The official manual is explicit: La presentazione della domanda di nulla osta per il visto investitori è gratuita. | €0 |
| National (type D) investor visa, at the consulateCharged at the standard national-visa rate; there is no separate investor tariff and no reduction. US consulates published $135.20 for the quarter 1 July – 30 September 2026; the dollar figure is reset every quarter. | €116 |
| Codice fiscaleIssued by the Agenzia delle Entrate; the consulates list it among their free services. | €0 |
| Residence permit — electronic documentPre-printed postal slip, paid at the post office. | €30.46 |
| Residence permit — contributionThe band for a permit of more than one and up to two years. The €80/€100/€200 bands you will still find quoted online were annulled and replaced in 2017. | €50 |
| Residence permit — revenue stampMarca da bollo. | €16 |
| Residence permit — post office handlingPaid at the counter when the application is filed. | €30 |
| Total payable to the State, first two yearsExcluding the investment itself. | €242.46 |
| What you pay third parties | |
| NotaryRequired on the corporate route: subscribing new quotas in an S.r.l. goes through a notarial deed, and a transfer of existing quotas requires a public deed or an authenticated private agreement (art. 2470 civil code). Notarial fees were deregulated in 2006 — there is no schedule, so get a quote. The deed also attracts a fixed registration tax. | varies |
| Italian bank accountNon-residents are priced differently by each bank, and some will not open an account before the permit exists. This is the step that most often sets the real pace of the file. | varies |
| Apostille on US documentsCharged by each state’s Secretary of State; there is no national fee. US documents take an apostille, not consular legalisation — both countries are parties to the 1961 Hague Convention. | varies |
| Sworn translation into ItalianTranslators’ fees are unregulated. The consulate can instead certify a translation: €13 per unit into Italian, €20 into English, on the quarter 1 July – 30 September 2026. | varies |
| Custody account for the bond routeCommercial terms with the Italian intermediary holding the securities. | varies |
| Our feesQuoted per file once we know the route, the number of family members and whether the corporate or donation target needs due diligence. We tell you the number before you engage us, and it does not move afterwards. | on request |
State figures verified on 10 September 2026 from the consular tariff for the quarter 1 July – 30 September 2026, the Poste Italiane guide to residence permits, and the Investor Visa operational manual. The euro amounts are stable; the dollar equivalents at US consulates are reset quarterly.
From application to permit, with the deadlines that are law
The certificate, online
The file goes to the Investor Visa Committee through the government portal. The Secretariat replies on formal admissibility within one working week; if something is missing you have thirty days to supply it. The Committee then decides within thirty days. Applying costs nothing.
The visa, at your consulate
The certificate is valid six months; within that window you apply at the Italian consulate for your place of residence. The visa is issued for two years — but if you have not communicated a date of arrival within those two years the whole procedure lapses.
Entry, then eight working days
You enter Italy, and within eight working days you apply in person at the Questura for the two-year investor residence permit.
Three months to invest
From the date of entry you communicated, you have three months to execute the investment or donation in full. Renewal is for three years, applied for no later than sixty days before expiry; after five continuous years an EU long-term permit becomes available.
Every period above is a legal deadline, not an estimate. What no one can tell you honestly is the total elapsed time: neither the portal nor the Ministry publishes any statistics on applications, approvals or real processing times, and we do not yet have enough closed files of our own to publish a number we would stand behind. Our working estimate for a straightforward file is several months from first conversation to permit in hand, driven mostly by the consular appointment and by opening the Italian bank account — but that is our estimate, not measured data, and we say so rather than inventing a figure.
Who actually reads your file — and what they are looking for
This is the part of the procedure nobody publishes, and it is the part that decides most files. Your application is not read by an immigration officer. It is read by a committee of seven, and three of its members exist to trace money.
The Investor Visa Committee sits at the Ministry of Enterprises and has seven permanent voting members: the Ministry of Enterprises, which chairs it, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Guardia di Finanza, the Revenue Agency and the Italian Trade Agency. For a philanthropic donation, the Ministry of Culture or of Education joins them.
The voting rule is unusual, and it matters. A certificate is granted in the absence of votes against and with the majority of members voting in favour
. Read that twice: it is not a simple majority. A single vote against is enough to stop the file. In practice each of those seven bodies holds a veto over your application.
What follows from the membership. The anti-money-laundering unit, the financial police and the tax authority are not there to assess your business plan. They are there to answer one question: where did this money come from, and can it lawfully leave where it is now. That is why the documentation the platform asks for is built around provenance rather than around amount — you must show ownership of the sum, its transferability and licit origin
, and the absence of final criminal convictions, before anything is said about the target of the investment.
The practical consequence for an American client is simple: a clean, fully documented €250,000 file from a traceable source is stronger than a poorly evidenced €2,000,000 one. Where the money sits in a structure — a trust, an LLC, a family holding, a recent liquidity event — the work is in the paper trail, and it is the work worth starting first.
Two deadlines before the thirty days. The Secretariat replies on formal admissibility within one working week. If a document is missing or non-compliant, the corrected file must be uploaded within thirty days of the request — and only then does the Committee’s own thirty-day clock begin.
Six conditions that decide whether you keep the permit
The application is the easy part. These are the terms that cost people the permit afterwards, and the ones that are hardest to find on the sites selling the programme.
You do not have to live here — until you want the long-term permit
The ordinary rule that a permit lapses if the holder is away for more than half its validity does not apply to investors. The Ministry’s own policy guidance is explicit: obligations related to continuity of presence in the Italian territory do not apply in the period after obtaining the residence permit
. So the investor permit survives even if you barely come. The limit is what comes next: the EU long-term residence permit, available after five years, is a different permit under ordinary rules, and it requires genuine continuous residence. If the plan is to convert, you have to actually live here.
The visa lapses at two years
The visa is valid for two years, but if you have not communicated your date of arrival in Italy within those two years, the entire procedure is considered lapsed
— nulla osta, visa and all. You start again.
Three months to invest, from entry
The investment or donation must be executed in full within three months of the date of entry you communicate. Miss it and the permit is revoked. The money must therefore be liquid and ready before you fly, not raised afterwards.
Eight working days at the Questura
After entering Italy you have eight working days to file the residence permit application in person. The Italian-language consumer page says 8 giorni
; the operational manual and the English policy guidance both say working days.
Withdraw the investment and you lose the permit
If the Committee learns the investment or donation has been withdrawn, it asks the competent Questura to revoke the permit — and renewal is refused. The holding period is not a formality.
Two nationalities are suspended
The programme has been suspended for Russian and Belarusian citizens since 14 July 2023, and since a Foreign Ministry note of 20 March 2024 also for non-EU citizens holding a second Russian or Belarusian passport. If either applies to you or to a family member, say so at the first conversation.
The flat tax: €300,000, and what changed
Anyone who transfers tax residence to Italy from 1 January 2026 and elects the regime of article 24-bis of the income tax code pays a substitute tax of €300,000 a year on all foreign income, whatever its size, plus €50,000 for each family member included. The option runs up to fifteen years and requires that you were not resident in Italy for nine of the ten preceding years.
The figure has moved twice in eighteen months: €100,000 until 10 August 2024, €200,000 for residence transferred from 11 August 2024, €300,000 from the start of 2026. Those who exercised the option earlier keep the figure they entered under.
The visa does not give you the tax regime. They are separate decisions. Holding an investor permit does not by itself make you an Italian tax resident — that turns on article 2 of the income tax code, on registration, domicile and days spent here. The flat tax is then an option you elect if you qualify.
One change to plan around: from tax period 2027 the flat tax can no longer be combined with the inbound-worker regime. Decree-Law no. 38 of 27 March 2026 added article 5 of Legislative Decree 209/2023 to the anti-cumulation list in the 2016 Budget Law. Those who transferred residence between 2024 and 2026 are not affected.
Read the full flat tax regime for new residents, including the 7% option for pensioners moving to the South.
al primo periodo, le parole: «euro 200.000» sono sostituite dalle seguenti: «euro 300.000»and
le parole: «euro 25.000» sono sostituite dalle seguenti: «euro 50.000», applying to those who transfer residence
a decorrere dalla data di entrata in vigore della presente legge— 1 January 2026.
Two official pages still show the old €100,000 and €25,000: the Revenue Agency’s page on the regime, last updated in November 2023, and the investor visa portal’s own tax page. If a consultant quotes you €100,000 in 2026, that is where it came from.
What is left of Europe’s golden visa programmes
The golden visa comparison that mattered three years ago no longer exists. Two of the four programmes Americans used to weigh against Italy have been abolished or gutted — which is why searches for the Italian one have been rising while the others disappear.
| Programme | Entry point | Property route | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | €250,000 | No property route — and never had one | Investor permit 2 years, renewable 3; investment made after the visa is issued |
| Greece | €250,000 in limited cases; €400,000–€800,000 by area | Property-based | Thresholds depend on where the property is; the low figure survives only for conversions and listed buildings |
| Portugal | €250,000 cultural; €500,000 funds | Property route removed in October 2023 | The plain capital-transfer route was removed at the same time |
| Spain | — | Programme abolished | Repealed with effect from 3 April 2025 |
Italy has the lowest entry threshold of the surviving major programmes and, unlike Greece, is not property-based — which is precisely what has insulated it from the political pressure that ended Spain’s programme. Figures for Greece and Portugal are given as context from public sources rather than as Italian law; we advise on the Italian route, and we will tell you when another country suits you better.
Do you need an Italian lawyer, or an American one?
Ask an American search engine who handles the Italian investor visa and it will hand you US immigration firms, because it reads “lawyer” as “lawyer near me”. It is worth being clear about where this procedure actually happens.
There is no American step. The file is submitted to an Italian interministerial Committee, through an Italian government portal, under Italian administrative law. The certificate is issued in Rome. The visa is issued by an Italian consulate. The residence permit is applied for at an Italian Questura and issued under the Italian immigration act. At no point does any United States authority decide anything.
What matters if it goes wrong. A refusal is an act of Italian public administration, and it is challenged before the Italian administrative courts. Representation there requires an Italian-qualified lawyer. That is not a marketing point, it is a question of who can put their name on the pleading — and it is worth knowing before you choose an adviser, not after.
What a US adviser is genuinely for. Your American tax position does not disappear when you move: US citizens are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live, and the interaction between the Italian flat tax and your US return is a real question. We work alongside your CPA on that. What we do not do is pretend the two sides are one job.
This firm is led by Marco Bersani, admitted to the Bar of Verona and practising as an abogado ejerciente at the Bar of Madrid — which also means that when a client asks how Italy compares with what Spain used to offer, the answer comes from someone admitted in both.
Where the visa is one piece of a larger picture — a property to buy, a will drafted abroad, a collection to move — the file is handled as a private client mandate rather than as an immigration matter.
Before you apply
Does Italy have a golden visa, and is this it?
Italy has one residence-by-investment programme and it has two names: the investor visa in the law, the Italy golden visa everywhere else. It was created by article 26-bis of Legislative Decree 286/1998 and in force since 1 January 2017. “Golden visa” is the marketing name the industry uses for it; there is no separate programme by that name. What Italy does not have — and has never had — is a residence-by-property-purchase route. Buying a house in Italy does not qualify you for this visa.
Does it lead to Italian citizenship?
Not directly, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Italy has no citizenship-by-investment programme. After five years of continuous residence on the investor permit you can apply for an EU long-term residence permit; naturalisation by residence for a non-EU national is a separate procedure with its own, longer, requirement. If you have an Italian-born ancestor, citizenship by descent is a different and usually far faster question — ask us that one first.
Do I have to make the investment before I get the visa?
No, and this is the part of the Italian programme that genuinely favours the applicant. You obtain the certificate of no impediment first, then the visa, then you enter Italy — and only then, within three months of entry, do you execute the investment. You are not asked to move money into Italy on the strength of an application that might be refused.
How long does the Committee take?
Thirty days by law. The interministerial decree of 21 July 2017 says the procedure closes entro 30 giorni dalla ricezione della domanda
and the operational manual says the outcome is communicated entro 30 giorni dalla presentazione della candidatura
. What that clock does not include is the preliminary completeness check by the Secretariat, which runs first, and the consular appointment afterwards. No official statistics on real processing times are published by anyone, ourselves included until we have enough closed files to publish honestly.
Can my family come with me?
Yes. Family members enter under article 29 of the immigration act, by reference from article 26-bis, and receive a family visa under article 30. You will read on other sites that the ordinary income and accommodation requirements are waived for investors: we have not found that derogation in the statute, the implementing decree or the operational manual, so we do not repeat it. Plan the file on the ordinary requirements and treat anything better as a bonus.
Do I have to live in Italy to keep the permit?
No, and this is the single most valuable feature of the Italian programme — and the one most often reported wrongly, including on our own earlier page. The rule that a residence permit lapses if the holder spends more than half its validity outside Italy is expressly disapplied for investors: the Ministry’s policy guidance says that obligations related to continuity of presence in the Italian territory do not apply in the period after obtaining the residence permit
. Investors are also exempt from the integration agreement. What this does not do is carry over into the EU long-term residence permit after five years: that is a different permit, under ordinary rules, and it requires real continuous residence. So the permit is flexible for as long as it is an investor permit, and stops being flexible the moment you want to convert it.
Can I work in Italy with the investor permit?
The investor permit is not a work visa, and the programme is built around the investment rather than around employment. What you may do with a given permit depends on its conversion rules and on your specific situation, so this is a question to put to us with your circumstances rather than one to answer in a paragraph on a web page.
What does the flat tax actually cost now?
€300,000 a year on all foreign income, plus €50,000 for each family member included, for anyone who transfers tax residence to Italy from 1 January 2026. The figures come from article 1, paragraphs 25 and 26 of Law no. 199 of 30 December 2025, which amended article 24-bis of the income tax code. It was €200,000 for residence transferred from 11 August 2024, and €100,000 before that; those who exercised the option earlier keep the figure they entered under. Several official pages — including the investor visa portal’s own tax page and the Revenue Agency’s — still show €100,000: they are two changes out of date.
Is the flat tax automatic if I get the visa?
No. The visa and the tax regime are two separate things. Holding an investor visa does not by itself make you an Italian tax resident: residence for tax purposes turns on article 2 of the income tax code — registration with the registry office, domicile or residence in Italy for most of the tax year. The flat tax is then an option you elect, if you qualify. Note also that from tax period 2027 the flat tax can no longer be combined with the inbound-worker regime: Decree-Law 38 of 27 March 2026 added that regime to the anti-cumulation list.
Tell us the amount, the timing, and who is coming with you
We will tell you which of the four routes fits, what it will cost you in total, what the presence condition means for your life, and whether the flat tax is worth electing. If the answer is citizenship by descent or the elective residence visa instead, we will say so.
- No cost, no obligation
- Read by an Italian lawyer
- Every message is answered
Comparing routes? Read the Elective Residence Visa or the flat tax for new residents.
Does Italy have a golden visa, and is this it?
Italy has an investor visa, created by article 26-bis of Legislative Decree 286/1998 and in force since 1 January 2017. “Golden visa” is the marketing name the industry uses for it; there is no separate programme by that name. What Italy does not have — and has never had — is a residence-by-property-purchase route. Buying a house in Italy does not qualify you for this visa.
Does it lead to Italian citizenship?
Not directly, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Italy has no citizenship-by-investment programme. After five years of continuous residence on the investor permit you can apply for an EU long-term residence permit; naturalisation by residence for a non-EU national is a separate procedure with its own, longer, requirement. If you have an Italian-born ancestor, citizenship by descent is a different and usually far faster question — ask us that one first.
Do I have to make the investment before I get the visa?
No, and this is the part of the Italian programme that genuinely favours the applicant. You obtain the certificate of no impediment first, then the visa, then you enter Italy — and only then, within three months of entry, do you execute the investment. You are not asked to move money into Italy on the strength of an application that might be refused.
How long does the Committee take?
Thirty days by law. The interministerial decree of 21 July 2017 says the procedure closes “entro 30 giorni dalla ricezione della domanda” and the operational manual says the outcome is communicated “entro 30 giorni dalla presentazione della candidatura”. What that clock does not include is the preliminary completeness check by the Secretariat, which runs first, and the consular appointment afterwards. No official statistics on real processing times are published by anyone, ourselves included until we have enough closed files to publish honestly.
Can my family come with me?
Yes. Family members enter under article 29 of the immigration act, by reference from article 26-bis, and receive a family visa under article 30. You will read on other sites that the ordinary income and accommodation requirements are waived for investors: we have not found that derogation in the statute, the implementing decree or the operational manual, so we do not repeat it. Plan the file on the ordinary requirements and treat anything better as a bonus.
Do I have to live in Italy to keep the permit?
No, and this is the single most valuable feature of the Italian programme — and the one most often reported wrongly, including on our own earlier page. The rule that a residence permit lapses if the holder spends more than half its validity outside Italy is expressly disapplied for investors: the Ministry’s policy guidance says that “obligations related to continuity of presence in the Italian territory do not apply in the period after obtaining the residence permit”. Investors are also exempt from the integration agreement. What this does not do is carry over into the EU long-term residence permit after five years: that is a different permit, under ordinary rules, and it requires real continuous residence. So the permit is flexible for as long as it is an investor permit, and stops being flexible the moment you want to convert it.
Can I work in Italy with the investor permit?
The investor permit is not a work visa, and the programme is built around the investment rather than around employment. What you may do with a given permit depends on its conversion rules and on your specific situation, so this is a question to put to us with your circumstances rather than one to answer in a paragraph on a web page.
What does the flat tax actually cost now?
€300,000 a year on all foreign income, plus €50,000 for each family member included, for anyone who transfers tax residence to Italy from 1 January 2026. The figures come from article 1, paragraphs 25 and 26 of Law no. 199 of 30 December 2025, which amended article 24-bis of the income tax code. It was €200,000 for residence transferred from 11 August 2024, and €100,000 before that; those who exercised the option earlier keep the figure they entered under. Several official pages — including the investor visa portal’s own tax page and the Revenue Agency’s — still show €100,000: they are two changes out of date.
Is the flat tax automatic if I get the visa?
No. The visa and the tax regime are two separate things. Holding an investor visa does not by itself make you an Italian tax resident: residence for tax purposes turns on article 2 of the income tax code — registration with the registry office, domicile or residence in Italy for most of the tax year. The flat tax is then an option you elect, if you qualify. Note also that from tax period 2027 the flat tax can no longer be combined with the inbound-worker regime: Decree-Law 38 of 27 March 2026 added that regime to the anti-cumulation list.