Elective Residence Visa Applications and Visa Denials

- dimartinolaw
- 0 Comments
- 17399 views
- October 4, 2024
Elective Residence Visa Applications and Visa Denials
Italy is one of the most desirable countries where to live due to its lifestyle, culture, cuisine, temperate climate and relatively low cost of living. Several Italian cities like Venice, Florence, Rome and Milan, are nowadays home to significant numbers of American and foreign expats who live and reside there.
The Elective Residence Visa and its requirements
The Elective Residence Visa for Italy, is a special visa category that is designed for non-EU nationals who wish to move to Italy and want to elect Italy as their official country of permanent residence. The applicant for the Elective Residence Visa must demonstrate to possess the following requirements:
- Proof of financial means: The applicant must demonstrate a stable income such as a pension, rental income, capital interest, business dividends and/or “ample financial resources” from savings, stock or securities accounts, retirement/pension funds, real estate. The minimum passive income the applicant shall be able to demonstrate should be equal to $36,000 per applicant per year;
- Proof of housing: The applicant must have secured a place where to live by renting or buying a property in Italy. This proof must be provided at time of application;
- Medical insurance: The applicant must purchase health insurance coverage valid in the Italian territory for medical expenses, hospitalization, emergency services and transportation of mortal remains;
- Motivational letter: The applicant must prepare and submit a letter addressed to the Italian Consulate explaining the reasons behind the decision to elect Italy as the applicant’s country of future residence.
The application process and visa denials
One of the most problematic requirements for those listed above, is the evidence of the financial resources that the applicant has to provide. The reason is that the applicant cannot provide as proof of income wages from work as an employee or independent contractor. The Elective Residence Visa, in fact, is designed to attract those individuals who have steady and passive income from their pensions, investments or past activities and do not need to work in order to live and reside in Italy. However, quite frequently the Consulate officials tend to apply a very narrow interpretation for the financial proof requirement; giving preference to those applicants who can demonstrate to be receiving a pension benefit or a rental income and disregarding those who have significant cash savings or investments in stock or securities accounts.
As an example, in 2022 the Italian Consulate in London, UK, denied the Elective Residence Visa to an English married couple, who had more than $360,000 in pensions’ funds and over $310,000 in savings and had secured housing in Italy by purchasing a property in Puglia. In another case, the Italian Consulate in New York had denied multiple times the Elective Residence Visa to an American applicant, even though she could demonstrate ample financial resources and ownership of a house in Italy. Both those denials have been reversed and overruled by the Administrative Tribunal in Italy, and the applicants have later received their visa.
The guidelines outlined by the Administrative Judges in Italy
In the last few years though, several court decisions by the administrative judges from the Administrative Tribunal and the Council of State in Rome have established the guiding principles that Italian Consulates will have to follow when examining and processing an Elective Residence Visa application. The guidelines are mandatory when the applicant does not receive a passive income but possess ample financial resources and those principles can be summarized as follow:
- Extent of the financial resources;
- Full control of the financial resources;
- Stability of the financial resources/not subject to extreme market fluctuations;
- Reasonable expectation of financial resources continuity in the future.
Therefore, when a visa applicant is denied their visa, the applicant can request the Consulate for an administrative review of their case and provide additional information in support of the visa application. In the alternative the applicant can file for an appeal with the Administrative Tribunal in Italy to reverse the Consulate’s denial and obtain the Elective Residence Visa. The Consulate’s review is not possible when the Consulate has officially closed the visa application with a denial decision (provvedimento dirigetto), in which case the only viable remedy left for the applicant is filing the appeal with the Administrative Tribunal in Rome, Italy.
For expert assistance in Elective Residence Visa applications and visa denials please contact the Di Martino Law Group. (make a link to our website please)