Italy Expat Forum

vagabondchik
Joined 2018
Posts: 21

6 years ago

Visa advice (even if it's a long shot)

6 years ago

Ciao a tutti! I'm very happy to have found this forum. Apologies if my questions have been asked before; I've read through lots of posts but haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. So here goes:

Does anyone have experience living in Italy full-time while working as a freelancer for U.S. companies? My husband and I are both U.S. citizens with no other passports, so we are looking at applying for the independent-worker visa, which I have heard (from reading on here, and elsewhere) is hard to get. We know it's a long shot, but we're determined to try, and we'd appreciate any advice you can give that would give us the best chance of success.

Some specifics:

1) We are independent contractors -- sole proprietors doing business (editing and writing) under just our names. Is there any benefit to our incorporating, either together or separately, before we apply for the visa? Would we have more luck as employees of our own company?

2) Have you lost any U.S. clients because of your change to an overseas address?

3) If you maintain a U.S. address, do you have some clients pay you there and others pay you at your Italian address? How does that affect your tax situation? (I know the U.S. and Italy have a tax agreement; given the choice, we think we’d rather pay in Italy so we can have access to healthcare.)

4) Assuming we don't run into issues with our U.S. clients, we have no need to get work from Italian clients, which means we won't be taking work away from qualified Italian citizens. Would the consulate be at all receptive to our making our case that way? After all, we’d be earning money from the U.S. but spending it in Italy...isn’t that a desirable thing from the Italian point of view?

5) Our next trip to Italy is in April, and we’ll be there through part of June. We’re not looking to extend that stay -- we have things to be back in the U.S. for anyway -- but rather to start our expat life in summer 2019. When should we apply for the visa? Is there any benefit to looking for legal help in Italy when we’re there this time?

And my last question: What am I forgetting to ask you?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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