Investor Visa Italy Investor Visa Italy / 3

LEGAL ISSUES How to apply for an investor visa by InvestorVisa.it Editorial Staff aw no. 232 of 11 December 2016 added the new article 26-bis, “Entry and residence for investors”, in the Immigration Code (TUI - Legislative Decree 286/1998). So from 16 December 2017, the investor visa for Italy and the relative residence permit is available. L This new type of entry visa provides not only beneﬁts for investors who invest a certain amount in Italian companies, but also for the patrons who make donations in order to finance initiatives of public interest in the field of culture, protection, enhancement and conservation of architectural heritage, landscape, archaeological sites, artwork, but also in projects or programs of scientiﬁc research, education and integration of immigrants. First of all, we will now examine the conditions for applying for an investor visa, then we will describe what are the procedures to apply for the visa, and ﬁnally the possibilities and the rights that the residence permit for investors attributes to the holders. What are the investments and the donations that allow to get the investor visa for Italy? 1. Instruments representing capital in compa- nies incorporated and operating in Italy Obviously this is not the case of real estate investments, or the simple purchase of a house, a villa, a castle. It must be an investment in the capital of a company already established and active, resident in Italy, and therefore the investor must become a shareholder, or by buying shares or shares issued by the company, or by buying them from a partner who wants to sell them. Pay attention: the amount of the investment must be at least one million euro. If the company is an innovative start-up (please see for reference what said in the introduction), the minimum investment goes down to EUR 500,000. The investment cannot be subdivided, meaning that the entire sum must be invested only in one company. 2. Government Bonds issued by the Italian Republic The subscription of Government securities, such as the Treasury Credit Certiﬁcates or the Treasury Bonds constitute an investment but, in this case, the minimum amount to be invested rises to two million euro. These operations can be carried out through a bank or ﬁnancial intermediaries authorized by the Bank of Italy. 5. Must describe the features of the investment / donation and demonstrate that the recipient of the investment or donation has given consent; 3. Philanthropic donation 6. Must declare his/her commitment to make the investment or donation after obtaining the investor visa within 90 days of entering Italy. In this case we are talking about donation supporting a public-interest project in the sectors of culture, education, management of immigration, scientiﬁc research, recovery of cultural and landscape heritage. Even in this case the amount cannot be distributed to multiple beneﬁciaries, but must be donated to a single subject. However, there is the possibility of obtaining an exemption from the Italian Ministry of Economic Development that can authorize a donation of one million euro to more than one subject: for example, EUR 100,000 to the Municipality of Rome; EUR 500,000 to the cancer research association; EUR 400,000 to another institution. What are the requirements which the investor or the patron must have? In general, a foreign citizen can make an investment or a donation in Italy without special conditions. However, if you want to invest and obtain entry visa and investor residence permit, you must meet the following requirements: 1. Must hold a passport which must have a residual validity of at least two years and three months on the date the visa is applied for; 2. It must not be inadmissible in the Schengen Area (ie it must not have received expulsion orders from Italy or other Schengen States); 3. Must prove non-existence of criminal convictions and pending charges; 4. Must prove that he/she has the sums to invest or to donate and that the declared ﬁnancial resources originate, beyond all reasonable doubt, from sources that are licit according to Italian law. He/She will have to submit a copy of an extract of bank statement including the transactions carried out in the previous three months. The investor can demonstrate that he/ she has the resources to invest in the form of government bonds, shares, pension funds, etc., provided that they can be converted into money within 90 days of the investor's entry into Italy; How to apply for an investor visa? Before applying for a visa to the Italian Embassy or Consulate, the investor must apply for CLE to the Investor Visa for Italy Committee at the Ministry of Economic Development. The application can only be sent via the site investorvisa.mise.gov.it and must contain all the documents and declarations that we have indicated. The Investor Visa for Italy Committee (the “Committee”) examines the application and decides very quickly: within thirty days. The Committee may request to supplement the documents and in this case the deadline to deﬁne the proceedings is suspended and starts again from the date of receipt of the requested documents. If the Committee rejects the request for the Certificate of no impediment (“nulla osta”), the investor may: 1) resort to the Administrative Court of Lazio, Rome ofﬁce; with the assistance of a lawyer; 2) resubmit the application. If the decision is positive, the Committee transmits the Certiﬁcate of no impediment via PEC to the investor and to the Embassy or Consulate. The investor can go to the Consulate without asking for an appointment or, at the same time, he can ask for an appointment that will be ﬁxed within three days. The investor must apply for the visa within six months from the issuance of the Certiﬁcate of no impediment, after which the certiﬁcate expires. He/she will have to submit the original documents, already transmitted via the web to the Committee, and he/she will also have to prove that has an accommodation here in Italy (even in hotels), and an annual income of not less than EUR 9,000. The investor can also apply for the following family members: a) spouse; b) minor children; 3

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