Uglobal Immigration Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 101

UGLOBAL.COM Italian government wants to involve all parties that can be positively affected by genuine foreign investments. THE APPLICATION PROCESS The entire procedure for obtaining an investor visa is fully digitalized. Applicants should use the government’s online platform at www.investorvisa.mise.gov.it. First, they must register a personal account. The process starts off by submitting a form and providing all of the supporting documents required by the law. Upon submission of the application, within one working week, the secretariat of the Investor Visa for Italy Committee carries out a formal check of the application and the documentation provided. If the secretariat deems the application complete and in line with the requirements, the secretariat will forward it to the Investor Visa for Italy Committee for its final evaluation. Should the application be deemed incomplete due to inaccuracies or omissions that are rectifiable, the secretariat will suspend the procedure for 30 days and provide the applicant with a request for supplementary documentation. Outcomes will be negative and applications rejected if the secretariat deems them unsatisfactory and not in accordance with the criteria established by the law. Once the application is forwarded to the committee, within the following 30 days the committee communicates the results of the assessment to the applicant, by granting or denying him/her the certificate of impediment (nulla osta), which is the document that will allow the applicant to get the investor visa on his/her passport. During that 30-day period, the Investor Visa for Italy Committee may also request further information to complete the assessment and, if its members deem it necessary, also request applicants to make themselves available for a meeting in person or via video conference in order to gather further information. The Committee’s members shall make their own assessment and the decision of granting the certificate of impediment (nulla osta) is adopted with a majority vote in favour. In cases of a negative outcome, that rejection does not prevent applicants per se from filing a new application. However, it shall include significant new elements to be taken into consideration. Reasons for denial include not providing the mandatory elements, submitted certificates being found invalid, forged or otherwise fraudulent. In case of a positive outcome, applicants will be granted a certificate of no impediment (nulla osta) and they will be required to get their passports stamped with the visa at the Italian embassy or consulate in their country of residency. As mentioned, the Investor Visa for Italy Committee oversees the evaluation of the applications and the investment 99