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Committee, to the police office at least 60 days before
the expiration date of the permit.
FURTHER ASPECTS RELATED
TO THE INVESTOR VISA
& APPLICABLE TAX REGIME
Investor visa and residence permit holders have the right to
family reunification and, therefore, their dependents — wife/
husband, children under 18 years, children over 18 years and
parents older than 65 who are dependent on the applicants
— may apply for a residence permit for family reasons.
Dependents will be entitled to enter Italy and stay with the
applicants for the entire duration of their visa and, based on
the residence permit for family reasons, they will be entitled
to study and work in Italy on the same conditions granted to
Italian citizens.
In addition to this, after five years of legal residency in the
Italian territory, investor visa and residence permit holders
can apply for the EU long-term residence permit with
unlimited duration. Eventually, they can apply for Italian
citizenship after reaching 10 years of legal residency in Italy.
Investor visa and residence permit holders, in order to do
so, shall keep their residence in the Italian territory, without
interruption, by not leaving Italy for longer than half the
duration of each residence permit granted.
Besides the immigration features described so far, foreign
investors who are interested in investing in Italy are offered
a specific tax regime. The Italian government, under the
2017 budget law, has introduced a substitute income tax
regime on foreign income that is basically represented
by the payment of a 100,000-euro yearly substitute tax.
Such a beneficial option, also known as flat tax or resident-
nondomiciled regime, may be extended to family members
by paying an additional substitute tax of 25,000 euros for
each family member.
The option, which was introduced starting from Jan. 1, 2017,
is automatically renewed each year for up to 15 years. Unless
its effects are otherwise terminated, the option is revoked in
case of forfeiture.
A BENEFICIAL PROGRAM FOR ITALY
The investor visa and residence permit has been created
to attract talent and capital to Italy. It represents one of
the measures implemented in the last two years by the
Italian government to draw high net worth individuals and
their capital to Italy. When paired up with the flat tax, it
allows foreign nationals to benefit, both from a fiscal and
immigration point of view, from measures specifically
designed to back up their decision to choose the Italian
market for their investments.
ALESSIA AJELLI
Alessia Ajelli is an Italian immigration attorney at LCA Studio
Legale, based in Milan, Italy. Ajelli specializes in immigration law
and global migration, assisting clients in corporate immigration
issues and citizenship matters. In addition to immigration law,
Ajelli has experience in M&A and investment transactions. She
has also served as a mentor for H-Farm, which helps young
people create business models, and Start-Up Chile, which seeks
to bring foreign investment capital to the country of Chile. Ajelli
speaks Italian, English and Spanish.