To study at Iuav in Italy, you do not need a visa if:

• – you are an EU/EEA/Swiss national.
  Please note that you can stay in Italy up to 90 days without having to meet any requirements, but if you want to stay longer, you have to register for residency in the local Italian municipality;
• – you are from a visa-exempt country and your stay is less than 90 days.
  Countries whose nationals are exempt from the requirement of short-stay visas are listed on the following webpage
• – you belong to any of the categories listed on the webpage below.

In every other case you are considered non-EU applicants residing abroad and need a visa.
You can also double check it on the following government website.
There you will also find all the documentation and fees required for your specific case.

In case of doubt regarding your visa we suggest contacting an Italian diplomatic office in your country of residence.

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs webpage dedicated to visa can also be useful to you

Depending on your situation, you will require one of the following visas:

• 1. Uniform Schengen visa (short-term study, C-type): for courses lasting less than 90 days. This may apply to short-term workshops, summer schools, or language courses.
• 2. National visa (long-term study, D-type): for courses longer than 90 days, including undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs.

Please consult the following page:

If you have more than one passport, the requirement for a visa to enter Italy depends on the passport you use for your travel.

• – If you intend to travel with a passport issued from a country exempt from Italy visa requirement, then you do not need to apply for a visa. However, please ask your local consulate for an official confirmation that you do not need a visa, since some consulates may not follow the general rule.
• If you intend to travel with a passport issued from a country that requires a visa for entering Italy, then you do need to apply for an Italian visa.

For regular students the application process is described on the page below.
As you can see there, before applying for your student visa, you must be pre-enrolled at Iuav.

For all international students it is true that the Italian diplomatic office in your country of residence may also ask for additional documents, such as an acceptance letter or a study plan. We will provide them upon request, but normally a Universitaly portal request is enough.

Ensure you begin the preparations well in advance of your intended start date. In some countries Italian immigration procedures take a lot of time and in some of them you need to apply not too soon before departure, so it's better to get informed about your local situation by contacting an Italian diplomatic office in your country of residence.

You can find a frequently asked questions section about Italian visa (see below).
In case of doubt regarding your visa we suggest contacting an Italian diplomatic office in your country of residence.

For guidance and assistance with your residence permit feel free to contact:

• – For Erasmus or exchange students: mobilita.studenti@iuav.it
• – For regularly enrolled students: study@iuav.it

Make sure to include any relevant details about your case. Rest assured that any information you provide to the Iuav office will be kept strictly confidential. We only disclose information if you explicitly consent to share information, there's a risk to your safety or others' or when it is required by law or immigration authorities.

We will be happy to support you throughout your academic journey at Iuav.
Buona fortuna! Good luck!

• – Check if you have an Italian tax code (codice fiscale);
• – If you arrived with a visa and stay for more than 90 days, apply for a residence permit with an for a residence permit kit within 8 working days.

Even to buy a SIM card you will need an Italian tax code. The Italian codice fiscale is a code that identifies individuals in their relations with economic or administrative issues.
It is composed of 16 alphanumeric characters: letters and numbers which are present in your surname, name, date of birth, gender, place of birth. That is why it is crucial that you state your full name like in your passport and double check the datayou provide for codice fiscale.
Please wait to be contacted by Iuav to obtain it.

The Italian permesso di soggiorno is a mandatory official document that every extra-EU citizen who is going to stay in Italy for more than 90 days has to request within 8 working days from their arrival in Italy by filling and sending a residence permit kit. If you do not request your residence permit within 8 days from your arrival you are considered out of law with all the consequences.

The Italian kit per il permesso di soggiorno is a big white and yellow envelope containing forms to be filled for the request of the residence permit in Italy. It is offered to international students by Iuav at the entrance of the Iuav administrative building on Campo della lana (Santa Croce 601).
Fill the kit according to our instructions (see below).
Once you fill the kit, submit it at any post office. We advise the office at Strada Nuova (Calle dello Spezier, 233/D).

After you submit the kit, you receive a postal receipt (ricevuta) and a date of appointment at the immigration police (Questura di Venezia) for fingerprinting.
Sometimes you do not receive a date, but you are told to wait for an SMS with your date or check the date on a specific website. It may take quite a lot of time for the date to be assigned, but do not worry: the receipt (ricevuta) allows you to stay legally in Italian territory until the permit of stay card (permesso di soggiorno) is ready.

The visa is requested and obtained in order to enter Italy, while the residence permit is requested and obtained in order to stay in Italy more than 90 days for study reasons.

Of course, if you are a resident in a country of the Schengen Area, you can enter Italy without a visa, but to stay in Italy more than 90 days in any case you are required to apply for the Italian residence permit anyway.

Euro 116,46:

• – Euro 70,46 must be paid at the post office;
• – Euro 30,00 must be paid for a stamp at the post office;
• – Euro 16,00 will cost a kind of stamp called marca da bollo that you must buy at tobacconist's (tabaccheria) and bring with you to the post office.

You need to put in the kit one copy of:

• – passport or ID;
• – health insurance;
• – certificate of Iuav enrolment;
• – accommodation contract or declaration of hospitality.

You may wait before sending the residence permit kit at the post office until you have all the copies of the requested documents or you may send an incomplete kit awaiting to add documents later. Make sure to bring all the documents when you go to the immigration police station (Questura di Venezia) and submit the copies of the missing documents to the officer.

The declaration of hospitality is a document which confirms that a person is hosting you at their home without a rent (to be official a stamp on this document must be asked at any police station). Must be done if there is no accommodation contract.

An accommodation contract is a document signed by you, your flatmates, and the landlord confirming that you are paying a monthly rent for a flat or a room. In order to be official and valid the contract should be registered by the landlord at the Agenzia delle Entrate (tax office).

6 months for a semester mobility at Iuav or one year for full academic year students (check your visa dates, accommodation contract, health insurance expiring dates).
Health insurance expiring dates are very important for your residence permit duration: your residence permit validity will not exceed the duration of the health insurance you present at the appointment.

No, unfortunately, to move the appointment date you need a documentally proven very important reason (such as the death of the relative or serious health problems). In any case you are welcome to contact us for help with your particular case. We will let you know if there is anything that could be done.

Yes, with the ricevuta you obtained at the post office when you sent in your application for a residence permit you can stay in Italy until your appointment at the Questura di Venezia where you will have to present your documents, and possibly until you receive your plastic residence permit. The duration of the student residence permit is max. 1 year from the day the postal kit is sent to Questura di Venezia. Meanwhile, the receipt remains their most important document for staying in Italy legally, even after the visa expires. However, we note that in the absence of other visas or residence permits valid for the Schengen area, you cannot travel around Europe only with the ricevuta. With ricevuta you can stay only on Italian territory.

You shall start the stay permit renewal procedure at least 60 days before its expiry date. For that you have to get a new residence permit kit, fill it as per our instructions (see below) and submit it at a post office. Please note that you cannot send a kit for renewal of your current residence permit, if you have not received it yet, since in your kit for renewal you have to write down the number of your expired residence permit.

When renewing their stay permit, students are required to provide the same documents that had been necessary for their permit to be issued, but updated and in course of validity. Stay permits for study purposes can be renewed for students who have passed at least one exam (for the first renewal) or two (for subsequent renewals).

Go to the Immigration Office (Questura di Venezia in Marghera) at the entrance you show the receipt with the assigned date and you show a letter in Italian or in English with your excuse for not being present and you ask for a new date.

You have to go directly to a police station to report the fact. After that you have to fill and send a residence permit kit again, enclosing a copy of the police report.

Italian language would be the best for the documents, but English language is accepted. Other languages are not accepted. At the Immigration Office (Questura di Venezia in Marghera) the language is Italian and eventually English. It is a good idea to ask your Italian friends to come with you for help.

If you are back home and your mobility period ends so you are not coming back you don’t need to take the residence permit.

As long as it is valid, the visa allows free circulation for a period not exceeding 90 days per semester in the territory of the other member states of the Schengen Area and of the Italian Republic. If your visa allows multiple entries (MULT), you can leave and re-enter the Schengen Area from any point. The same is true about residence permit.
Remember to bring your passport or ID with you when you travel.

If your visa has expired and you have not received your residence permit yet, you cannot enter the territory of the other member states of the Schengen Area. You must stay in Italy. Of course, you can leave the Italian territory, but in case you want to come back for your residence permit you will not be allowed to cross the border.

During that period in case you need to travel for study, work or health-related purposes during this period, you can obtain a provisional residence permit at Questura di Venezia.

No, you can not, unless:

1. You have a valid visa of another member state of the Schengen Area;
• 2. You have obtained a provisional residence permit to travel for study, work or health-related purposes.

A provisional residence permit (permesso di soggiorno provvisorio) is a paper permit to travel for study, work or health-related purposes to the other member states of the Schengen Area. It is given for a period of max. 90 days while you are waiting for the renewal of your current residence permit, so you need to apply for renewal of your student residence permit before requesting it. Please contact us if you need to request it, we will be happy to assist you.

You can only go to your country of origin and return to Italy on a nonstop direct flight within the Schengen area (in the absence of other valid visas or residence permits). If there are no direct flights, the stopover could be in a country whose border you have a right to cross. The most important thing is not to make stopovers in the Schengen zone and cross only the Italian border on the return, because the receipt as a document has value only on Italian territory.

Yes, with the student residence permit you can work max. 20 hours per week. You don't need to wait for the residence permit, you have every right to do these 20 hours even if you just have a receipt, it is absolutely legal. If you want to work more hours per week, the employer has to apply for nulla osta to hire you.

Internships, if included in your study plan and if you get ECTS credits, are not considered work: in Italy they are part of studies and do not take hours off the 20 hours allowed. Usually for internship opportunities you contact your university's careers office, do an online search and write to companies of interest.

You can find a frequently asked questions section about Italian visa (see below).
In case of doubt regarding your visa we suggest contacting an Italian diplomatic office in your country of residence.

For guidance and assistance with your residence permit feel free to contact:

• – For Erasmus or exchange students: mobilita.studenti@iuav.it
• – For regularly enrolled students: study@iuav.it

Make sure to include any relevant details about your case. Rest assured that any information you provide to the Iuav office will be kept strictly confidential. We only disclose information if you explicitly consent to share information, there's a risk to your safety or others' or when it is required by law or immigration authorities.

We will be happy to support you throughout your academic journey at Iuav.
Buona fortuna! Good luck!