The Elective Residency Visa: What We Considered

Why We Got Close, Then Pulled Back

It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way.

We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life!

We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the time in California. In previous blogs, I explained how we landed on a part-time arrangement — but that wasn't always the plan.

Step 1: This week let's go back to a question we wrestled with early on: should we become full-time residents of Italy? And the visa that would have made that possible — the Elective Residency Visa.

Step 2: We started out thinking it had to be full-time

When my partner and I first began seriously discussing a move to Italy, we assumed full-time residency was the only option. That is what most people seem to picture when they think about "moving to Italy" — selling the house in the U.S., shipping the belongings, taking the leap.

We began trying to figure out residency, the visa path, healthcare enrollment, dual citizenship timelines, and tax filings — pieces of a puzzle we couldn't see how to fit together. Since I would be retired, the visa piece, at least, had a clear answer: we qualified for the Elective Residency Visa.

More on the puzzle later.

Step 3: What the Elective Residency Visa actually is

The Elective Residency Visa — Visto per Residenza Elettiva — is a National Type D long-stay visa designed for non-EU citizens who want to live in Italy without working. It is sometimes called the Italian Retirement Visa, though you do not have to be retired to apply. You simply have to demonstrate that you can support yourself entirely through passive income — money that comes from sources other than a job.

The fit was natural. At the time, I was a few years from retiring from teaching, and my pension and Social Security would form exactly the kind of stable, recurring passive income the ERV requires. That made it the logical path for us, and we began looking into it in earnest.

Once granted, you enter Italy on the visa and, within eight working days, apply at the local Questura for a residence permit (Permesso di Soggiorno). The permit is initially issued for one year, renewable annually as long as the original conditions still hold. After five years of continuous residence, ERV holders can apply for permanent residency. After ten years, they become eligible to apply for Italian citizenship.

For the full official requirements, the Italian Consulate General in Los Angeles (our region's consulate) keeps a detailed page on this visa: Elective Residency Visa — Consolato Generale d'Italia, Los Angeles.

Step 4: The income requirements

The working thresholds applied by most consulates for 2026 are roughly €31,000 per year in passive income for a single applicant, and €38,000 to €40,000 per year for a couple. An additional increment is required for each dependent child.

Italian law itself doesn't specify a euro figure — consulates settled on the €31,000 number as a working baseline and have applied it ever since.

Qualifying sources include pensions, Social Security, rental income, dividends, and royalties. Savings alone do not qualify, no matter how large the balance — the consulate wants to see a recurring flow, not a lump sum. Substantial savings can support an application, but they cannot replace the income requirement.

Step 5: You cannot work — and that includes remote work

No work. This rule surprises many Americans. The ERV strictly forbids any form of work while you are in Italy on it. That includes working remotely for a U.S. employer, freelance consulting, online business activity, or anything else that generates active income.

The Italian government's logic is that this visa is for people who will contribute to the local economy through consumption — buying property, eating in restaurants, paying utilities — rather than for people who are earning a living, regardless of where that work happens. The ban applies even if your work is entirely for a foreign company and your clients never set foot in Italy.

Worth noting: Italy offers different visas for different situations. The ERV is for people whose income is fully passive — pensioners, retirees, those living on investments and rentals. People who plan to keep working remotely use the Italian Digital Nomad Visa instead, which has its own income requirements and tax framework. I plan to research and write a future blog on the Digital Nomad Visa, since it has become a popular path for younger international residents who are not yet retired.

For us, the no-work rule was not an obstacle in itself — my income would be passive once I retired. But it did shape our timing: we could only realistically pursue the ERV after I left teaching, since active employment income would not have counted.

Step 6: Tax residency — the 183-day line

Living in Italy under the ERV does not exempt one from paying Italian taxes. If you spend more than 183 days per year in Italy, you are considered an Italian tax resident. Once that line is crossed, Italy taxes your worldwide income, not just what you earn in Italy.

The U.S.-Italy tax treaty prevents double taxation in most cases, but it does not eliminate the filing burden. You file in Italy and in the U.S., every year.

One detail worth flagging: pensions from government jobs — including most public school teachers — are usually taxed only by the U.S., not by Italy, even once you're an Italian tax resident. That would have applied to my own teaching pension. Social Security works differently: Italy generally taxes it once you live there, treaty or not. The exact rules get technical fast, so treat this as a general guide, not a guarantee for your specific pension.

Italy does offer one regime worth knowing about: a 7% flat tax on foreign income for retirees who move to certain southern municipalities. It is a meaningful incentive if you are willing to live in a qualifying town.

Given the complexity, this is not a corner to cut: find an Italian accountant — known in Italy as a commercialista — who specifically has experience with U.S.-Italy tax filings, not just Italian tax law in general. That distinction matters. A commercialista who doesn't regularly work with American clients may not know how the treaty, the saving clause, or U.S. reporting requirements interact with your Italian return, and getting it wrong is expensive to unwind. The simplest way to find one is to ask expats already living in Italy who they use.

Step 7: Healthcare

Health coverage is a requirement of the ERV from start to finish. The form of that coverage can change once you are in Italy.

First, for the visa application itself, you must show private health insurance with at least €30,000 of coverage, valid throughout Italy and the Schengen Area, with repatriation coverage included — all of it in place before you enter Italy. That part is non-negotiable.

Second, once you arrive and obtain the Permesso di Soggiorno, you have the option to enroll voluntarily in the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale). As of 2026, the annual fee for ERV holders has effectively settled at €2,000, paid in a lump sum and good through December 31 regardless of when in the year you enroll. Higher-income applicants may pay slightly more, but €2,000 is the standard for most retirees. Many expats keep their private policy alongside the SSN — the public system for the broad coverage, the private side for faster appointments and English-speaking doctors.

The Italian public health system is genuinely good, particularly in the regions we were looking at. This was one of the most attractive elements of full residency for us.

Step 8: We had help

We made friends with someone who works in the immigration office in our area — she took a personal interest in our situation and offered to walk us through the process, something she had done for other Americans moving to Italy before us.

She showed us what paperwork the consulates expect, what timelines look like, and where people commonly run into trouble.

In other words, the institutional obstacles that often discourage people were not what made us pause. We had good guidance, real momentum, and a realistic shot at approval.

What made us pull back was something else.

Step 9: What made us pull back

It came down to three things, layered on top of each other.

The first was our obligations in California — responsibilities we cannot free ourselves from, at least not for the foreseeable future. Full-time residency in Italy would have meant trying to manage those obligations from across the Atlantic, and that was never going to work.

The second was a slow realization that took us a while to reach: it didn't have to be all or nothing. I have written about this in an earlier blog — the all-or-nothing mindset was, more than anything else, what kept us stuck in the early years in considering a life in Italy.

The third followed from the second. Once we accepted that we didn't have to relocate fully, we saw that we could make a life in Italy fit our lifestyle, rather than trying to cram our existing life into a model that wouldn't work for us. That single shift let us sit back, breathe, and welcome the adventure for what it was.

Step 10: Where we landed

We chose the simpler path: maintaining U.S. residency and spending two stays of about 90 days each in Italy per year, in compliance with the 90/180 Schengen rule. No visa required, no Italian tax residency. We do, however, own our home in Tuscany, pay Italian property taxes, and contribute steadily to the local economy through the months we are there.

Some people stretch their time in Europe by doing what is called the Schengen Shuffle — alternating between Schengen and non-Schengen countries to live in Europe full-time without a visa. (I have written a separate blog about how it works.) That isn't us. We are simply part-time residents of Italy, anchored in California.

For people whose lives can fully relocate, the ERV is a genuinely good path, and friends of ours have made it work well. But for us, the part-time arrangement is the better fit.

We may revisit the question someday. For now, the door is closed, but not locked.

Insights

The biggest lesson from looking at the ERV was not about the visa itself. It was about the trap we had been living in — the assumption that moving to Italy meant doing it all at once, with no middle ground.

Letting go of that assumption changed everything. Once we saw that we could shape a life in Italy around what already worked for us, rather than trying to dismantle our life in California to fit a model designed for someone else, the whole project started to feel like an adventure again rather than a problem to solve.

We didn't apply for the visa. But the research was worth it, because it pointed us toward the life that actually fits.

More next time.

If you enjoy reading about Italian life, you may enjoy my book on southern Italy — where two Californians meet a region shaped as much by its history as by the people living in it now.

Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — a book of southern Italian life, culture, and history, told through my own experience of the region and the stories behind its towns, its people, and its past.

"This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer

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