Italy Startup Visa adventure
Doing a startup is hard. Moving to another country is also hard (usually). Doing both at the same time is mindblowing :-) Follow me on my journey of making the Routes.Tips startup in Italy. Previously I wrote about how to get to Italy via the Italy Startup Visa programme, in this post I’ll tell you how not to break the law and not to get back to your country earlier than you want.
In my case the time to come to Italy was very convenient. Early spring is quite nice there, everything begins to blossom and days are warm. Soon, my euphoria grew even bigger. In order to be mobile at the new place I decided to go to Italy from Moscow by car. That’s a great journey on it’s own: Belorussia, Poland, Germany, Switzerland. A dream. It was a three day ride with lots of sights along the way.
It’s very important to choose the region where you going to start up. Initially I applied for a startup visa in Lombardy (an area with Milan as its regional center). Having the experience of living in quite a big city like Moscow I wasn’t patricularly interested in the idea of settling in Milan. Instead I wanted to live closer to the Swiss border where the famous Como lake is (with villas of respected entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, and actors like George Clooney). I guess at that moment, I started to think about my Italy Startup Villa growing into the Virgin empire. Oh man, those startup-ers are insane dreamers… :-) Next to Lombardy, I decided on the area of Piedmont as another great choice. There’s a strong Polytechnical University in Turin with one of the best accelerators in Italy I3P.
After deciding on the area begins the tricky part. To be honest, there’s no clear and straightforward guide to the first steps in Italy after getting your startup visa. You will definitely have to hustle :-) And of course before dealing with the startup itself you will need to take care of a lot of personal issues. But of course there is a lot I’ve learnt and so here’s my step by step ‘guide’ for startup entrepreneurs in Italy.
Mobile phone
First of all, go to the TIM (or any other mobile operator) and get a local SIM card with a lot of Internet traffic. You’ll need a translator in many places unless you speak Italian like Adriano Celentano. Locals say TIM has the best coverage. Now you’re not alone.
Permesso di soggiorno
After you get to Italy, you have 8 days to apply for a permit to stay (permesso di soggiorno). A startup-er should go to the post office (Poste Italiane) and ask for an application for permesso di soggiorno (a huge A4 envelope with a lot of papers). Do that right after you got your mobile number. You might have to translate into Italian what you want from the post office teller and the phone comes in handy. As for the best moment of the day to go; I got to the post office early in the morning. The queue started to grow at 7:45 am and in general a a post office opens at 8 am, the entrance door opens at 8:15 am and the automatic queue computer starts working at 8:30 am.
When it was my turn, I talked to an Italian lady who smiled a lot while I was telling her that I’d be living and working in Italy, that I’m from Russia and that I’d like to submit my documents for permit to stay. I told her several times and she kept smiling, but that was it… At some moment I remembered the words ‘permesso di soggiorno’ and that was the key! Finally I got my envelope and with several waves of her hand towards the exit I understood that I had probably everything I needed and was free to go.
Visa
It takes several months to get your permit to stay in Italy (which works in all Schengen countries). Until you get it, if you’re from outside of the Schengen area you’ll need an active Schengen visa if you plan to go to other countries. I just got my two years Schengen visa via The Netherlands embassy (I attend The Next Web conference and IBC in Amsterdam for the last 4 years) so there are several ways to obtain this visa.
Codice Fiscale
The next step is to get your unique tax number, called Codice Fiscalei in Italy. You will need it to open a bank account and to sign a long term rental agreement. Take your Nulla Osta, passport with a visa and all your courage and go to the Agenzia delle Entrate. If you can take someone speaking Italian, that’s a great advantage. Codice Fiscale takes 5 minutes to get it issued. A quick deal!
Apartments (or a villa)
Over the next days I filled out the permit to stay application. In order to help foreigners fill the papers, the generous Italians put the instruction into the envelope — in Italian of course. But there’s a pitfall. You need to provide an address where you live and I bet that you haven’t yet bought any real estate in Italy! So you’ll either need to find a long term real estate rental in one week after your arrival or provide a short term rental address (hotel is preferred). Make sure to arrange a paper receipt there on your name and you’ll be fine.
Generally Italians are quite welcoming to Russians. The only thing they dislike is that the Russians bought all the best villas on the Como lake. I used Casa.it website to find apartments. In most cases there will be an Italian on the other end, so it’s better to check the rental agency address for the apartments you like just and go there in person. Even if they don’t speak English, just show them apartments on your phone screen. Como is an interesting place, there are many many foreigners. I easily found several Russians who live there and they helped me a lot.
Usually apartments are paid in quarterly payments (for instance 1000 euros monthly means 3000 euro quarterly) and a security deposit with 3 months rental cost (another 3.000 euros). A real estate agency will take another 10% of your annual rental cost (1.200 euros in this example). So, be prepared to spend 5.000 to 10.000 euros on your first apartments in Italy. The agency will register a contract a couple of days after you make the first payment. By the way, agencies can help you with making photocopies of documents — you’ll need those a lot.
Bank account
Most likely you won’t be able to pay the rent with your credit card. You will need a local bank account. Taken into account you already have a Codice Fiscale and great desire to build a business in Italy, this won’t be a complex task. In many countries you have to notify your tax agency when you open an account abroad. This is also the case for Russia; you’ll have to notify the Russian Tax Agency about your Italian bank account not later than one month after you’ve opened it.
Family
Do you remember that this is actually a startup story? The single reader can just skip to the next part — doing business in Italy. But I’m married and have a 4 year old daughter who already learnt the most important Italian words: buon giorno, ciao, macaroni, pizza and arrividerci. So here’s some first-hand advice on family reunification in Italy. The application has to be be done online and most likely you’ll just need an extra couple of documents from your landlord — a certificate of suitable accommodation and a written consent for your child if under 14 years old. I was told that the procedure is very long though and I’ll update on the status later.
As a final notice I suggest you to bring many photocopies of your primary documents: passport (all pages), Nulla Osta, income confirmation (bank statement and/or salary confirmation for the employer).
Ok, it’s time to get down to doing real business in Italy!
