Luca: Hello Anna, welcome back. Welcome back everyone to the Magic Towns Italy podcast.

Anna: Hi everyone. Happy to be here again.

Luca: Anna, it's a pleasure to have you here again after our little Thanksgiving break.

What did you do last week for Thanksgiving?

Anna: Yeah, actually nothing special. What about you?

Luca: I ate some chicken, not turkey really, but that's a Okay. Yeah. But let's not talk about this. I wouldn't want to upset the vegans who are listening to the show.

So today we are having a chat about a topic that is very important to a lot of our listeners, the new work visa for Italian descendants.

Anna: Yeah, we finally got some good news for people with Italian roots. This is something the Italian diaspora has been waiting for forever.

Luca: Italy has a enormous diaspora. Countries like Argentina and Brazil have tens of millions of people with [00:01:00] Italian heritage. In the US there's about 20 million Italian Americans. These communities we know because most of our audience is Italian American, actually. Have a strong interest in reconnecting with Italy. And one of the main interests for many has been to obtain Italian citizenship through the ancestry, but in May things got much harder.

Anna: Yeah, exactly. Back in May, 2025, Italy changed its citizenship law and putting this strict two generational limit for reclaiming citizenship by descent. So now only people with Italian parent or grandparent can automatically get recognized as Italian citizens through blood. Um, before that, there was no limit at all. So you could go back to great grandparents, or even farther you could prove the family line never broke.

Luca: I helped a lady get her citizenship, as early as two years [00:02:00] ago through her great, uh, great, great grandfather who was born in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. So that's even before Italy even existed. And the reform from May caused a bit of a stir. Uh, we ourselves at Magic Towns ran a petition and over 600 people, um, who were cut out by the reform. Mostly Italian Americans committed to a minimum two year residency period.

In order to get Italian citizenship, but the government did not listen. A lot of Italian descendants lost their straightforward route to Italian citizenship.

Anna: Yeah, it really upset a lot of people and for a good reason. Literally overnight, thousands of people were in the middle of applying or planning to apply, just had the doors slammed in their face. It was pretty brutal for the diaspora communities.

Luca: Someone wrote to us, they had already put down a hundred [00:03:00] thousand euro on renovating a property thinking that we'll get citizenship and then suddenly, woo, they were cut out and they didn't have a legal way to move through it.

Anyway. That's crazy. Talking about, yeah. Yeah. It is crazy. They're talking about positive news. There is this new law we're talking about. Mm-hmm. And the good news is there's a new quota free work visa for descendants of Italian citizens from certain countries. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit what happened, Anna?

Anna: Basically on November 24, the Italian government put out this decree that creates a special work permit for people who are descendants of Italian citizens. And these permits don't count against their normal immigration quotas.

Usually Italy caps how many work visa they give you each year the decreto flussi, which is the early immigration quota. Those fill up super, super fast. And so, this new rule says that if you've got Italian ancestry and you're from one of the [00:04:00] listed country, you can get a work visa

Luca: US listeners are most often used to to the H1b visa. They mm-hmm. Hear about it on the news. And just like the H1b Visa is routinely oversubscribed in the US so the immigration portals in Italy are oversubscribed by a factor of two or three.

Basically, there was no way for you to get in, um, until now. So this is basically a fast track for work permits for people of Italian heritage, which yeah, countries are included in this program, Anna?

Anna: The decree is seven countries right now, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Australia, Canada, Venezuela, and Uruguay. So if you're a citizen of one of those countries and you can prove you're a descendant from an Italian citizen, you can apply for this work visa.

Luca: These are all countries that have, a significant Italian immigrant communities historically. Yeah. Argentina and Brazil, we mentioned the [00:05:00] US, Canada, and Australia.

What about the other countries that have countries like South Africa or Mexico that also have a large amount of Italian descendants?

Anna: So actually when they were drafting these, there were proposals to include South Africa, Mexico, as you said, Peru, Chile, but those didn't make this time, so the government hinted they might add more countries down the road, so it's possible the list could grow, but for now it's just those seven.

Basically, they prioritize the countries with the biggest Italian communities first.

Luca: And I would say that that covers 90% of our listeners uh, uh, between. The US, Australia and Canada, the UK is left out, but it is not a country that had a, um, large, uh, um, Italian, diaspora until a couple of decades ago.

Anna: Yeah.

Luca: To clarify, what does this visa actually, let you do? You mentioned that it's a work [00:06:00] permit outside the quota system, but you can't just pack up your bags and do it without a job. Can you?

Anna: No, no, the visa is for, the visa is for subordinate work, which means you need an Italian employer who's willing to hire you for a job in Italy. So the employer has to go through the whole standard process of getting a work authorization, then will for you through the immigration office.

Luca: Okay. So it is not a job seeker visa. It is not a digital normal visa. No. And it's not an entrepreneur visa. You just can't arrive and then look for work. You have to have a contract.

Anna: Absolutely.

So you need that contract lined up already before. Before coming. It's not that easy.

Luca: So it is an incentive that people still have to go through the process and have something to offer to the Italian job market. The Italian job market is not as used to hiring from abroad as other countries.

So unless you have specialized skills or [00:07:00] personal connections, a Italian company may prefer to hire someone who's already here or is a EU citizen. But all that being said that the shortage of workers in several categories, uh, is massive. And with the right qualifications found, workers definitely achievable.

In fact, the news came out yesterday that Italy has hit its lowest unemployment rate ever. Whether that is good news or not is another catch of fish. We'll discuss that in another episode of the podcast because the truth is that the worker population is shrinking very, very fast as people retire.

So that is a problem. But for people looking for jobs in Italy, the reality is that, uh, there are far more jobs than job seekers at the moment.

Anna: Yeah, so the opportunity is definitely there, but people need to be realistic about the job search and maybe play up any special skills they have. Like the world [00:08:00] situation with Italian businesses closing because, um, they can't find work is honestly really concerning.

Luca: It's pretty scary.

Anna: Yeah, this week I heard about this big excavation company, that's stuck because they can't find excavator operators and two restaurants in a pastry shop shutting down because they can't find chefs. So the jobs are out there for people who want them.

Luca: It actually makes me very sad because the pastry shop you're talking about was my first, uh, pastry shop when I was a child. So it hits me what it hurts.

Anna: Yeah. What you can't do is to try to game the system with some part-time or fake job. We know from people who handle all these cases all the time, that the questura won't give you a residency permit if you're applying through some brand new company or got barely any hours.

Luca: So you can't do this on a part-time basis. We wrote an article about this last week, so people that want to go to Magic Towns Italy and read about the fine details [00:09:00] of the, um, the new work permit rules, they, they can do that. Going back to the job requirements, um, yeah, we can probably tell our listeners that speaking Italian will go a long way towards finding a job in Italy, wouldn't it?

Anna: Absolutely language skills and networking will take you really, really far. So you'll need to prove your Italian ancestry as part of application. And the government is still figuring out exactly what documents they'll need and how you'll submit that proof. You'll still have to go through the entire hiring and work, permit process just like any other non you worker would just without the quota restriction.

Luca: Let's talk about the really enticing part of this, which is the short term citizenship granting timelines for people that qualify for this scheme. How does this work? Is this like a fast track to Italian citizenship? [00:10:00]

Anna: This is probably the biggest draw, honestly. Under Italian law, if you've got an Italian parent or a grandparent, you can apply for citizenship by naturalization after just two years of legal residence in Italy. And that's way shorter than the standard. 10 year residency requirement for foreigners without Italian ancestry. So, um, here's how it works.

So you come to Italy on this special work visa. You live and work here, and if you qualify after two years, you can apply for citizenship.

Luca: That's not bad. Two years is incredibly fast in citizenship terms. Normally, non EU citizens had to wait, for 10 years to even apply and then even longer to get it.

So this is a huge incentive.

Anna: Yeah. But, I need to clarify something really important. That two year fast track only works if your Italian ancestor was a parent or grandparent. So a lot of people in communities like Italian [00:11:00] Americans might be third or fourth generation descendants. And for those folks, the low doesn't give you that special reduction yet.

Luca: W we are hearing noises that, uh, the government may relax this requirement in the future so that even people that have a, great grandparent or great great grandparent tie to Italy that it might qualify for reduced pathway to citizenship.

Um, we still have to see that getting onto paper. So just to make a concrete example, if my grandfather was born in Italy, but I can't claim citizenship by descent because he had renounced his Italian citizenship or some other technical reason, I can move to Italy on the new work visa and and after two years I can apply to become an Italian citizen.

Mm-hmm. But if my connection is through a great grandparent right now. I can still use the visa to live and work in Italy outside the quota system, but I might have to stay in Italy for as long as 10 years before I can [00:12:00] apply for citizenship. As for the standard law, I should add to this, that anyone living legally in Italy for five years, can apply for a permanent resident status. Imagine the equivalent of a green card status, which allows you to live Italy and effectively have the right to live there and in the EU indefinitely. It's just one little step below being a citizen, but not white being a citizen. So five years become a permanent resident. 10 years, you become a citizen. If you fall within the remit of this reform you can also, become a citizen as early as two years after you land.

Anna: Yeah, this visa is basically saying if you really want to reconnect with Italy, enough that you will actually move here and contribute for a couple years. We'll give you a shot.

And in the best case, you're only waiting two [00:13:00] years to be eligible for citizenship.

Luca: That is a very good development.

We shall see how it goes. And how have people reacted so far in the Italian descendant communities? Do we know?

Anna: People are obviously happy about that. Uh, but of course, immigration lawyers and relocation experts like us are telling people to approach it with a solid plan because like we talk about, you still need that job lined up and you've got to be ready to move pretty quickly once you get the work permit. But overall, I'd say the reaction has been really positive.

Luca: And talking about, timelines. Do we know how soon this new visa is going to be operational?

Anna: So the decree is published, so the framework is officially in effect, but they are still working out the practical details. This is pretty typical in Italy.

They make the laws and then the come, come out months later to [00:14:00] explain how everything actually works.

Luca: Months later or years later, sometimes it happens. Yeah. So what's the procedure gonna be like?

Anna: So, uh, they will say, when the online portal will start accepting application, uh, the documents you will need. But my guess is by early 2026, if not sooner, people will be able to apply.

Now it's the time to get your documents together, and both your family documents to show your Italian lineage, and obviously to start or keep going with your job hunt in Italy.

Luca: Lovely. So go get your Italian birth certificates, get your marriage certificates in order, and, perhaps you can start reaching out to potential employers or use your own networks in Italy to secure a job offer. Keep in mind that if you're bringing in any foreign documents, in terms of, birth certificates or marriage certificates that come outside the EU, you're going to have to, officially translate them and get them [00:15:00] apostilled.

So that's an extra step. You might as well do it now. Um, anything else we should, talk about Anna?

Anna: One more thing about the citizenship timeline. So, applying after two years of residency doesn't mean you recently become a citizen like at two years. It means you are eligible to apply. The application itself can take a couple years and you will need to meet requirements like, passing an Italian language test, showing integration income and stuff like that. But compared to waiting 10 years, this is way

Luca: faster. Absolutely. So don't imagine showing up and becoming Italian in 2027.

It might be 2028 or 2029 by the time the paperwork goes through, but still it's better than 2035 as it would've been under the old timeline.

Anna: Exactly. Maybe by then Italy might tweak this policies even more, or expand the eligible countries. I mean, it's still evolving.

Luca: And I think it's quite likely because, uh, and we're gonna talk [00:16:00] about it in our next podcast, about our 2026 predictions. The demographic bomb is about to become very apparent and, potentially blow up in everyone's face. So the government may actually wake up and make it much easier for people to move into Italy.

So to summarize for our listeners. Good news. If you have Italian ancestry, you come from US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, or Venezuela, you now have a special pathway to move to Italy and work. You need a job offer by the way. You can come as a tourist, find a job, and then go through the system. Nothing prevents you from, going to a few interviews, but you're not going to be limited by the quota numbers. Once you're in Italy, if you are Italian ancestor is a parent or a grandparent, you can apply full citizenship after just two years instead of 10.

So that's a brilliant, brilliant development for you guys.

Anna: Exactly. A lot of people now have another chance. And beyond [00:17:00] citizenship, it's the experience, you know, of actually living in Italy, working here, becoming part of a local community for at least a couple years.

Luca: Enjoy living in Italy, stay in Italy, and that's what many of our listeners want to do.

And, uh, get the passport eventually as a final recognition of your efforts, you might say.

Anna: I'm really looking forward to seeing the first success stories come out of this in the next year or two.

Luca: So this adds to the new arsenal of options for people moving to Italy.

So we have the Elective Residency Visa for retirees. We have the digital normal visa, which is actually working, better than, than we expected. Quick approval times. It's, um, it's been a very positive surprise. We're gonna talk more about, digital nomads in the very near future. And, and now we have this work visa, so things are looking up.

Anna: Yeah.

Luca: For anyone listening who thinks that this might apply to them or [00:18:00] interested in, legal relocation pathways to Italy, go to Magic Towns Italy, we cover them all visa and legal migration routes news. And, uh, you can find the most recent updates on our site. Thank you so much, Anna, for spending the time to break this down for us.

Anna: Thank you, Luca. It was my pleasure. I really hope this helps some of you out

Luca: there. I'm sure they will. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with others. If you want more information about moving to Italy including 1500 towns that we cover in our Town Explorer with all. Some data points about healthcare, crime, income levels, quality of life, uh, you name it. We have more than 200 per town. Please visit Magic Towns Italy, and thank you for listening to us. Talk to you next week.

Anna: Ciao