You can’t vote in elections. Plus there’s the constant hassle of renewing your residence permit. And the passports — you pay for one, you pay for the other. What else does anyone know about the downsides?
Yeah, renewing it is a whole other story — every time you have to gather a pile of paperwork and wait who knows how long. Another downside is that without citizenship some public-sector job competitions are closed to you, and it’s harder to get a bank loan; I kept getting turned down until I had a residence permit (carta di soggiorno).
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One more thing - the tax breaks for new residents (regime impatriati) are time-limited, and when they end, they hit your wallet hard. Also, with a standard permesso di soggiorno (residence permit) you’re tied to your employer; you can change jobs, but that’s more paperwork through the Sportello Unico (one-stop immigration office) and waiting. If I were you, I’d immediately figure out how many years until the carta di soggiorno (permanent residence card) and plan from there.
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I’ve heard a lot about bureaucracy in Italy — I’m curious, is it like that in all European countries?
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Specific downsides:
Taxes - if not on the forfettario regime, the rate is 23-43%. Plus the DTA (double taxation agreement) with Russia is suspended - double taxation is real:
Questura - from 20 days (Pescara) to 18 months (Milan). Actual timelines by city:
Banks - many refuse Russians. Which ones open accounts:
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Double taxation is a really serious issue right now — SIDN is frozen and nobody knows when it’ll be unfrozen. In practice, if you have income from Russia you end up paying both there and here; a tax credit is formally possible, but in reality it’s such a nightmare that you shouldn’t get involved without a proper tax advisor.
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Funny that people ask about bureaucracy — it’s everywhere, but in Italy it’s practically a sport of its own. As for SIDN (СИДН) — yeah, the situation’s murky, and it’s not certain anything will change anytime soon, so anyone working on two fronts is having an especially “fun” time with taxes right now.
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Claiming tax credits without SIDN (СИДН) is a whole different story - in theory the mechanism exists, but in practice the Italian tax authority may simply refuse to accept Russian documents, especially if they’re not apostilled and not translated by a sworn translator. So the administrative costs to get everything in order can eat up half of what you’d save.
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