Everyone says you shouldn’t consider student visas after 30, but nobody talks about the business-education route. If you have a degree, your own business or remote work, isn’t that an interesting case for relocation? I moved to France that way — I enrolled in a business school, added language courses to get a student visa, then extended it to look for a job or start a company. Does such a scheme even work in Italy?
You can’t go straight from a student residence permit to a long-term residence permit — there’s an intermediate stage required.
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Thanks, I understand the interim stage. Has anyone specifically dealt with switching from a student permit to a residence permit for self-employed people or entrepreneurs in Italy, or is it realistically only possible through employment?
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I converted my student residence permit to self-employment and opened a VAT number (Partita IVA) three months before the permit expired.
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It’s best to register a Partita IVA (Italian VAT number) in advance - your income history matters when applying for self-employment.
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I also looked into this — when applying for self-employment (lavoro autonomo) they look not only at how many months the partita IVA (VAT number) has been open, but also at the actual income reported through it. Simply opening it without any cash flow is a weak position. At the questure (police headquarters) they request bank statements, F24 forms for payment of contributions, and sometimes the dichiarazione dei redditi (income tax return).
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You need to open it before applying — at the time of the appointment at the questura (police headquarters) the VAT number (partita IVA) must already be active. At my appointment they immediately asked for the visura camerale (company registry extract), then also the F24 form. The question wasn’t just “is it open?” but “what’s happening with it?”
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I have a question — I run an online school, my clients are outside Italy and the income goes into a non‑Italian bank account. I moved on a study visa. To switch to self‑employment (lavoro autonomo), is a Partita IVA (Italian VAT number) mandatory, or will the Questura (police headquarters/immigration office) accept proof of income from a foreign legal entity?
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A foreign legal entity won’t be accepted by the questura — they specifically require an Italian VAT number (partita IVA).
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When I looked into options for self-employment (lavoro autonomo), I already had an individual entrepreneur registration (IP) in Russia — and that’s exactly what I went to the helpers about. They immediately explained that the questura isn’t interested in a foreign legal entity — they only look at the Italian record: the F24 form, an account in an Italian bank, registration with the Chamber of Commerce. So a partita IVA (VAT number) isn’t a formality but the only instrument for making that transition.
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a bank account at an Italian bank for a partita IVA — without it the questura won’t even look. I had a whole saga with the codice fiscale — I ended up with three of them; one I even obtained via the consulate. Until they sorted out the main codice, I didn’t go to the bank, because they wouldn’t open an account without a confirmed codice, and without an account the whole chain for the partita IVA stalled. So it’s not a single step but several, and each previous one blocks the next.
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Income from Belarus has nothing to do with the sole proprietorship (ИП) in Italy. It’s needed only at the first stage, when obtaining a D visa, to show that you have enough to live on and to start a business in the first year. When applying to convert a student visa, the questura looks only at the Italian documentation: partita IVA, F24, bank account.
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It’s strict — a VAT number, a bank account and the F24 form are the minimum, but the Questura in Rome also looks at continuity — they want to see that the activity is real, not opened just to file paperwork. I heard from a colleague that in his case they asked for the income tax return (dichiarazione dei redditi), even though his residence permit was still valid.
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