Moving to Rome as a Brit: the visa and residence routes that actually work

Before Brexit you could turn up at Fiumicino with a suitcase and stay. Now you need a route, and for almost everyone it starts with a national visa applied for in the UK.

The short version

• Without a visa, Brits can stay 90 days in any 180 across the Schengen area, Italy included [2].
• If you lived in Italy legally before 1 January 2021, you're covered by the Withdrawal Agreement and should hold the biometric carta di soggiorno [1].
• Newcomers need a national (type D) visa. The common ones for Brits are elective residence, work, study, family and the digital nomad or remote worker visa [4].
• Within 8 days of arriving you apply for a permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay), and if you're staying more than three months you register at the anagrafe [1].
• Italy accepts dual nationality, so a British passport and an Italian one can sit side by side one day [1].

Two kinds of Brit in Italy

Italy treats Brits in two very different ways, so it's worth knowing which camp you're in.

Withdrawal Agreement residents. If you were living in Italy before 1 January 2021, you keep your rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. The FCDO strongly recommends holding the biometric carta di soggiorno, which is separate from the Italian identity card [1]. Once you've lived in Italy legally and continuously for five years, you can swap the five-year card for a 10-year permanent one at your questura, even before the old card runs out [1]. Permanent documents also prove your right to use the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) free of charge [1]. If you never got a card, you apply to the questura with evidence of when you became resident, and if that's refused you can appeal through the prefettura [1].

The card matters at the border too. Residents holding a Withdrawal Agreement carta di soggiorno, or any other valid permesso di soggiorno, don't need to register on the EU's Entry/Exit System; without one, you may be wrongly flagged as an overstayer [1].

Newcomers. Everyone who arrived after Brexit is a third-country national, just like an American or an Australian. That means a visa first, then a permesso. Buying a flat in Trastevere doesn't give you the right to live in it.

The 90/180-day rule

Without a visa you can spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area [2]. Days in France, Spain or anywhere else in Schengen count towards the same 90, and overstaying can lead to a ban of up to three years [2]. Your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before you arrive and be valid for at least three months after you plan to leave [2]. Time on an Italian long-stay visa or permesso doesn't count towards the 90 [2].

The Entry/Exit System replaces passport stamps with fingerprints and a photo, and your digital record lasts three years [2]. Expect a slightly longer queue at passport control than you're used to at Gatwick.

The routes, side by side

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = EUR 1.2002).

Elective residence: the retiree's route

This is the classic visa for Brits who want to live in Italy without working. You show a substantial, stable private income from pensions, annuities, property or investments, plus a registered lease or deed for a home in Italy [4]. Employment income doesn't count, and the visa doesn't let you work [4]. The London consulate doesn't publish a fixed figure, while the Italian consulate in Houston, for example, states EUR 31,000 a year for one person [5]. Our guide to Italy's elective residence visa goes through it line by line.

Work, and the digital nomad visa

A job with an Italian employer usually means the employer gets you a nulla osta (work authorisation) under the annual quota system before you apply for the visa. If your work is already remote, the digital nomad visa (for the self-employed) and the remote worker visa (for employees) are the cleaner route: you need to be a highly qualified professional, earn at least the income threshold above and have full health insurance [6]. The permit lasts a year and can be renewed [7]. See Italy's digital nomad visa for Brits.

Students and families

Students apply with a confirmed place. Partners of Italian citizens apply as family members, and spouses can later apply for citizenship, which we cover in Italian citizenship for Brits.

Applying from the UK

National visas are handled by the Italian Consulate General in London for England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, with appointments booked through VFS Global in London, Manchester or Edinburgh [4]. Fees are paid in pounds, and VFS adds its own service fee [4]. Allow plenty of time: the consulate says a national visa can take up to 90 days, and applications are accepted no earlier than six months and no later than 15 days before you travel [4].

1. Pick your route with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Visto per l'Italia wizard [3].
2. Gather documents: passport, proof of income or a job, a registered lease or deed, health insurance where required, and apostilled, translated certificates.
3. Book and attend your VFS appointment, and leave your passport with them while the visa is processed [4].
4. Travel within the visa's validity, keeping proof of your arrival date.
5. Apply for your permesso di soggiorno within 8 days of arriving [1].

Your first month in Rome

Each step leans on the one before, so the order matters.

1. Get your codice fiscale, Italy's tax code, which you need for almost everything from a phone contract to a lease. The questura assigns one when you apply for a permesso, or you can get it from the Agenzia delle Entrate [8].
2. Post your permesso kit. For most routes, including elective residence, work, study and family, you hand in the yellow-striped kit at a Poste Italiane office, which gives you a receipt and a date for fingerprints at the questura [9].
3. Register your residence at the anagrafe of your municipio. Rome's registry records you within two working days of your declaration [10]. Our guide to codice fiscale, residenza and the permesso di soggiorno covers all three.
4. Sort healthcare. State pensioners can usually register an S1; others join the SSN through work or voluntary registration, or take private cover.
5. Swap your driving licence within your first year. The FCDO says residents who arrived from 1 January 2023 can drive on a UK licence for up to 12 months, then must exchange it, with no test needed if you exchange in time [1].

A tip for drivers: a UK-registered car can't be driven once you've been resident 90 days and must be put on Italian plates, or it risks being impounded [1].

Don't forget the UK end

Leaving Blighty properly saves headaches later. Tell HMRC you've gone, usually on form P85, or on the SA109 pages if you already do Self Assessment [11]. Check whether split-year treatment applies, and remember that rent from a UK flat stays taxable at home. The UK and Italy have a double taxation agreement, and Italy expects residents to declare foreign assets on the Quadro RW of their tax return, with stiff penalties for getting it wrong [1]. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case. Italy is in the EEA, so the UK State Pension is uprated there each year. Our moving abroad checklist has the rest.

For the latest Italy-wide picture, the FCDO travel advice was still current at 7 November 2026 when we checked on 7 November 2026, and had last been updated on 3 November 2026, when information about a national strike was removed [12]. The British Embassy is on Via XX Settembre, near Porta Pia, and handles consular help for Brits in Rome.

Want to hear how the questura queue really works? Our community group for Brits in Italy is full of people who've just done it.

Sources

1. GOV.UK (FCDO): Living in Italy (last updated 28 October 2026)
2. GOV.UK (FCDO): Italy travel advice – entry requirements
3. Ministero degli Affari Esteri: Visto per l'Italia
4. Consolato Generale d'Italia Londra: Visas and Elective residence (checked 7 November 2026)
5. Consolato Generale d'Italia Houston: Elective residence requirements (PDF) (December 2025)
6. Consolato Generale d'Italia Londra: Digital nomad visa (self-employed only) (checked 7 November 2026)
7. Infoimmigrazione: Visto e permesso di soggiorno per nomadi digitali (updated 5 July 2026)
8. Agenzia delle Entrate: Il codice fiscale – che cos'è e come si ottiene (updated 20 October 2026)
9. Poste Italiane: Rilascio e rinnovo del permesso di soggiorno
10. Roma Capitale: Iscrizione anagrafica cittadini extra comunitari
11. GOV.UK (HMRC): Tax if you leave the UK to live abroad
12. GOV.UK (FCDO): Italy travel advice (still current at 7 November 2026, updated 3 November 2026)

Keep reading

• Italy's elective residence visa for British retirees
• Codice fiscale, residenza and the permesso di soggiorno
• Renting in Rome
• Brits in the EU after Brexit: residence rights and the 90/180-day rule