Moving to Italy from the UK with your family

Visas for British families

A British passport gives you 90 days in any 180 in Schengen: fine for house hunting, not for a school year. To live in Italy you apply for a national (type D) visa through the Consulate General of Italy in London. Appointments go through VFS Global, and you attend in person.

The elective residence visa is for families living on pensions, annuities, rent or investments. The London consulate says income from employment won't be counted, and the visa doesn't let you work in Italy. You need a registered lease or deed for a home in Italy before you apply, plus bank letters and two years of tax returns. Your spouse and children can come if you can support them. The London page gives no minimum figure, so the consulate decides what is enough.

Italy splits remote work into two visas. The digital nomad visa is for the self-employed and the remote worker visa is for employees. Both ask for income of at least three times €8,500 (the level Italy uses to exempt people from health charges), which comes to €25,500 a year. You also need to show you're highly qualified, usually with a degree, plus six months' experience in your field, health insurance covering all hospital and medical costs, and a registered lease or deed. London quotes up to 30 days to process a remote worker application and up to 120 days for a digital nomad one.

For a job with an Italian employer, the employer first gets a nulla osta (entry clearance) in Italy, and you apply for the visa within its six-month validity.

Italian ancestry got harder in 2025. Under Law 74/2025, in force from 24 May 2025, someone born abroad is generally only Italian by descent if a parent or grandparent held only Italian citizenship, or a parent lived in Italy for two continuous years after becoming Italian and before the child's birth. Applications made by 27 March 2025 follow the old rules.

This isn't legal advice. Requirements change and each consulate reads them its own way, so check with the Italian consulate or a qualified immigration lawyer before you apply.

• An apostille from the FCDO on each UK public document you submit: £45 per document on paper (up to 25 working days) or £35 for an e-Apostille (up to 2 working days)
• A certified Italian translation of documents such as degree certificates, done after the apostille
• Birth and marriage certificates for each family member travelling with you

Cost of living: the UK compared with Italy

Prices in Italy vary a lot. Milan won't feel cheap to a Londoner, while a small southern town can cost far less than a British market town. Rent is where most families notice the difference.

Some costs move the other way. Unless you work in Italy or hold an S1, you pay for health cover, either through private insurance or a yearly fee to join the public system. Try our cost-of-living calculator with the cities you're considering before you commit to one.

Schools

School is compulsory in Italy for children aged 6 to 16. Each region sets its own calendar, with teaching starting in September and ending in June and at least 200 teaching days a year. A summer move lines up well with the British year.

Foreign children enrol in state schools on the same terms as Italian children and are normally placed by age. Schools can place a child in a different class based on their previous schooling and level. State schools teach in Italian, and the bigger cities also have international schools.

In our experience younger children pick up Italian quickly. A teenager midway through GCSEs or A levels may do better in a British curriculum school.

Healthcare and the S1

If you work in Italy and pay Italian social security, you register with the national health service (SSN) for free and add your dependants at the same time. If you don't work, gov.uk says you may be able to join by paying a yearly fee (iscrizione volontaria). Otherwise you need private health insurance, which the visa asks for anyway.

The S1 gives you UK-funded healthcare in Italy if you receive a UK State Pension or an exportable benefit. Most working-age families won't qualify.

Once you're registered, GP visits, hospital stays and emergency care are free. You pay a contribution, the ticket, for specialist referrals, tests and prescriptions unless you're exempt.

Paperwork, money and driving

Your first Italian number is the codice fiscale, a 16-character tax code you'll need for a lease, a bank account, a phone contract and the health service. You can apply through an Italian consulate before you move or book an in-person appointment at an Agenzia delle Entrate office once you arrive.

Within 8 days of arriving you apply for your permesso di soggiorno, the residence permit. For many permit types, including family and self-employment, you send a kit from a post office with a Sportello Amico counter, and the receipt gives you an appointment at the questura (police headquarters) for fingerprints. If you're staying longer than three months, you also register as a resident with the anagrafe at your comune.

Driving is straightforward compared with many countries. If you became resident on or after 1 January 2023, you can drive on your UK licence for up to 12 months. After that you exchange it at the Motorizzazione Civile without taking a test. In most cases you must do it within six years of becoming resident, but book it inside the first year.

Tax: UK and Italy

Since 2024 Italy treats you as tax resident if, for most of the year, you're physically present (183 days, 184 in a leap year, with part days counted as whole days), have your residence there, or have your domicile there. Domicile now means where your personal and family life is. Registering at the anagrafe also creates a presumption that you're resident, though you can now challenge it with evidence. In the UK, the year you leave is usually split into resident and non-resident parts.

The UK and Italy double taxation convention was signed in 1988 and has been in force since 31 December 1990, so the same income shouldn't be taxed in full twice. As residents you also declare foreign assets, such as UK bank and investment accounts, on the Quadro RW form.

Italy also has optional regimes. The new residents' regime swaps Italian tax on foreign income for a flat €300,000 a year (plus €50,000 per family member) for people moving from 2026, for up to 15 years, if you were non-resident for 9 of the previous 10 years. The impatriate regime taxes only 50% of work income earned in Italy, up to €600,000, or 40% if you move with a minor child; you need a high qualification, three prior years of non-residence and a four-year stay. Foreign pensioners can pay 7% on foreign income for nine years in a southern town of up to 30,000 people, in regions such as Sicily and Puglia.

This isn't tax advice. These regimes have strict conditions and change often, so speak to a commercialista or an adviser who knows both systems before you sell a house or move a pension.

A realistic timeline

1. 12 months out

   Pick a visa route, and check passports: issued less than 10 years before you arrive and valid at least 3 months after you plan to leave Schengen.

2. 9 months out

   Order fresh birth and marriage certificates. Get health insurance quotes and start looking at regions and schools.

3. 6 months out

   Sign a registered lease in Italy (the visa needs it). Get documents apostilled and translated into Italian.

4. 4 months out

   Book your VFS appointment and apply. Allow up to 120 days for a digital nomad visa.

5. First week in Italy

   Send the permesso di soggiorno kit from a post office within 8 days and get your codice fiscale if you don't have one.

6. First 3 months

   Register at the anagrafe, sign up with the health service or confirm private cover, open a bank account and enrol the kids.

7. By month 12

   Exchange your UK driving licence before it stops being valid in Italy.