The Italia Startup Visa (ISV) programme was launched by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development on 24 June 2014. ISV’s mission is to facilitate the issue of self-employment visas to non-EU citizens who wish to establish, individually or as a team, an innovative startup company in Italy, as defined by the Italian Startup Act.
- ISV introduces an entirely new procedure, :
- Fast-track: it never takes more than 30 days;
- Centralised: the applicant can communicate with the Italian public offices through a single contact point;
- Digitised: the procedure takes place entirely online;
- Bilingual: applications can be submitted both in Italian and in English;
- Free-of-charge: no fees are required to apply.
Italy also offers investor visa to foreigners investing EUR 500,000 in innovative startup companies or over EUR 1 million in enterprise projects.
The Ministry of Economic development has published new report on italian startups for 2019
As 31 March 2019, Italy has received 434 startup visa applications. Of these, 230 (53%) have received a positive evaluation from the Italia Startup Visa Technical Committee, resulting in a Certificate of No Impediment (in Italian, “Nulla Osta”) to the visa.
Among the others, 165 applications (38%) were unsuccessful and 32 were withdrawn.
7 applications are still under evaluation: three require further documentation to be examined, while the remaining four are currently being assessed by the ISV Committee.
Popular places for Startups
Milan, Rome and Treviso are the top 3 locations for startups.
Top countries applying for ISV
Russians and Chinese applying for italian startups with great interest.
