Countdown: 35 days until we move to Italy!
One evening while looking at pictures of a recent trip to Italy and enjoying a bottle of Proseco, my husband Tom and I said "we should live in Italy after we retire." Well, he "retired" in the economic crisis of 2008 and I retired July 30 of this year--and we leave for Venice on September 30 for an indefinite period of time. It's hard to believe that a casual conversation 10 years ago is coming to fruition only 35 days from now! Even though we have been taking Italian classes and have travelled to Italy several more times since that conversation, I can't believe that we are actually moving to Italy next month!
The only tricky part was getting the long term visa or visa for residenza electiva. We live in Seattle, but had to go to San Francisco for an in person meeting at the consulate. You can make an appointment on the website (http://www.conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/Consolato_SanFrancisco) (not more than 90 or less than 30 days before you plan to leave), but they have only 1 appointment per week for the elective residence visa so we couldn't go to SF together. An inquiry to the consulate established that we had to have separate appointments even though the paperwork would be almost identical for the two of us. Each communication with the consulate ended up with a different list of requirements for the visa. The final, cumulative, list,was two copies of the following:
The application (on the website)
cashier's check for $146.25 (each--non-refundable)
prepaid express USPS envelope (to return passports)
Form allowing mailing of passports (on website)
Notarized statement re: health insurance (form on website)
Proof of medical insurance (we got ours through Atlas--good deal, reputable company)
Letter stating why we want to live in Italy
Proof of "suitable accomodation" in Italy (long term lease, property ownership, or invitation)
2 letters from banks or 'chartered accountants' re: financial status
FBI criminal background check
6 months of bank and brokerage statements
3 years of tax returns
copy of driver's license
copy of plane ticket to Italy
When I arrived at the consulate (after catching a 6 am flight), waited an hour for my appointment, the first thing that the substitute who was handling the applications said was "why didn't your husband come with you?" Good question--maybe because we were told we had to have separate appointments? Then she said that she didn't think our letter from a friend inviting us to use her apartment in Chioggia (near Venice) as long as we wanted was sufficient evidence of suitable lodgings, but she would leave my application for the vice consul to decide along with Tom's the following week. Naturally I worried all week and tried to think of ways to fix the problem which turned out not to be a problem at all--the vice consul spent 5 minutes looking at the documents, then said we would get the passports in a few days. True to her word, the passports, with visas, arrived on Friday, only 2 days later! The next beaurocratic hurdle will be the permesso di sogiorno, but that is not until we actually reach the apartment in Chioggia. For now, we just pack up personal belongings and get ready to go. This is really going to happen!
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