If you have been admitted onto the course you have applied for (results will be shown on the relevant rank list), the Italian embassy or consulate will issue a visa for study/university reasons: this will allow you to travel to Italy to sit the Italian-language test (for undergraduate courses), to sit any other tests that are planned and to enrol for the course for which you have pre-enrolled.
By law, within 8 working days of arrival in Italy, it is necessary to apply for a residence permit: once you have arrived, you should go to the PhD Office, which will provide you with all the information you need to apply for the residence permit. In order to obtain the residence permit, you need to have:
In order to apply for a residence permit, you need to go to a post office, where you can obtain the kit that includes an envelope (with a yellow stripe), two forms and the instruction leaflet. Once you have filled in the form, you need to attach a duty stamp of €16.00. A further €30 has to be paid when you send the insured envelope and its contents. Another €30.46 and a further €40 has to be paid using a post office payment slip for any stay over 90 days and no longer than one year. The procedure costs €116.46 in total.
Once filled in, the application has to be sent from the same post office that you got it from. The post office will then give you a receipt for the application, which you must keep: this will allow you to track your application through a dedicated website www.portaleimmigrazione.it and you will be able to see when it is ready to pick up from the police station.
You will also have to show this receipt if you are required to show identification by the police. The receipt acts as a provisional residence permit and as such, has certain restrictions compared to the full residence permit.
After having sent your application for the residence permit, you will receive a letter from the police: in this letter they will let you know when you have to go to the police station. When you go, you need to take 4 passport-sized photos (identical with a light background and with your face and head uncovered) and the list of the documents that might be missing. If it is your first time in Italy, they will take your fingerprints.
After a certain period, you will receive your electronic residence permit, which is a credit-card like card with its own microchip and magnetic strip that contain your personal details, your photo and your fingerprints.
For further information, you can phone the following freephone number 800.309.309 (where you can get information in English, French, Spanish and Arabic).
If you enter Italy for the first time, along with the application form for the issuing of a residence permit lasting at least one year, you must sign at the local police headquarters (Questura) the so-called “integration agreement”.
Within this framework, the State ensures you support in the integration process in your new cultural and linguistic context, while at the same time, within two years of the signing of the agreement, you undertake to
The first step of the integration agreement is the free-of-charge participation in a training session on civic education and information about life in Italy, lasting between 5 and 10 hours, offered by the “Commissariato del Governo” (local prefect’s office) in Bozen-Bolzano.
You must attend this training programme within three months of the signing of the agreement.
You will receive an invitation to the training session by recorded delivery stating when and where exactly the session will take place.
If you are a student you can certify your language skills in Italian (compulsory at least at A2 level) and German (which can give you some more advantages in the Province of South Tyrol) by sitting the language exams organised by the Language centre of unibz.
If you
the agreement will be considered fulfilled and, if you wish, you can extend you stay in Italy.