How to get a visa to Italy on your own: step-by-step instructions, design features and necessary documents

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Traditionally, for many Russians, the information on how to get a visa to Italy on their own remains relevant. This is a popular tourist destination among our compatriots. Quite often they leave here for work. It is known that in 2019, more than half a million people issued documents to visit the Apennine Peninsula. Usually every year at least one and a half million Russians visit Rome, Milan, Florence and Naples. Most often, residents of our country receive a visa to Italy for a period of one year. With a high degree of probability, they will help you to correctly complete all the documents at the visa center. However, you will have to pay extra for their services when you can do everything yourself. In this article we will talk about the features of obtaining a visa, the necessary documents.

Types of visas

How to get a visa to Italy on your own should be of interest to all residents of our country. Of course, if they do not have another valid "Schengen". Currently, one of four types of visas is issued - A, B, C or D.

Type D is a national visa. It is issued to those who intend to go to this country, starting to live here on a permanent basis. For example, for the purpose of family reunification, education or employment. It allows you to stay in the country for no more than one year.

Its key difference from other types of Schengen visas is that with type D you can only stay in Italy, when the standard "Schengen" allows you to freely move around all countries that are members of the EU. Also, unlike the Schengen visa, it can be extended (this is done at the immigration office in Italy).

Transit visa is issued in two types. Type A, or the so-called airport permit. It is allowed to be with him only at the airport, it is forbidden to leave the transit zone.

Type B is suitable for travelers who have one to five days between transfers. This permit allows you to enter the city, staying in Italy for no more than 5 days.

For those who are going to go to the Apennine Peninsula for tourism purposes, it is important to apply for a C visa. It comes in four varieties:

1. C-1 (single entry) - issued for 30 days, you can stay in Italy for 15 days.
2. С-2 (single entry) - valid from 31 to 90 days, you can stay in the country for 90 days in half a year.
3. С-3(multiple) - issued for 1 year, in Italy it is allowed to stay only for 3 months out of every 6.
4. С-4 (multiple entry) - valid for 5 years, you can stay in the country for 90 days in half a year.

The process to obtain a visa to Italy should begin by filling out the appropriate form.

Cost

For each type of visa you will need to pay a consular fee. Its size is usually revised every year.

In 2019, citizens of the Russian Federation must pay 35 euros for Schengen visas type A and C, that is, about 2600 rubles.

The cost of a type D permit is 116 euros (about 8,700 rubles). It can also be issued for accompanying relatives, medical treatment, employment, private business, legal religious activities.

There is the possibility of obtaining an urgent visa. It will cost 70 euros (about 5300 rubles). In this case, you will need to prove that you really need it. This is an option on how to quickly get a visa to Italy.

Note that small children under the age of six are exempt from paying fees. Also, those who go to Italy to study have the opportunity to get a visa for free.

Terms of registration

If you are going to get a Schengen visa to Italy on your own, you should know that the documents are processed within 5 days, taking into account the day they were submitted. Exceptions are periods when there are especially many applications. In this case, the period may be extended up to 14days. As a rule, this happens on the eve of the Christmas holidays or other significant events.

Type D permits are issued within three months. In this case, the verification of documents is approached especially carefully. If the consular staff has additional questions or the applicant has not submitted all the necessary papers, the period may be extended to six months. If necessary, the applicant may be summoned to the Consulate General to clarify some questions.

List of documents

The list of documents that will be required depends on the purpose for which you are going to this country. In many ways, these lists are similar, but there are individual features that you definitely need to remember, especially if you are trying to figure out how to get a visa to Italy on your own. In any case, the consulate may request additional confirmation of certain information. The maximum number of papers required to obtain a multiple permit.

The main requirement for those who are going to get a Schengen visa to Italy on their own is that the documents must be submitted in person. In addition, you will need to undergo a fingerprinting procedure. Your fingerprints will remain in the database of European Union countries, which is updated every five years.

Most often, Russians are interested in how to get a tourist visa to Italy. In this case, you will need to provide the following package of documents:

1. Invitation from a legal or natural person from Italy. It should beduly executed, signed by the inviting party and certified by the immigration police department. In essence, this is a sponsorship letter that guarantees your maintenance and accommodation, as well as ensuring that you leave the country in a timely manner. In this case, the way to get a visa to Italy on your own is to submit a hotel reservation as an invitation (suitable for individual tourism purposes). It should indicate the duration of your stay in the country, as well as the names of all arriving guests. If you plan to stay in your own property or rented accommodation, you will need to provide proof of a rental or property purchase agreement.
2. Reserved round trip tickets. If a trip is planned by car, then a driver's license, documents for a car and a green card.
3. Medical policy with insurance in the amount of 30,000 USD It must be issued for each traveler for the entire period.
4. Passport (must be valid for at least three more months after your return). Be sure to attach a copy of the main data pages.
5. The application form is filled in with a blue or black ballpoint pen in transliteration in block letters. Mandatory in Italian or English.
6. One color photo 35x45 mm or 30x40 mm.
7. Certificate of employment, which contains information about your position, salary. For unemployed pensioners - an appropriate certificate, and for students - a certificate approved by the dean. Students submit a certificate signeddirector of their educational institution, individual entrepreneurs - TIN and registration certificate.
8. There must be financial guarantees in the form of confirmation of the availability of funds (statement from a card or account number).
9. Receipt of payment of the visa fee.
10. Civil passport.
11. Underage travelers submit a birth certificate with their parents' papers. They also need to obtain permission to leave from the father or mother (if the child is traveling with one of them), a certificate of exemption from classes, a sponsorship letter.

It often becomes necessary to find out how to get a visa to Italy yourself, for those who are going to go to the Apennine Peninsula for work. In particular, with the aim of running your own business or working in one of the Italian companies.

In this case, in addition to the above list, you will need to provide:

1. Confirmation of your intentions from the Italian side (for example, from the local Chamber of Commerce). It must include the personal documents of the representative who certifies the invitation.
2. Confirmation of place of residence for the entire period of work in the country.
3. Documents that can confirm the contractual nature of your relationship with the inviting organization.

This is an option on how to get a work visa to Italy. By submitting these documents in full, you can count on success with a high degree of probability.

Features for those who are going to go to Italy to study are thatthey will only need to present their booked one-way ticket. Additional documents include:

1. Diploma or certificate of education you received in Russia.
2. Documents from a school or university confirming payment for a course or certain classes.
3. Medical policy that can only be issued for 30 days of your stay in the country.
4. Financial guarantee for at least one year (calculated from the amount of 28 euros per person per day, that is, about 2000 rubles).

When applying for a transit visa, you will be required to provide proof of your legal stay at your final destination. If there are special certificates, they should also be attached. If you are traveling by car, please attach the itinerary or waybills.

Long stay visa

If you are not traveling outside the country for the first time, then most likely you know how to get a Schengen visa to Italy.

Note that you can expect to receive a 2-year visa with a 90-day stay in the country for six months after applying for two single-entry visas in any of the Schengen countries over the past two years. At the same time, it is preferable that it be Italy. It is worth noting that this paragraph is an indulgence. It was introduced after the signing of a tourism agreement between the countries. Previously, in order to obtain a long-term visa, it was required to submit three single-entry visas in 2 years.

The procedure for obtaining a visa to Italy for 3 years has also been simplified. It needs three times in the last 2to visit the countries of the Schengen area. It is desirable that one of these visas be Italian. An added bonus will be confirmation that you often visit Italy (this can be checks from hotels, your personal photos, etc.).

Please note that if you are suspected of being unreliable, additional financial guarantees may be requested. As a rule, you need to confirm the amount of 10 thousand euros on a card or account (about 750,000 rubles).

Sometimes a multivisa is issued for 5 years. This requires serious reasons. As a rule, this is a business or real estate in Italy. At the same time, the rule of staying in the country for no more than 90 days within six months is not canceled.

Requirements for documents

There are different opinions about whether it is difficult to get a visa to Italy. Most agree that the probability of failure is about the same as when applying for documents in most Schengen countries. Most likely, they will not find fault with you as much as they do in the Belgian consulates, but you can’t count on the “dolce vita”, which would be expressed in the unconditional approval of any visas, either.

When figuring out how to get a visa for a year to Italy, it turns out that most people face difficulties in doing the paperwork themselves. Particular attention should be paid to filling out the questionnaire. Everything must be done without mistakes and blots.

Also often documents can be returned when yourphotos do not meet the stated requirements. The following conditions must be met:

1. Photo must be taken at least 6 months prior to submission.
2. The picture is printed on photo paper only.
3. The photo must be in color, taken on a white background.
4. Retouching is strictly prohibited, problems may arise when corrections are found in Photoshop, traces of pixelation.
5. The face should cover 70% to 80% of the frame area.
6. It is forbidden to be photographed in a headdress, glasses, unless you constantly wear them with poor eyesight. In this case, the lenses should not glare.
7. Headwear is allowed only if the person is bandaged for medical reasons or is a Muslim woman (she is allowed to wear a hijab).

Visa for minors

A visa for a baby must be issued even if it is included in the parents' foreign passport. Please note that from the age of 14, the child must have their own travel document. Also, since 2010, a new regulation has been in force, on the basis of which the inclusion of a minor in a passport is not a reason for crossing the border of the European Union.

In accordance with this regulation, entering a child in the passport of one of the parents only formally confirms their relationship to each other. In practice, you can see that many still go on a trip with children.thus. But in this case, you are not protected from any problems that may arise at the most unexpected moment. For safety net, it is recommended to make the child's own passport.

To obtain a Schengen visa for minors, a standard package of documents is submitted. It includes:

• application form;
• birth certificate;
• two photos;
• travel passport, if any;
• parent's passport, if the child is included in it;
• he alth insurance;
• power of attorney if the child is traveling with only one parent or a proxy;
• certificate from parents' place of work;
• certificate of financial condition.

Where can I get a visa to Italy?

If you do not want to overpay for the work of agents who help arrange travel documents, then you must do everything yourself. It is important to find out in advance where to get a visa to Italy.

To do this, you should contact one of the visa centers located in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. There is also an Italian embassy and two general consulates in Russia.

For most travelers, the most pressing question is: where to get a visa to Italy in Moscow? The Visa Application Center is located in Maly Tolmachevsky Lane, Building 6, Building 1. It is not far from Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, near the Tretyakovskaya, Polyanka, and Novokuznetskaya metro stations. Here you can get a visa to Italyalone in Moscow.

To visit the visa center, you must go through online registration in advance, sign up for a specific time. It's important not to be late. You can be invited to an appointment even 10-15 minutes before the appointed time. You can get a visa to Italy on your own in Moscow on weekdays. The center is open from 09:00 to 18:00. To get a visa to Italy in Moscow, you will definitely need to visit this institution.

Also, the Italian embassy is located in the Russian capital. You will find it at the address: Denezhny lane, house 5. This is an old mansion in neo-baroque and neoclassical styles. True, to obtain a visa, you do not need to go to the Italian embassy. This is the venue for conferences and meetings dedicated to bilateral diplomatic relations between countries. The embassy hosts evening receptions for representatives of domestic business. If necessary, you can make an appointment at the diplomatic office.

But it is possible to get a visa to Italy at the Consulate General. In Moscow, it is located on Yakimanskaya embankment, building 10. The visa department accepts documents for the "Schengen" on weekdays, from 09:00 to 17:00. From 13:00 to 14:00 - lunch break. Receipt of documents is organized on Fridays from 14:00 to 17:00.

Another Consulate General of Italy in the Russian Federation is located in St. Petersburg. It serves the North-West region of Russia. You can make an appointment by phone, and then come to Theater Square, building 10. The consulate is open on weekdays, from 09:30 to 17:00. Metro station nearby"Garden".

Another place where you can get a visa to Italy is the visa center in the northern capital. You will find it on Kazanskaya street, house 1/25, in the Admir alteisky district. The center is open on weekdays from 09:00 to 18:00. It is located next to Nevsky Prospekt (nearby metro station of the same name) and Kazan Cathedral.

Another visa center opened in Yekaterinburg. It is open from 09:00 to 18:00 at the address: Belinsky street, house 32, office 5. Area of the Geological and Ploshchad 1905 Goda metro stations.

Rejection

There are some of the most common reasons why citizens are denied an Italian visa:

1. Incomplete list of documents.
2. Unclear purpose of travel.
3. Unreliable papers.
4. Unsubmitted financial guarantees.
5. Earlier visa violations.

Most often, Russians are refused precisely because of problems with financial guarantees. We emphasize that they can be any document that confirms your intentions to return back to the Russian Federation. As a rule, this is a certificate from a banking institution, which confirms the availability of funds in the current account. Please note that documents on the availability of funds in deposit accounts are not taken into account.

An additional confirmation of the tourist purpose of your trip will be the presence of movable and immovable property in your homeland.

In case of refusal, the reason is indicated in the documents. It is encrypted incharacters consisting of one letter and a number. The letter means the type of visa you have requested. The numbers divide the reasons for rejection into four types.

"1" - the reasons for refusal are not disclosed by the consulate. In this case, you can apply again. If, then, a refusal is received on the same basis, then the citizen is prohibited from entering the EU for the entire period for which the visa was issued.

"2" - indicates that you are invited to an additional meeting.

"3" - means that not all documents are presented. You have the opportunity to deliver them.

"4" is the most unpromising refusal. In this case, the citizen is subject to an indefinite ban on entry into the territory of all countries of the European Union.

Bilateral cooperation

It is worth noting that lately getting visas to Italy has become much easier than it could be done before. This is due to the development of bilateral relations between states.

For example, within its framework, in 2011, the Russian Federation established the Year of Italian Culture and Language. Italy has established the Year of the Russian Language. Tours of artists (Russians - to Italy, and Italians - to Russia), exhibitions of museum collections of both countries, various food and folk art fairs, exchange of schoolchildren and students were organized.

In 2013, the exhibition of Titian, which broke all conceivable records in terms of the number of visitors at the exhibition of Italianart in our country. Since then, various biennials of popular photography, international book fairs, style and fashion events have been held on a regular basis.

On the territory of Russia there are several schools where they study Italian on a regular basis. A cultural center is successfully operating in St. Petersburg, where visitors have the opportunity to study directly with native speakers, and a comprehensive school is also open, which bears the name of Dante Alighieri.

In terms of trade turnover with the Russian Federation, Italy is in second place in Europe. However, it is inferior in the development of economic ties to France, Germany and Spain.

Investments from Italy in the Russian economy are primarily aimed at developing the energy complex, telecommunications, the banking sector, and the space industry. The Italian fashion industry is actively developing on Russian soil. Representative offices of about 70 companies have been opened on the territory of our country, which have their own production facilities here.

Summits between governments are held annually at the highest level. They are aimed at strengthening the commonwe alth between countries and the growth of import-export relations on both sides.

Of course, the imprint on the relationship between the two states was imposed by sanctions and counter-sanctions, which have been mutually accepted by the parties since 2014. However, tourism continues to play an important role in relations between countries. In addition, in 2018, several influential politicians of the Apennine Peninsula expressedtheir opinion on the need to lift sanctions from the Russian Federation, as the number of Russian tourists is decreasing because of this, Italian companies are suffering.