aridus

Hello All

I am a Brit currently living in Brazil with my Brazilian wife and our dual-nationality baby son but we are considering a move to Italy next year (for an indeterminate period of time but for at least 1 year). Can anybody kindly offer any advice or pointers as to where we can obtain information regarding whether she needs a visa to reside with me in Italy (as oppose to simply making a tourist visit) and, after fulfilling any visa requirements, whether she would be able to work and/or study (my wife has not lived in Europe before and does not have permanent leave to remain in the UK)?

With grateful thanks for any advice or pointers, Martin

jdr

Try the Italian Embassy in Brazil, they should be able to give you the required info.

Italian Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil
Italian Embassy in Brazil
Avenida as Nacoes, Lote 30
Brasilia, DF
Phone: 55 61 442 9900
Fax: 55 61 443 1231
Email: [email protected]

tomarense

Try having a short short stay in Portugal first. That may be an option as I believe your wife would be able to get Residencia here, but check first with the Portuguese Embassy.

TestaRossa

Definitely what JDR says. The Italian Embassy or Consul in your city. They are the only ones who will issue her with a visa to come here. If it is the same procedure as it is for US citizens, you may be in for a long haul so start now!

Paul.Redmond

Hi Martin,

I had the same dilemma when moving from Bali with my wife who is Indonesian. I took advice from the consul who was a good friend and he introduced me to a senior official in the British embassy. Basically he advised me as follows:

In the first instance your wife can apply for a visa for both Italy and the UK. If you are married then you should be able to get a permanent residents visa for the UK which is initially issued for 5 years. You can then apply for permisso di sigourno (permission to stay in Italy) and then permanent residence. We found tha the UK permanent residents visa was very helpful becuase this was an indication to the Itallian authorities that our marriage was legitimate and this had been recognized by another EU country.

It can take several months for your wife to obtain permission to stay in Italy and initially she will likely be issued with a temporary permission to stay. During the period when the application is being processed she will not be able to leave Italy. It took us 6 months to go through all of the paperwork here in Italy.

If you need some further help, please let me know. it was all a real headache to be honest. You dont need to go for the UK permanent residents visa but we fount it was helpful in the process as well as knowing that if we did have a problem at least we could return to the UK and go
through the Italian embassy in London if we needed to.

svenskmamma

I don't know what the other poster is talking about, it sounds very costly and time consuming. As a spouse of a EU citizen, she has the same rights as you do. If she were to go with you to the UK, she would have to apply for a visa, but not so if she's going with you to any other european country. there's no cost involved, though she has to obtain some kind of entry permission before going. I think you must be able to prove that you have enough money to support her (for how long, not sure). She will be able to work and live as you would in Italy.

jdr

Have you had dealings with EU country red tape ?
There is enough for an EU citizen let alone a non EU citizen, it all seems clear cut when you read about the process, but they forget to tell the officials, every country and region in these countries have different criteria for everything. ;-))

svenskmamma

Hmm, that can certainly be a problem when officials do not know the current law. However, it is my understanding that this has worked for at least a number of people I have been in contact with. The problem with calling ahead and talking to a consulate is that you can get such varied answers which may not be in accordance with what exactly may happen at the border. Like I mentioned, it's not like you show up with your spouse at the border without prior arrangements, having a permission of entry should at least be a worthwhile shot at being able to join your spouse.
Applying for visa with your spouse's home country takes a long time, and is costly.

Lorna at Vicenza

It doesn't look like the original poster has ever been back on the site so at the moment it's just semantics.

svenskmamma

Well, I know for me, I often read old posts that may apply to me, so it may help someone else.

Lorna at Vicenza

Sure, of course it might.