On this page, we'll describe the general process to obtain the Research VISA and Residence permit for non-EU citizens. The description will be in approximate chronological order

Congrats! You've accepted a postdoc offer from the Department of Physics of the University of Padua, so you are ready to meet the biggest enemy of your enjoyment while in Padua: Italian bureaucracy. But don't worry, we've got you covered and will tell you all you can do to make it easier.

The first thing to do is to have your documents ready. Two of them are very important:

• Passport: we recommend you to check the website of the Italian Embassy in your country of residence for the latest requirements. Usually, you will need 4 empty pages in the passport for the VISA.
• Highest University degree: Either Master's or PhD degree, depending on whether this is your first postdoc or not. In any case, the degree diploma/certificate needs to be legalized, apostilled, and translated to Italian in the country of issue. Let us be clear on the last point: if you are a citizen from country A, did your PhD in country B and live in country C when you receive the offer from Padua, you need to do the legalization/apostille/translation process in country B.

The formal contest.

Acceptance of the contest result and Hosting agreement.

After the formal process of selection is over, the secretary of the Department (or INFN) will contact you to start the formal process of hiring and VISA application. This could happen 3-4 months after the informal offer and 3-4 months before the hypothetical starting date of your postdoc.

You will have to send via email some typical documents like ID/passport. But the most important part is that they will send you the Hosting agreement via PDF, which you will have to print thrice, sign the 3 copies, scan one of them, send the scan of the signed copy by email, and send the 3 printed and signed copies by post to the Physics Department of the University of Padua. Try to send both the scan and the physical copies as soon as possible.

Once the hosting agreement is signed by the Head of the Department, the secretaries and the International Office (SAOS) will send it to the authorities to request the "Nulla Osta". But that's a story for another section.

VISA application

Although not required for the Hosting Agreement, the secretaries will probably ask you for a PDF copy of your highest University degree, legalized, apostilled and translated to Italian. Once all that is in hand of the University, SAOS (the International Office) will request Questura (the National Police station) to check them and issue the corresponding "Nulla Osta". The "Nulla Osta" is a document that tells the Italian Embassy and related government bodies (Border control, immigration…) that the local authorities checked preliminary your papers and you can apply for a VISA to come to Italy. YOU CAN NOT APPLY FOR A RESEARCH LONG-TERM VISA WITHOUT THE NULLA OSTA.

You'll receive the Nulla Osta 30-60 days after the Hosting agreement is signed, provided you send the requested documents quickly enough.

Once the Nulla Osta is in your hands, you have all the documents needed to apply for the VISA at your closest Italian Embassy/Consulate. In general, you will apply for a National Type D Long-term VISA for research, so follow the corresponding instructions. You can check your VISA eligibility here.

We strongly suggest you carefully read the webpage of the Italian Embassy/Consulate where you will apply. The requirements can change at any time and might depend on your nationality/country of residence. As an example, : here you have the information page from the Consulate in London.

The application procedure might depend slightly on the Embassy/Consulate you will use. In general, you will need to book an appointment, fill out a standard application form, then attend the appointment with all the printed documents, give your passport at the appointment, pay the fees, and wait for the VISA to be ready. The VISA will be printed on your passport, so you will be without it from the moment of the application appointment until it is returned to you. Usually, you can pick up the passport or ask them to send it to your house for a fee.

Some general but important recommendations:

• Usually, they'll ask you to have 4 pages free of seals in your passport. If your passport is a well-used one, consider getting a new one.
• Book the VISA appointment well in advance, possibly at the time that you have an estimate time for the issue of the Nulla Osta. In some places (like the UK), it is almost impossible to find appointments less than 30 days in the future.
• You can directly request the VISA with a duration of 365 days by stating 365 in the "Duration of intended stay" field of the corresponding form.
• In the field of "Cost of travelling and living", you can either say that you will be supported with "Other" and clarify that is with a University contract, or with your own Cash/Credit Card (they might require some bank statement)
• The University address and Phone number to use are: VIA F. MARZOLO N. 8 - 35131 PADOVA - TELEPHONE NUMBER + 39 049/8277115
• In purpose of travel, use "Other - Research".
• Tick for "Multiple entries"
• In field 31/32 (Contact name and address), you will use the ones of the Head of the Department. Ask the Secretary for up-to-date information.
• Usually, you are required to show the booking confirmation of your flight to Italy at the VISA appointment. Book the flight well in advance (as soon as you get the Nulla Osta, for example), and try that the first Schengen country you set foot in is Italy. If you enter the Schengen Area via a country other than Italy, you might need to do an additional process before applying for your residence permit (the "Dichiarazione di Presenza"). Additionally, book the flight directly with the airline. The Embassies and Consulates dislike flights booked with third-party agents (such as GoToGate).
• The VISA application costs 100-150 Euros (excluding additional services such as express delivery).

Most of the document checks are carried out before issuing the Nulla Osta, so the VISA does not take long usually. You should receive it 10-15 days after the appointment.

Codice Fiscale

For non-EU citizens, the easiest way to get it is to ask the Secretary to obtain it for you and send it to you via email. They could do this right after signing the Hosting Agreement and even before getting the Nulla Osta.

House Hunting (part I)

Residence Permit application submission

In theory, this wouldn't be the first thing you'd do, but since you can't sign your contract until you don't submit the application, the University will do a small trick so you can do this within 1-2 days of arriving in Padua.

The Secretaries will ask you your passport to see the VISA and the stamp of the Border Control when you entered Italy. After getting a scan of that, SAOS will prepare the documents you need to apply for the residence permit and will send them to the Secretary, where you can pick them up. Check those forms carefully, it has happened a few times that SAOS has filled out some details wrongly.

Once you have all the documents, you can submit the application documents at the most convenient Ufficio Postale (branch of Poste Italiane). And that deserves its own section…

Dealing with Poste Italiane

This will be your first time with one of the most feared, unpredictable and powerful beasts in the landscape of Italian Bureaucracy: Poste Italiane. Its tentacles appear all over the city in the form of Uffici Postale. Including in your phone, as the PT App.

The most recommendable is the Ufficio Postale Padova Centro (Corso Garibaldi 25, 35122 Padova), in front of the Giardini Dell'Arena and the Capella dello Scrovegni, besides the Palazzo Zuckermann. However, submitting the application there has its trick: you need to get an appointment via the Poste Italiane App (for Android here). But to create your account there, you need an Italian phone number (you won't get the validation codes on non-Italian phones), which you might not have by now. Solution? Grab your closest Italian-living friend/colleague/coworker/office mate/house mate and ask them to let you use their Italian phone number for the registration. Ideally, this person will be physically beside you, because you don't have much time to enter the validation codes once you receive them.

After successfully registering your user in Poste Italiane, open the App and get the earliest convenient appointment for either "Poste e Pacchi" or "Altro". Go at the arranged time with all the application documents, tell the employee what you need (they speak Italian only in the Ufficio Postale, with the exception of a semi-bald guy in his early 40s who speaks decent English), and they'll guide you, make you pay a fee (100-150 Euros again, depending on for how long you request the residence permit) and submit it. You will receive 3 receipts: look after them as if they were made of Gold, they'll serve as provisional residence permit, and you will need to show them for many other processes.

After finishing this, treat yourself to a drink and some good food (coffee + brioche, pasticchino or torta; spritz+cichette, birra+pizza, up to you), you have won your first big battle against Poste Italiane and Italian Bureaucracy.

Prefettura appointment

Moving to your flat

Health insurance

Questura appointment for finger prints

Banking

Picking up your Residence Permit

Dichiarazione di Residenza

Applying for the Carta d'Identità

Others