'Golden passport' schemes have become an increasingly controversial topic across Europe amid concerns that they're fuelling inequality and offering some criminals a gateway to life in the European Union.
Following a push from the European Commission, several countries have now limited or pledged to scrap these visa schemes; most recently Spain, which said this week it plans to eliminate all types of golden visas.
Spain’s culture minister recently described the existence of golden visas as a "European disgrace… which creates first and second-class citizens."
Italy however continues to offer its ‘investor visa’ allowing non-EU nationals to move to the country, in exchange for paying anything from €250,000 to invest in an Italian start-up to €2 million in government bonds, under four different investment options.
Although some immigration experts argue that the Italian investor visa is not technically the same thing as 'golden visa' schemes elsewhere in Europe, it’s commonly known as the visto d’oro regardless.
It does allow successful applicants to become residents - although this is entirely optional - and then to apply for citizenship via naturalisation after ten years. It also allows freedom of movement around the Schengen zone, which is another major draw for applicants.
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With growing interest in moving to Italy from outside the EU, the number of would-be residents looking into this option after struggling to meet strict criteria for other visa types is also thought to be on the rise.
But, as neighbouring countries retract similar offers amid a Europe-wide trend towards tightening immigration rules, could the Italian investor visa’s days now be numbered, too?
Housing crisis
Spain's initial reasoning for scrapping golden visas was the impact they're having on the property market, in the wake of protests over a widespread lack of affordable housing.
Many believe the issue is partly linked to an ever-rising number of foreigners buying property in Spain, who are willing to spend more and more on a Spanish home, although the proliferation of short-term holiday lets in residential buildings is shouldering most of the blame.
According to the Spanish government, 94 in every 100 golden visas issued were linked to homes bought in cities such as Barcelona or Madrid, where property prices and rents have risen exponentially.
EXPLAINED: How Spain has found a way to officially axe its golden visa
But there's no parallel in Italy, where the investor visa does not offer an option to apply based on a property purchase.
While Italy's cities are also seeing a rise in rents and property prices, leading to a shortage of affordable housing in many areas, there's no clear link here to visas or international buyers.
Plus, there's very little political interest in this issue in Italy: there's been no discussion so far at the national level of limiting or further regulating tourist rentals to free up housing for local residents - much less limiting investment.
Easy route?
As well as the property option, Spain's golden visa is - for now - also open to those who invest €1 million in shares in Spanish companies, or €2 million in government bonds, or transfer €1 million to a Spanish bank account.
These options have led to Spain’s golden visa becoming known as one of the easiest ways of gaining Spanish residency as a third-country national - at least for those wealthy enough.
Since Spain's golden visas were made available in 2013, some 15,450 have been granted - and that's not including authorisations for family members of golden visa holders who have also gained Spanish residency through the scheme.
But again, the situation in Italy is very different: the number of investor visa applications here is miniscule by comparison.
Since 2018, when Italy's investor visa was introduced, only a few dozen have been approved each year. The number has steadily increased, but according to the latest available data in 2021 the total number of applications was just 64.
The largest number were from American and Russian citizens (14 of each), and Italy has since stopped issuing the investor visa to Russian nationals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There is also no data available on how many of these applications were successful.
Visa consultants and previous applicants say the process of obtaining an investor visa is opaque, complex, and involves a thorough investigative process, and warn that there's a high risk of being turned down.
What is Italy planning to do?
At the moment, there's no discussion of scrapping Italy's investor visa: the low number of applicants and limited investment options seems to mean it simply isn't viewed as a problem, and there doesn't appear to be any public or political appetite to axe it.
But that doesn't mean it won't happen. After all, Italian governments don't necessarily announce these moves ahead of time.
At the beginning of August, the Italian government unexpectedly announced it would be doubling its flat tax rate for the wealthiest foreign residents from €100,000 to €200,000 this year.
The announcement came as a bolt from the blue, and analysis in Italian newspapers suggested it may raise wealthy foreigners' concerns about the risk of being blindsided by more sudden rule changes after moving their assets to Italy.
Italy's finance minister admitted that the move brings a risk of wealthy investors choosing instead to move to Greece, Switzerland, or other European countries with more favourable tax regimes for the super-rich.
As the investor visa is often used by the same people who benefit from Italy's flat tax rate, it's also thought likely that the change to the tax regime will mean Italy issues even fewer investor visas in future.
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