The handbook
Every process, in the order it happens to you
Start wherever you are. Each guide states when it was last checked against official sources, and which of its claims are official rather than reported.
Still at home
Before you flyAttestation, visa, pre-enrolment and a room, the stage where mistakes are cheapest to fix and most expensive to make.
Getting your degree recognised in Italy
Authenticating your degree in the country that issued it, choosing between a Declaration of Value and a CIMEA statement, and the visa chain that costs more students an academic year than anything else.
What to actually pack
What is expensive here, what is unavailable, what is pointless to carry, and the document photocopies that will save you a week.
Finding a room without getting scammed
Where to look, what a contract must contain, and why an unregistered contract quietly costs you residenza, healthcare and your scholarship.
Reading an Italian rental contract
The four kinds of contract, the one made for students, the most a deposit can be, and the clauses that decide whether you can leave in June.
First eight days
The legal clockThe residence permit deadline runs from your first full day here. This is the only part of the year with a legal countdown attached.
Applying for your residence permit
The yellow kit, the eight-working-day clock, what goes in the envelope, and what the receipt is actually worth.
Getting your codice fiscale
The 16 characters that unlock everything else, and the university route that skips the tax office queue entirely.
First month
Getting functionalHealth cover, a bank account, a SIM, and the decisions that quietly cost money later.
Health cover: SSN or private, and when to sign up
The €700 figure everyone gets wrong, the January to December trap that can waste most of it, and how to decide between the public system and a private policy.
Money, banking and sending funds from home
What you can open before you have a permit, what an IBAN unlocks, and how to move money from home without losing a chunk of it.
Eating at the mensa: switching it on, paying less, and the rules
How the university canteen is activated, which tariff you pay and how to get a cheaper one, and the mistakes that cost students money or their access.
First three months
Getting settledResidenza, the health service, and the scholarship paperwork that is worth the most money.
Registering your residence
What residenza unlocks, why it depends entirely on your rental contract, and the home visit nobody warns you about.
ISEE, scholarships and fee reductions
The two different deadlines students confuse, the ISEE parificato process for families earning abroad, and the escalating late fees.
After that
Staying hereRenewals, taxes if you worked, family visits, graduating, and leaving Italy properly: the second half of a degree.
Renewing your residence permit
When to start, the exams a renewal asks for, what goes in the envelope, and where the receipt lets you travel while you wait.
Worked here? The tax return you probably do not need
Tax comes out of your pay already. When you have to file a return, when you do not, and when filing anyway gets you money back.
When family visits: the visa, the invitation and the 48-hour rule
Which visa a visiting parent needs, the invitation letter consulates ask for, and the police notification the law requires whenever a non-EU guest sleeps at your place.
Graduating: the application, the thesis and the day itself
The Uniweb application and its window, the exams that must be done first, the thesis upload, the proclamation, and the permit that comes after the degree.
Leaving Italy properly: the flat, the Anagrafe and the loose ends
The notice on the contract, getting the deposit back, telling the Anagrafe you have left, and the papers to take with you.