Who can sponsor, who can join you, income and housing, and the new 150-day term for the nulla osta, explained from the primary sources.
In October 2025 the time limit that governs this whole procedure changed, and most of what is published in English has not caught up. Article 7 of Decree-Law 146/2025, converted in December, replaced "ninety days" with "one hundred and fifty days" in article 29(8) of the Consolidated Immigration Act. The Sportello Unico now has five months, not three, to grant or refuse the nulla osta.
There is a second half to that change which nobody appears to have noticed, and it works in your favour. The provision that lets your family member go to the consulate with a copy of the application when the office has not answered is not in the Act: it sits in article 6(5) of the implementing regulation, and it still says ninety days.
Two other things are worth knowing. The English phrase "family visa for Italy" covers two different legal regimes, and the one you need depends on the nationality of the person already in Italy. And this route is not open to every permit holder: the list in article 28 is closed, and elective residence is not on it.
Settle this first, because getting it wrong wastes months. If the relative already in Italy is a non-EU national, the route is family reunification under article 29: an authorisation in Italy first, then a visa. That is this page.
If the relative already in Italy is an Italian or EU citizen, a completely different regime applies, from the EU free movement directive: no nulla osta, no Sportello Unico, a direct consular application, a wider definition of family (dependent children up to 21) and no visa fee. Some consulates publish only this second route under the heading "Visa for Family Reasons", which shows how easily the two get confused.
The Italy family reunification visa is not a single application. It is three consecutive procedures before three different authorities, and each cannot begin until the previous one has finished.
Article 28 opens family unity to holders of an EU long-term residence permit, and of a permit issued for at least one year for one of six reasons: employment, self-employment, international protection, study, religious reasons or family reasons.
That list is closed. A permit for elective residence is not on it, nor one for medical treatment. So a retiree living in Italy on an elective residence permit cannot bring a spouse through family reunification: not because of consular discretion, but because the statute does not extend the right to that permit.
One point of precision, often got wrong: the requirement is a permit issued for at least one year, not one with a year of validity left. A one-year permit with two months to run still qualifies.
Since Decree-Law 145/2024, sponsors must have two uninterrupted years of lawful residence in Italy when they apply; beneficiaries of international protection are exempt. But article 28(1-bis) refers only to letters a), c) and d) of article 29(1): spouse, totally disabled adult children and dependent parents. Letter b), minor children, is not in the cross-reference.
The categories are exhaustive: siblings, cousins, unmarried de facto partners and healthy adult children are outside the scheme, however genuine the dependency.
Two bars apply: no reunification of a spouse already married to a foreigner living in Italy with another spouse, and refusal where the marriage or adoption was entered into only to obtain entry. Where the relationship cannot be documented reliably, the consulate may certify it through DNA testing at the applicant's expense, a way out of an otherwise fatal evidence problem.
The Italy family reunion visa requirements that decide applications are two, and both are assessed on the sponsor.
You must show accommodation meeting health standards and certified as suitable, checked by the municipality against the number of occupants. The certificate takes weeks and may need an inspection, so start it first. Since late 2024, for a child under fourteen joining one parent, the consent of the holder of the accommodation where the child will live is enough.
The threshold is the annual amount of the social allowance (assegno sociale), increased by half for each family member to be reunited; for two or more children under fourteen, at least twice the allowance. Income must be lawful: employment, self-employment and pensions all count.
Two features help you: the income of relatives living with you counts towards the total, so a working spouse already in Italy strengthens the file; and relatives previously reunited and dependent on you count on the other side, which is why the second application in a sequence is harder than the first.
The Italy family reunion visa processing time is now set by article 29(8) at one hundred and fifty days from the application, in force since autumn 2025 and replacing the ninety days applied since 2007. Almost every English page still gives the old figure or none.
Silence does not mean consent. Automatic approval on expiry was repealed in 2009. If the term passes with nothing, the sponsor presses the office and, failing that, goes to court; courts have ordered the visa where every term had expired. What silence never does is grant the authorisation by itself.
Now the point we have not seen made anywhere. The consular route when the prefecture has not answered comes from article 6(5) of the implementing regulation, not from the Act: the consulate issues the visa within thirty days when it receives the nulla osta or, once ninety days have passed since the application, a copy of the application and the endorsed documents.
Decree-Law 146/2025 amended only article 29(8) of the Act. Article 6(5) still says ninety days. On the face of the two texts, the prefecture has 150 days to decide, while the family member may go to the consulate with a copy of the application after 90. We put this forward as a reading, not as settled practice: it has not been tested, and prefecture pages currently publish 90, 150 and even 180 days for the same procedure.
The consulate has thirty days to issue the visa, which allows entry within twelve months. Under article 29(7) it must verify the authenticity of the documents on parenthood, marriage, age or health. Whether the conditions for reunification are met was already decided by the prefecture, and case law holds that the consulate cannot reopen it. A refusal reasoned on eligibility rather than on document authenticity is a refusal taken without power.
Within forty-eight hours of arrival, the host lodges a declaration of hospitality with the police or the municipality. Within eight days, the family member returns to the Sportello Unico to register the entry and collect the permit kit, and signs the integration agreement: credits, civic and language training, an assessment after two years. It is applied lightly in practice, but it is a legal obligation, and it surprises almost everyone. Then comes registration with the anagrafe.
The permesso di soggiorno per motivi familiari is one of the most useful permits in the Italian system. It allows employed and self-employed work without further authorisation and outside the quotas, study and training, and registration with the National Health Service. Its duration follows the sponsor's permit.
It also converts: on the sponsor's death, on separation or divorce, or when a child turns eighteen, it can become a work or study permit. The permit is not a trap that leaves someone dependent on a relationship, the answer to a question spouses ask quietly and often. After five years the holder can move to the EU long-term permit in their own right.
Where the relative is already lawfully in Italy, article 30(1)(c) allows a family permit to be issued if the conditions for reunification are met, converting the existing permit (within one year of its expiry). In our view this is a right where the conditions are met, not a concession, although Questure differ in how readily they apply it, and some ask for the full reunification procedure. That variation is administrative, not legal, and it can be challenged.
Elective residence is not a qualifying title under article 28, so this route is closed to a retiree holding that permit. What works instead is for each family member to apply for their own elective residence visa, at the same consulate, with their own income, accommodation and insurance, ideally at the same time. The income calculation for a couple applying together is set out on the page for that route.
Investors are in a better position. Article 26-bis(8) allows the relatives eligible under article 29 to enter together with the holder of the investor visa, with a family visa. Their clearance can start as soon as the investor's visa is approved, in parallel rather than in sequence, though it must be filed by a proxy resident in Italy.
Refusals of the nulla osta, of the family permit and other decisions on family unity can be challenged before the ordinary civil court, not the administrative one. The statute also contains a proportionality test: the authority must weigh the nature and effectiveness of the family ties, the length of stay and the links with the country of origin. It has saved files that were technically deficient.
The paperwork here is not the hard part; the sequencing is. Which permit you hold decides whether the route exists. When your two years complete decides when you may file for a spouse, but not for a child. The six-month life of the nulla osta decides whether five months of waiting survive a slow legalisation. And where a substitute tax regime is in play, the municipality where the family registers is a decision with a tax consequence attached. Avv. Marco Mesina, a member of the Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano) and formerly of Deloitte and Withers, handles the immigration and the tax analysis together.
The Sportello Unico has 150 days to decide the nulla osta, after the 2025 amendment. The consulate then has 30 days. If the prefecture does not answer, the regulation still allows the consular route after 90 days.
Nothing automatic: silence has not meant approval since 2009. The remedies are a formal reminder and then the civil court, which can order the visa once all time limits have run.
The annual social allowance plus half of it for each family member, and at least twice the allowance for two or more children under 14. The income of relatives living with you counts.
For a spouse, dependent parents or a disabled adult child, yes. For a minor child, no: the two-year rule does not apply to minors.
No. Elective residence is not among the qualifying permits in article 28. Each family member has to apply for their own elective residence visa.
No. Relatives of Italian and EU citizens follow the free movement regime: no nulla osta, a direct consular application and no visa fee.
Six months. If the family member does not apply for the visa in time, it lapses and the procedure starts again.
Only on the authenticity of the documents. Eligibility was decided in the nulla osta, and a refusal based on it can be challenged.
Yes, as an employee or self-employed, without further authorisation. The permit also allows study and health service registration, and can later be converted.
Possibly, through family cohesion, if they are lawfully staying and the conditions are met. Take advice while the short stay is still valid.
Avv. Marco Mesina
Founder, Move to Dolce Vita · Avvocato, Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano)
Marco is an Italian tax lawyer who advises individuals and families relocating to Italy on tax regimes, residency, citizenship, real estate and succession planning. Before founding Move to Dolce Vita he worked at Watson Farley & Williams, Withers and Deloitte in Milan.