Oh You're an EU Expat in Italy? That's cute.

Photo cred: Tia Taylor

It's hard to identify with all you lucky betches with your EU passports when you come to Italy and haven't set foot in a Questura. Yes, you're supposed to register and still apply for your permesso but it's rarely as big of a deal or as enforced as it is for us coming from across the ocean. Yes, I'm bitter because I'm jealous. I'll admit it freely, no shame. Because I would say that 50% of the headache and strife that comes from moving to Italy is caused by legalities that basically prevent 90% of God-fearing, pasta-loving non-EU citizens from doing it in the first place. Now of the 10% that do, half of those probably succeed through maternal citizenship, the other 5% through marriage to an Italian and the last bit...that's us, the unlucky ones that need to jump through the flaming bureaucratic hoops of immigration to Europe. It's even worse if you're American because that means you don't even have the lovely Working Holiday Visa option which typically buys you a year in Italy to figure out how to spend forever there. Usually the average Jane must resort to the Study Visa, taking courses as a semester or year abroad which works wonderfully until you've completed every possible art history course known to man and are at the point of contemplating a PhD in theology and becoming a nun just to stay in The Eternal City. Ah, you EU Expats don't know this struggle. The constant countdown on your little green and purple visa, stamped in your passport, pretending to be innocently harmless when in fact it's a ticking bomb waiting to explode and destroy your dreams. Oh the angst, the agony! I'm writing this from Canada, waiting on a visa, can you tell?

Photo credit: Tia Taylor (www.tiataylor.com), also because I was too lazy to take a photo of my own visa and my manicure is definitely not as cute!

For Tia's very detailed study visa information, here's the link: http://tiataylor.com/?p=416

For more detailed information on Moving to Italy, check out the link below to The Italy Project 365:
http://italyproject365.com/work-visa-in-italy/