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The plan for Italy, from the inside

These are all 32 steps of the Italy journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.

Steps
32
Phases
5
Official sources
59
Only for your situation
8

Phase 1

5 steps

Orientation

Italy asks not a permit but an order: codice fiscale, home, residenza, tessera sanitaria — in that order, because each step is the ticket to the next. And before everything comes a choice that weighs this heavily nowhere else: which Italy — the North of the jobs or the South of the space.

  1. 1.1

    Understand the system: the municipality is the gate

    Lead time
    reading step
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  2. 1.2

    Choose your Italy: the North or the South

    Lead time
    an evening of research, and the conversation about it
    Costs
    none

    1 official source

  3. 1.3

    Get a picture of what it's going to cost

    Lead time
    1-2 hours with the calculator
    Costs
    none
  4. 1.4

    Take the decision together

    Lead time
    no fixed one; take your time
    Costs
    none
  5. 1.6

    Choose your target date

    Lead time
    five minutes, below
    Costs
    none

Phase 2

11 steps

Closing the Netherlands

The familiar list, with the most favourable pension rules on the whole site: the 1990 treaty assigns AOW and occupational pension exclusively to Italy, the country-of-residence factor is the lowest in Europe — and whoever moves to a small village in the South can pay 7% on everything for ten years.

  1. 2.1

    Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving day

    Lead time
    start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
    Costs
    working people none; pensioners the CAK contribution

    3 official sources

  2. 2.2

    AOW and pension: everything to the state of residence — and perhaps to 7%

    Lead time
    an afternoon of finding out, and one conversation with a tax adviser
    Costs
    the tax adviser conversation

    2 official sources

  3. 2.3

    The tax wrap-up: the M form and the protective assessment

    Lead time
    the return comes after the emigration year; preparing can be done now
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  4. 2.4

    Stop the benefits and child benefit

    Lead time
    an hour, online
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  5. 2.5

    Deregister at the municipality

    Lead time
    possible from 5 days before departure, up to and including the day of departure
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  6. 2.6

    DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines with the Netherlands

    Lead time
    an afternoon
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  7. 2.7

    Documents: multilingual extracts, no apostille needed

    Lead time
    1-2 weeks for requesting extracts
    Costs
    fees per extract

    2 official sources

  8. 2.8

    Partner comes along without a job of their own

    Lead time
    an evening together, then a few admin actions
    Costs
    none — the consequences are in the article

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  9. 2.9

    Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule

    Lead time
    one decision, before you commit to anything else
    Costs
    none

    4 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  10. 2.10

    The house in the Netherlands: sell, let or keep

    Lead time
    one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
    Costs
    advice hours; when letting, possibly an interest surcharge from the bank

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  11. 2.11

    Children who stay in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house

    Lead time
    an evening, and then one notification a year
    Costs
    none

    1 official source

    Only if this applies to you

Phase 3

3 steps

The move

Within the EU, moving is administratively nothing: no customs, no declaration. The drive itself is the item — a thousand to seventeen hundred kilometres with two mountain routes — and the car deserves a decision of its own, because the clocks of the Netherlands and Italy have to start in the right order.

  1. 3.1

    Plan the drive: the Gotthard or the Brenner

    Lead time
    quotes 2-4 weeks ahead; driving yourself is always possible
    Costs
    see the cost indication

    3 official sources

  2. 3.2

    The car: start the clocks in the right order

    Lead time
    the sum an evening; the export only when Italy is ready
    Costs
    see the cost indication

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  3. 3.3

    The pet: EU passport, and the dog into the register

    Lead time
    vet visit 2-3 weeks before departure
    Costs
    vet check; registration ± € 28

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

Phase 4

6 steps

Registration in Italy

The chain is strict in order: codice fiscale → home with registered contract → residenza declaration → tessera sanitaria. The declaration itself is surprisingly quick — two working days, with retroactive legal effect — but then follows the residence check, and whoever breaks the order starts again.

  1. 4.1

    The codice fiscale: arrange it from the Netherlands already

    Lead time
    via the embassy several weeks; in Italy a counter visit
    Costs
    free

    2 official sources

  2. 4.2

    Find your home — and register the contract

    Lead time
    count on weeks; the registration must be within 30 days
    Costs
    deposit and first month, see the cost indication

    2 official sources

  3. 4.3

    The residenza: two working days, and then the vigile comes

    Lead time
    registration 2 working days; residence check up to 45 days
    Costs
    free; the certificate ± € 17

    2 official sources

  4. 4.4

    The tessera sanitaria: register with the ASL

    Lead time
    registration a counter visit; the card comes by post
    Costs
    working people and S1 holders free

    2 official sources

  5. 4.5

    CIE and SPID: the digital key, in the right order

    Lead time
    CIE by appointment at the municipality; SPID directly after
    Costs
    CIE ± € 22; SPID free

    2 official sources

  6. 4.6

    Bank account: the conto di base is your right

    Lead time
    1-2 weeks
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

Phase 5

7 steps

Arrival

You exist — now the systems turn. The car has the hardest clock (three months, and the Dutch refund watches along), the child allowance the slyest (it only comes once you first apply for an income assessment), and the rest is knowing the system: the ticket, the collective agreement, the waste tax that comes in your name.

  1. 5.1

    Re-registering the car: three months, via one counter

    Lead time
    several weeks via an STA counter
    Costs
    ± € 500-700, see the cost indication

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  2. 5.2

    Work: the collective agreement is your minimum wage, INPS runs by itself

    Lead time
    reading step at the first contract
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  3. 5.3

    Healthcare in practice: the ticket and the classes

    Lead time
    reading step
    Costs
    see the text

    2 official sources

  4. 5.4

    Family: the child allowance only comes once you arrange the ISEE

    Lead time
    apply for the ISEE, then the application; together several weeks
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  5. 5.5

    Tax: three brackets, and the surcharges of your place of residence

    Lead time
    reading step; the return comes largely pre-filled
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  6. 5.6

    Learn Italian: the CPIA is your neighbourhood school

    Lead time
    enrol at the CPIA of your province
    Costs
    almost free

    1 official source

  7. 5.7

    The small print: TARI, RAI, ZTL and your driving licence

    Lead time
    reading step, and two ten-minute notifications
    Costs
    see the text

    2 official sources

8 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.

Look inside

This is what one step of your plan looks like

Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Italy journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.

Step 4.3 of your plan

The residenza: two working days, and then the vigile comes

Lead time
registration 2 working days; residence check up to 45 days
Costs
free; the certificate ± € 17

Make the dichiarazione di residenza at the anagrafe of your municipality (or online via the national ANPR portal — even your DigiD works there via the European link). Working people show the employment contract; non-active people show means — the guideline is the annual amount of the assegno sociale, about € 7,100 for a single person, by self-declaration — plus comprehensive health insurance (the S1 form counts; the blue EHIC card doesn't). The registration is complete within two working days, with legal effect from the date of declaration. After that the municipality has 45 days for the residence check: the vigile comes by unannounced. Put your name on the doorbell and the letterbox — and if no response from the municipality follows, the registration counts as tacitly confirmed.

This is step 4.3 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.

And what you don't see here

This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:

  • The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
  • Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
  • The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
  • The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.

Ready to start on Italy?

All 32 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.

The departure guide

Five mails, and you see your whole journey

Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Italy: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Italy really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.

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