International students who received a pre-admission letter from our admission committee through our online admission website must next apply for a long-stay Type-D entry VISA to enter Italy for study purposes. Official guidelines and legal regulations can be found on the dedicated Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
Past experience shows that the VISA issuing process requires significant time and can often take several months. For this reason, we warmly recommend starting your application as soon as possible.
Moreover, please be aware that VISA requests are frequenlty rejected. Many prospective students fail to enroll in our University simply because they do not fully satisfy key consular requirements, such as providing sufficient evidence of personal or family financial resources.
Important requirements
- Evidence of financial resources: The ministry website reports that you must provide official proof of sufficient funds, which must be no less than € 460.28 for each month of the academic year. You can either submit official documentation of a personal bank account (a bank’s letter on bank letterhead), or have a relative’s bank guarantee (in Italian, Fidejussione bancaria or Polizza fidejussoria), as reported in this source. Your financial statements must not be older than one month from the application date for the VISA.
For instance, some Italian Consulates in the US suggest the following: “If parents are financially responsible for you: present their notarized affidavit stating their financial commitment for expenses incurred in Italy. (Present also) a letter (not a bank statement) from their bank, on the bank’s letterhead, signed by a bank official and with a recent date, indicating account balance” (from this source). Some other Embassies/Consulates (e.g. Karachi, Pakistan) do accept official bank statements of either the student account or his/her parents’ account. So it is important that you check with your Embassy/Consulate on this delicate point. - The applicant must show proof of adequate accommodation in Italy, such as Campus accommodation, a rental agreement, or a confirmed hotel booking of at least 30 days. In the case of accommodation in a private house, the owner must provide a declaration of hospitality signed in front of a notary public.
- Your English proficiency must be certified with a level of at least B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Alternatively, you must provide a certificate from the Institution that issued your Bachelor’s degree stating that the program used English as the medium of instruction.
- You need a copy of a confirmed flight booking.
- The Italian Embassy or Consulate in your country will interview you. This is not a minor step, since leaving a good impression and presentation of yourself during the appointed visa interview is important! We suggest reading the suggestions before the interview. Please, carefully check the deadlines and all the required documents before attending the interview.
Detailed information about the reasons for the VISA refusal is available at this link.