Moving to Italy -- What should I start working on?

The first thing you should do is contact the Italian Consulate. For Oregon, you should contact the Italian Consulate in San Francisco: http://www.conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/Consolato_SanFrancisco/

They can provide the information you need. Next step is to start working on the language!

InternationalLiving.com is a website and a great resource for people that want to live in a foreign country. They sell manuals for each country that give you step by step instructions on what you have to do. I bought the one for France and it's great.

Robyn,

The employers on the Base may have all the details on the procedures and paperwork. When you contact the Italian Consulate, it would probably help if you could show that you've been accepted for a position.

Just a thought.....

Great, thanks for the input so far!
I have already been learning the language because when I went last year, I wanted to be able to communicate!
I have not been sure about what order I need to do things: get accepted for a job on a base, or get the Visa ready to go and THEN try to get the job. I'm worried that they need to happen around the same time...

Fall in love with a native born Italian.

Was working on that... and then he moved back home last summer! Guess the signals I was reading were not the ones he was sending.... Guess I'll have to move there and find me a new one, eh? =-)

There is no way to get a permesso di soggiorno until you are actually in Italy, so no need to worry that you will ruin your chances if you decide to back out etc. What you CAN get in advance is a visa to stay longer than 90 days. A visa can be granted for the purposes of work, study, extended vacation ( if you can prove you have sufficient means). I too suggest a visit to your local embassy, but know that most everything will only come together in the immediate months before your move.

If your regional consulate or embassy is far away don't waste a trip until you are as prepared as possible, since you will most likely have to go more than one time.

And you have heard correctly here - you need the visa first, then you get a permesso. You may want to read through some things we posted here as we went through the process: http://www.florence-journal.com/florence/relocation/

If you are going to be working for the government / military, you do not need to get a visa beforehand. This will all be taken care of by the agency that hires you. In fact having a residency permit or long term visa can be detrimental to getting one of those nice plummy gov. jobs with all the perks, like them moving you here, lodging, school for the kids, shipping your car and furniture, and so on.

Spend some time on the government or state dept. websites first to see what they want. Once you get accepted for a job, it can then be a long time before you can move. If you will need a security clearance, that can take some time too, but you need the job first. If it is a teaching or medical type job, it will of course go quicker.

IF you get a job at one of the military bases (there are 2 army and a handful of Navy ones), you will be able to get help from the offfices on base with all your official paperwork-including the Soggiorno. Working and being part of a military community in Europe will be a bit different than just moving to Italy on your own. There will also be offices/people on base who will help you find a house, get utilities set up, and help you get settled in your new country. I wish you luck! I just moved back to the states this month after spending over 6 1/2 years stationed in Italy with my husband. Oh and as for what you should be working on....your job resume! You will want to have a lot of work experiance and education that will make you appealing and be hired. In my opinion that is WAY more important than learning Italian.

Robyn, if you get a job on a military base, they'll do the paperwork for the Soggiorno once you get there. YOU'LL do the paperwork for a visa in the US, not sure how much trouble it is as I did it from Germany where I was already working for the military. But if you get a job with the millitary they'll tell you what to do. I'm assuming you already have a tourist (blue)passport, you'll get a red (official) passport when you get a job with the military, and they'll tell you this. Once you get a job with the military, hopefully whatever base you're at will send you a welcome packet with all sorts of information. Depending on what "level" job you get hired at, that will drive your housing allowance, which willhelp you decide how big a house you can afford. That will let you figure out how much of your stuff to take. One thing, most houses in Italy don't have closets, and while you can get loaner "closets" a lot of people take extra storage items. Don't bother buying those cheap metal things you get at W-M, they don't hold much and are very unsteady. E-mail me if/when you get a job with the military and I can tell you more, or just if you have questions in geneeral. Good Luck!!

Robyn, there is lots of good information about how to go about moving to Italy ad the steps you need to take to do so on the Slow Travel website.