‘Nothing less than a miracle’: How one California woman snagged Italy’s new digital nomad visa
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It’s the key to your very own slice of dolce vita: a visa that allows remote workers to up sticks and move to Italy. But although the Italian government’s digital nomad visa launched in April 2024, so far there have been few accounts of people securing one.
For those willing to invest time, effort and not inconsiderable amounts of money, the rewards can be life-changing, according to one lucky recipient.
Italy’s digital nomad visa scheme was first announced in 2022 and launched in April 2024. Fans of the country were quick to dream of a life working remotely: a meeting with a perfectly prepared cappuccino, lunchbreak on the beach, and an afternoon of working hard — before clocking off for a well-earned spritz.
But six months on, Italy has not been overrun with foreigners Zooming from the piazza, and many would-be movers say that there is so little information about the visa out there, they are beginning to doubt it even exists.
Well, it does — and one woman from California is the person to prove it. Chelsea Waite, a self-employed public relations professional, relocated from San Francisco to Milan in July.
Her new life — confirmed for a year — sees her living in a chic apartment in one of the most elegant parts of the city, working remotely for her California-based business, and getting out and about to meet everyone from the baristas at the cafes near her apartment to fellow migrants. She’s learning Italian — but has found that in Milan, at least, it’s possible to start making a life in English.
That life is one she has long felt drawn to — but had feared she would never achieve, having been turned down for a visa to Italy in the past.
This time, with persistence and overpreparing, she has struck gold — and says she is living her Italian dream.
‘I was meant to live here’
Waite fell in love with Italy on her first visit in 2017, when she took a trip to Florence and Tuscany.
Unlike many foreigners who have the romantic idea that they can just pack up and move to Italy, Waite knew it was as difficult to emigrate to the Bel Paese as it is for those dreaming of moving to her native United States.
“I really fell in love with everything Italy had to offer, but knowing I’d have to find sponsorship or employment, it didn’t feel feasible,” she says.
Apart from anything else, she had a full-time job in San Francisco at the time.
But then came the pandemic. In 2020, she transitioned to working remotely. Two years later, she went it alone, starting her own PR company working with tech startups.
San Francisco was, of course, the obvious place to be.
Then, in 2023, she visited Milan for the first time.
“I had this deep feeling that I was meant to live here,” she says.
On her return, she got in touch with an immigration attorney — but they had bad news.
“They said that because I was self-employed it was even more challenging now.
“I needed to find an Italian company to become my client and have a collaboration contract saying it’d be beneficial to their business if I was in Italy, but it wasn’t something I was able to pursue.”
Waite parked her dream.
And then came April’s government announcement. After two years of speculation, the digital nomad visa was finally launching.
