This is something I’ve been wondering about for a while. Most tourist visas that I know of last for only a couple months. So what is the legal status of a person who purchases a home in a foreign country and lives there long term, but is not a citizen or a resident alien? I assume countries don’t tell people they can’t stay in their own homes, right?
For instance, I’m an American, what if I bought a home in Australia and decided to live there 6 months a year; or what if a Canadian retiree bought a vacation home in Florida to summer at? Stuff like this happens around the world all the time (my Aussie relatives recently bought a condo in Italy, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in France, etc.), so I assume there is some simple explanation - I just don’t know what it is.
Some countries do not allow foreigners to buy real estate, or restrict how they can do it.
However, assuming that you do own a house or apartment in a foreign country, that generally won’t give you the right to enter the country (even if it does in some countries, as Sophistry and Illusion said). In fact, it might count against you in entering a country like the US or Australia, where it might be regarded as evidence that you are going to take up long-term residence rather than just enter as a regular tourist.
I was always under the impression that it wasn’t too hard in most countries to get long-term residency permits if you could prove that you would not be attempting to get a job or participate in social programs; in other words, if you’re rich enough, you can live a lot of places.
So let’s say a snowbird from Vancouver buys a condo in San Diego and one year decides to stay. Is anyone going to come after them, or is it something that is way down the ladder of importance and gets ignored?
Does anyone have any specific knowledge of this situation as it pertains to Italy? My wife and I are thinking about moving there in the future for a year or two (but not permanently) and this is obviously pretty important knowledge.
Alas I do not…but I do speak fluent Italian and lived there for a number of years previously (in the army)
I am a jazz musician, though, and Italians (and Europeans in general) tend to appreciate jazz and artists in general a lot more than here in the states, so I’m hoping that might help…
It’s relatively easy for a Canadian to migrate to the US, and there’s a noticeable lack of a political movement decrying the lack of a secure border to the north of the US, so that’s not a really good example.
An American buying an apartment in Sydney, and staying there indefinitely without the right visa or permanent residence would also probably not be noticed by the authorities, until:
(1) they got into serious trouble with the law for some other reason, or
(2) they tried to leave the country, either temporarily or permanently.
If they tried to leave, their illegal status would be noticed by immigration, and they would be unable to enter Australia again for a long time, and might have trouble entering other countries (since this sort of information is shared around).
specifically for Australia you can get 6 month tourist visas fairly easily as a US citizen. So if you bought a house in Australia you could come here for 6 months of every year on a tourist visa. You couldn’t work here of course, presumably in the above scenario you’re independently wealthy or have another source of income.
You could get a longer term business visa if you have enough money to invest in Australia plus a work permit.
As far as Australia is concerned, it makes no difference. The only exception is that Australia and New Zealand have a special relationship, with free migration between the two countries, including the right to work and to use the social security system. But it’s equally hard for Americans and Canadians to migrate to Australia.
I can’t give any current info, just how it worked when I lived there.
Step 1: Apply for and receive visa from nearest Italian consulate. As others have stated, this should be pretty easy if you’re not planning on working while in the country. As for work visas, I have no knowledge how difficult they are to get.
Step 2: Once in Italy, you have to go to your local city government and get a Permisso di Soggiorno, which you have to renew periodically. I had to re-up it every year, but it was just a couple of hours of waiting in the pre-dawn hours with hundreds of African immigrants. Pretty painless overall (but the amount of hassle depends again on why you are living in the country).
At any rate, call up the nearest Italian consulate and they can give you all the info you need. You’ll have to call them up anyway during the process, so you might as well call sooner rather than later.
Thats not quite true, most commonwealth countries can get working holiday visa’s for up to two years for Australia and once you are here it is much easier to get a company to sponsor you to stay longer. Then once you’ve been here a certain number of years you can apply for permanent residency. So in practise commonwealth members do find it easier to immigrate by various methods other than the official points system.
We’re purchasing our house here in Tokyo, and banks only give loans to people who have permament residency. I don’t recall off hand if there was anything in the registration process itself which would have mattered for Japan.
You’re right – I forgot about the WHV system. However, that’s limited to people between the ages of 18 and 30, and includes some non-Commonwealth countries (e.g., Germany, Japan and South Korea).
Here in Panama, retirees (who can show a certain fairly low amount of monthy income) and investors (who put a certain amount in to a property or business) qualify for resident visas.