As published in the Quarterly Report of the Ministry of Economic Development, in the second quarter of this year the program Italy Startup Visa, the channel that simplifies the self-employment visa procedure for non-European hi-tech entrepreneurs who intend to start an innovative startup in Italy, has registered 37 new applications. The program is constantly growing: together with the 33 officially registered in the first quarter of the year, 70 candidates are obtained in the first 8 months of 2016 alone, a higher figure than the sum of applications registered in the previous 15 months. A total of 132 people applied for the programme. 74 of them were part of entrepreneurial teams, i.e. proposals presented jointly with other people. Furthermore, 13 applications concerned an aggregation with already established innovative startups, mainly by Italian citizens.
The candidates come from 29 different countriesfrom all continents. The most represented market remains Russia (30 applications), followed by the USA and China. Other double-digit countries are Pakistan and Ukraine. The candidates are mainly men (93, 39 women), mostly university graduates with a significant presence of PhDs, with an average age of 34,9 years.
There are currently 84 holders of a startup visa: 33 applications were not accepted, another 5 are still being evaluated; there are 10 cases of renunciation. The favorite destination is Lombardy: 34 visa holders have settled in this region, 21 in the province of Milan alone.
However, there are no updates to the program Italy Startup Hub, which aims to encourage the permanence of non-European innovators already present in our country through a strong simplification of the residence permit conversion procedure. The total applications remain 5, all accepted, which at the moment have led to the establishment of two new innovative companies. Interested parties can submit their application to the email address italiastartuphub@mise.gov.it.
