On 22 April 2016, the Ministry of Economic Development launched a new institutional website: the dedicated portal for the Italia Startup Hub programme (italiastartuphub.mise.gov.it).
Created in late 2014, largely based on the already existent Italia Startup Visa, Italia Startup Hub introduces a drastic simplification for the non-EU citizens who wish to set up an innovative startup in our country. While Italia Startup Visa is targeted at those, still in their countries of origin, who want to get a “startup self-employment” visa for Italy, Italia Startup Hub aims at retaining in Italy the innovative talents that are already in the country, but for different reasons. For instance, an international student from a non-EU country, who wants to remain in Italy after having completed her course to set up an innovative startup, can submit an application to an Evaluation Committee coordinated by our Ministry: if the business proposal is found suitable, she will get an authorisation to convert her residence permit into a new one for “startup self-employment”. The whole procedure takes a very short time (never more than 20 days), and there is no need for the applicant to come back to his or her country of origin and to apply a new entry visa. Once established, the new innovative startup will enjoy the large set of facilitating measures granted by the Italian Startup Act (more info, in English and in Italian).
Given the peculiar constituency touched by these policies, the ISV and ISH dedicated portals stand out as a pioneering effort in the context of the Italian institutional communication. The websites are entirely redacted in English, and there is a strong focus on readability and intuitiveness of use. Moreover, one of their main objectives is to introduce to the aspiring non-EU innovative entrepreneurs the Italian startup ecosystem – as an example, there is an “ecosystem map” where it is possible to visualise the exact geographical localisation of the over 5,500 registered innovative startups. All necessary documents to apply can be downloaded from the website: the application itself is sent by ordinary e-mail, respectively to
Together with the new portal, the Italia Startup Visa website (italiastartupvisa.mise.gov.it) has undergone a substantial graphic update as well. For more specific information on the ISV and ISH policies, it is possible to contact the secretariat of the Italia Startup Visa&Hub Committee at the email address
Visit the portals
For more information
- First four-monthly report (updated 31 December 2015) on the performance of the Italia Startup Visa and Hub programmes (next update: 30 April 2016)
- Executive summary of the policy on innovative startups (in English and in Italian)