Italian Visa Overview

Step 1: Italian Visa Application Overview

The Office for International Study (OIS) will facilitate a group visa application process for students studying on the Florence program.

Students must submit a copy of their passport valid six months beyond the end of their studies in Florence with their Smith program application.

Students (U.S. citizens, permanent residents and international students with valid U.S. visas) will submit all the required visa application materials to the OIS by the stated deadlines. The OIS will in turn submit the visa application materials to the Italian consulate in Boston approximately 13 weeks in advance of the program start date. Students will be notified by the OIS when their visa applications have been approved.

Things to Consider

The Italian visa process is complicated and requires submission of passports to the Italian consulate in Boston for a period of two to four weeks. The specific date of Smith's visa appointment and length of time required depends upon the Italian consulate's availability, and can't be set until the beginning of July. Once the consulate issues the visas and returns the passports to Smith, the Office for International Study will send each student their passport with visa via courier service. Thus, students who wish to study in Italy should not make international travel plans during the summer break until they've received their passports back. Due to visa regulations, students applying only for the fall semester will be unable to extend their stay in Italy to the full year. This requires you to return to the US (or other permanent residence jurisdiction) to re-apply.