Formalities

You may stay in Italy for as long as you like: you only need a passport or ID card.

• You may enter Italy for study purposes if you have a valid Passport and an entry Visa issued by the Italian Embassy or a consulate in your home country. You cannot apply for a visa once in Italy. For information about getting a Visa-type D for Italy from your country, have a look at the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry website.
• You must apply for a Residence Permit, a card similar to a credit card; it has a microchip and a machine-readable magnetic strip containing the cardholder's personal details, photo and fingerprints in digital format. The Residence Permit for study purposes is issued by the Police Station (Questura) of the province where where you will live and entitles you to live temporarily in Italy. The validity of the Resident Permit is  one year: under current regulations it will have to be renewed each year. Applications for Residence Permit for study purpose must be submitted within 8 working days from the arrival in Italy, by going to a “CAF Office” or by going to any Italian Post Office and asking for a “kit”. The “kit” consists of an envelope with a yellow stripe and contains two forms and a list of instructions.
• if you are a student of any cycle (Bachelor, Master PhD) please, see further details here
• If you are a research fellow, a researcher or a teacher, please, see further details here
• The "Codice fiscale" is a 16-character alphanumeric code issued free of charge by the Revenue Agency to identify Italian nationals and foreign residents. You need to have your own "codice fiscale" to enrol in any Italian university, open a bank account, sign any type of contract (rental, phone line, ...), register with the National Health Service (SSN). International students have to apply for a “codice fiscale” in person at the local tax office “Agenzia delle Entrate”.