Moving to Italy from Albania

For a short visit, no — provided you hold a biometric passport, Albanian citizens can enter Italy visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. To live in Italy, yes: you need a national (type D) visa from an Italian consulate before you travel. The visa-free rule covers visits only, and time spent as a visitor gives you no right to stay on.

Civil-status documents issued in Albania need an Apostille under the Hague Convention, plus an official Italian translation, to be valid in Italy. As Albania is a contracting party to the Apostille Convention, you obtain the Apostille from the competent authority at home before you travel — it is considerably cheaper and faster than full consular legalization.

For many people from Albania this is the main work route. The decreto flussi sets an annual quota of work entries — 164,850 for 2026 under the 2026-2028 programme — and the application is filed by an Italian employer on a fixed "click day", not by the worker. If it succeeds, the Sportello Unico issues a nulla osta, you then apply for the work visa at the consulate, and you have 8 working days after arriving to start your permesso di soggiorno. You cannot apply for yourself, and nobody can guarantee you a place for a fee.

Most people moving from Albania use the work, study or family-reunification routes, each with its own documents and its own permesso di soggiorno category. Approdo builds the checklist around your specific situation once you enter your visa type.

Apply for your permesso di soggiorno within 8 working days, then get your codice fiscale, open a bank account, register your residenza at the comune, put the utilities in your name, and enrol in the health service. Approdo lists them in the right order with the forms pre-filled.