Moving to Italy from Sri Lanka

Yes, and for two separate things. Sri Lanka is on Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, so you need a Schengen (type C) visa even for a short visit. To live in Italy you need a different document: a national (type D) visa, applied for at an Italian consulate before you travel. A short-stay visa cannot be converted into the right to live in Italy — check your own case on the Italian foreign ministry's official visa tool at vistoperitalia.esteri.it.

Sri Lanka is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so civil-status documents issued there generally need full legalization by the Italian consulate, plus an official Italian translation. This takes longer than an Apostille and is done before you travel. Confirm the exact procedure with the Italian consulate covering your area.

For many people from Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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.