The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ portal “Visa for Italy” will be awarded the Innovation Prize for excellence at the SMAU exhibition in Bologna, an international IT and office furniture fair to be hosted at Bologna Fiere on June 9 and 10. “Visa for Italy”, which recorded over two million hits since it first began in April 2015, is the result of a cooperation between the Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies – DGIT, and the Directorate General for Management and Information and Communications Technology- DGAI. It is currently available in Italian, English, Russian and Arabic ( the four most common languages used by people applying for a visa to Italy), and will soon be available in Chinese, too.
Italy issues more than 2.5 million visas every year through its 160 embassies and consulates. The website has a user-friendly portal designed to provide visa-related information for foreigners wishing to visit Italy for tourism, business or other reasons. The portal sets out a few questions and provides a personalised response.
The site provides information on both Schengen and Italian visas, but it also allows for the downloading of forms applicants need to fill in, so to streamline the process.
