The woman at the coonsulate said that we would need to be enrolled in a university here and that the college would have to tell them that we needed these language classes in order to graduate. she was trying to get us to go for only three months on a tourist visa, and to take classes then, but i told her that would leave us no time to see the coutry also.... *sigh* anyone want to marry me for $5,000? *LOLOL*

Diana, can you review your situation for us so that we can try to help you figure out a way around your visa probleM? Marriage to italians is fun but probably will run you more than 5000 bucks :wink: Incidentally if you're gonna do it, do the ceremony in italy, it's a lot faster, though a lot of paperwork...

In my experience the consulates are horrid. I was going to the consulate in chicago and delayed my move 4 months because i went a dozen times and always came out crying, visa-less. Everyone there new my name, and avoided me!

Why are you trying for a student visa? I recall your earlier post about trying to enrol in university here. I think you probably cannot do this. Did you try enrolling in a language school? I don't know if language schools still issue documentation to get visas, this used to be a good way in. Some will make a deal whereby they arrange for your visa even if you're not attending really full time.

If you are really rich or retired you can try to get an elective residence visa!! I asked about this and they laughed at me, right to my face, and said "nobody gets those", though i have seen posts on this site that prove otherwise.

best of luck, Alexandra

OK, this is the situation. I'm 46, and plan to sell my house and take a year off work and go to Italy with my daughter who will just have grdauated college. . I haven't owned the house that long but should be able to get about $40,000 out of it. What I want to do is go with my daughter to Italy for about a year to learn Italian. At that same time we can decide whether or not it's a place we would like to stay.
I work in computers, and I figured that a year of Italian under my belt would make it easier to find a job should we decide to stay.
If we decide not to stay, we've had a great year in Italy.
I don't want to take a 4 week course, i really want to take the time, at leat 6 months, to get a good grasp of the language.
The consulate says I should use the 90 days tourist, and then go home.
It's not like i have no skills and want to leech off the country. but i figure with a good solid base of italaian, plus wokring in computers, i have a better chance of getting a job.
all i need now is the student visa.