We recently met a young man (American) who'll be studying in Siena for a year and he was told by the school that he was NOT allowed to work at all.

I thought I'd read that if you were in Italy on a student visa you were allowed to work 20 hours a week? Did I just make that up, or can anyone verify that information?

quote:

if you were in Italy on a student visa you were allowed to work 20 hours a week?

I remember reading the same thing in the past week.

Just recently applied for my student visa and was told by the consulate that I could only work 20hrs a week.

You said that he was an american, do you know if he was studying at the university for stranieri there, or was he part of AHA (American Heritage Association) program? If he was part of AHA, it might have been a rule of the program that he wasnt allowed to work.

I seem to remember something when I studied through them about not being allowed to work.

Lori

No, I don't know the details of his stay/study, but I gave him the Expats info so he could check here for himself. Right now he's still travelling thru Italy with his family, and will return for school later in the summer.

thanks for your replies!

Oh, the other thing I thought of is that a lot of times American study abroad programs wont bother having their students get a student visa if they are going to be there for less than three months. Specifically AHA (who I mentioned before) did not require a visa to study in Siena since the program was for just under the 3 month mark. Where as in Macerata it was longer so visas were required.

That may have had something to do with it as well.

Lori