Most of the residency paths that still work for Americans fall into two buckets: you don't need a local job, or you already have income from elsewhere. Europe is fine with you being here, as long as you're not about to become a public expense. That's the quiet rule underneath all the glossy expat stories. The bar is not "Do you love the culture." The bar is Can you support yourself, prove it on paper, and keep proving it later.
A new bill aims to make it significantly harder to obtain - or keep - Italian citizenship, with proposals ranging from testing knowledge of Italian culture to making it possible to leave people stateless. The hard-right, anti-immigration party presented the bill to the Chamber of Deputies on Monday, saying it believed Italians wanted tighter limits after a failed referendum in June on easing citizenship requirements. "Citizenship is a serious matter and must be treated as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the League's leader.
The general principle is that voting rights are based on citizenship and each country makes its own rules. When electoral rights are granted to non-nationals, these are usually limited to local elections and do not extend to national ones. So neither EU nationals or non-EU citizens are able to vote for example in French presidential elections or German parliamentary elections, unless of course they have taken citizenship in those countries.
Moving abroad for tax savings and an elevated lifestyle is appealing to many Americans, but understanding each country’s rules and tradeoffs is crucial before relocating.