After getting the long-term self-employed visa, you need to get a residency permit (permesso di soggiorno per lavoro autonomo).
This permit will be valid for 1 year and will have the start date of your visa regardless of when you will get it.
You must request this permit within 8 days (I believe it’s work days) of entering Italy with your long stay visa.
In order to request it, you need to go to a post office and get an envelope with a lot of forms inside. It’s called ‘Kit Postale’.
You can get it once you enter Italy with your visa or even before when you collect all of the documents for the visa.
These forms are in Italian and there are a lot of them.
And guess what else do you need? You got it! A 16 Euro marca da bollo to make sure the wheels keep turning and the magnificent bureaucratic machine that is Italy.
As for filling these forms, you can try to do it yourself, but i suggest using a free service that helps immigrants inside CGIL which is The Italian General Confederation of Labour. They have an immigration department that helps everyone. Not just workers.
You can read about them here: http://www.cgil.milano.it/servizio/servizio-agli-immigrati/
Find the closest one to where you live and find the opening hours of their immigration office. (In Milano they are located in Corso di Porta Vittoria, 43, enter the building, go to the right for the elevator and go to the 3rd floor. wait in line to be called. No need for an appointment. I believe they are open most days until 13:00)
Go there with your passport and the required documents and they will help you fill it up for free online.
They have a direct connection to Questura and they can send it to them online.
If you use them you don’t even need to bother getting the kit postale at the post office. They have their own.
After completing the forms, they will print you a copy and you put that in the envelope instead of all the forms that come with it.
The other requirements you may also put in the envelope a copy of them, but bring the originals with you to the appointment with a copy also just in case they don’t find the envelope.
The requirements for a residency permit for self-employment are:
- Copy of your passport page (although they say complete passport this was not required of me)
- Copy of your long stay self-employment visa
- The documents you’ve obtained from Camera di commercio or the body that regulates your profession if necessary (you already have these if you’ve obtained a long stay visa for work and you should probably have in hand the nulla osta you already have from Questura).
- 4 passport photos (although they asked only 2 of me)
Then you need to go to the post office and send it because the payment for the request is made when you send it. (No, the marca da bollo is obviously not enough).
If you go through CGIL, they won’t even bother looking for the envelope at Questura when you go there.
Don’t forget to stick the marca da bollo on the first document in the right spot. And don’t close the envelope before you give it to the clerk at the post office.
When you get to the post office take a number in the machine. Choose the right option that says ‘permesso di soggiorno’. Small post offices might not have this service sometimes. You can check on the website of the Italian post office who has it.
In the post office you will pay 30 euros for sending the envelope + 70.42 euros for making the request for the permesso (they charge about 1.5 euro more for their commission). And you’ll be asked to sign (firma) in some places.
Bring cash with you in case your international credit card won’t work for some reason and bring your passport.
Once you’ve payed, they will give you a paper with the date and time of your appointment in Questura. In my case the appointment was set 4 months ahead! And no, they can’t change your appointment to another date or time according to your choice.
If you have a problem with that, you can go to Questura and try to ask them to change it for you. Usually it works I believe.
Keep the receipt that they give you for the payments. In some places this can be used as a permesso di soggiorno in itself until you receive yours.
With this receipt you should be able to rent a normal apartment now if you’d like to. (Without it, rental agencies would turn you away and i believe there is also a law against renting long-term to someone who doesn’t have a residency permit).
About a month after you send your request, you should check online if there are any problems with your documents so that you’ll have time to correct it before your appointment.
Go to this link: https://www.portaleimmigrazione.it/Load_AreaRiservata.aspx
And input the username and password (without the dash) that’s on your receipt. Then you’ll see if there are any issues (Dettaglio Anomalie Documentali). If there’s nothing, you can keep checking once in a while until your appointment.
********* UPDATE: 12/07/2019 ***********
Once you’ve sent the request for the first permesso, and until you’ve received it, you may travel between Italy and your own country or other non-Schengen countries (provided you have an entry visa to those countries if you need one). You must have the receipt from the post office with you and your passport with the long term visa.
You are not allowed to go to other Schengen countries, not even for connecting flights until you receive your first permesso.
Because with this permesso you will be allowed to move around Schengen countries freely. So until you receive it, you are still not allowed.
If however you are from a non-EU country that is exempt from being required an entry visa to visit Schengen countries (like me), this might not apply to you. But I’ve never tried it!
To read about the requirements for the different permesso di soggiornos (According to your visa type) in the official website, click here:
https://www.portaleimmigrazione.it/PDS_Stranieri.aspx
You also have information in English here:
https://www.portaleimmigrazione.it/docs/inglese/AllegatiperRinovo_Stranieri.pdf
For self-employment go to page 6.
********* UPDATE: 12/07/2020 ***********
Permesso di soggiorno request form
Translation table
********* UPDATE: 08/11/2022 ***********
Here you can find a good guide on how to fill the permesso di soggiorno kit.