From January 10, 2025, the Italian government will introduce new visa rules that could change the application process for international students and other applicants wishing to stay in the country for more than 90 days on a long-term D Visa.

From now on, the updated policy will require individual appointments at Italian consulates, which means applicants will need to travel to the consulates to collect their fingerprints.

"The policy change also increases the administrative demands on each Italian consulate and effectively eliminates the option for 'batch' processing, which many US institutions have used to help their students secure visas in a timely fashion," said Jill Allen Murray is the Deputy Executive Director of Public Policy at NAFSA, as reported by Schengen News,.

Financial and logistic burden on students

The change has raised the stakes of the extra cost in terms of finance and logistics burden on students. Melissa Torres, CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad, summed this up, saying, "In addition to the increased expense many students will incur traveling to a consulate and the likelihood of massive wait times for visa appointments, I am concerned that this new requirement will impact students' decision to spend a full semester abroad."

Italy is the most popular study destination for this nationality group, and the new measures may cause American students to choose other countries instead. Over the past year, there has been a 37% increase in the number of American students wishing to study in Italy.

Torres added that if the new regulations make the application process more difficult, a number of US study abroad companies are considering terminating their programs. She also cautioned that businesses that are unable to perform batch processing will face greater financial obligations.