After spending my entire 20s and early 30s abroad i covered some serious ground working in Canada, Ireland, Cambodia, Honduras, Dubai, UK and most recently the Netherlands. I landed in the Netherlands 3 months before the pandemic broke out and was barred from my country Australia for years which did a number on my mental health with my mum unwell and i unable to return. I finally got a repatriation flight home and was in Australia working remotely for a year for the same Dutch company. I started to question returning to The Netherlands but with the sudden outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the fear of getting locked out of Australia again i was apprehensive, so i went and worked remotely in Bali and thought i might start a business and set up there as an option. My Dutch visa unexpectadly got revoked and i was suddenly devastated over the loss of it and everything i invested so hard in. I ended up with a severe mental health decline called burnout and had to return to Australia. Ive now been back in Australia recovering for 9 months and it’s not the place i thought or remember it to be. Friends have all moved on, even family members have their own lives, the lack of culture, innovation and it,'s isolation from the rest of the world gets me down. It’s so quiet here not much really happens. I know i probably sound spoilt and negative but im really struggling with life here and miss the Netherlands and being in Europe. Ive tried to find a partner for years and settle down somewhere but it doesnt seem to work out for me and i cant find anyone. Im female 33 now and feel like i missed the boat on relationships, family or having an interesting life. I guess being an expat for over 10 years has left my heart in too many places and i feel i belong no where anymore. I dont know what to do now since Australia is not giving me what i want, maybe i should try to move abroad again and try to find a partner somewhere else and settle down. Any experiences or perspectives on trying to settle down again would be helpful. I have no idea what to do anymore or am i just destined to be stuck like this forever.
Yes, the bureaucracy can be a pain, but it’s worthwhile putting up with. It’s easier if you won’t need to drive while you’re here too – that’s a real pain.
The other disadvantage with funding worth noting is that most universities here provide a scholarship rather than a salary. That becomes an issue if you want to live permanently in the EU, as most countries base pensions on the amount of years worked. A salaried PhD counts towards this (possible in Germany but not Italy), a scholarship does not.
I’m learning Italian, but I’m pathetically bad at it. I spoke some German when I arrived too, which helps here in Südtirol-Alto Adige. French would help in the Valle d’Aosta. Italian is surprisingly difficult to learn, but I think you’d get there eventually.
The exact requirements for language skills would likely vary between universities and departments. I think you should be ok in most science departments, but it’s worth checking. In France, the general rule is that science departments will let you take a PhD in English, but humanities departments will not, and it could be the case here too – I am not sure.
It’s still worth learning some basic Italian anyway, especially if you’ll be living outside a major city – it’s just invaluable for daily life. Finding an apartment or a room is likely going to be easier if you speak some Italian too. (I have to move again soon, so am struggling with this at the moment!)
One other fun bit of bureaucracy that’s worth mentioning is the permesso di soggiorno (residency permit). The student visa you’d get to come to Italy essentially only gives you permission to come here and apply for a permesso di soggiorno. It’s the permesso that shows you’re allowed to live here.
For this, you lodge an application at the post office – the forms look intimidating, but that’s because the same form covers every potential reason someone could apply for a permesso to live in Italy. The actual parts you have to fill out as a student are short and straightforward, and there are lots of useful guides online. You have to pay a fee and they give you a receipt and an appointment time to go to the Questura (state police station). This will be about a month after you’ve submitted your application at the post office.
At the Questura, you get fingerprinted and to have show them originals of passports and other key documents. There’s then a wait of about two or three months to get the actual permesso di soggiorno.
Unfortunately, during this time, you can’t really travel in Europe outside Italy. The only proof you’ll have that you’re legally allowed to be in Italy is the receipt from the post office. Italian police and border officials recognise this, but police and border officials in other Schengen zone countries don’t.
This is less of a problem in the first year, since you can use your default 90 days in 180 days Schengen tourist visa to begin with, but is a pain in subsequent years. Students are only given a permesso with one year’s validity, so you have to do this every year. Workers tend to get a permesso with two or three years’ validity, but processing times are even longer again.
It’s not a deal-breaker, but worth bearing in mind – there’ll be about 3 or 4 months in every year when you can’t easily visit places outside Italy. It’d be a particular pain if this ended up including the summer vacation – but then, that’s unlikely as a student, since you’re unlikely to arrive just before the start of the vacation.