Questions to ask before your review

Three things: a short intake questionnaire (about ten minutes), one focused 30-minute session about your situation, and a written recap of your route and next steps within two business days. The questionnaire comes first, so the call is about your decisions, not data collection.

The $49 USD is credited in full toward the written move plan or any relocation package booked within 12 months of your session. If you go no further, the recap stands on its own.

Cancel at least 48 hours before your session for a full refund, and rescheduling is free with reasonable notice. If we cannot schedule you within 14 days of payment, you get a full refund. Your statutory consumer rights are unaffected. The details are in the terms.

No — that is when a review is cheapest. It tells you whether the plan works at all: the visa math, a realistic budget, and the regions worth your scouting trip. Finding out early costs $49 USD; finding out after a house purchase costs more.

No. The $49 review includes the 30-minute call and short recap within two business days. A full move plan is optional and quoted separately before you order it.

Sessions run in the North American morning, starting no later than 11:30 a.m. Eastern (our early evening). On the West Coast that means an early call. Tell us what works and we will find the overlap.

Each Italian consulate in the US sets its own bar, publishes it inconsistently, and changes it without notice — and work income never counts, not even remote work. Run the free two-minute check to see your income against the bar your consulate publishes, with the dated source. Whether your income mix counts the way you expect, and what to do if it is borderline, is what the review covers.

Italy lets foreign pensioners who become resident in certain smaller comuni, mostly in the south, elect a 7% flat tax on foreign income. The rules are public; the town lists on the internet are often wrong. Three traps we see repeated everywhere: Spoleto is over the population cap, Ortigia shares a comune with Siracusa and is ineligible with it, and Ostuni qualifies by only a few dozen residents. Whether the regime applies to your pension mix, and which eligible town actually fits your life, is a review question — that answer is different for every client.

It depends on the pension type and the treaty: US Social Security, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals, the UK state pension, and CPP/OAS are each treated differently, and Italy taxes residents on worldwide income. We explain how the system works and what people in your situation typically do; we do not give tax advice. Your filing position belongs with a cross-border tax professional, and part of the review is making sure you arrive at that meeting with the right questions.

Longer than the blogs suggest. The visa step alone runs on consulate appointment backlogs that vary by city and season, and the residence permit and comune registration add months after you land. Most retirement moves are best planned across several seasons, not weeks. Your realistic timeline — given your consulate and your target date — is one of the first things the review maps.

It depends on your consulate: each publishes its own list, and the differences are real — apostilles, translations, and the exact proof formats are not interchangeable. Our visa guide covers the sequence everyone follows (codice fiscale, visa, permesso di soggiorno, comune registration). Your consulate's current list, and the order to assemble it, is exactly what the review prepares.

The trade-off is real either way. Renting first tests the winter, the healthcare logistics, and the town itself before capital moves — and it gives you an address for the paperwork chain. Buying first skips a double move but concentrates the risk in a market you have not yet lived in. Which pattern fits your timeline, budget, and risk tolerance is one of the most useful conversations in the review.

No. We explain how the systems work and what people in your situation typically do. Filings, applications, and regulated questions go to the qualified professionals we point you to. The boundary is written into our terms — we explain, we do not advise.

The named operator and contact details are listed in the legal notice. Our approach and service boundaries are on the about page.

No. We do not sell property, receive agent commissions, or earn anything from insurers or other professionals we mention. The review is the product; that is what keeps the honest flags honest.

Then that is what your recap says, with what would have to change first. A finding of “not yet” is a complete delivery, not a failed one — and it is cheaper than discovering the same thing after the container has shipped.