How to apply for the Italian Schengen Visa for South Africans
Applying for a Schengen Visa for Italy as a South African often leaves applicants a little confused and asking “Where do I go? How do I apply? Can I use an agency or do I have to do it myself?” Italy traditionally has consulates in practically every city in South Africa and the rules for how to apply depend on where you live. Here’s making it a little simpler for you:
I live in or near Cape Town
You’ll need to apply in person for the Italian Schengen Visa, if you live in or near Cape Town, from 1 December 2011 you’ll need to do your appointment via Copago, a visa handling agency. Make an appointment online first though for them to see you. The visa requirements are the Schengen Requirements, you can also check the Italian Consulate’s site for more info. If you don’t live in Cape Town, but it’s still your closest Italian Consulate, you can fill out a request form not to appear in person and use a reputable courier to send your application in.
I live in Gauteng, Limpopo, North-West or Free State
You will have to apply with outsourced visa agency Copago or the Pretoria Embassy (only if you live in the Tshwane Metro) for your Italian Schengen Visa application. Pretoria will have it’s own Copago office from 1 February 2012. These consulates/embassies advise that you should make the appointment for a minimum of 2 weeks before departure to be safe and a maximum of 3 months before.
I live in KwaZulu-Natal
There is unfortunate news, the Italian consulate in Durban no longer issues Italian Schengen Visas but in which case you’ll need to apply as if you were living in Johannesburg through Copago. This company has said they will be opening an office in Durban from 1 January 2011. There is a chance that you can courier the passport through an agency if you’ve travelled to a schengen country before, we suggest enquiring with a reputable visa agency for more info. The only sure way around it is to ensure your trip to Europe includes a longer stay in another Schengen country, other than Italy, then you can apply through that country’s consulate and hopefully they don’t require you to appear in person in Joburg!
I live in the Eastern Cape or Northern Cape
For applying for a Schengen visa in these provinces, you must use the Cape Town Consulate. Since you don’t live near Cape Town, you can fill out the form not to appear in person, mentioned in the Cape Town section.
Check out our other Schengen visa articles too.
Click here for the application form.
Click here for the full requirements.
Remember the information on this site was correct at time of publishing, but the consulates reserve the right to change information at any moment and without notice, we recommend using a reputable visa agency to make an application and get up-to-date information.
More Visa Posts
How to apply on our website – Video
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Hi Nick,
A great site you have here. Your responses are very helpful but having read through, unfortunately, none of them seem to cover my wife’s unique situation
Here goes, I am a UK citizen, she South African, we are recently married and have an unabridged marriage certificate. My wife plans to travel to Europe (mainly Italy) on a pre-booked, paid tour starting 13th June.
I am a resident of Saudi Arabia, my wife is currently here with me on a 3 month family visit visa and has her flight to Europe booked from here and has no plan to re-enter South Africa until after the trip. She has no job but we are able to show proof of funds for travel or forex etc.
Could you help to explain are options
My main points of concern are:
-Can she apply for a visa remotely (ie from Saudi by sending documents to agency)?
-Is it possible to apply to Italian consulate in Riyadh?
-Does her not having a job impact her?
Thanks for any help you can give, as you can see this is rather tricky!! and if there’s anything else you feel it would be right to consider we’d really be grateful for your advice.
Regards Paul
Hi Paul, thanks for getting in touch.
The general rule is that one has to apply from the country where one is a resident. Seeing that you are a resident of Saudi Arabia, they may offer her an exception and let her apply for a visa in Saudi, though this is likely only to be if you are accompanying her on this trip to Europe. There is a chance they will let her apply there if you are not accompanying her, but with these sort of exceptional circumstances there are never any guarantees. The good news is that next to the Greek consulates, the Italian consulates have a reputation for being the most flexible! I would get in touch with the Italian consulate directly to explain the situation and ask their advice. If you have time to email and wait for a written response, even better, you can always take this email along with the application if the respondent says it’s okay to apply from Saudi.
Now regarding your wife’s employment. This is not always an issue when applying for a Schengen visa. You can say that you are paying for her trip, but they will likely need to see 3 months bank statements from you to prove there are enough funds to support her. Alternatively, if she has enough of her own funds in her account that should be okay too, though I doubt she will be able to get official South African stamped bank statements while over there.
In short, I think there is a chance she can apply from Saudi, but I think it’s best to get the answer from the horse’s mouth. Find their details here: http://www.ambriad.esteri.it/ambasciata_riad
Hi, I want to know do i need a Yellow fever injection to go to Italy?
Thanks
Hi Helen!
Generally you don’t need a yellow fever vaccination to go to Italy. There may be exceptions in the case that you have visited countries with yellow fever in the last few months (eg Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya etc). If you’ve been in SA the whole time you definitely won’t need one.
hi there nick.
i have recently found a family in italy that is interested in hiring me as a au pair privately. they will apply for the nulla osta, contratto di soggiorno per lavoro, Italian Questura. if all of this say “has” been approved are my chances of being denied a work visa still possible?
To apply for a work visa would i need an unabridge birth certificate and medical?
Thanks for all the helpfull information you give… much appreciated
Hi Sandy!
This is a tricky one and I don’t have a lot of experience with work visas for Italy. I would strongly recommend chatting to the Italian consulate privately or chatting to a visa handling agency like ROSE visas, their contact details are here: http://www.roseadmin.co.za/index.php?mod=3&action=show&articleid=81
(I know their website looks a little odd, but they have been reliable for us when dealing with them for many years now)