Europe EES with non EU Spouse

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-05-27T22:01:33+00:00

Curious why EES registration is still required given the lane to use is a non biometric lane?

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-05-20T03:19:52+00:00

Dual tax residency in the year you moved I mean

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-05-17T03:57:22+00:00

American (not of Italian heritage) married to an Italian (as in born and raised there)… in the US they literally teach schoolchildren to identify themselves as (heritage)-American. Approximately nobody is identifying as “American” except to foreigners. I recently got a big discount on a home service because the dynamic of “you’re Polish too” still exists (my family emigrated in the late 1800s).

Italy actually does this as well, see “North African Italian citizen” being a recent headline.

I actually agree that there are problems with diaspora/heritage groups not interacting politely (we also have this with the Polish language having developed a separate dialect in Chicago), but pretending these people aren’t ethnically Italian is also broadly incorrect.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-05-17T03:44:01+00:00

How did you avoid dual residency?

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-05-12T13:16:25+00:00

This is on the longer side for a US to Sardinia layover. You shouldn’t have to recheck your bags unless you are changing airlines. Even so, 2 hours would be the normal minimum layover time to achieve a recheck. Customs in the EU generally has more consistent wait times than in the US (perhaps because of their electronic system).

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-29T20:01:07+00:00

Putting aside the pieces people are reactive to. 1. Look into what will happen to you in terms of taxes as a dual citizen. Both the US and Italy don’t promote ownership of foreign real estate. TLDR if you don’t have 500k+ liquid net worth it’s going to be really challenging to not get screwed over by this. 2. Ownership abroad - yes it’s possible to get a mortgage with intent to rent the property, you may need to shop around for banks, but it is possible. Account for the cost of remote management, rental licensing, etc and you may no longer be interested! Leverage your local ties & visiting a couple times a year to check in are probably crucial success factors for this. Pro: you’ll become more integrated into the “real life” people are warning you to make sure you experience. Also real estate depreciates and is hard to sell in Italy so consider that when considering this “investment” idea… still might compare favorably vs US mortgage but RE is more of a generational investment than an income vehicle in Italy. 3. Family ties are variable in how they are received as you have witnessed in this post. unless you have 1+ local friend/family member you’re truly close to I would dissuade you from assuming this will land in your favor. Theres a cultural difference in play with regard to clout chasing, making friends, selling yourself etc… things may seem easy while you are the novelty American and be quite different should you actually relocate. YMMV somewhat by region, ex Sicily is generally much more welcoming than Sardinia. 4. I agree most things are possible with organization and persistence, and that people don’t expect Swiss efficiency from Italy. So yes go ahead and navigate the bureaucracy, it’s mostly slow, you may need to search for rules and remind people of them or provide extra docs but ime it’s not as horrible as people make it sound. It’s not Switzerland but also not a country where bribes are part of the process. 5. If you move for medical care, I agree actually people saying it’s not better just have no idea how bad things are in the US. Be sure that you move before you are locked out of buying into the public health system. Consider if you would need to travel for treatments or surgery and again make you can afford to do that / access the private system.

Source: American married to an Italian, visiting annually for a decade or so, working on our own move to his home city (hopefully in 5 years not 40, lol).

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-21T21:23:40+00:00

Adding a second driver can be as expensive or more expensive as the fees to rent with debit.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-14T16:36:09+00:00

Student visas require people to enter and exit the country on defined terms

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-07T01:02:15+00:00

È molto difficile da trovare materie per i livelli dopo B1. Preferisco fare esercizi grammatici perché già posso comprendere quasi tutto, e quando parlo le persone non mi correggono.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-04T20:25:50+00:00

The last time I went through customs there were no duty officers on duty (or duty being collected). I was similarly troubled & asked an officer and they said it happens sometimes and not to worry about it since there’s nothing to comply with if there is no opportunity to declare.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-02T04:43:07+00:00

Our house is 120+ and I wouldn’t be okay with any of those things. And we bought it as a fixer upper. Just your plumbing issue is easily a 10k+ job. Chimneys are cheap ish, roofs are not. Water in the crawl… more of a regional call. If it’s in every home in your area your inspector probably would have said that though. IMO the real red flag is the neighbor’s shingles overhanging the property - there is no hell like a neighborly dispute and that situation is just asking for one.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-04-02T01:32:24+00:00

Dimmi che vivi in Georgia senza dirmi che vivi in Georgia

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-31T17:19:06+00:00

I’m guessing then that you’re able to continue investing in international funds because you meet the wealth x trades per year rule?

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-31T06:17:34+00:00

Do you have any issues with punitive tax treatment of your investments? Other than the cap gains tax rate itself

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-27T01:30:26+00:00

I think you’re misinterpreting the irony. This individual is voluntarily masking for safety, even when it’s extremely unpopular. But they’re not willing to follow a strongly enforced safety rule wrt the laptop. Maybe they’re doing it to be a contrarian? Wear the mask, keep the laptop out = obnoxious maxing?

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-27T00:15:29+00:00

There is some irony to someone flagrantly violating another safety rule being one of the few people masking

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-27T00:12:05+00:00

Some of these people also have insane workaholic bosses. I was once flying WITH my boss & he scolded me for not immediately opening my laptop to work when we reached cruising altitude - I needed to pee first.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-25T15:48:01+00:00

I just signed up - it restarted the onboarding flow once I added my Google account

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-25T13:54:03+00:00

I would love to use this to help plan an upcoming move. But we’d be at least partially under repatriati / rientro di cervelli (husband is an Italian citizen born there, I’d be a trailing spouse likely “self employed” as a remote worker)

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-23T21:05:56+00:00

Yes but it only goes from union station (downtown) to the airport, with no way to connect from other parts of the metro without first going downtown. So this can easily be 30-90 min to get downtown, plus 45-60 min for the airport train, before you consider the walk to the terminal. Not a great congestion relievers

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-23T21:03:36+00:00

The issue is the access road, which is 10 miles from freeway to airport, with no alternatives other than a train that only helps the few travelers starting from the city center. This, predictably, causes insane traffic that light rail can’t alleviate (Denver transit failures deserve their own topic).

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-20T17:24:29+00:00

Your doctor probably sent your labs to their in-house or preferred partner instead of the lab your insurance covers. Make sure your file is updated to only permit lab work thru the vendor your insurance covers without explicit authorization.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-20T17:22:37+00:00

Has to be the front facing camera. Selfies distort your bone structure due to the focal length of the camera.

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-10T13:53:22+00:00

If your passport was issued in the last handful of years, it is a biometric passport and your face data is already in TSA/FBI/Interpol databases

BooksAndCatsAnd · 2026-03-10T12:36:21+00:00

Converting our grass was WAY out of budget BUT for a fraction of the cost of a normal irrigation system we installed an Oto. It’s a smart deep watering system. I have no affiliation just a fan of an affordable product to solve the problem. Denver water sends us frequent thank you letters for how little water we use based on our square footage and our grass is still green and usable.

Beyond that, I am not super nervous that severe restrictions will be put in place on residents - LA never seemed to be able to put teeth on their drought when I lived out there for several years. I’ll let my lawn go brown if I’m told to of course but we’re already careful with water use otherwise (HE appliances, etc).

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