"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is constantly committed to improving procedures tied to the processing of student visas, aware of the importance of the role of cultural and academic cooperation in strengthening relations between populations," the Farnesina (Italian Foreign Ministry) said in a statement published on November 14.

The press release was issued following "some articles published by various media outlets regarding the denial of visas to Iranian students and reported difficulties for students in booking an appointment at the Italian embassy in Tehran."

Italian authorities proceeded to publish data concerning visas issued for this academic year, which appeared to contradict reports of any difficulties.

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'4,500 appointments booked, one-fourth more than in 2024'

The ministry reported that "for the 2025-2026 academic year, the Embassy in Iran has already offered 4,500 appointments to students: it is about one-fourth more than all the students who filed a visa application last year, and nearly 40 percent of all visa applications currently received" by the embassy.

As an explanation as to why things may have been functioning less well the previous year, the Foreign Office spokespeople highlighted the "temporary forced closure of the Embassy [in Tehran] last June, determined by military tensions and by the phase of the war between Iran and Israel" which "made it necessary to reduce Italian personnel present in the country and totally suspend consular activities for several days."

Despite this, "the Italian Embassy was among the first to reopen to the public and resume the release of visas", giving "particular priority to the processing of visa procedures for students."

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Italian Embassy third in Schengen area for number of requests

Visa applications for Italy, the foreign ministry added, "are also impacted by the sensibly more restrictive policies still adopted by some important Schengen partners for student visas, both in terms of requirements and the number of accepted requests."

Such choices "have inevitably steered towards Italy an elevated number of applicants who would not have had access to the procedure elsewhere."

Italian immigration law ('Testo unico sull'immigrazione'), the ministry recalled, represents "the legislative frame of reference for national visas," such as student visas, and "provides for the obligation to certify the accuracy of documentation provided together with the visa application, which requires the necessary time to be processed."

The Farnesina finally stressed that last year "our Embassy was the third among Schengen Countries for the number of applications received, processing a number of requests" that was "clearly above the Schengen average (9,400 short-stay visas compared to an average of 5,400), confirming itself as one of the foreign Representations with the highest workload in the country."

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