San Marino tourist stay permit

Any foreigner who wants to stay in San Marino for tourism or a visit for more than 30 days. Shorter visits need no San Marino document, but the traveller must have entered the Schengen area lawfully through Italy, with a Schengen visa where their nationality requires one.

The permit is valid for no more than 90 days in every six months. Holders may not work and are not entitled to free healthcare or social benefits. Anyone staying more than 30 days for tourism must take out insurance valid in San Marino covering illness, accident and maternity, emergency hospital admission and repatriation costs. Working on a tourist permit leads to its withdrawal.

The Gendarmerie checklist asks for a copy of a valid identity document or passport, four ICAO-format passport photos, a letter of invitation where required or other proof of means of support, a declaration of hospitality signed at the Foreigners Office, and proof of health cover: a form completed and stamped at the Benefits Office of the Social Security Institute (ISS) recognising cover for every event. Residents of Italy attach their Italian health card or an insurance policy covering illness, accident, maternity and healthcare with at least EUR 30,000 of annual cover. Documents must be in Italian or come with a sworn Italian translation made before a San Marino authority, or be multilingual certificates. Certificates must be no older than six months, and foreign certificates other than Italian ones must be legalised or apostilled.

A letter of invitation allows the Gendarmerie to issue the tourist permit for the period it states even if the Schengen visa does not cover the whole period, but never for more than 90 days from the Schengen entry stamp. When the permit is issued, the holder receives a written note of their rights and duties and of the penalties for breaking the entry and stay rules, in Italian or, if needed, in English, French, Spanish or Russian.

New and renewed stay permits cost EUR 50 when the application is filed and EUR 30 when the permit is issued, paid in revenue stamps bought before the visit.

Report to the Gendarmerie Foreigners Office before the 30 days run out. The office takes photographs and fingerprints. Appointments can be requested by email to stranieri.gendarmeria@pa.sm or by phone on 0549 882650, Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 12:00.

A stay permit is refused if criminal proceedings are pending in San Marino or abroad for intentional offences punishable by more than one year of imprisonment, and it is refused or not renewed after such a conviction, for serious reasons of public order, after an expulsion in the previous ten years, or where the Gendarmerie knows of grounds barring entry or stay in the Schengen area. A tourist found working by the Gendarmerie or the Labour Office inspectors has the permit revoked at once and is removed from the territory. After a refusal or revocation, a new application can only be filed 120 days after the decision was notified.