Over 10 years ago, we decided that to be in Italy meant being here “by the book.” So we applied for and received resident status which permits us to stay longer than the 90 days that a tourist can legally stay in the country. Our documenti, documents include a codice fiscale, like a social security number, and even a carta d’identita, to prove that we are truly who we say we are. But the most important and involved document is the Permesso di Soggiorno, Permission to Stay. It is renewed every 2 years and can only be issued after you’ve collected a stack of supporting documents at least 3 inches thick. The application packet is available at any post office which has a sportello amico, the “friend” window. The clerk is not necessarily any friendlier than the normal postal worker, but that doesn’t seem to matter. The packet consists of instructions and the application, which is comprised of 2000 pages. Not really. It just seems unnecessarily long. All forms must be filled out and returned to the sportello amico, but not before every last one of the supporting documents has been compiled. Let me explain.

The first supporting document is the Certificato di Residenza, the certificate of residence. This document confirms your home address and registers you with the Anagrafe, sort of like the census bureau. Of course there is a small fee levied to secure this certificato. The last time we went in for renewal, the clerk questioned why we both have the same last name. It was really a logical query, since women here retain their father’s name and usually don’t change it when they marry. But then she asked, “Siete fratello e sorella? Are you brother and sister?” We assured her that we are not siblings, even though later we laughed about being identical twins, since Em’s 6’5 stature and my 5’6 are the same numbers, just reversed. But to be sure that we’re not mistaken for twins, we chose to have our marriage certificate translated and kept on file with the Anagrafe. A little side note here: In the translation someone made a typo on the date of our wedding, so we are now obligated to celebrate our anniversary twice each year.

Secondly, proof of health insurance is required. Even though we pay significant dues and are members in good standing of California’s Blue Cross family, officials here don’t understand that the insurance coverage is listed under the shared last name (see confusion described in paragraph above), and one first name (Emerson’s) with privileges extended to spouse and family members. It makes no sense to them. So we had 2 choices: 1.) have our Blue Cross policy translated from English into Italian (considering the mistake on the marriage certificate, no thank you), or 2.) buy health insurance here. We opted for plan B. Yearly we buy the Italian health assicurizone per turisti, insurance for tourists—which is around 150 euro. We fill out a simple form and pay at the post office.

Thirdly, you must include 4 recent photos with the renewal packet. There are plenty of photo booths dotting the city, as well as small photo businesses that offer the correctly sized photos, which is very important.

Fourthly, you must include photocopies of your expiring permesso.

Fifthly, and this is the biggie, you have to submit photocopies of every page of you passport—not just the front and the inside photo with all the issuing info. Noooo. The entire passport must be photocopied and all of the pages included within the application packet. Once all the papers have been submitted, you get a scheduled date on which you must appear in person at the Questura, the immigration police. In this final phase, you have to present all the original documents for confirmation. Then you are fingerprinted—all 10 fingers.

Then the only thing left to do is wait for the stack of papers to wend their way to Rome and for the new permesso to come back to the Questura, usually within 6 months to 1 year. Sweet, right? Not exactly.

At the Questura we normally stand in a very long line for 4 hours to gain entry into the building (rain or shine) where we receive a number. Last time we were surprised. Wow! Only 83 people were ahead of us. We had time for coffee. 30 minutes later we returned to find that we had timed our coffee break perfectly. Only 4 more people were ahead of us. Suddenly number 84 popped up on the digital screen. Woo-hoo! As we approached the window, we began to unpack all of our support documents. “No, no,” said the clerk as he handed us a new number:  E123.   Argh!!! It turned out that we had taken a number to take a number!

Well, this story has a twist. We only have to renew every 2 years—I think I mentioned that earlier. BUT a couple of years ago someone, somewhere made a mistake. They were off by one year for Emerson. So. . .now, one of us has to renew every year. EVERY YEAR!!! See you in line at the Questura!!!

Posted on September 5, 2010

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