How and where a foreign national can obtain a residence permit in Italy

Where to apply for a residence permit:

Some types of residence permits (pdf 84 Kb) can be applied for at:

• Municipalities ('Comuni') which provide this service;
• 'Patronati' (institutions offering advice and social assistance to workers);
• Immigration Desk (Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione) set up in every Italian province at the Prefettura;
• Post Offices, where you receive the kit containing the application form.

In all other cases (pdf 15 Kb), applications must be submitted to the 'Questura' - the central police station set up in every Italian province.

How much does it cost to apply for a residence permit?

You must attach a €14.62 electronic revenue stamp to your application form and pay another €30 when posting your registered letter.

If you are applying for a residence permit valid for more than 90 days, you are also required to bear the cost of the electronic residence permit by paying the amount of € 27.50 using a pre-printed paying-in slip, plus an additional fee ranging from € 80.00 to € 200.00 to cover issuing costs. The terms of payment of the fee prescribed for the electronic permit were established by decree of 6^th October 2011 issued by the Ministry of Finance in concert with Ministry of Interior.

The Post Office Kit

The residence permit kit is available at any Italian post office. It consists of an envelope (with a yellow stripe for non-EU nationals and a blue stripe for EU nationals) which contains two forms and a list of instructions.

Completion of the first form is compulsory. As for the second form, you must only fill it out if you have a regular income or if you are applying for a residence permit for work.
If you need to apply for a residence permit for your family members, you must post an envelope and a completed application form for each one of them (except for your children if they are under the age of 14).
After you have filled out the application form, you can hand it in at any one of the post offices providing the 'Sportello Amico' service.

If you entered Italy with a visa for family reunification or employment you have to go to the Immigration Desk -'Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione' - set up in every Italian province at the 'Prefettura', as provided for by the circular letter of 7th December 2006. In this case, a clerk will complete your application, that you must post by registered mail.

If you don't have a kit

If you don't have a kit, you can complete the application for the first issue or renewal of a residence permit free of charge at the 'Patronati' or at the municipalities providing this service. Staff working in these offices will assist you in the completion of your application and then you will simply have to post it by registered mail.

What to do after posting your application form

The receipt you get from the post office replaces the "receipt slip" that was formerly handed to applicants by the 'Questura'. The receipt of registered post together with the original of your expired residence permit or entry visa, if it is the first issue, will allow you to travel to your own country in specific periods of the year determined and regulated by immigration authorities.

Upon submitting your application to the post office counter you will receive a slip asking you to report to the Questura on a given date, bringing your photographs. If this is your first time in Italy, you will be fingerprinted, too.

The electronic residence permit is a magnetic card similar to a credit card which contains a microchip and a machine-readable magnetic stripe in which the card holder's personal details, photograph and fingerprints are stored in digital format.