[Caveat: this information was valid for Florence and as of mid-March 2006. I urge you to check with your local Questura for any differences or changes from what I experienced in Florence.]
There is a lot of talk online about the paperwork hassles and nightmarishly lone lines awaiting those foolish enough to think they can deal with the Italian bureaucracy, particularly for foreigners wanting to stay for an extended period of time in Italy. I am here to tell you that this simply isn’t true – at least it wasn’t for me at any rate.
Unlike some Americans I’ve spoken with who had “a friend with friend who knew somebody” I had to go to the local Questura (police station) in Florence to get my permesso di soggiorno per stranieri, my “foreigner’s permit to stay” longer than the “normal time” allotted to tourists (whatever that is).
First, the permesso is NOT a visa, which is in fact attached to your passport and which one needs to apply for at the Italian consulate nearest your place of legal residence. Visas are required by most schools – private language schools are an exception apparently – so this is something you will need to arrange in advance of travel, assuming your school program did not make the visa arrangements for you. There are in fact agencies such as Study Abroad, which, for a fee, will take care of all the necessary paperwork.
As for long-stay tourists visas are not required. One can by law remain in the Italy traveling for a maximum of 90 days. But you must get a permesso, which is essentially a form of registration with the local police. To do this one must check in with the police within 8 days of arrival to a particular city. Assuming you have the paperwork in hand when you go and apply for the permesso it might be another month before you actually get the permesso from the Questura! Moreover, it remains unclear what you are is supposed to do if you were only go to be in a city for a few days before moving on to the next city and so on and so on. I suppose that since most “extended stay” tourists remain in one location for an “extended period of time”, whatever that means, one should register with the local police.
In some places, landlords for example and most schools, need to ensure they are protected from the vagaries of Italian law by making sure that their tenants or students are themselves complying with those laws. In the case of most schools this is all done for the student – as noted above. In the case of those of us just spending some quality time in Italy it is up to us to do the leg- and paperwork.
Since my wife had enrolled in a year-long pastry and baking program at a school in Florence we knew we were going to be living in the city for some time and that we would be faced with the need to deal with the Italian bureaucracy. In my wife’s case she had to apply for her student visa back in the US – while the school here in Florence would take care of getting the permesso. For me, however, I had to go to the local Questura myself. Fortunately, the agency through which we rented our apartment in Florence provided us with a list of the documents I would need to bring along. These consisted of the following: (1) a copy of rental contract with the necessary local stamps; (2) marca da bolla stamp, available from any tabacchi shop for 14 euros and change; (3) 3 passport sized photos; (4) the permesso application form (blue) available at the Questura; (5) copy of passport; (6) evidence of health care insurance for the time you are in Italy; and (7) and evidence of “means of support”, in other words photocopies of your credit card.
Once I had gotten all my paperwork together and my photos taken I headed over to the Questura’s office on San Gallo, an easy 10-minute walk from our apartment. Having scouted out the place the day before I noted that it seemed to be somewhat chaotic at the one small doorway into the building,at Via San Gallo, 81-83 and that a couple of vaguely-defined lines formed close to the entrance where a policeman guarded the door and who would occasionally call out names. What was this all about, I asked myself? Well I observed for a few minutes and soon noticed a woman walking up to the policeman, ask him something – and in reply he pointed around the corner and off she went and so I followed. No I don’t know why but I’m glad I did. Sure enough the Questura’s main entrance was on the other side of the building, on Via Zara, 2.
So the following day I arrived at the Questura about 15 or 20 minutes before it opened and already the line was halfway down the block. After standing in a light rain, the doors opened on time and in we went. As we entered the main lobby a policeman handed each of us a number and we were off, rather like the flood tide, sweeping everything before us, into the main interview room, which really consisted of two blocks of booths, lining two walls, rather like betting booths at the racetrack actually, with rows of chairs lining the other two walls and also in the middle. And very quickly this room was packed with foreigners of all shapes, sizes, colors and apparently problems.
And since it was also the waiting room it was there that we waited and waited and waited. . . I looked up at the electronic number board and it read 343; I then glanced down at my number which read 771 and wondered to myself how long this was going to take. I soon figured out that in fact the only numbers that mattered were the last two digits so with a sigh of relief I sat down to wait my turn.
I had the foresight to bring reading material with me and of course just watching others of my species is a fascinating way to pass time too. Eventually my number was called and I shoved my paperwork under the glass partition and a couple of minutes and 20 or 30 stamps later I was given a little piece of paper and informed that I had to return on the date and time noted on the receipt to pick up my permesso. Off I went.
So I returned on the scheduled day and this time I went to the Via San Gallo entrance but there was hardly anyone there – maybe because it was late afternoon -- and even though I was early I went right in and was given my permesso with a smile and an arrivederci and home I went. It was really that simple.
So why was this not a trying time?
First my “papers were in order” (I’ve been wanting to say that) and second I didn’t have any really serious immigration issue to present. In fact, had I chosen to get to the Questura an hour or so earlier on the day I submitted my paperwork I would have likely gotten a much lower number and my wait inside would have been significantly less as well. The Questura opens at 8:30 am and will take applications until noon or maybe 2:30. But the important thing is to get there early.
In any case, the pickup went smoothly and so there you have it. And now so do I.
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