Just arrived in Italy: the three things to do, in order

Your first days in Italy are the ones where most mistakes are made, and also the ones that count the most: there is a deadline of eight working days that starts the moment you enter, and it does not wait for you to find a home, understand the language or recover from the journey.

There are three things to do, and they go in this order.

First: which is your route

The first step is not the same for everyone. It depends on how you entered Italy.

You entered with	Your first step
A visa for employed work (quota decree, with clearance)	The immigration one-stop shop, together with your employer
A visa for family reunification (with clearance)	The immigration one-stop shop
Other reasons: study, self-employment, medical care, elective residence…	Straight to the authorised post offices: step 1 does not apply to you

If you are not sure which row is yours, look at the visa in your passport: the reason is written there. If the visa mentions a nulla osta (clearance) with a number, your route goes through the one-stop shop. The clearance exists only for employed work and for family reunification: for every other reason there is none, and there is no step at the Prefettura either.

Even before that: whoever hosts you has 48 hours

There is one obligation that comes before all the others and that is not yours: it belongs to whoever gives you a roof.

Article 7 of the immigration consolidated act states that anyone who gives lodging to or hosts a non-EU citizen — even a relative, even for a few days, even for free — must give written notice within forty-eight hours to the local public security authority. It is the dichiarazione di ospitalità, the hosting declaration. It also applies to whoever rents or sells you a home.

• Who files it: the owner, the tenant, the relative, the friend — whoever is hosting you. Not you.
• By when: forty-eight hours from when you take possession of the accommodation.
• Where: at the police headquarters or the local police station; where there is no police office, at the municipality. Many police headquarters also accept it by certified email: the form and the address are on the website of your province's questura.
• If they do not: there is an administrative fine, payable by the host, and it applies for each person not declared.

Tell whoever hosts you on the very day you arrive: almost nobody knows about it, and the fine goes to them, not to you. And there is one more reason to file it: a copy of that declaration will be useful later, when you have to tell the municipality on what basis you occupy the home in your declaration of residence.

1. The one-stop shop, within eight working days

The Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione is an office inside the Prefettura, the Government office in every provincial capital. There is one in every province, and the one that matters for you is the one that issued your clearance — not necessarily the one in the town where you now live.

• Employed work. You go there together with your employer and you sign the contratto di soggiorno, the residence contract in which the employer commits to your accommodation and to your return costs. The residence permit application starts from there.
• Family reunification. You go there yourself, and the one-stop shop fills in and hands you the form for the residence permit application.

Not showing up is not a fixable oversight: whoever does not report to the one-stop shop within the deadline is considered irregularly present on Italian territory. It is the most important passage in this whole guide.

What to bring

• Your passport with the entry visa.
• The summons or letter from the one-stop shop, if you received one.
• The clearance number.
• For work: your employer, in person, with their documents.

2. The kit at the authorised post offices

The residence permit application is filed with a pack called the kit, and it is sent from an authorised post office — not from every post office: they are the ones with the Sportello Amico desk. You collect the kit there, free of charge, and fill it in before going back to send it.

The deadline is the same: eight working days from entry. Working days means Sundays and public holidays do not count — but it is not a margin to rely on: it is a short deadline, and offices have their queues.

The one thing never to lose

When you send it, the post office gives you a receipt with a number. That receipt is your document until the permit arrives: it proves the application was filed in time, it is needed to register with the municipality, your employer needs it, your bank needs it. Make two photocopies straight away, and a photo on your phone.

The receipt also carries the tracking code used to follow the application on the State Police website, and to find out the date of your appointment at the police headquarters for fingerprints.

The costs

The cost is not a single figure: it is made of several items — the revenue stamp, the permit contribution, the postage, the cost of the electronic permit. The amounts change over time and change with the type and length of the permit: ask at the counter or check the Ministry website before you go, and be wary of anyone who quotes them from memory.

3. The declaration of residence at the municipality

The third thing is telling the municipality where you live that you live there. It is called the declaration of residence and it puts you into the register of the resident population.

Things you need straight away depend on it: the Italian identity card, certificates, enrolment in the National Health Service and therefore a family doctor, enrolling your children at school.

The good news: you do not have to wait for the residence permit. Those waiting for a first permit for employed work or for family reunification register by attaching the receipt of the application together with the other documents. It is written in annex A of the ministerial form — one more reason not to lose that receipt.

The form is long and full of boxes. Our guide to the declaration of residence explains it field by field, and in the guided forms you fill it in by answering simple questions in your own language.

Once you have residence, it is not over

• At every renewal of your residence permit you must go back to the municipality and renew the declaration of habitual residence, within sixty days. It is not a formality: if you do not, six months after the permit expires the municipality can remove you from the register. We wrote a separate guide about it.
• Check that your name is written the same way everywhere — passport, residence permit, tax code, health card. If you are Filipino this concerns you closely, because of the middle name: there is a guide for that too.

The mistakes that cost the most time

• Counting the days from the wrong moment. The eight working days start from your entry into Italy, not from when you find a home or sign a contract.
• Going to just any post office. The kit is only sent from authorised offices: ask first, or lose a day.
• Turning up at the one-stop shop without your employer, when the reason is employed work: the residence contract is signed by two people.
• Losing the receipt. It is the document that keeps you in order until the permit arrives.
• Postponing residence while waiting for the permit. With the receipt you can do it straight away, and every month of waiting is a month less of registered residence — which counts for the long-term permit and for citizenship.

This guide covers the national procedure. Each Prefettura, each police headquarters and each municipality has its own hours, its own appointments and sometimes an extra document: their websites are where to check the details. If your situation is unusual, a CAF, a patronato or the one-stop shop itself can look at it with you.