The CIE: dealing with public offices yourself, without paying for SPID

Since 3 August 2026 paper identity cards are no longer valid, even if the date printed on them is later. If you still have one, you must ask your municipality for the electronic identity card — the CIE, the blue one with a chip inside.

It is worth changing for a reason that goes beyond the card in your pocket. With the CIE you log into public administration websites and do by yourself many of the things you now take time off work and queue for. And since 2026, while SPID has become a paid service almost everywhere, the CIE has no yearly fee: you pay once, when you get it.

What you can do by yourself, logging in with the CIE

• Registry certificates, free of charge. Residence, family status, birth, citizenship, civil status: you download them from the national registry portal, for yourself or for a member of your family. They are free, they need no stamp duty, and you can print them at home.
• Change of residence. The declaration is filed online from the same portal, whether you move to another municipality or to another address in the same one.
• INPS. Applications, the status of your files, your contribution record, the single allowance, unemployment benefits.
• ISEE. The pre-filled declaration is made on the INPS website, logging in with the CIE.
• Pre-filled tax return (730). On the Revenue Agency website: you look at it, correct it and send it.
• Electronic health record. Reports, prescriptions, exemptions, choosing your doctor.
• Your municipality's website. Waste tax, nursery fees, school meals, rent contributions: nearly all municipalities now use the same digital identity.

Why it is worth more now: SPID costs money

Until 2025 SPID was free for almost everybody. Since 2026 the main providers have introduced a yearly fee. Poste Italiane, which issued most Italian SPIDs, charges 6 euros a year including VAT from the second year: if you do not pay by the deadline, access to SPID services is suspended until you do. Other providers ask for similar amounts, between 5 and 10 euros a year.

The CIE, on the other hand, has no yearly fee. You pay once when you request it at the municipality, and it lasts ten years.

Careful: some providers are still free, and some people are exempt. Before letting your SPID expire, check on your own provider's website what they ask of you.

You can have it even if you are not an Italian citizen

Yes. The identity card is issued by the municipality where you are registered, and it is issued to foreign residents too.

• For non-EU citizens the card is issued «not valid for travel abroad»: it works as an identity document in Italy, not for travelling. For travelling there is the passport.
• If your residence permit has expired but you have already applied for renewal, the identity card can still be issued or renewed. Bring the receipt of your application.

How to get it

1. Book an appointment at the municipality where you live. Ask well in advance: in some cities the wait is weeks.
2. Bring: a passport photo (also on a USB stick), your old document or the police report if you lost it, your health card, and your residence permit or the renewal receipt.
3. Pay 16.79 euros plus the municipal fees: in many municipalities the total is around 22 euros.
4. Wait: it arrives within six working days, at the address you choose or at the town hall.

Keep the two codes they give you, the PIN and the PUK: they are the two halves of the code you need to use the card online.

How you actually log in

• With your phone. You install the CieID app, hold the card against the phone once to activate it, and from then on you log in by scanning a QR code.
• With email and password. Once your digital identity is active you can log in with email, password and a code sent by SMS, without the card with you.
• With a computer. You need a smart card reader and the Ministry's software.

Your phone needs NFC, the same thing used to pay with a smartphone. Almost every recent phone has it.

The CIE also signs documents

With the CieSign app the card becomes an advanced electronic signature tool: you sign a PDF with the card and your PIN, without buying a digital signature.

You can use it to sign forms for public offices, private contracts between you and another person, a power of attorney or a declaration — without printing, signing by hand and scanning.

What this signature does not do. It is not the «qualified digital signature» sold by certification providers: some procedures require that one specifically. If a form asks for a qualified signature, the CIE signature is not enough.

Two warnings, and they matter

Never give your codes to anybody. With the PIN and the card someone gets to where your money, your pension and your health data are. No public office will ever ask you for the PIN by phone or on WhatsApp.

If somebody asks you to use their digital identity, or asks for yours, stop. Using someone else's identity on public websites is not a shortcut: it is a problem, and the problem stays with whoever lent the identity.

If you cannot manage on your own

That is perfectly fine. Doing it yourself is an option, not a duty: advice centres, patronati and municipal desks exist for this, and for many procedures their help costs little or nothing. What changes, with the CIE in your pocket, is that you choose when to go.