Declaration of residence in Italy: the form explained field by field

If you have moved house — you arrived from abroad, you came from another municipality, or you simply moved to a different street in the same town — you must tell the registry office (anagrafe) of the municipality where you now live. You do it with a single form, the same across Italy, called dichiarazione di residenza, the declaration of residence.

This guide explains when to file it, how to fill it in, what to attach if you are not an Italian citizen, how long the municipality takes and what happens if something does not add up.

What residence is, and why it matters

Your residence is the municipality where you have your habitual dwelling: where you actually live, not where you receive post or hold a contract. The municipality checks it, usually by sending a local police officer to your address.

Very concrete things depend on it: the identity card, registry certificates, enrolment in the National Health Service and choosing a family doctor, enrolling your children at school, the address on your driving licence. It is also the basis of longer paths, such as the EU long-term residence permit or the application for citizenship by residence, where what counts is how long you have been registered without interruption.

When the declaration is needed

The form covers five situations, and the first thing to do is tick the right one:

• You come from another Italian municipality. You must name the municipality you come from. Cancelling you from the old registry is the offices' job, not yours.
• You come from abroad. You must name the foreign country you come from.
• You are an Italian citizen registered with AIRE — the registry of Italians resident abroad — and you are coming back.
• You moved within the same municipality. Moving from one street to another in the same town must be declared too.
• Registration for another reason, to be written out.

How to file it

You are not obliged to go to the counter. The declaration can be filed in four ways: at the registry office of the municipality where you are going to live; by registered post; by fax; or online.

Filing online is valid only under one of these conditions: the declaration is signed with a digital signature; you are identified with the electronic identity card or the national services card, or another tool that identifies who is declaring; it is sent from your certified email box (PEC); or you sign the form by hand, scan it and send it by ordinary email.

Every municipality must publish on its own website the exact addresses to send it to — postal address, email, fax number. Look for them there before you send anything: the wrong address means lost days.

Who goes on the form

One person fills the form in, the applicant, but it also covers whoever is moving with them.

• The first part is for the applicant's own details.
• Then there is space for the family members moving in together: for each of them the same details are required, plus their relationship to the applicant.
• The applicant also fills it in for the people in their parental responsibility or guardianship: in practice, minor children.
• All adult members sign the form, and a copy of an identity document must be attached for each of them.

If you come from abroad and want the family relationship to be recorded — that you are husband and wife, that this is your child — you must attach the documents that prove it, translated and legalised as required. Without them the municipality records you as people living together, not as a family, and the certificates you can ask for will be different.

The fields, and those little stars

Each field on the form carries one, two or three asterisks. They are not decoration: they tell you what happens if you leave it empty.

Mark	What it means
*	Mandatory. If it is missing the application is not even admissible: the municipality does not register it. These are the basic personal details (surname, name, date and place of birth, sex, citizenship, tax code) and the new address.
**	Statistical data. Marital status, occupation, education. They do not block the application, but the form asks for them: they feed population statistics.
***	Driving licence and vehicles. They are of interest to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (article 116, paragraph 11 of the Highway Code): they are used to update the address on your licence and on your vehicle documents. If you hold an Italian licence and a car, filling them in saves you a separate procedure.

Write the new address in full and precisely: municipality, province, street or square, house number, then staircase, floor and flat number. These are the details someone will use to find your doorbell.

The right to occupy the home: where most mistakes happen

Since 2014 you must also declare on what basis you occupy the home. This is the most delicate part of the form, because article 5 of decree-law 47/2014 (converted into law 80/2014) states that if the declaration is untrue the registration is void, from the very day you filed it: as if you had never made it.

1. Owner: the land registry details of the property are required (section, sheet, parcel, sub-unit). They are on your purchase deed or on a land registry search.
2. Holder of a rental contract registered with the Revenue Agency: office, date and registration number. They are on the registration receipt. An unregistered rental contract is not accepted.
3. Holder of a public housing contract: attach a copy of the contract or of the handover report.
4. Borrower for use (free loan of the home) with a registered contract: office, date and registration number.
5. Usufructuary: give the details of the deed.
6. Any other lawful basis: written out by hand, with the details that let the office check it.

Box 6 is the one that concerns many people living in a room rented from whoever holds the lease, or hosted by a relative. Writing "guest" is not enough: you have to say who holds the contract or owns the home and on what basis you occupy it — usually with a hosting declaration signed by the person hosting you. If you do not know what to write, ask the registry office first: better one extra question than a wrong declaration.

If you are not an Italian citizen: what to attach

Citizens of countries outside the European Union

There is one extra rule for you: registration happens only if you produce the documents showing that your stay is lawful. The form covers four situations.

• You hold a valid residence permit: copy of a valid passport (or equivalent document) and copy of the valid permit.
• Your permit has expired and you are renewing it: copy of the valid passport, copy of the expired permit and the receipt of the renewal application. Waiting for a renewal does not stop you from declaring your residence.
• You are waiting for your first permit for employed work: copy of the passport, copy of the residence contract signed at the immigration one-stop shop, the post office receipt of the permit application and the application filed with the one-stop shop.
• You are waiting for a permit for family reunification: copy of the passport, post office receipt of the permit application and a photocopy of the clearance issued by the one-stop shop.

In all four cases, if you want the family relationship with those moving with you to be recorded, you must also attach the original civil status documents, translated and legalised.

Citizens of the European Union

EU citizens attach different documents depending on their situation: employed or self-employed worker, person with sufficient own resources, student, or family member of an EU citizen. Those who do not work also need health insurance valid for at least one year and a declaration of sufficient economic resources, benchmarked to the social allowance. Careful: the amounts printed on the form date back several years; the figure is updated annually, so ask the registry office or check an up-to-date source.

How long the municipality takes

• the registrar records the declaration within two working days;
• the effects, however, run from the day you filed it, not from the day it was recorded;
• from then the municipality has 45 days to check that you really live there and that the requirements are met;
• if 45 days pass and nobody tells you anything, your registration is deemed confirmed. This is silenzio-assenso: the silence of the office counts as a yes.

In the meantime you are already resident. If you come from another municipality, until your complete data arrive from the previous one, the new municipality can issue your residence certificate and family status certificate limited to what it already has on record.

If something goes wrong

If the check is negative — they do not find you at home, a requirement is missing, the basis for occupying the home does not hold — the office must write to you before deciding. From the day you receive that letter you have 10 days to reply in writing and attach documents. It is a right under article 10-bis of law 241/1990, and it is worth using: many cases are saved by an explanation and one more piece of paper.

If your observations are not accepted, the municipality restores the previous registry position retroactively: the new residence is cancelled as if it had never existed.

An untrue declaration is not a slip: articles 75 and 76 of presidential decree 445/2000 provide for the loss of everything obtained through that declaration and for criminal liability, and the municipality reports the discrepancy to the public security authorities.

The mistakes that cost the most time

• Leaving a starred field empty: the application is not admissible and you start again.
• Forgetting a copy of the identity document, yours or that of an adult family member moving with you.
• Not having all adults sign the form.
• Writing the rental contract details from memory instead of copying them from the registration receipt.
• Not being found at home: if nobody answers when the local police call, the check can end badly. If you work all day, say so at the registry office and leave a phone number in the contact box.
• Sending the declaration to an email address found at random instead of the one published by the municipality.

The guided form in Bahay Italia

The form is the same throughout Italy, but it is long, it exists only in Italian and it uses words nobody says out loud. That is why Bahay Italia has a guided form: simple questions in your own language, every field explained as you fill it in, the details we already know filled in for you, everything shown back to you to read and correct, and at the end the official form already completed, ready to print, sign and hand in. You find it under Forms in your personal area, once you have signed up. We never ask you to upload a scan: you bring the copies to the counter yourself.

This guide covers the national procedure. Each municipality may ask for a few extra attachments and has its own hours and addresses: your municipality's website is where to check the details. If your situation is unusual, a CAF, a patronato or the registry office itself can look at it with you before you sign.