16 January 2007

Applying for Residenza...with some problems

This morning we went to the Anagrafe officio to apply for Residenza here in Ascoli Piceno. We have been in Italy for eight months but had not applied when we were in Anzio as we knew we did not want to stay there long term. Once we moved to Ascoli we waited to actually get our Permesso di Saggiorno from Roma Provincia and then we had the holidays and visitors.

The office is located here in the centro and when we arrived we had to wait for the man who handles the Residenza to return to his office. Fortunately he was a pleasant gentleman to deal with as he advised us that we needed to provide translated copies of our birth and marriage certificates but he filled out the forms and began the process of our application advising that the Polizia would come by our apartment within a week to verify where we lived. We inquired as to why we needed the birth and marriage certificates translated as other expats we know were not required to provide those documents. He explained that each comune and provincia sets their own requirements; it is not a universal process in Italia. Fortunately he did not just tell us to come back when we had everything but the process has been started.

We do not have to obtain the Residenza but it is beneficial to us in that we can now register with the Italian healthcare system, it provides tax benefits and allows us to apply for a carta d’identita which is an all in one identification card (verses carrying our passports and permesso di saggiorno). Now we wait for the Polizia to visit and begin the process for getting the necessary document translations.

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