Registration, banking and utilities in Bologna

Codice fiscale

The codice fiscale is free and attributed at the counter, and the Agenzia delle Entrate lets you book an appointment rather than queue. A foreign national requests it on form AA4/8 at any Agenzia delle Entrate ufficio territoriale, with a valid passport or identity document and the visa where one is required, or with an identity attestation from their embassy or consulate. If you arrive on a work or family-reunification permit you will usually already hold a provisional code issued by the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the Prefettura, replaced by a definitive one when the residence permit is applied for.

• Asylum applicants have the code requested for them by the Questura.

The permit, or the EU registration

Non-EU arrivals must apply for the permesso di soggiorno within eight working days of entering Italy, by handing in the yellow kit postale at a Poste Italiane Sportello Amico counter. The post office issues the receipt and books the Questura appointment for fingerprinting, and that receipt is what proves lawful stay in the meantime. EU citizens intending to stay more than three months register at the anagrafe of the comune where they live instead. Where the basis is employment the file needs one proof of it — a recent payslip, an INPS contribution receipt, the hiring notice to the Centro per l'impiego, or a contract carrying the employer's INPS and INAIL identifiers; otherwise it needs proof of sufficient resources, measured against the INPS assegno sociale, and health insurance covering all risks, for which an EHIC does not count once you are resident.

The residence declaration, and where it goes

The declaration is filed digitally, either on the Comune's own online form or on ANPR, the interior ministry's national register, using SPID, CIE or CNS; alternatively it can be emailed to the anagrafe address of the quartiere you are moving into — Borgo Panigale-Reno, Navile, Porto-Saragozza, San Donato-San Vitale, Santo Stefano or Savena. The Ufficio Atti Migratori at Piazza Maggiore 6 keeps the register but is not open to the public, so there is no central counter to queue at. The file is the dichiarazione di residenza, an identity document and codice fiscale for every adult moving with you, and proof that you are entitled to occupy the address; non-EU applicants add the permesso di soggiorno, or the evidence that one is pending. Occupying a property without title bars you from residenza and from connecting utilities, so the lease has to be real and registered.

• A move must be declared within twenty days. Residence runs from the day you file, and the Comune has forty-five days to verify; hear nothing in that time and the registration stands.
• Put your surname on the doorbell and the letterbox before the address check, and be reachable.
• The document list differs for EU and non-EU applicants and the Comune publishes both, with translations in English, French, Arabic, Chinese and Urdu.

The order, and what follows

The workable sequence is codice fiscale, then the signed and registered lease, then the residence declaration, then SSN registration and the tessera sanitaria, with the bank account and the utility contracts alongside. Each step is the evidence for the next, which is why doing them out of order stalls. An EU driving licence stays valid after you become resident and does not need to be exchanged, though you may exchange it voluntarily, and old-style EU licences must be swapped by 2033 at the latest.

• Non-EU licence holders should confirm the conversion rule and its deadline with the authorities directly, because it turns on the reciprocity agreement with the issuing country.
• If your EU licence has unlimited validity, check whether Italy requires you to replace it after two years of residence — the exception exists in EU law and is applied nationally.
• What an Italian bank wants from a foreign customer varies by branch. Ask what the document list is before you book the appointment.
• TARI, the waste charge, and the utility contracts sit outside the lease. Ask the landlord who declares what, and by when.

In order

1. 1Request the codice fiscale on form AA4/8 as soon as you land, or use the provisional one issued at the Prefettura.
2. 2Non-EU: lodge the kit postale at a Sportello Amico counter within eight working days and keep the receipt.
3. 3EU: assemble proof of work — a payslip, an INPS receipt or a contract with its INPS and INAIL codes — or proof of resources and full health insurance.
4. 4Make sure the lease is registered and get the Agenzia delle Entrate receipt.
5. 5Assemble the residence file: the dichiarazione di residenza, proof of your right to occupy the address, and ID plus codice fiscale for every adult.
6. 6File it online with SPID or CIE, or on ANPR, or email it to your quartiere's anagrafe address.
7. 7Be reachable at the address for the forty-five-day check.
8. 8Register with AUSL Bologna and choose a medico di base.
9. 9Set up SPID or CIE, because school enrolment and most public services need one.