Italian citizen travelling to Italy without their Italian passport
Hello. Hope this is the right sub to ask!
My partner and I are travelling to Italy in a couple of weeks. He is an Italian citizen (born and registered in Italy) but he has never had an Italian passport. In fact he didn’t even know he was a citizen until a couple of years ago.
He will be flying into Italy with his non Italian passport. Will this be an issue at all? We know you are advised to travel into Italy with an Italian passport but he doesn’t have one.
An Italian passport cannot be requested when in Italy as he would need to register residency there which would cancel his AIRE and he would then have to register again once we go home. It took over a year for his registration to be finalised last time.
This is incorrect. Where did you get this infirmation? Any police headquarters authorized to issue passports can do so. Once the application has been submitted, the office requests the nulla osta (clearance) from your relevant consulate and then issues it to you (it usually takes a couple of days and generally less than a week). You could also request a temporary passport if needed. Keep in mind that this is an Italian citizen, and therefore they have all the rights of an Italian citizen. The key point, of course, is to manage the timing properly.
To give a few examples, this is the text on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding passport applications (https://www.esteri.it/en/servizi-consolari-e-visti/italiani-all-estero/documenti_di_viaggio/passaporto/):
“Italian citizens may apply for a passport to be issued at any issuing office, either in Italy or abroad. In particular cases, the passport may be issued by an Office other than the Office of residence. In such cases prior authorisation shall be obtained from the Office (Questura or Consulate) competent for residence. The authorisation shall be express.”
This is what all Italian consulates generally state (for example, the London consulate https://conslondra.esteri.it/en/info-utili/f-a-q/faq-passaporti/):
“I am registered with AIRE. Can I renew my passport in Italy?
Yes you can. Italian citizens residing abroad may request the issuance or renewal of their passport at any competent office in Italy (Questura or Police Headquarters). In such cases, the issuing office must obtain authorization from the Consulate responsible for the applicant’s place of residence. This authorization is normally provided within a week”.
The Embassy of Uzbekistan, which is responsible for Tajikistan, also clearly states (https://ambtashkent.esteri.it/it/servizi-consolari-e-visti/servizi-per-il-cittadino-italiano/documenti-di-viaggio/passaporti/):
“Il passaporto è un documento sia di viaggio che di riconoscimento rilasciato:
in Italia dalle Questure;
all’estero dalle Rappresentanze diplomatico-consolari”.
One needs to present their Tajik passport and proof of Italian citizenship such as the birth certificate (which can also be downloaded from the ANPR website, but which I assume he already has since he’s registered with AIRE).
EDIT
[I saw that you deleted your response to this same message, but this further reply may be useful anyway]
No, in reality nothing has changed in recent years. It is much more likely that the response you received from his birth comune is a typical “Italian-style” answer (which, as Italian citizens, one unfortunately has to get used to). Officials and public servants always do their maximum to achieve their minimum. It can happen that police headquarters, especially smaller ones or those in the town of birth, refuse to handle a first passport application because they do not want to deal with the clearance to be requested from the foreign consulate (it’s extra work for them) and prefer to avoid “complicated” procedures with AIRE. Sometimes it is necessary to go to two or three larger police headquarters (eg, Rome or Milan) to obtain what the ministry/consulates state is a right for Italian citizens (you can contact them in advance, btw). The most straightforward route, of course, remains Tashkent. Italian bureaucracy and the incompetence of public servants is frustrating, made worse by their tendency to refuse to perform actions that would normally be required of them, forcing citizens to fight for the enforcement of circulars and regulations. I suspect that you have dealt with similar problems in Tajikistan too. 🙂 Viva l’Italia…. 🇮🇹
His birth comune questura gave us that information but we haven’t been back in a couple of years so I guess things have changed since then.
Ps. You can take your passive aggressiveness back to where it came from. While some information is useful, some of your points like The Uzbekistan consulate clearly states Italian passports can be issued: in Italy or abroad by the consulate literally applies to all countries and passports. A Spanish passport can be obtained in Spain or at a Spanish consulate, same for a Mexican passport or a British passport.
