Permesso di Soggiorno – The Wait

From the last post on this subject, you might recall that today was our “correct” day to go back for our permesso di soggiorno/i. (We weren’t successful the first time because were not prepared to wait 4+ hours.) Today we arrived at about 9:10am and already the place was packed. There was some initial confusion about which line to get into but showing our letters (and the fact that we missed the first assigned date) put us in a line to get a “C” ticket. Last time it was a “B” ticket. But, oh, someone must pull the ticket from the machine and hand it to you. I guess it makes sense because there is so much pushing and shoving and confusion, people would just be taking one of every ticket to cover their options and the machine would probably break. So we got tickets C401 and C402. They were currently serving C318.

So we sat and read and chatted. Then around 1:15pm our number got called, we went together and the clerk was fine to process us at the same time. For us since we filled out the kit properly (I guess) the clerk only had to see 1) our letter summoning us 2) our passport and 3) 4 passport-sized photos. It’s odd because the letter summoning us made it sound like we were missing all sorts of information. Maybe that’s because people come to these appointments (a term used loosely here) without having filled out the yellow kit? Who knows?

After about 5-10 minutes for both of us the clerk sent us to window 17-18 around the corner to finish the processing. Silly us, we thought that we would get something like a card all laminated and stuff, hehehe. No such doings. We each got called up and they take all of your fingerprints electronically on this little glass surface, one-at-a-time. She kept yelling at me “schiacciate!” (press!) – ciao bella, I am pressing. Frustrated, she had me rub hands together. That seemed to work. Then you sign something attached to your photos and the big finale, drum roll please, you are handed a piece of paper telling you when to return for you card (see attached). For us it is August 20th. We’ll have been gone for several months. Oops.

We were wondering if we should have told them we were leaving soon. You can try it, but we were guessing it would not speed up anything. So that’s it.

Lessons:
-->Your letter is key, don’t lose it, and perhaps even make a photocopy of it.
-->Get there early (questura opens at 8:30am? – verify!), yes we knew that but were a bit leisurely with our breakfast and with restaurant hours (going to bed at 1:00am) we weren’t too eager to jump out of bed.
--> Bring work to do or books to read.
--> There are restrooms there but hope your quads are strong.
--> Numbers start going quicker later in the day so be careful leaving and thinking they won’t reach your number that quickly.
--> You can walk in and out of the place, but bring your ticket and letter to be on the safe side.
--> Remember it’s the journey not the soggiorno.

Questura – Going for the Permesso di Soggiorno

Our appointments for the permesso di soggiorno were today at 11:50 and 11:55am. The office is located at Via della Fortezza, 17 – near the Fortezza da Basso. Our thinking was that we would show some courtesy and show up 10 minutes early and everything would go fine. Well, we arrived took numbers B219 and B220 and walked into a large room of 200+ other people waiting. A glance at the ticket board indicated that they were serving B153. It took 10 minutes to get to B154. Some quick math indicated that we could be waiting as long as 10 hours. In reality, probably more like 3 hours. However, we had other things to do.

When you walk into the Questura, you stop at the sportello (glass window) and show the person there your letter. That person hands you a ticket. If you can’t make the date your letter has indicated, you can’t just show up the next day. You have to consult a table and figure out the next appropriate day to come. It works like this: you pick the column in the table (see photo) that corresponds to the date you were summoned. Then you choose the row based on what month you were summoned. That indicates the week and day of the next month you are to return. So for April 28th then next return date is venerdi (Friday) of the 2nd settimana del mese (the 2nd week of the month) = May 16th. Complicated?

Lesson: regardless of the time you ticket shows, we would recommend going earlier unless you don't mind waiting. In the least, bring something to do. If the "guard" won't give you a ticket because you are too early - tell him you have an appointment and need to get through early?

We called it off and went for a little stroll and a bollito sandwich. I guess we’ll return on the 16th very early to pull a number. Maybe we’ll bring some knitting. We might try this afternoon after 3pm. The office takes lunch between 2 and 3 we were told.

Permesso di Soggornio – Questura Letter

One of these letters arrived for each of us at the school. It is an appointment sometime next April (!) for a 5 minute slot with an official. We must bring some documentation and fill out another module. Hmm, not sure we will even be here in Florence. The letter:

Oggetto: Convocazione per integrazione pratica e fotosegnalemento.

In riferimento all Sua richiesta di rilascio/rinnovo del permess/carta di soggiorno, Le comunichiamo che risulta carente della sequente documentazione:

• 4 fototessere su fondo bianco


• tutti i documenti in originale per il rilascio/rinnovo del permesso di soggiorno


• passaporto l’orginale


• questa stessa convocazione

Elenco documenti mancanti:

• Istanza 209 Modulo 2


• Fotocopia della documentazione attestante il possesso di risorse economiche, proprietà immobiliari, e assegni pensione

La predetta documentazione dovrà essere prodotta presso:
Questura – Ufficio Immigrazione sito in Via della Fortezza 17, 50129. Il giorno xx/xx/xx alle ore 11:55.

Per cui dovrà pressentare:

• questa stessa lettera di convacazione


• 4 fotografie in formato tessera e fondo bianco


• passaporto in corso di validità


• originali dei documenti allegati alla richiesta di rilascio/rinnovo

Distinti saluti,
Il Dirigente,
Ufficio Immigrazione

Submitting the Permesso Di Soggiorno

At the language school, an assistant gave us the final bit of information we needed to get the permesso di soggiorno submitted. Here is the list she gave us that helped:

1. moduli compilati
2. fotocopia di tutto il passaporto
3. fotocopia certificato scuola debitamente timbrato dall’Ambrasciata o Consolato
4. fotocopia assicurazione
5. fotocopia disponibilità economica
6. ricevuta pagamento bollettino di 27,50
7. marca da bollo da 14,62 da applicare sul modulo 1 di prima pagina

Item 1: Is all of module 1. The yellow kit comes with two modules, we only filled out module 1. The second module is for working in Italy. For module 1 only the first 3 pages had anything on them, but we submitted the empty pages too. 8 sheets of paper total.

Item 2: Copy of all pages of the passport – even blank ones. Do full sized copies, not ½ sized pages. We did that and there was some question about it (but they accepted it), so stick to full to be on the safe side. A typical passport will have 24 pages, when you put 2 pages per copy it comes out to 13 photocopies (because of back and front cover pages), so 13 sheets of paper total.

Item 3: We did not do this because we are not on a student Visa.

Item 4: Proof of insurance. We copied a sheet demonstrating our travel health insurance plus our regular health insurance card (now on Cobra). 2 sheets of paper total.

Item 5: Proof of economic means. We scanned a credit card and a letter from our financial institution. 2 sheets of paper total.

Item 6: This is a payment receipt. We did not have this and the assistant gave us the form. You can get it at the post office I’m guessing. This form is three connected receipts where you fill out your name and address three times. The three pieces are later separated. One piece becomes your receipt, one goes into the permesso package, the other stays with the post office. You count the receipt as 1 sheet of paper.

Item 7: You unpeel the marca da bollo (like self-adheseive stamp) and stick it to the front page of module 1 in the space provided. You can buy these a tobacco shops with a black sign that have a certain term on the sig…I forgot the term, maybe “valorati”?

When you count all the pages (in our case 26) you write this in the space provided on page 1 of module 1. The number of pages is important. Then you got to the correct post office (not all will accept the completed kit) and submit the kit. In Firenze, the central post office on Via Pellicceria near Piazza della Repubblica is one of the offices to do it at. We were past the 8 days allowed, but not sure it’s that big of a deal. When you enter the post office on Via Pellicceria first notice what a beautiful building it is and then take a ticket for the “amico sportello” / the friendly(?) window and wait to be called. In our case it was immediately even though the post office literally had 100+ people waiting. We had to go separately to submit our kits, but went one after the other. Each of us handed over the yellow kit envelope with just the items listed above. Remember to remove all the instruction pages that come with the kit. You pay 27,50 euro plus another 30 euro and after a flurry of writing and vigorous stamping you get a couple of receipts – one is essentially your temporary permesso di soggiorno. What a precious receipt because it is necessary for us to stay here legally! The real permesso di soggiorno card may come long after we leave, but that’s okay.