Our Trip to the Questure (Italian Immigration Office)
By Lea Altea Winnen August 19,2024
As the title of my blog suggests, I live in Italy. I have a document that let me stay here as a resident called the Permesso Di Soggiorno. For some it is not a hard document to obtain, I am married to an Italian, so it was fairly easy for family members of a citizen. If you are trying to come through other means, it can be difficult, but not as difficult as other countries. If you chose to live off the beaten path, Italy is a wonderful place to live and a great place to raise a family. It does have its draw backs, like not having work in your profession (which is my issue, I will get into more detail on life here and a pro/cons list in a future blog post). For those folks who are interested in living here, my personal experience can give you an idea of what may be expected for you to do to make your dream a reality. If you don’t have any kind of ancestry here, you will need to put in the necessary documents to live and work here. To find out more go to The Immigration Portal (portaleimmigrazione.it).
When I got here, I came on my own with my two sons. My husband stayed behind to finish putting things into storage and preparing the main documents that were needed to complete our ability to stay. Luckily, His parents own a family house, so we have a place to live. It took four and a half months for my husband to join us. My sons and I had to work with his father (who speaks no English) on completing the first steps of the document process. We started in February and had our appointment with the Questure in May the first time. My document only allowed me to stay for one year. My children are citizens, so they did not need all the paperwork that I needed, but they in the begin were added to my documentation, which confused things a bit. I will get it to all that later.
When my year was almost over, I applied in January to renew everything. I was planning on going back to see my family and try to take care of a few things that were not taken care of before. I wanted to return to the USA in the summer and stay for that time, but it turns out that getting an appointment and other things in Italy can take a long time to complete. I filed in January but did not get an appointment until August of this year. I had been speaking with my family in the USA to try and come back in October and stay the holidays with them. I had planned to come back to Italian in January of 2025. My children are young and not in elementary School yet, so this was doable.
We went to the August appointment and found a long line outside. I had to wait for my name to be called. Being it was summer it should have been fine, but it was raining of course. (It had been raining for the first time too). We came by the appointed time (9:42 am), but I guess you need to be available from the time they open (8am), because they said they called me a few times. We had to wait in the rain with two young kids for about an hour and a half. We did not bring an umbrella and there was only a small, covered space to stay out of the rain, which was full. We were not the only ones with kiddos. It was not cold, just wet. My oldest said he had to pee, and of course there was no place for him to go until you got inside the building. We were finally called in. My husband is my translator. As we got to the counter dragging two hungry tired wet boys with us, turns out there were documents and other items that we needed that we did not have. This was a little frustrating since we were not informed what we would need for the appointment beforehand. Trying to entertain two small kids and listening to what we needed to do was difficult. My boys were all over the floor with toy cars. I attempted to keep them confined to a small area, but it was challenging. There was another woman with two boys about their age and it became a toy car parking lot just in front of the counters. We kept an eye out to make sure they were not under foot. Looking around most people seemed amused with the display. They were happy to play together and share their cars. There was some confusion over the boys not having IDs and paperwork due (again something we didn’t know we needed) and I did not have passport pictures. My littles ones were added to my Permesso di Soggiorno, which they should not have been due to the fact they are dual citizens. (So, pay attention mama’s if you plan of bring over your kiddos to live here.) The officer that helped us was patient and kind. She gave us extra time to get the needed documents and pictures. An appointment was made to bring back the other items we needed. Nevertheless, it was stressful. So many people are trying to get their documents taken care of.
The appoint with the Questure opened my eyes to a few things, such as, now I need to get the boys Italian passports before I can go home. They cannot get in and out of the Italian without them. So now, we have to go through that process with the Questure for their passports and my documentation before I can leave. It is kind of a pain in the booty due to the long lines and attempting to entertain little ones. I plan on being extra snacks and an umbrella next time.
It's funny how you think you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and you turn to look into the sunshine and think, “Yes! I got this!” and you turn back around to see that half of them are nowhere to be found. Note to self, don’t leave your paperwork you to hubby (who can read Italian, all the documents are in Italian) and make sure you triple check what you will need before the appointment. You don’t want to be scrabbling to get your ducks lined up the day of, because you might end up like me and must make two more trips to complete your documentation process.
Sources:
The Immigration Portal (portaleimmigrazione.it)
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