# Residency Documentation



## marzipan71

Hi - we're moving from Seattle to a small town in Umbria in late July and we want to take up residency. We're both British citizens. I contacted the local comune inquiring about documentation requirements over email and received a reply. The anagrafe told us that we need, among other documents:

3) Certificato di matrimonio (per la moglie) e di nascita (del figlio), legalizzati e tradotti con traduzione autenticata
5) Polizza di Assicurazione sanitaria che copra tutti i rischi sul territorio italiano, legalizzata per l’estero e tradotta con traduzione autenticata

My google translate translation of these tells me:

3) Certificate of marriage (for the wife) and birth (of the child), legalized and translated with certified translation
5) Health insurance policy that covers all risks on the Italian territory, legalized for foreign countries and translated with authenticated translation

Now here is my question - what does 'legalized' (legalizziti/ legalizzata) mean in this sense? Does it mean the documents require an apostille, or something else?

Our issue is that we were married in a tiny town in Austria and the Austrian consulate told us that our marriage certificate can only be apostilled in that town - which is an 8 hour drive from the new house. As such, we're thinking we may just get married again in the US and then get an apostille for the new marriage certificate - which seems a crazy thing to have to do.

Also, if 'legalized' does mean an apostille is needed, how would I get an apostille for the health insurance policy? Our health insurance will be with Cigna, and they told me they have never heard of their health insurance policy needing an apostille in all of their dealings with expats - which leads me to think that 'legalized' might mean something else.

Can anyone help us understand exactly what is required of us for these documents?

Thanks for all of your help!


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## GeordieBorn

Each comune are a law unto themselves (quite often wrongly), but it’s likely if you get an official translator here in Italy they can get any document “legalised” i.e. they translate the document(s) , put a “bollo” (tax stamp) on them and swear at a tribunale (court?) locally that it is a true translation, most comune will accept this no problem. What you need is a translator who is registered with the local Tribunale nearest where you will be living.


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## Italia-Mx

All documents that have been created in the United States must have an Apostille and also be legalized by the Italian consulate in San Francisco which serves Seattle. While the health insurance policy may have been created in the United States, it is not a state document so you cannot have it apostilled. I don't know what the procedure would be for your other documents created outside of Italy but not in the United States but I think documents created in the European Union for use in Italy do not need an Apostille. I would start with the Italian Consulate in San Francisco.


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## Italia-Mx

GeordieBorn said:


> Each comune are a law unto themselves (quite often wrongly), but it’s likely if you get an official translator here in Italy they can get any document “legalised” i.e. they translate the document(s) , put a “bollo” (tax stamp) on them and swear at a tribunale (court?) locally that it is a true translation, most comune will accept this no problem. What you need is a translator who is registered with the local Tribunale nearest where you will be living.


The above is not the procedure for residents of the USA to follow when coming to Italy with USA documents regardless of which citizenship they hold.


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## Italia-Mx

By the way, the San Francisco Consulate has a Vice Consulate in Bothel, WA so you might check with them first before contacting San Francisco. My companion moved to Italy from Seattle.


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## GeordieBorn

Italia-Mx said:


> The above is not the procedure for residents of the USA to follow when coming to Italy with USA documents regardless of which citizenship they hold.


Being from the USA, an Italian and a UK citizen (not) I'm sure you would know


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## PauloPievese

marzipan71 said:


> Hi - we're moving from Seattle to a small town in Umbria in late July


I see that you're settling in Umbria; where may I ask? I'm in the process of moving to Citta della Pieve.
:flypig:


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## Italia-Mx

GeordieBorn said:


> Being from the USA, an Italian and a UK citizen (not) I'm sure you would know


Yes, I do know. I'm a dual citizen, American and Italian living in Italy. It does not matter which passport the OP has. He/she has legal residence in the USA and American documents. If he/she wants residence in Italy, the documents created in USA must be 1. translated, 2. Apostilled by the Secretary of State where the record was created and 3. legalized by the Italian consulate which has jurisdiction for the state where the OP lives. In this case the US residency is in the state of Washington and San Francisco, CA consulate has jurisdiction for this state. It would be entirely different if this British citizen was going to Italy from within the European Union and did NOT have American documents. Furthermore, the commune already told this person what is required. And rules for obtaining residency anywhere in Italy are the same and not different from commune to commune.


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## Italia-Mx

GeordieBorn said:


> Being from the USA, an Italian and a UK citizen (not) I'm sure you would know


I was born in the USA to Italian parents. I have American citizenship by birth on the soil and I have Italian citizenship by blood. And I have been in Italy a lot longer than you.


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## marzipan71

Thanks all for your help with this topic. Here's what we've found/ done to date.

We emailed the comune in English with a Google Translate version, asking what documentation was required. Comune wrote back a week or two later, stating:

1) Contract of purchase of the property
2) Passports
3) Certificate of marriage (for the wife) and birth (of the child), legalized and translated with certified translation
4) Self-certification of the possession of economic resources (to be done on the attached model)
5) Health insurance policy that covers all risks on the Italian territory, legalized for foreign countries and translated with authenticated translation
6) Tax code of each, to be requested in Italy at an office of the Revenue Agency, presenting the passport
7) n. 3 revenue stamps from € 16.00 to be purchased in Italy

The anagrafe suggested we send scanned versions of whatever documentation we could in advance for her to review, so that when we meet with her with the originals she will already be familiar and we could save time. We were able to send:

1. Scanned copy of the preliminary contract for the house we are purchasing in Italy - anagrafe said this was OK
2. Scanned copies of British passports for me and my family - anagrafe said this was OK
3. Certificate of marriage from our wedding in Austria. This was an interesting one. We assumed we needed an apostille, and contacted the Austrian Consulate in the US, where we live. They told us only the small town where we were married would be able to give us an apostille. I looked again at the documents we had from our wedding, and we had two - a stand-alone certificate of marriage, in German; and a two-page document in German but with translations of each section in 9 languages, with the stamp from the town where we were married - no apostille. I sent a scan of this 'legalized and translated' version to the anagrafe and she responded that this should be OK. For my son's birth certificate - he was born in the US - we are getting an apostille here, and having a translation done by a translator whose details we took from the Italian Consulate website. She will then have the translation sworn/ notarized. She says she's never had any trouble with the Italian authorities using this translated & sworn/ notarized route - so fingers crossed.
4. Self-certification - the anagrafe sent the form through, which seems straightforward enough. I had a great guy on Fiverr translate the form into English for me (a human translation, just to be sure) and I think we should be fine to complete the form minus the signatures in advance; and then sign in front of the anagrafe (she stated we need to sign in front of her)
5. Health Insurance policy. We went with Cigna, using their Close Care policy which applies just to Italy, with some emergency out of country cover included, and with the policy starting on our first day in Italy later this week. We received our Certificate of Coverage and Certificate of Insurance. I've had these translated by the translator whose details we took from the Italian Consulate website, and she will have these sworn/ notoarized also. The anagrafe said she would like to see these documents in advance, in particular.
6. Codice fiscale - we had these already, and sent scanned copies to the anagrafe, which she said are OK.
7. Tax stamp - my understanding is we can buy these at a tobacconist/ newsagent.

So - the anagrafe has been very helpful. I'll be sending her the sworn/ notarized versions of my son's birth certificate and the health insurance documents today hopefully. If she says these are OK, we will just have to buy the tax stamps in advance of meeting with the anagrafe and I'm optimistic we should be ok.

We've managed to arrange a meeting with the anagrafe for July 31st. A friend in Tuscany says we are extremely lucky to have a very helpful anagrafe, and also to have been able to get a meeting with her this soon. He knows of an Australian couple who were given a date two months out for their meeting with the anagrafe to apply for residency.

Anyhow - fingers crossed, and again, thanks for all your input on this thread.

Btw, we are moving to a small village outside of Avigliano Umbro in Umbria.


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## GeordieBorn

What a great detailed post, thanks. Yes you can get a bollo tobacconist/ newsagent. Was 16.42 many a year back, can'r believe it is still amost the same...


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## marzipan71

Thanks, GeordieBorn. Just as an update, we took our big pack of documents in to meet with the anagrafe on 7/31. She had prepared all of the documentation in advance and we just had to sign where appropriate. She then gave us two documents - the 'Attestazione' which states that me and my family members were requesting residency; and another document with all of our names listed that states that the process of residency has now begun and will take 45 days.

She then asked if we needed a certificate of residency? Well, we did - our shippers told us they needed this and it should specifically state that we were coming from the US to Italy in order to avoid paying duty on our possessions. After a quick trip to the local tabaccheria for another 16 euro marco da bollo, she gave us the certificate. The shippers confirmed that the certificate is good for them. I'm assuming this certificate will also be enough to allow us to buy a car and register with the ASL, hopefully.

So - now we wait.


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## NickZ

Unless things have changed they will give you a form to take to the ASL. You'll need to ask for it.

Other than that the certificate IIRC is only valid for six months. To avoid €16 every time you might need it get yourself an ID card. Most places will accept that.


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## Shelaghloveder1!?

Can I just add to this useful discussion. We are in the process of obtaining residency in the province of Ferrara. When we took our documents to the commune we were told that, as part of the residency process, the police would call to our property to check that we were actually living there. If we were not there our residency could be declined. We checked with the local police who confirmed this but said that they normally phone first to check that you are going to be at home. This call is usually made within 15 days of the application. We have decided to delay our application until November when will be there for a prolonged period.


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## pudd 2

marzipan71 said:


> Thanks all for your help with this topic. Here's what we've found/ done to date.
> 
> We emailed the comune in English with a Google Translate version, asking what documentation was required. Comune wrote back a week or two later, stating:
> 
> 1) Contract of purchase of the property
> 2) Passports
> 3) Certificate of marriage (for the wife) and birth (of the child), legalized and translated with certified translation
> 4) Self-certification of the possession of economic resources (to be done on the attached model)
> 5) Health insurance policy that covers all risks on the Italian territory, legalized for foreign countries and translated with authenticated translation
> 6) Tax code of each, to be requested in Italy at an office of the Revenue Agency, presenting the passport
> 7) n. 3 revenue stamps from € 16.00 to be purchased in Italy
> 
> The anagrafe suggested we send scanned versions of whatever documentation we could in advance for her to review, so that when we meet with her with the originals she will already be familiar and we could save time. We were able to send:
> 
> 1. Scanned copy of the preliminary contract for the house we are purchasing in Italy - anagrafe said this was OK
> 2. Scanned copies of British passports for me and my family - anagrafe said this was OK
> 3. Certificate of marriage from our wedding in Austria. This was an interesting one. We assumed we needed an apostille, and contacted the Austrian Consulate in the US, where we live. They told us only the small town where we were married would be able to give us an apostille. I looked again at the documents we had from our wedding, and we had two - a stand-alone certificate of marriage, in German; and a two-page document in German but with translations of each section in 9 languages, with the stamp from the town where we were married - no apostille. I sent a scan of this 'legalized and translated' version to the anagrafe and she responded that this should be OK. For my son's birth certificate - he was born in the US - we are getting an apostille here, and having a translation done by a translator whose details we took from the Italian Consulate website. She will then have the translation sworn/ notarized. She says she's never had any trouble with the Italian authorities using this translated & sworn/ notarized route - so fingers crossed.
> 4. Self-certification - the anagrafe sent the form through, which seems straightforward enough. I had a great guy on Fiverr translate the form into English for me (a human translation, just to be sure) and I think we should be fine to complete the form minus the signatures in advance; and then sign in front of the anagrafe (she stated we need to sign in front of her)
> 5. Health Insurance policy. We went with Cigna, using their Close Care policy which applies just to Italy, with some emergency out of country cover included, and with the policy starting on our first day in Italy later this week. We received our Certificate of Coverage and Certificate of Insurance. I've had these translated by the translator whose details we took from the Italian Consulate website, and she will have these sworn/ notoarized also. The anagrafe said she would like to see these documents in advance, in particular.
> 6. Codice fiscale - we had these already, and sent scanned copies to the anagrafe, which she said are OK.
> 7. Tax stamp - my understanding is we can buy these at a tobacconist/ newsagent.
> 
> So - the anagrafe has been very helpful. I'll be sending her the sworn/ notarized versions of my son's birth certificate and the health insurance documents today hopefully. If she says these are OK, we will just have to buy the tax stamps in advance of meeting with the anagrafe and I'm optimistic we should be ok.
> 
> We've managed to arrange a meeting with the anagrafe for July 31st. A friend in Tuscany says we are extremely lucky to have a very helpful anagrafe, and also to have been able to get a meeting with her this soon. He knows of an Australian couple who were given a date two months out for their meeting with the anagrafe to apply for residency.
> 
> Anyhow - fingers crossed, and again, thanks for all your input on this thread.
> 
> Btw, we are moving to a small village outside of Avigliano Umbro in Umbria.


my advice would be keep smiling and go with the flow as hasbeen mentened before a tree that bends with the wind has never been a more appropiate than here in italy sorry iam tired and dislexia has kiked in


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