Italian consular services in the United Kingdom
An Italian citizen who lives abroad deals with the Italian State through the consulate of the district, and the consulate deals with the citizen through two registers: the civil status registers of the comune, which hold the birth, the marriage, the civil partnership, the divorce and the death, and the AIRE, which holds the residence. Almost every refusal a citizen meets abroad, of a passport, of an identity card, of the registration of a child, of a pension, has its origin in a record missing from one of the two. This section follows the order of the services as the consulates present them and explains, for each, what the office requires, what it transmits to Italy and what the citizen receives in return.
One rule for every service
No consular service is rendered to a person whose position in the registers is not in order. A passport is issued only to a citizen whose birth is transcribed in a comune and whose residence is recorded in the AIRE, an identity card only once the data in the national population register coincide with those of the applicant, a marriage only after the previous one has been dissolved in the Italian records as well as in the foreign ones. The order of the pages below is therefore also an order of precedence: the acts of civil status come first, the documents of identity follow, and the services of a practical nature, from the power of attorney to the postal vote, presuppose the rest.
The pages are written for the residents of the United Kingdom, whose consulates are London, Manchester and Edinburgh, but the procedure is national and applies at every Italian consulate in the world. Where a consulate departs from the common practice, the page says so.
Civil status
Registering a birth abroad
The transcription of a foreign birth certificate in Italy: the cases, the documents, the postal file, the declaration for children who are not Italian at birth.
Marriages, divorces and civil partnerships
How a marriage, a divorce or a civil partnership celebrated abroad is recorded in Italy, and why it must be done before anything else.
Deaths and changes of name
The transcription of a death, the repatriation of remains, and what Italy makes of a name changed abroad.
Passports
Passport renewal and first passport for children
The conditions, the booking, the documents, the postal procedure for children under twelve, lost passports.
Passport refused or birth not in ANPR
Why the consulate refuses to renew a passport, what the ANPR is, and how the record is put right.
Emergency travel document
The provisional document for a journey which cannot wait, after a loss, a theft or an expiry discovered too late.
Identity and registers
Electronic identity card
The carta d’identità elettronica issued by the consulate: who qualifies, the appointment, the activation, where it is valid for travel.
AIRE, SPID, codice fiscale and PEC
The register of Italians abroad and its obligations, the digital identity, the tax code and the certified email, obtained from abroad.
Other consular services
Notarial services and self-certification
Powers of attorney, authentications, sworn declarations and self-certification before the consulate, and when a local notary serves instead.
Driving licences and vehicles
An Italian licence abroad, a foreign licence in Italy, and the vehicle which follows its owner home.
Voting from abroad
The postal vote for the constituency abroad, the referendums, the Comites, and the citizen temporarily abroad.
Pensions and social security
The Italian pension paid abroad, the proof of life, the coordination between systems and the taxation of pensions.
Returning to Italy
The cancellation from the AIRE, the registration in the comune, the customs exemption for the household and the tax regime for those who return.