AIRE registration, SPID, codice fiscale and PEC from the UK
Four instruments connect an Italian citizen in Britain to the Italian administration. The AIRE registration is an obligation and the condition of every consular service. The codice fiscale is the key under which every Italian database identifies a person. The SPID, or the electronic identity card, opens the online services of the State. The PEC gives an email the legal value of a registered letter. None of them is difficult in itself, and each of them is impossible without the one before.
The AIRE
Law 470/1988 created the Registry of Italians Residing Abroad and obliges every citizen who moves abroad for more than twelve months, every citizen born abroad and every person who acquires citizenship abroad to register through the consulate of the district, within ninety days of the move. Each comune keeps its own AIRE, and the data flow into the ANPR. Registration is made through the FAST IT portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the Italian passport or identity document, the proof of the address in the district, such as a council tax statement, a tenancy agreement or a utility bill, and the documents of the family members registered together. The consulate verifies and transmits the request to the comune, which records it. A citizen born abroad, or recognised abroad, can be registered only after the transcription of the birth or of the decree.
The registration has consequences which should be known before it is made. The citizen votes by post, through the consulate, in the elections for the Italian Parliament and in referendums. The right to the Italian family doctor and to the health card lapses, and health care in Italy is limited to urgent treatment, apart from the cover which the European Health Insurance Card or the Global Health Insurance Card provide to a resident in Britain. The Italian identity card is issued by the consulate instead of the comune. Tax residence is a separate question, decided by the facts and by the Convention between Italy and the United Kingdom, but the AIRE registration is the first element the Italian tax authority looks at.
Since 1 January 2024 the comune can impose a penalty of 200 to 1,000 euro for each year of omitted registration, up to five years, under article 1, paragraph 242, of Law 213/2023. A change of address within the district, or a move to another district or another country, is declared through FAST IT, and a move back to Italy is declared to the comune, which cancels the AIRE record and registers the residence.
The codice fiscale
The tax code is attributed by the Agenzia delle Entrate and identifies a person in every Italian register, from the ANPR to the health service, the land registry and the banks. A person born in Italy has one from birth. A person born abroad has none until it is requested, and many Italians in Britain discover the gap only when the comune cannot align their record in the ANPR, or when a bank, a notary or an online portal asks for it. For a resident abroad the code is requested through the consulate, which transmits the request to the Agenzia delle Entrate, with the identity document and, for a person not yet registered, the proof of the identity and of the place of birth. The certificate of attribution is sent by email, and the plastic card follows where requested. A code obtained from a British address with an error in the name or in the date of birth must be corrected by the Agenzia, because two codes for the same person block every later registration.
SPID and the electronic identity card
The SPID, Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale, is the credential with which a citizen accesses the online services of the Italian administration: the ANPR portal, to check and print the registration and the certificates, the Agenzia delle Entrate, the INPS for pensions, the citizenship portal of the Ministry of the Interior, FAST IT itself, and the services of the comune. It is issued by identity providers accredited by the State, on the strength of an Italian passport or an electronic identity card and the codice fiscale, with an identification by video or in person. A resident abroad obtains it from Britain, and some providers charge for the identification. The electronic identity card, issued by the consulate, gives the same access through the CieID application, and for a person who has one the SPID is not needed.
The PEC
The posta elettronica certificata is an email service which certifies the sending and the delivery of a message, with the value of a registered letter with advice of receipt under Italian law. The comuni, the consulates, the courts and the Agenzia delle Entrate accept it and use it, and an Italian citizen abroad who deals with a comune for a transcription, a correction or a certificate saves weeks by writing from a PEC rather than from an ordinary address. A private individual is not obliged to hold one, but can register it as a digital domicile in the national index, after which the administrations notify their acts to it. The service is bought from an accredited provider for a small annual fee, with the codice fiscale and an identity document.
A woman from Glasgow, recognised as Italian in 2023, with the birth transcribed in Lucca. She needs the AIRE registration to obtain the passport, the codice fiscale to be aligned in the ANPR, a SPID to follow her record and to apply for the Italian pension of her late father, and a PEC to exchange documents with the comune of Lucca about the father’s estate. The order is codice fiscale through the consulate, AIRE through FAST IT, SPID with the passport once issued, PEC last. Done in that order, the four steps take two to three months, most of it waiting for the comune.
We register our clients in the AIRE, obtain the codice fiscale, set up and renew the SPID and the PEC, and keep the records updated at each change of address. Send us your documents and your address and we tell you what is missing and in which order it is obtained.