Oh my god, it finally arrived
Monday, April 15th, 2019
I arrived in Italy with a visa for Residenza Elettiva ( Elective Residence) meaning I was not here for any other reason that I wanted to live here. If you come to Italy for any period longer than 90 days, which is the limit without a visa, then you must apply for a Permisso di Soggiorno (Permission to Stay). You must make the application for this document within 8 working days of arriving in the country. You fill out a relatively long form. I had the help of a non-profit organization that helps foreigners to deal with Italian bureaucracy. Then you go to the post office, present this form, your passport, and pay some money (not too much). They check to make sure that the form is complete and then assign a date to got the department of immigration section of the questura (the police station). So I did all of the above and went to the questura at the assigned date (October 1st) and time, waited for an unseemly period of time despite the fact that it was supposed to be an appointment. They say that they will issue the permisso with 3 months….ha ha ha. They don’t let you know when it is ready even though they have your phone number and email. NO, you must periodically go to their website, enter the number on the receipt that you receive and your date of birth. The response doesn’t say that your permesso is in process, only that no permesso with that data is ready. So after almost a 6 month wait I was really wondering if a dog ate the file for my request. Then, on April 4 when I checked the site is said that it was ready and I made an appointment to go pick it up. This appointment was an actual appointment, that is I didn’t have to wait for an hour or more. Within 15 minutes I had the permesso in hand. I told the guy that 6 months seemed a really long time to wait and he replied that sometimes it takes even longer. Welcome to Italy. In any case it is valid until the end of the year and I was told I should make a request for renewal 60 days before the expiration date. In any case I’m quite relieved to finally get it.
