Readout of Residency and Registration FaceBook live event

Thank you to everyone who joined our Facebook live event last week on residency and registration. Our panel included Greta Nonni of the International Organisation for Migration. IOM is our UK Nationals Support Fund implementing partner in Italy and are providing support to UK nationals in registering.

We’ve included a selection of the questions raised below. If you have other questions regarding applying for residency in Italy or about obtaining the new Withdrawal Agreement residency document, or your question on the day was not answered, please consult our Living in Italy guide. You can also get in touch by using our contact form.

If you are experiencing serious challenges in registering or in obtaining the new residency document you can contact IOM by calling 800 684 884 or emailing them at Uknationalsit@iom.int

I am a registered UK national in Italy. I understand there is a new document I need to get. Can you tell me more?

UK nationals living in Italy by 31 December will have their rights protected by the Withdrawal Agreement. You can find out more about the Withdrawal Agreement here.

If you are living in Italy for more than 90 days you need to register your residency with your local town hall (‘comune’). You will receive an ‘attestazione di regolarità di soggiorno’ which is issued under the Italian residency legislation n.30/2007.

If you have been living in Italy for five years or more you can apply for a permanent residency document called an ‘attestazione di soggiorno permanente UE’. This is also issued under Italian legislation n.30/2007.

The Italian government has now made available a new residency document for UK nationals and their family members who are living in Italy by 31 December 2020. You need to have registered your residency before obtaining it.

The new document is called the ‘attestazione di iscrizione anagrafica’ and it refers to Article 18.4 of the Withdrawal Agreement. It is also available from your local town hall.

To find out more please consult our Living in Italy guide.

The Italian government announced the new document via Circular n.3/2020. You can find the circular here.

I am a permanent resident in Italy. My comune told me that I don’t need the new Withdrawal Agreement attestazione. What should I do?

The Italian government has made available a new document for UK nationals in scope of the Withdrawal Agreement. As a UK national living in Italy before 31 December you have a right to the new document. The new document, called the ‘attestazione di iscrizione anagrafica’ is important because it refers to your status under Article 18.4 of the Withdrawal Agreement. Your current residency document does not.

If you have difficulty in obtaining the new attestazione you should highlight the Italian government’s circular n.3/2020 which instructs local town halls on how to issue it.

If you continue to have problems you can contact IOM for support. Their contact details can be found on our Living in Italy page.

I am moving to Italy this year. How do I apply for residency?

You firstly need to obtain a tax code or a ‘codice fiscale’ which you can do from the Italian ‘Agenzia dell’Entrate’ (here).

You can do this before you arrive in Italy. On arrival you should contact your local town hall (‘comune’) for an appointment to register. Please check the website of your town hall for information about the documentation you will need to show. For example, if you are a worker you will need evidence of your employment. Or if you are retired, you will need to show you can support yourself and that you have some form of healthcare. For more information please check the residency section of our Living in Italy guide.

Will I still be protected by the Withdrawal Agreement if I don’t manage to register for residency by 31 December?

The Withdrawal Agreement provides lifelong rights to UK nationals and close family members as long as you are lawfully living in Italy by 31 December. This means that you are either a worker, or self-employed, or economically self-sufficient with healthcare cover or a student who is able to support themselves, again with healthcare cover. As long as you can evidence that you were lawfully living in Italy (under one of these four categories) by the end of the year then your rights will be covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. You should try to register as soon as you can. It is a legal requirement in Italy to do so. By registering you will have further evidence of lawfully living in Italy. But your rights under the Withdrawal Agreement do not depend on you having done so.

I am an au pair – can I still register for residency in Italy?

Unless you have a work contract (you are paying taxes in Italy) or you can evidence that you are self-employed (via an ‘IVA number’) you will need to register for residency as an economically self-sufficient person. This will require you to prove you can support yourself and that you have some form of healthcare cover. Au-pairs can register for healthcare with the Italian national health system by paying an annual fee of € 219,40, through ‘Iscrizione Volontaria’. Ask your local health authority (ASL) how to apply. For more information on registering for healthcare, please have a look here.

Do I need to obtain a new copy of the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ attestazione if I move from one region of Italy to another?

Our understanding is that you do not need to obtain a second attestazione issued under circular n.3/2020. However we are seeking clarification from the relevant Italian ministry. You should inform your new comune of your arrival. Please check our Living in Italy guide for further updates.

I’m a dual UK-Italian national. Do I need the new ‘Withdrawal Agreement attestazione’?

Dual-nationals who previously exercised their Freedom of Movement rights are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. However, as an Italian citizen you will continue to benefit from your existing free movement rights by virtue of your EU citizenship, this is not subject to the UK leaving the EU and is not dependent on taking any action to secure your status under the Withdrawal Agreement. As such, UK-EU dual-nationals do not need to take further actions to secure residence rights. This is consistent with the approach being taken in the UK where EU citizens, who are also British citizens, cannot apply to the EU Settlement Scheme as they already hold a UK immigration status, i.e. their British citizenship.

However, a UK national in scope (that means lawfully living in Italy by the end of this year) of the Withdrawal Agreement will benefit from other rights under the Withdrawal Agreement as a UK national who has exercised free movement rights. These rights include social security coordination, for example, having contributions made in the UK aggregated with those paid in Italy or other Member States and the right to an uprated UK State Pension, if eligible. Individuals in scope of the social security coordination section of the Withdrawal Agreement are also protected for reciprocal healthcare cover (S1, EHIC and S2 rights) once they start exporting their state pension. This includes state pensioners already benefiting from that cover. Rights to have professional qualifications protected are also covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, provided an application for a recognition decision has been submitted by the end of the transition period. The way in which UK-EU dual nationals will be able to evidence these rights is yet to be determined. As soon as we have more information we will be updating our Living in Italy guide. We would underline that your rights in Italy stem primarily from your Italian or EU citizenship.

If I am working in Italy and then lose my job, will I lose my status under the Withdrawal Agreement and therefore my current residency rights and access to benefits and healthcare?

Article 7 of The Freedom of Movement Directive allows for those who have worked in a Member State, to retain their worker status for six months after becoming involuntarily unemployed.

This is protected under the Withdrawal Agreement, meaning that UK nationals can continue to access unemployment benefits in a Member State if they are:

– temporarily unable to work as the result of an illness or accident;

– duly recorded involuntary unemployment after having been employed for more than one year and has registered as a job-seeker with the relevant employment office;

– duly recorded involuntary unemployment after completing a fixed-term employment contract of less than a year or after having become involuntarily unemployed during the first twelve months and has registered as a job-seeker with the relevant employment office. In this case, the status of worker shall be retained for no less than six months;

– embarking on vocational training. Unless they are involuntarily unemployed, the retention of the status of worker shall require the training to be related to the previous employment.

In Italy if you become unemployed after you have lived and worked in Italy for less than a year, and you register on the unemployment list, you and your dependants will continue to have the right to access healthcare for a period of up to twelve months. If you have lived and worked in Italy for a year or more, you can continue to access healthcare for as long as you remain unemployed, by renewing your registration for healthcare every year.

Kind regards

British Embassy Rome