Registry of Italians residing abroad (AIRE)

AIRE (Registry of Italians residing abroad) was established with law no. 470 on the 27th of October 1988 and consists of a database of all Italian citizens residing abroad for longer than 12 months. AIRE is managed by Italy’s municipalities, based on data provided by embassies and consulates.

AIRE registration in short:

• It is compulsory and completely free of charge;
• It must be applied for within 90 days of becoming a resident in the territory served by the relevant embassy or consulate (known as ‘consular district’). This Consulate is in charge of the whole Western Australia.
• It may also be requested at a later date, but it cannot be back-dated;
• It may also be requested by the Consulate on its own initiative, on the basis of elements acquired;
• applications can only be lodged online through FAST-IT by following a simple procedure and uploading the documents requested by the wizard.

Who needs to register with AIRE?

• All Italian citizens who relocate abroad for 12 months or more.
• All Italian citizens who already reside abroad, either because they were born abroad, or because they became Italian citizenship on any grounds.

Who cannot register with AIRE?

• Italian citizens who move abroad for less than 12 months;
• seasonal workers;
• government employees serving abroad and notified under the Vienna Conventions (on diplomatic relations and on consular relations of 1961 and 1963, respectively);
• Italian military on duty at NATO offices and establishments located out of Italy.

AIRE registration is a citizen’s right and duty. It is an essential prerequisite to access a number of consular services, as well as to exercise important rights, including:

• voting by correspondence for Italy’s political elections and referendums;
• obtaining an Italian passport with a quicker turn around;
• obtaining validation of an Italian driver’s licence (expiring or expired for less than 3 years) with a quicker turn around;
• requesting transfer to Italy of own household goods and/or vehicles with a customs exemption (only for relocations to Italy or other EU countries);
• obtaining notary services with priority over non-registered citizens. AIRE registration implies automatic cancellation from the APR (register of local residents) of the Municipality of origin. AIRE registration is not incompatible with remaining a resident of Italy for tax purposes. More information from a registered accountant in Italy. AIRE registration carries benefits from concessions and reductions on the payment of utilities or council rates on homes owned in Italy. For more details, contact your utility customer service or your Comune.

Before you get started, please check that you have all the following:

1. Current or recent photo ID, preferably from Italian Authorities (usually, your passport), for the applicant and each cohabiting member of the household.
2. One proof of current home address in Western Australia to be chosen from: bank letter, utility bill, private insurance statement, letter from Department of Transport, Council rates (any dated within 90 days), front and back of an Australian driver’s licence or lease agreement (only page with tenant’s name and home address).
3. For dual citizens: a copy of an Australian visa or of an Australian (or other nationality) passport.
4. A printer.
5. A scanner.
6. Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC (or equivalent software for PDF viewing and printing).

To request your AIRE registration, you first need to create a FAST IT account as follows:

1. Visit FAST-IT.
2. Click on REGISTRATION at the bottom of the page. Create your account by using your personal e-mail address, avoiding any business or professional addresses. Registration on the website is not the same as AIRE registration! If you are moving to Western Australia from another country or interstate, please provide your new home address, not your previous one.
3. Next, you will have to login to your account and enter the activation code, which the wizard will e-mail to the address you have provided.
4. After entering the code, the message “ATTIVAZIONE COMPLETATA” (“ACTIVATION COMPLETED”) will appear, confirming that the registration was successful and that the user, depending on the case, may now apply for AIRE registration or just notify a change of address (between locations within WA only).
5. After activating your account, you need to login again and send in your application by selecting “RICHIEDERE L’ISCRIZIONE ALL’ANAGRAFE DEGLI ITALIANI ALL’ESTERO”) (“APPLY FOR AIRE REGISTRATION OF ITALIANS ABROAD” and, at the bottom of the page, by clicking on “RICHIEDERE IL SERVIZIO” (“APPLY”). If while creating your account you have mistakenly selected a place of residence that belongs to a Consulate other than your own, to correct the error you need to first cancel your account and then create a new one, taking great care to indicate your current place of residence.
6. Enter the required data. In addition to the mandatory fields, to avoid your application being rejected due to insufficient data, it is strongly recommended to provide as many elements as possible (tax identification number, Italian driver’s licence, Italian Identity card front and back or internal pages) in the form of attachments, including combined in one single PDF or P7M file, and to specify your qualifications, occupation, date of arrival in WA, year of first migration from Italy, etc.
7. Fill in the e-form, print it, sign it with your handwritten signature and then scan it.
8. Upload your application form, Italian passport (photo page and adjoining page with personal details only), proof of current home address in WA dated within 90 days, copy of your Australian visa or, if you are a dual citizen, of your Australian (or other nationality) passport.
9. After uploading the 3 files requested above in JPG, PDF or P7M format (each potentially a set of combined or compressed files) click on “INVIARE LA RICHIESTA” (SEND REQUEST).

The applicant’s part in the AIRE registration process ends here.

However, applications are not to be regarded as automatically accepted, because they first need to be verified by our Consular staff. Each step of the application is quickly notified and completion of the process is then confirmed with a notice on your FAST IT account (for a description of each step see “DOMANDE FREQUENTI FAST IT” (“FAST IT FAQs”). If your application was lodged correct and complete, your data will be loaded in the system and the whole set forwarded to the relevant Municipality, which will ultimately confirm registration to the applicant and to the Consulate.

1. Details of uploads: files larger than 1 MB cannot be uploaded. Kindly scan your documents in black and white as this allows to significantly reduce the size of the files to be attached. Also please select a resolution of 200 dpi and only use files in JPG, PDF or P7M format. Photos of documents are also accepted, provided the phone or camera resolution is heavily reduced first.
2. Number of uploads: up to 3 files are allowed, though combining multiple documents into a single PDF or P7M file is equally accepted. For example, you may create a file for each member of the household, or combine documents by file type (proof of current home address, passports, visas and additional documents).
3. Year of first migration: the date in which the applicant first left Italy to settle overseas.
4. Change of address: FAST-IT can also be used to communicate a change of address.
5. Appointments: FAST IT cannot be used for booking an appointment with this Consulate.
6. City of origin: refers to place of previous home address, thus the suburb (if Australia) or town if elsewhere and coincides with the address where the electoral postcard was received (if Italy) or the mailing address for voting kits (if abroad). Please note that filling the field with “xxxx airport” or “Hotel xxxx” causes the application to be rejected.
7. Additional information: to prevent the request being rejected due to lack of information, it is strongly recommended not to just fill the mandatory fields, but to enter as much information as possible (Italian ID card, Italian codice fiscale, Italian driver’s licence, all to be attached).
8. Location: a very common error, equally causing rejection of the application. This occurs when the applicant fills the “LOCATION” field with a generic “Perth” instead of the actual suburb. It is thus necessary to indicate ‘Subiaco’, ‘Stirling’, ‘Floreat’, etc. with the exact postcode, and not just “Perth”. In case of doubt, just use the exact address that appears on your proof of current home address (utility bill, bank letter, or other).
9. Unregistered birth certificate and citizenship request: if the birth certificate of the applicant or any of their household members has not been registered in Italy, no AIRE registration can be requested, so you must request registration of such birth certificate first. For the same reason, having applied for citizenship by descent or by marriage with this or other Consulates is no sufficient grounds for an AIRE application.
10. Family unit: the platform allows you to send a single request for your entire household, intended as a group of individuals who are both related among them and living at the same address.
11. Passport: applicants are required to upload a copy of their Italian passport and to specify the police office (Questura) or the Consulate/Embassy where it was issued.
12. Smartphone/Tablet: such devices are currently not recommended. It is advisable to use either a PC or a laptop.
13. Marital status: when applicants declare themselves ‘married’ but their marriage certificate was never registered in Italy, it is necessary to apply for registration of their marriage certificate before applying for AIRE registration. Conversely, the application is normally rejected.

For minors born in WA, AIRE registration is carried out automatically by the BDM office of the relevant Municipality as soon as it receives an application for registration of the birth certificate (see procedure in the corresponding section). No passport application can be lodged before a birth certificate registration is applied first.

Please note that AIRE registration of Italian minors (including dual citizens) is mandatory, whether they live with both parents, with one Italian parent, or with the foreign parent only. In the latter case, an AIRE application may be submitted both by the non-cohabiting Italian parent and by the co-habiting foreign parent, preferably delegated to that by the other parent.

When parents are separated, the one who is not living with the minor child needs to fill, date and sign a special CONSENT FORM, which needs to be attached to the AIRE application form in FAST IT.

Notwithstanding the possibility of requesting registration in Italy of a de facto status of cohabitation (see ‘VITAL RECORDS’), each of the cohabitants needs to separately apply for AIRE registration, except when they are living with their minor children, even if born from a different relationship. In this second case, a single AIRE application may be submitted for the entire household

Those already registered with AIRE through this Consulate who wish to communicate a change of address, provided they are still living in WA, can do so through FAST-IT by simply following the instructions of the wizard and uploading:

1. a copy of their Italian passport or other valid ID;
2. ONE proof of current home address in WA to be chosen from: utility bill, bank letter, private insurance statement, letter from Department of Transport, Council rates (all dated within 90 days), front and back of an Australian driver’s licence or lease agreement (only page with tenant’s name and home address).

Where the change of address also involves other household members, the form needs to be signed by the spouse/partner and accompanied by a photo ID of each of the household members who have changed address. More details are available from the FAST-IT section on change of address by clicking HERE.

Failing to update your contact information, especially your current home address, makes any contact between the Consulate and citizens unfeasible. This will result in the citizen not receiving any electoral ballots or registered mail. When citizens remain untraceable for an extended period of time AIRE, the result is AIRE cancellation. It is thus essential for all Italian citizens to notify their exact home address with postcode and to maintain the same the format used by Australia Post. In order for the AIRE database to be constantly updated, all Italian citizens living in WA are thus solely responsible for promptly notifying us of any change to their personal details in each of the following situations:

• Change of address, i.e. moving within WA from one residential address to another (a function that can be easily carried out using FAST-IT);
• Change of telephone number and or e-mail address;
• Changes in civil status (marriage, birth, divorce, death), also for the mandatory registration of BDM certificates in Italy;
• Repatriation/relocation to Italy (for your own or all household members);
• Loss of Italian citizenship.

Consulates of Italy do not perform the functions of a Public Registrar and thus cannot issue a residence certificates, a document that may only be issued by Italy’s municipalities, both regarding AIRE citizens (Registry of Italians residing abroad) and APR citizens (registry of local residents).

As such, applicants need to autonomously request this certificate (including by e-mail) from their last municipality of residence in Italy, or the one with which they are currently AIRE-registered.

Article 15 of law no 183 of 12 November 2011 allows private individuals to produce fewer documents when dealing with Italy’s Public Administration. From 1 January 2012, certificates issued by Public Administrations (including this Consulate) may only be used between private individuals.

When dealing with bodies of the Public Administration and entities providing public services, certificates (including residence certificates) are always replaced by self-certifications or by a notoriety statement. As a result, public administration bodies may no longer request certificates, nor accept them.

In the event of a private individual requesting a certificate to be delivered to another private individual resident out of Italy or to government entities of a country other than Italy, such certificate equally needs to be requested from the municipality of AIRE registration and can only be produced out of Italy.

Regarding applications for AIRE registration, it is worth noting that self-certifications may not be accepted as proof of residence (DL 223/2012).

Confirmation of one’s own AIRE registration needs to be requested (including by e-mail) exclusively from the applicant’s Municipality in Italy and not from this Consulate.

Pursuant to article 2b L.470/1998 and article 6 L.15/1992, citizens residing abroad may transfer their AIRE registration from their current municipality to another Italian municipality only in the following cases:

1. When other household members (husband/wife, children, parents, minor children) are already registered in the APR (registry of local residents) or in the AIRE of that municipality intended for transfer;
2. Following registration of a birth certificate in the registers of the Municipality where the transfer is to be obtained;
3. Upon acquisition of Italian citizenship.

To apply for a transfer of one’s AIRE registration from one municipality to another, simply fill out our ONLINE FORM, also available from the homepage of this site.

AIRE-registered citizens relocating to Italy must communicate their new home address to the Municipality in whose territory they are going to settle. Upon verification of their new home address, the municipality will notify this Consulate of the effective date of the transfer, resulting in cancellation from the registers of this Consulate and registration in the APR (register of local residents) of the municipality of new residence.

Voluntary cancellation of one’s AIRE registration is not available. A cancellation may take place only in the following cases:

• Following repatriation/relocation to Italy and registration in APR (register of local residents).
• For non-traceability, unless proven otherwise or in cases of timely reappearance.
• One hundred years from birth, after an extended period of no contacts with the Consulate;
• After two unsuccessful notifications in a row (electoral ballots and/or, registered letters returned to sender);
• When the address provided to us is no longer valid and the current one is not available.
• For loss of Italian citizenship.
• For death, including presumed, judicially declared.

AIRE registration implies cancellation from Italy’s national health service, without prejudice to the possibility, upon returning to Italy, of requesting:

• re-entry in the list of NHS recipients;
• direct health care for Australian Medicare insurance holders;
• emergency health care.

To learn more, contact your health department (Regione and Provincia).

Regardless of AIRE registration, Italians holding a temporary Australian visa may benefit from the Medicare health service thanks to a bilateral agreement between Italy and Australia (terms and conditions apply). To learn more, contact Medicare Australia.

AIRE-registered Italians visiting Italy for short periods may benefit from a health cover by applying from the relevant ASL (local health agency). Emergency hospitalization is free of charge.

Italians relocating to Italy need to (1) inform their local Councils of their new home address and (2) visit the local ASL to finalize their registration with Italy’s health system.