Before you start

A long-stay type-D visa, for non-EU nationals
For most work routes, a nulla osta issued to your employer by the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the Prefettura di Roma
An address in Rome — a registered lease, a deed, or a hospitality declaration from your host
A codice fiscale
For EU citizens: proof of employment, study or sufficient means plus health cover

Step-by-step

1
Get the codice fiscale on arrival
Apply at any Agenzia delle Entrate office with your passport, or receive it at the Sportello Unico if you arrived on a sponsored work or family visa. Free, same-day, and the prerequisite for the lease, the bank and the SIM.
In personWho: YouDay 1–2
2
File the yellow kit within eight working days of entry
Collect the kit giallo at a Poste Italiane counter with the Sportello Amico sign, complete it, add a €16 revenue stamp from a tobacconist, and hand it back with the postal and permit fees. Keep every copy. The receipt is your legal standing until the card exists.
In personWho: YouWithin 8 working days of entry
3
Attend the Questura appointment for biometrics
The receipt carries a date at the Ufficio Immigrazione. Rome's appointments are often set months out and the office is large and busy — arrive very early, bring originals of everything, and expect the visit itself to take most of a morning.
In personWho: You
4
Register residence at your municipio's anagrafe
Book through Roma Capitale's online booking system for the anagrafe covering your municipio. The declaration takes effect immediately and the comune then has 45 days to verify it. Bring the registered lease and the permesso receipt.
OnlineWho: YouWithin days of moving in
5
Be reachable for the municipal police check
A vigile from the Polizia Locale calls at the address to confirm you live there, checking the name on the buzzer and often asking a neighbour or the portiere. Put your surname on the intercom and letterbox immediately, and tell the portiere you are expecting the visit.
In personWho: Polizia Locale di Roma CapitaleWithin 45 days of declaring
6
Track the permit and file renewals very early
The Polizia di Stato runs an online status lookup against the receipt number. Given Rome's timelines, start a renewal at least sixty days before expiry and preferably ninety — the renewal receipt keeps you lawful while it is processed.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the type-D visa
Nulla osta and, for employment, the signed contratto di soggiorno
Registered lease, deed or hospitality declaration
Codice fiscale
Four identical passport photographs
€16 revenue stamp and the postal and permit fee receipts

Things most newcomers don’t know

The postal receipt is legally sufficient proof of lawful stay, and in Rome you will live on it for a long time.

Italian law treats the filing receipt as evidence of a pending, lawful application: you may work, register residence, open a bank account and access the SSN on it. Rome's backlog means the gap between receipt and card is measured in many months. The problem is not the law but counter staff who ask for a card. Carry the receipt, the appointment slip and a photocopy of the whole kit, and be prepared to explain the position politely and repeatedly.

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Travelling out of Italy on the receipt alone is where the receipt stops being enough.

Re-entering Italy directly from your home country on a valid receipt plus passport is generally accepted. Transiting another Schengen state is not reliably so, because the receipt is an Italian document that a border officer elsewhere has no obligation to recognise. People with a Rome-length wait routinely book direct flights only, or wait for the card before travelling for anything that matters.

Source: Ministry of the Interior; community-reported

Your municipio is not an administrative detail — it determines how long everything takes.

Rome delegates the anagrafe, social services, school enrolment and much else to fifteen municipi with very different staffing and queue cultures. Two people who moved on the same day into flats a kilometre apart can be weeks apart on residence registration. Where a choice of address is genuinely open, asking locally which municipio's anagrafe functions is a legitimate input into where you rent.

Source: Roma Capitale

Staff of the Rome-based UN agencies are on a different legal footing entirely.

FAO, WFP and IFAD staff and their families hold residence and tax status under headquarters agreements between Italy and the organisations, administered through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than through the Questura's ordinary channels. They do not follow the permesso di soggiorno route, and their tax position has nothing to do with the impatriate regime. Guidance written for one population is actively misleading for the other, and Rome is the one Italian city where both are common.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming the physical permesso will arrive in weeks and planning travel around it.
Transiting a third Schengen country on the postal receipt.
Turning up at a busy municipio anagrafe without an online booking.
Not warning the portiere that a vigile will call to verify your residence.
Starting a renewal in the last month before expiry in the country's slowest Questura.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.