Centro Migrante

Today we met Alicia at the train station in Cuneo. She took us to the Centro Migrante, where she works. They were the ones the Post Office said to visit for help filling out the Permesso di Soggiorno forms. And she was amazing. They said to come back next Tuesday, since they were in a meeting. But she kept going in and asking questions.

As usual, even when we have a specific question, people always want to start by trying to decide whether what we want to do is even possible. The people at the Centro Migrante had doubts about whether two generations of maternal line would work. They printed out 21 pages of previous court cases challenging the 1948 rule. I’m not sure, but I think they were all subsequently overturned. In any case, Tony’s mother was born in 1953, so it’s not even an issue for us.

Still, Alicia thought it would have been much easier had we applied through Tony’s paternal line, since everyone has the same last name. Had we been able to, we would have certainly done so, only we would probably still be waiting around for the Los Angeles consulate to get back with us, since we would have done it in the United States.

All in all, we’re happy our case was complicated enough that we had to move to Italy to do it. We’ve learned quite a lot in the process, although I’m not sure what advice I would distill from this tangled story to help someone in a similar situation. I think it would be this: there is no substitute for Italian friends. We are so grateful to Giorgio and Carla, to Alicia, and the other wonderful people here who have gone so far out of their way to make us feel welcomed here and lead us through the formidable red tape of Italy.

More precious to us than that elusive, indispensable Italian passport are the friendships we have made even in our short time here in Italy. And after all, why did we come? To make a new life here and become part of a place where beautiful things like old architecture, good food, and most importantly, personal relationships, are treasured and conserved.

The Centro Migrante eventually sent us all over to the Anagrafe in Cuneo to ask whether our case would work. The woman there was very knowledgeable about the process. She knew the K.28 Circolare practically by heart. But she said she couldn’t make any determination about a specific case unless we lived in the Comune. She did confirm, however, that the person in the Anagrafe is supposed to write a letter saying that we’re doing jure sanguinis so that we can get Permesso di Soggiorno.

We went back to the Centro Migrante, and Alicia proceeded to get them to print out the law saying that tourist Permessos no longer exist and are not needed for jure sanguinis. Then she printed out a memo from the Polizia di Stato saying that a Declaration from a hotel (like we have) is fine for the declaration of Presence.

Finally, she invited us to her house for lunch, where we had some yummy Argentine asada. After trying unsuccessfully to contact Carla to see if we could go to the Anagrafe the next day, she decided to contact the Anagrafe.

Our friend Gianfranco was there, and she explained everything to him, got him to agree to write the letter, and made sure we’d be able to come by the next day.

What do you think?