AIRE (Registry of Italians Resident Abroad)

AIRE is the list of Italian citizens who live outside Italy. The name is short for Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero, and the list is kept by the Italian comuni (the municipalities). Picture two lists at your comune: one of the people who live there, one of its citizens who have moved abroad. Joining AIRE moves you from the first list to the second.

How it works

Law 470 of 1988 sets the rule. If you move your residence from Italy to another country, you have 90 days from the day you arrive to declare it to the Italian consulate that covers your new address. A temporary stay abroad of no more than twelve months doesn’t count, so a semester abroad or a fixed-term posting of under a year leaves you off the register. Change address abroad later on, and the same 90 days apply again.

These days you do it online, through Fast It, the Foreign Ministry’s consular portal. You create an account and type in your details exactly as your Italian passport shows them. Then you upload your documents and submit. For a first registration that typically means the signed request form the portal generates, a copy of your Italian passport or ID card, and proof of your address in the consular district. Your consulate may ask for more, so read its own Fast It page first. One warning: opening the account is not registering. Don’t stop halfway. The service is free.

Once you’re on AIRE, the consulate is where you report a new address abroad or a change in your family. You also vote by post from abroad in Italian parliamentary elections and national referendums. If you’d rather vote in person in Italy you can, but you have to choose that separately for each vote.

Skipping it costs money. Under Law 1228 of 1954, failing to declare a move abroad on time can be fined between €200 and €1,000 for each year the omission lasts.

The catch people miss

AIRE records where you live. It doesn’t decide where you pay tax. Plenty of Italians register and assume they have stopped being Italian tax residents. Registering doesn’t do that by itself.

The tax rule sits in article 2 of the TUIR, Italy’s income tax code. Since 1 January 2024, you are tax resident in Italy if any one of three links holds for most of the tax year (part days count too):

• your residence under the civil code;
• your domicile, defined as the place where your personal and family relationships mainly happen;
• simple physical presence in Italy.

On top of that, being on the residents’ register for most of the year means the law presumes you’re resident, unless you prove otherwise. So AIRE does help: once it takes you off the residents’ register for most of the year, that presumption no longer applies. The three links are still there, though. If your partner and children still live in Italy, or you spend most of the year there, you can still be an Italian tax resident. Your centre of vital interests carries real weight here.

There’s a second trap. For Italians who leave the residents’ register and move to some countries (the law ties this to a list set by decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance), Italy presumes they are still resident unless they prove otherwise. And if your new country also claims you, a double taxation treaty may settle which country wins. The tax residency checker helps you see which links you still have.

This is general information, not advice. Residency rules turn on your own facts and they change, so confirm your situation with the Agenzia delle Entrate, your consulate, or a qualified professional before you act.

Where you’ll meet this

• On Fast It, in your first three months abroad, when you send the registration to your consulate.
• At the consulate, which handles your address and family updates once you’re registered.
• In your postbox before an Italian election or referendum, when the postal ballot arrives.
• In a tax review, where being on AIRE is one piece of evidence about where you live, not the final word.