I had emailed the questura in Campobasso a few weeks ago to clarify whether Paolo could travel outside of Italy as he waits for his official permesso document that he applied for back in February. I knew that he could go back to the US and return to Italy with just his receipt; but I was getting conflicting information regarding travel within the EU and/or Schengen Area - the issue being that he has been in the Schengen Area more than the 90 visa-free days allowed to US citizens who are not residents. While there aren't border controls as such between the Schengen countries, there's always the possibility of having our ID checked; also, the airlines require the passport information when booking flights. I was hoping - and had been lead to believe - that he could travel (by "travel," I mean "fly) as long as he was with me, and we had other documentation such as my ID, our marriage certificate, his permesso receipt, etc. But because I don't believe everything I read online, I contacted the questura to get an official answer.
Last week while we were in Bologna, I received a reply to my inquiry - sort of:
"Buongiorno, con riferimento alla pratica in oggetto l'interessato deve ripresentarsi presso questo Ufficio Immigrazione il giorno 16.03 dalle ore 08.30 alle ore 12.00 per essere nuovamente sottoposto a rilievi dattiloscopici in quanto la prima acquisizione delle impronte non e' andata a buon fine. Nell'occasione verranno fornite tutte le indicazioni per la circolazione nei Paesi dell'Unione Europea. Per il Dirigente l'Ufficio Immigrazione"
Google Translate is so much fun:
"Good morning, with reference to the practice in question the interested party must return to this Immigration Office on 16.03 from 08.30 to 12.00 in order to be subjected to tyloscopic surveys since the first acquisition of the footprints did not successfully. On the occasion will be provided all the indications for circulation in the countries of the European Union. For the Manager the Immigration Office"
Fortunately, we are just a little smarter than Google Translate (and also, we certainly don't remember Paolo's footprints being taken), so we understood this to mean that for whatever reason, his fingerprints needed to be re-taken and that he should come in on March 16th to do so. Note that there was no answer to my actual question included, although they did at least imply they would answer the question about travel when he has the prints redone.
I wonder how long they would have waited to tell us he needed to come back, if I hadn't reached out to them in the first place about something completely different? Because Italy.
So off we drove to Campobasso this morning. While there is no snow here in our comune, there is a little snow up in the mountains, some of which we had to drive over in order to get to our destination (luckily there was no snow on the roadways). I took a few quick photos from the passenger seat as we were heading into town:
We learned that the questura isn't usually open to the public on Wednesdays - that is, they don't schedule regular appointments for passports, residency permits, immigration, etc. - it's by invitation only. The nice thing about that is, since there are a lot fewer people there, you don't have to stand outside waiting for so long. You still have to get past the slightly grumpy guard at the gatehouse to enter the complex though.
The agent at the questura said that the issue with the fingerprints is that the two sets taken at the time of his appointment were then sent to Naples where they are somehow analyzed - and whatever computer program they have that does this flagged the sets of fingerprints as not matching! Huh?! Sigh. Because Italy. So once again, he had a set of prints taken at the window by the agent; then a second set taken in another office by a different agent in a lab coat - a rather cranky woman who complained that we (our interpreter and I) were talking too loudly; we were standing outside the building so she must have some kind of superhero-level hearing but whatever.
We finally got the definitive answer to the question about whether Paolo can travel to another EU and/or Schengen country while waiting for his permesso: no.* That is too bad, because it would have been nice to hop over to Germany for a few days while we are here. On the other hand, since we were at the questura, we had an opportunity to confirm that the permesso will allegedly be ready before we head back to the US at the end of April. We were able to make an appointment to pick it up on April 21. It's too bad it won't be ready sooner - but it is what it is. Because Italy. Let's hope that Paolo's fingerprints match this time!! 👐