Good Morning, I am an Albanian citizen, due to come to Italy with my 4 year old daughter who has an Italian passport, given that I had this child with my current companion, an Italian citizen. My question is the following: how can I get a permit to come to Italy? The problem is that my companion and I aren’t married, and the Italian embassy in Tirana wouldn’t give me a concrete answer. Seeing as my daughter is an Italian citizen do I have the right to a permit? Please answer me. Yours sincerely.
Italian law gives a straight solution to this case, also because this is a right related to the right of the child to have, in her own country, Italy, not only her father but also her mother.
Parents have the right to follow their children if European citizens in practising the freedom to move within the European Union, starting with the entry into the country of citizenship. This, along with the law contained in the Testo Unico sull’Immigrazione (Text on Immigration) (D.Lgs. 25 July 1998, n. 286) art. 28, comma 2, essentially means that the norms on circulation in the EU apply to foreign relatives of Italian citizens, that is that they are equivalent to EU citizens and that they therefore have the right to travel freely within the European Union.
Further confirmation of this is given in art. 29, comma 6 of the Text on Immigration which says that apart from those who have been excluded or noted by the Schengen system, the parent of a minor living legally in Italy is allowed to join the child, if he shows, within one year of his arrival in Italy, to have the necessary requirements for accommodation and income referred to in comma 3 (That is, those generally required for re-union with family members).
This law refers to the situation of the natural parent of an Italian citizen, that is a parent who is not married to the other parent of the child. Therefore the parent has the right to entry in the country in order to join the child. If the child, as in the case described above, is in Albania with an Italian passport, he has the right to enter into Italy; the law is then applied to give the parent the right to join the child in any case. The law then indicates that the condition of entry is that the parent should then be able to meet the requirements on accommodation and income within one year of entry into Italy. In this way the law guarantees this right and conditions the length of the right itself, and therefore of the permit, on the proof-within a year of arrival- of the further requirements for re-union of family members that can even be guaranteed through the companion who perhaps has suitable accommodation and who could provide for both his daughter and the mother of his child.
This right therefore is completely straightforward. We do not understand why the Italian Consulate, knowing the situation, did not give the correct instructions for the release of a visa. In this case the authorisation does not have to be given by the police station but the visa can be obtained directly from the Italian Consulate. The person interested has to present a formal request, be given a receipt and should expect just as formal an answer, written and justified.
We would ask you to let us know how the situation develops, keeping us informed of the answers given by the Consulate.
We’d like to add to this case a recent sentence given by the Florence Tribunal which states that it is not possible to refuse entry to the next of kin of an Italian citizen who arrives at the borders because he has the right to enter and to move freely within the European Union and therefore in Italy. This means that even without a permit of entry a person cannot be refused entry to Italy as long as he can prove to be next of kin to an Italian citizen.
In theory, this lady could buy a ticket and present herself at the Italian border with the child with her Italian passport, and with the birth certificate (which naturally shows that she is the mother of this Italian citizen) and expect to be allowed into the country, even without a permit. We’d like to make this clear, not so much in order to suggest this risky path of direct entry (with the danger of being refused at the border, even though illegitimately), but to show that this right has been confirmed by law, where one can present oneself directly at the Italian border and enter the country on the simple proof of a close kinship with an Italian citizen.