Codice fiscale
Italian tax codeThe first thing you doA 16-character string of letters and digits — your identity key in Italy. Phone contract, bank account, rental contract, health registration, tuition: every one of them asks for it before anything else. It is free, and you walk out with the paper version the same day.
Step by step
- 1
Try before you fly
Italian consulates in China can usually issue the codice fiscale together with the visa. If you get it there, everything after you land goes far more smoothly — and there is no queue to stand in.
What you get is a sheet of A4. Photograph it, put the photo in the cloud, keep the paper in your passport wallet.
- 2
Book, or just queue
Some Agenzia delle Entrate offices take online bookings (Prenota un appuntamento); others only hand out numbers on the day. In a big city, get there 20 minutes before opening — the ticket machine is by the door.
- 3
Hand in form AA4/8
Fill it in in block capitals. For place of birth write the city plus the country (PECHINO - CINA, for example), and write the date of birth as GG/MM/AAAA. In the address field a temporary address is fine for now.
- 4
Collect the paper certificate on the spot
The clerk prints a certificate (certificato di attribuzione) carrying your 16-character code, valid from that day. The plastic card — the tessera sanitaria — is only posted once you have registered with the health service.
Where people get stuck
- !There are “codice fiscale generators” online. Even when the code they produce matches the official one it is useless: without a record at the Agenzia delle Entrate, banks and university systems cannot find you.
- !The spelling of your name has to match your passport exactly. With Chinese names written across several spaces (WANG XIAO MING, say), the clerk sometimes drops a letter — check the certificate at the counter, before you walk away.
- !Moving house does not mean redoing the codice fiscale, but you do have to update the address on file — otherwise letters from the Agenzia delle Entrate never reach you.