Before you start

A long-stay type-D visa, for non-EU nationals
For work routes, a nulla osta issued to the employer by the Sportello Unico at the Prefettura di Genova
An address — a registered lease, a deed, or a hospitality declaration from your host
A codice fiscale
For EU citizens: proof of employment, study or sufficient means plus health cover

Step-by-step

1
Get the codice fiscale in the first days
Free and same-day at an Agenzia delle Entrate office with a passport, or assigned at the Sportello Unico for sponsored arrivals. The lease, the bank, the SIM and ASL registration all depend on it.
In personWho: YouDay 1–2
2
File the yellow kit within eight working days of entry
Collect the kit giallo at a Poste Italiane counter with the Sportello Amico sign, complete it, attach a €16 revenue stamp from a tobacconist, and hand it back with the postal and permit fees. Keep the receipt — it is your legal standing until the card exists.
In personWho: YouWithin 8 working days of entry
3
Use a hospitality declaration if the lease is not ready
A dichiarazione di ospitalità from whoever is putting you up satisfies the accommodation requirement for filing, and is separately a legal obligation on them to lodge within 48 hours of your arrival.
In personWho: Your hostWithin 48 hours of arrival
4
Attend the Questura appointment for biometrics
The postal receipt carries a date at the Questura di Genova's Ufficio Immigrazione. Bring originals of everything in the kit; a missing original means a new appointment months later.
In personWho: You
5
Register residence with the Comune di Genova
The declaration takes effect the day you make it and the comune has 45 days to verify. It requires a registered lease, a deed or another valid title to the address. Residence also unlocks the resident transport concessions, which are worth real money here.
In personWho: YouWithin days of moving in
6
Make your address findable for the vigile's check
A municipal police officer calls to confirm you live there. Old-town buildings frequently have more than one entrance, unlit stairs and no working intercom. Put your surname on the buzzer and, if the entrance is ambiguous, say so on the declaration form.
In personWho: Polizia Locale di GenovaWithin 45 days of declaring

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the type-D visa
Nulla osta and, for employment, the signed contratto di soggiorno
Registered lease, deed or hospitality declaration
Codice fiscale
Four identical passport photographs
€16 revenue stamp and the postal and permit fee receipts

Things most newcomers don’t know

Residence registration is worth more in Genoa than in most Italian cities, because the transport concessions are attached to it.

Registering with the anagrafe is normally a bureaucratic step with downstream consequences — the health card, the licence clock, the bank classification. Here it also carries a direct financial benefit: AMT's resident concessions, including reported free urban travel on Sundays and every night between 22:00 and 05:00 for residents of the Città Metropolitana. In a vertical city where lifts and funiculars are part of the network, that is not a token. Get the registration done early rather than treating it as paperwork you can leave until spring.

Source: Comune di Genova; AMT

The vigile's verification visit fails more often here than in a modern city, for physical reasons.

The old town is a stack of buildings with several entrances, unlit staircases, intercoms that have not worked in years and numbering that runs in more than one sequence — Genoa historically used separate red and black civic numbering for commercial and residential doors. An officer who cannot find you records a failed check, and the registration stalls. Label the buzzer, tell the neighbours or the portiere to expect the visit, and write a clear access note on the form.

Source: Comune di Genova; community-reported

An unregistered lease costs you your legal standing, not just your deposit protection.

Italian landlords must register a tenancy with the Agenzia delle Entrate within 30 days. Without registration you cannot register residence with the comune, and residence is the gate to the tessera sanitaria, the driving-licence conversion clock, the bank's resident classification, the transport concessions and — for a non-EU national — the accommodation evidence at a permesso renewal. Ask for the registration receipt before any money changes hands.

Source: Agenzia delle Entrate

Your host has a 48-hour legal obligation when you stay with them, and most people do not know it.

Anyone providing accommodation to a foreign national — including a friend letting you sleep on the sofa — must lodge a dichiarazione di ospitalità with the authorities within 48 hours. It is the host's obligation and carries a penalty, and it is the same document you will use to evidence accommodation when filing your permesso kit.

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Common mistakes to avoid

Accepting a cheaper unregistered lease and losing the ability to register residence.
Leaving the buzzer unlabelled in an old-town building and failing the vigile's check.
Delaying residence registration and paying full fare on a network where residents do not.
Turning up at the Questura appointment with photocopies rather than originals.
Letting the eight-working-day filing window pass while apartment-hunting.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.