Permesso di soggiorno

To live here as a foreigner requires first a visto (visa) for entry, which I obtained last year from the Italian consulate. This document is necessary for anyone staying in Italy longer than 90 days. My visa is a student visa and it's good for one year, expiring on January 7, 2008. Secondly, upon arrival you need to submit your visa and all the supporting documentation (including the signed acceptance letter from your school, proof of adequate funds for the duration of the stay, proof of housing and medical insurance) to your city's questura (police station). This is to process your permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay). This permesso process has been notoriously difficult and time consuming, involving long queues and multiple requests for additional documentation. This process historically took about 2 months in total. However before I arrived they changed the process. Now the stranieri (foreigners) apply for the permessi at a designated window at the poste (post office). The post office sends the documents to the questura and the questura eventually contacts you with a day and time to arrive for fingerprinting and to receive your permesso. Now, as brief backstory, the Italian poste is a bit, er, how shall I put it, disorganized. So what they've done is take a difficult process involving one large institution (questura) and placed another large institution (poste) in the mix, which has created utter chaos. As my segretaria at the school puts it in English, "It's a mess for the whole of Italy."

So I checked the status of my permesso application online, and I have an update. (Keep in mind I applied on January 16, 2007.) On December 12th I have an appointment for fingerprinting and to receive my permesso. My flight to return to the states for Christmas is on December 19th. The permesso will expire January 7th. You do the math. Hilarious!