Immigration On The Flip Side

Those of you who have followed this blog/my journey from the beginning might remember that I had some hiccups with immigration back in the US.  My interactions with the Italian Consulate in LA were not so smooth.

Well, here on the other side of the pond...not so much better.

It all started last Thursday when we went to the Anagrafe (Town hall) of the Comune of Fasano to apply for our residence. Our friend Franco graciously agreed to accompany us to the office to help navigate the process, a gesture for which we were extremely grateful.  However, things very rapidly went wrong.  I won’t bore you with the gory details of Italian bureaucracy, but let’s just say that we left the office of the third person with whom we spoke thinking that we were in the country illegally and that they might kick us out.  (No one had stamped, or even checked, our passports when we entered Italy from the US. And this gentleman was sure we were going to have a big problem.)  Franco was upset that the border to his country was so porous.  And Craig was starting to organize a strategy to sell the properties and move to the UK. YIKES!

Fortunately for us, the realtor from whom Craig bought the rental property in Ostuni is a super savvy Scottish woman, Maureen, who has made a great business for herself here in Puglia> Maureen is extremely well-connected.  When we called her to ask advice she immediately contacted her friend Giandomenico, an attorney (“avvocato”) who regularly works with the American Consulate for Southern Italy in Naples and the US Chamber of Commerce in Italy. He also works with cross-border real-estate deals and speaks fluent English. His assessment was that we had encountered a very ill-informed bureaucrat and that we should return to the Comune with him. He would intervene on our behalf. I’m don’t think I have ever been happier to meet someone in all of my life.

The next morning at 10:30AM (Giandomenico informed us that he is very prompt, which he was) we met in Piazza Ciaia in Fasano and went back in.  Ha!  What a difference a day makes.  He took all of us (including the officer of the Comune) through every step of the residency process and voila!  Craig is one small step away from getting his residence in Italy as an EU citizen….that step being a visit from the police to the villa to ensure that he is really living here.  And I have two very doable steps to achieve the same as a US citizen.  Whew!

Later that day we met with Maureen at the rental property.  She ensured us that after a few years of living in Italy issues such as this will no longer fluster us.  That when Italians encounter an obstacle, the next step is to find the 10 ways to get around it.  I truly hope that is the case for this Type A, slightly OCD girl from the US.