we MUST get our birth certs translated before our comune will even consider our application for residency. Sounds like a load of tosh to me but they're the ones with the pens so.. anyone got any advice to offer please??

It is tosh.
I didn't have a birth certificate when I registered at the comune.
It somehow seems to have got lost when I was already here and mum and dad sold our old house.
I eventually ordered and paid for a copy from the Registry office and had it posted here ... but that was donkey's years after I was already a resident.

Your passport should be enough.

Let me check to see if I can find any rules on this and I'll get back to you.

Tosh for sure.

I only used my passport.

I've checked the Polizia di Stato website about EU citizens registering here and along with the application form it says that valid ID must be produced, ie: a carta di identità o passaporto valido. (along with prooof of a job or funds).

When I first got here it was before the new EU rules and I had to go to the Questura and apply for a permesso di soggiorno. Even the bastards working there accepted my passport and never asked for a birth certificate.

I've lived in 2 different comune and neither ever asked for a birth cetificate. Your comune is being a pain.
Which one is it? They might have some info on their own website.

I think it depends on how your comune interprets both national and regional 'rules'. Here in our comune, (won't mention it by name but in Sardinia), it certainly is the case that translations of both birth and marriage certificates are required. Also these must be by a court approved translator and suitably stamped. I've actually seen the official documentation as set down by the Regional government setting out these requirements in our comune. For us, the cost, approximately four years ago was around €300.

Agree...

We are in the EU a lot of comuni get mixed up with extra comunitari and us EU people.. and do not know the rules....Just say "MA VA LA", wave your hands..sing God Save the Queen and you see all will be well

conie as i said before every comune make theirown rules if the say they want your inside leg mesurment thats it best to go to a more local forum as there are lots of english who have moved to the same aREA of abruzzo as you who have gone trhough the sams comune as you live in . remember when we first came here chieti police said england was not in the comon market and they meant it

But if you can prove that the national law is what it is .... then supposedly you could try to override the comune rules. The comune is not Law.

Just an idea, can you present a certified copy of the passport, (you can do this with a notaio or lawyer) and an 'autocertificazione' to get around the birth cert.? There's a law in Italy that says that it's the public institution, in this case the comune, responsible for acquiring the necessary documents from other institutions. It's like saying: 'with this certificate, which I auto-produced, I swear it's me, I was born in aaa, on the aa/aa/aa from aa and aa, but it's your job to check it out'. I love this, it's the most Anglo-Saxon law ever made in Italy. Any lawyers here can tell us whether it's valid for international documents too?.
Regards
H&G

May I just interrupt this thread.

No, you may not. Not unless you actually have something constructive to say - like how you got your residency. Do you have it?

never had this birth certificate nonsense. A UK passport is proof of birth - they cannot ask you for your BC - ask them which circolare states the need of aBC and threaten to fare una denuncia.

I thought that the EU meant we had the legal right to reside in any member country ? I have a very old ' permesso di soggiorno '' but the local police printed it with ' indefinate ' where the dates should go and no one has ever asked me about it . When I got my job I was told I would have to apply for Italian citizenship but I told them I would get a lawyer to look at the contract and I never heard anymore about it .

Hi from the France forum!
You're all lucky not to live in France, foreign birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce papers, etc... have to be translated into French, often by an accredited translator, for most "official" applications. This is because French citizens' current civil status is recorded in the margins of their birth certificates (dates of marriage(s), divorce(s), death of spouse,....) which is indispensable to prove when getting married, applying for benefits, buying property, etc...
As a matter of interest, is it the same system in Italy?
IMHO the OP might just as well get their Birth certificates translated by an accredited translator as required by their comune. When in Rome (or wherever the comune is), do as the Romans do.... Why risk having their application forgotten in a drawer or even rejected, if they make a fuss?

mine must be even older then, because it's got 00/00/0000 as "best before date"!