OK, I’m still a little pissed off about Italy’s “new” registration regulations for US tourist (and possibly other nationalities) staying more than eight business days. Part of the reason I’m in a tizzy is that I still can’t find a definitive answer. The US Consular Information Sheet for Italy (dated August 13th, 2007) that was emailed to me conflicts with the Consular Information Sheet on the US State Department website, updated October 11th 2007, which still says that a permesso di soggiorno is only needed for stays over three months.
I don’t even know which stupid country to blame for this. Don’t these stupid heads know that I have an Italy guidebook coming out in a few months? And if the stupid entry requirements that we list in the book are wrong, who’s going to get blamed? Stupid Italy? The stupid webmaster at the stupid U.S. State Department web site? Stupid Tom Cruise? No, it’ll be me. Why? Because I’m the only idiot in the stupid Italy author pool stupid enough to keep a stupid blog going, making me the easiest flame-mail target when someone gets burned.
[pause for patented quad-lingual cursing jag]
Though I still can’t verify this with any certainty, it seems as if this eight business day rule only applies to people staying in private residences, meaning far fewer people are affected than I originally thought. So maybe there won’t be broken wine bottle duels in the streets outside Italy’s post offices, but it doesn’t change the fact that this development seems awfully short-sighted for a country where tourism is such a vital part of cash flow. If Italy wants to swipe the US for our ridiculous foreign entry requirements, like certain easily incensed KB readers have suggested, they should zing us in a way that isn’t going to brain their own GDP, like putting plain olive oil into extra virgin olive oil bottles or peeing into our wine imports. That’s what I’d do.
This is simple business strategy. If one clothing store in a strip mall of competing clothing stores decided to make its customers apply for a (not free, not easy to obtain) store credit card before allowing people to buy more than $10 of merchandise, how many people would go through the trouble of applying for the card and how many people would just go to a neighboring store? If Italy starts to seriously enforce this eight day rule, Spain, France, Switzerland and Slovenia are going to be popping champagne corks this time next year while Italy continues to blame the euro conversion for its tanking economy.
So, I got to thinking, at what stage does a country’s entry requirements deter potential tourists from visiting? Example: I briefly considered visiting Russia while I was living in Romania until I got a load of the hassle and cost of applying for a visa (made doubly convoluted when done from stupid Romania). As if on cue, Ukraine conveniently dropped their entry requirements, so off to Kiev I went. Too bad Russia! You lose jackhole!
So, finally, the poll topic is: have you ever said ‘[expletive] this’ when faced with ominous tourist entry requirements and gone to a different destination?
Sub-poll topic: what was the most trouble you went through to get a tourist visa?
I’m particularly interested in hearing more stories about tourists trying to get into the US, which seems to get more difficult every few months, even just for a same-terminal plane transfer.
Please keep your comments calm, civil and on-topic (Gemma).
Here are the problems I had with my visa in Kirbati:
http://everything-everywhere.com/2007/08/03/access-denied/
what was the most trouble you went through to get a tourist visa?
Russia was the worst by far. Not only did I have to pay a couple hundred dollars and go through all the hassle of mailing out the form (the internet wasn’t the same back then), I had to go an get it certified when I got there. This was all made worse by the fact that my travelling companion was a Japanese citizen and we had to do completely different things for him.
I really wanted to go to Kiev on that trip but I was too tired to deal with anymore visa requirements.
I’m confused about how Italy can enforce rules separate from the rest of the E.U.? I mean, if I can enter France and take a train to Italy without going through passport control (or fly “domestically” from Berlin or Paris), how will they every be able to check my visa?
Becca – You’ll only have issues if they ask and you are unable to show the visa. I doubt this will have any real impact as I question the enforcement desire/capabilities. My guess is most people won’t even be aware of this new requirement, travel normally, and not have issues.
I again claim that absolutely nobody will get screwed on account of italian tourist registration requirements, with the exception of possibly Leif for getting it wrong in the LP guide.
Lucas rules! Italian regulations if read and applied have neither ryme nor reason, plus Italians are famous for not enforcing their regulations.
as far as bad experiences go I’ve had none, but a person we know ,who shall go unnamed (a hint ;her name starts with g and ends with mma!)went though hell for a working visa in moldova. every year she had to go through bribes, aids tests, psychiatric evaluations and lengthy debates on the actual colour of her eyes,which discouraged her from going to russia or anywhere else.
What goes on for foreigners on entry to the U.S. and after(read Bryson!) is a well known fact that I’m very glad I’ll never have to experience.
Becca is right; Italy has not the right (nor the authority) to issue a set of rules that have not been discussed and agreed upon by all of her UE partners. Have you given a thought, dear Leif, that the set of instructions you have received is an elaborate joke by some disgruntled hotel keeper or restauranteur that you panned in your book? ( I am thinking of the Romanians, little brain but long memory)
As for my comments not being civil,calm and on topic well I will just say……………………………………………………….
Gary – read it (and commented). I might have actually fainted from pissed off-ness had that happened to me. It’s congenital.
Bertine – Sounds like Russia has gotten fractionally easier to access since your trip, but still, screw ’em. Kiev was awesome and worry-free. In fact they should say just that. Run an add in the hostels/hotels of all their shared border countries. They’ll steal tourists from Russia by the thousands.
Becca/Chris/Lucas/Elfin – Yes, hollow, non-enforcement of the law is all part of fun of being in Italy (I wonder how many parking tickets are issued nationwide annually? Three?). No one will enforce it, BUT once in a while (you know this is gonna happen), some bored jackhole cop in Naples is going to stop a family of tourists that look like they’re having too good a time and so he’ll feel like a big bad man to make up for not being able to satisfy his woman in bed, check their passports, tell them about this law that no one has ever heard of and slap them with a passport interdiction and a 500 euro fine (each). Or something. I have an active imagination.
Gemma – the US Consular Information Sheet for Italy that I received by email was actually sent to me by a fellow LP Italy author. So yes, it could very well be an elaborate joke. We LP authors are madcap bunch.
Worst kind of trouble, hands down: getting a US visa.
But then, again, I\’ve only been to 15 countries, most of which were civilized.
I can’t believe it’s been two days and no one has cut loose with an unabridged story about how they spent three months and $400 in expenses to get their US visa. People want to tell me these tales of woe in person all the friggin’ time! What do you guys need, a written invitation? I thought I’d be beating you all back with orange-filled socks. Please, unload. It’s very cathartic, trust me.
Dear Leif,
I did the sensible thing and asked the police, here, in my hometown. All extra-communitarians ( and that is what you americans are, in spite of being masters of the world,(sorry…sorry…), have to register their entrance in Italy within eight working days. They will give you your piece of paper saying that you are legally in Italy and that is all.
No sweat, no tears and, especially, no blood. Thank dog that you are blond and white-skinned!
You’re worrying about nothing. Italy, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, is a country were rules are made to be ignored.
Take me for instance. I’m a dual UK-Italian citizen, and male, so was enlisted for mandatory* Italian military service even though I don’t live there. To avoid this, I had a _dispensa_ which excused me as a non-resident.
Dispensa notwithstanding, the Italian laws stated that *every time* I wanted to go to Italy I had to get written permission, which involved:
a) Queuing up at the London consulate for 2+ hours to get a form stamped
b) Going to the Carabinieri once I got into Italy and having them countersign the form.
Failure to do this (it was threatened) could result in arrest and charges of desertion(!). And all this for an EU, nay an Italian, citizen.
I’ll let you decide how frequently these rules are followed.
* They scrapped mandatory military service a few years ago.
I went to Rome last week and no one even glanced at my passport when I entered. I came through Ciampino Airport.