It seems I have confused some people with my post earlier today. I will endeavor to clarify.
To put it simply:
- Anyone (no matter citizenship) who comes to live in Italy full time becomes a resident. Anyone who becomes a resident must OBTAIN AN ITALIAN DRIVERS LICENSE.
- Anyone who only comes to italy to visit for vacations (no matter cotizenship) are not residents and do NOT HAVE TO GET AN ITALIAN DIVERS LICENSE.
In my previous post I mentioned my friends. They do NOT live here. So they do not need a drivers license from here. They just happen to be dual citizens. Italian citizens have rights here that non-citizens do not have. Only Italian citizens may buy and register a car here even if they are not residents and do not live here.
This confused the police. They assumed they lived here since they owned a car. So therein was the problem. They didn’t understand that my friends could buy a car and still not be residents…
To explain AIRE. If an Italian citizen moves out of Italy they must register with AIRE. In effect they tell their Comune they are leaving and they register their new, foreign, address. An American who obtains their Italian citizenship because they are of Italian heritage, they ALSO must register with AIRE. Even if they never lived here. Our friends live in Florida. They own a home here and visit it a few times a year. They are registered with AIRE. This allows them to go to the Comune here where they own a home and the Comune gives them a document allowing them to buy a car.
I hope this clarifies it. Please send any questions to nancy22314 at yahoo dot com. Sorry for the confusion.