SPID in Italy: How to Get It as a Foreigner

What SPID unlocks

SPID, short for Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale, is Italy's digital identity: one login for nearly every public service online. Tax returns and certificates on the Agenzia delle Entrate website, pensions and benefits at INPS, certificates and appointments at your comune, the electronic health record (fascicolo sanitario elettronico), doctor bookings and payments through pagoPA all open with the same credentials. Applications for most benefits and the ISEE household income statement are filed the same way. Without SPID many procedures are only possible in person and by appointment. For anyone settling in Italy long term it is the first thing to sort out after the codice fiscale: it saves weeks of queuing and lets you handle paperwork from abroad. This is not a niche tool: AgID counted about 1.2 billion SPID logins in 2025, and in the first months of 2026 roughly 46,000 to 49,000 new identities were issued every month.

Can a foreigner get SPID? The document rule

Citizenship is not the obstacle. Both EU and non-EU nationals can hold SPID. What the accredited providers require, and what the official site spid.gov.it states, is a valid Italian identity document: carta d'identità, CIE, patente or passport issued in Italy. The rule is about who issued the document, not about your nationality, so a German Personalausweis or a French carte d'identité does not qualify either. Alongside the document you need proof of your codice fiscale (the plastic card, your tessera sanitaria or the certificate from Agenzia delle Entrate), a personal email address and a mobile phone for the one-time codes. Many providers accept a foreign mobile number, though an Italian SIM removes a common source of failed SMS. A permesso di soggiorno is not an accepted identity document for SPID, but it is exactly the document you take to the comune to obtain one.

No Italian document yet: the route that works

If you hold a residenza registered at the anagrafe, your comune issues you an Italian identity card, including to non-EU nationals with a valid permesso di soggiorno. Book the anagrafe appointment, bring your passport, your permesso or EU registration certificate, your codice fiscale and passport photos, and ask for the electronic version, the CIE. It is worth the extra step: the CIE lets you open SPID fully online in minutes, and on many portals it already replaces SPID. If you are not resident in Italy at all, for example you own a holiday home in Tuscany and only have a codice fiscale, SPID is normally out of reach. Two workable alternatives: request Fisconline credentials directly from Agenzia delle Entrate for tax matters, or give a written delega to an accountant or a CAF office, who then file on your behalf. Italian citizens registered with AIRE are the exception: their Italian passport or CIE qualifies, and spid.gov.it points them to the online identification methods, so they can open SPID from abroad.

Where to apply: the accredited providers

SPID is not issued by a government office but by private identity providers accredited by the state agency AgID, and you may choose any of them. The current list includes PosteID, InfoCert, Aruba, Sielte, Namirial, TIM, Lepida, Intesi Group, ID InfoCamere, TeamSystem, SpidItalia and EtnaID. AgID publishes an official comparison table on spid.gov.it showing, provider by provider, which identification methods are offered and which are free: check there rather than trusting search ads. PosteID is the most common choice because you can identify yourself at any post office, and InfoCert lists more than 4,000 partner counters for free in-person identification. Pick on three criteria: whether the provider offers an identification method you can actually use, whether it charges an annual fee, and whether you will ever need security level 3 (only some providers issue it).

What SPID costs in 2026

Logging in to public services with SPID is free for citizens, and AgID sets it that way. Two things can still cost money. The first is the identification method: in person at a post office is free, identifying online with a CIE, CNS or digital signature is free at most providers, while webcam identification with a live operator is paid at several of them, indicatively from about 15 euro plus VAT at Lepida to about 24 euro at TIM and about 30 euro plus VAT at Aruba. The second is newer: a few providers now charge an annual fee for the identity itself. Aruba leaves the first year free and then renews at 4.90 euro plus VAT a year, InfoCert also starts free and charges on renewal, and PosteID applies an annual fee of 6 euro including VAT from 1 January 2026, with the first year free and the service left free for minors, people aged 75 and over and people registered as resident abroad. Poste emails you at least 30 days before the due date; if you do not pay, access is suspended rather than deleted, and you keep 24 months from your last login to pay and switch it back on. Other providers, Sielte among them, still renew at no cost, so the cheapest route is a free provider combined with a free identification method.

The five ways to prove your identity

Registration is step one: you open an account on the provider's site, enter your document and codice fiscale details and set a password. Step two is proving that the document is yours, and this is where providers differ. In person at a counter, a post office for PosteID or a partner point for other providers, the check takes a few minutes. By webcam, a short video call with an operator, usually paid, and conducted in Italian or English. By audio-video combined with a bank transfer from an Italian account in your name, which Lepida offers at no cost. The two fastest options are fully digital: with a CIE, a CNS card or a qualified electronic signature you complete everything online, and with an NFC-capable phone you can read an Italian electronic document (CIE 3.0 or an electronic passport) at the providers that support it. Bring the original document, not a photocopy, to any in-person appointment, and book the slot through the Poste Italiane site or app to avoid the queue.

How long does it take to get SPID?

The online registration takes about 15 minutes. After that the clock depends entirely on the identification method. Fully digital with CIE, CNS or a digital signature, the identity is often active within minutes or a few hours. In person at a post office, the appointment lasts a few minutes and activation usually follows within 1-2 days. By webcam, add the wait for an operator slot, typically a few days. Plan a week from start to finish and you will rarely be disappointed. The realistic delay is upstream: if you still need the codice fiscale and the Italian identity card, the timeline is set by how quickly your comune gives you an anagrafe appointment, which in Tuscany can mean several weeks in the busy season. Start that part first and the SPID itself will be the easy day.

How long is SPID valid?

SPID does not expire on a fixed date the way a passport does. Once the identity is active it keeps working, and at providers that charge nothing there is no renewal for you to handle by hand. What does expire on a schedule is your password, which providers make you change at regular intervals, and the identity document you registered with, so update your details in the provider account when you renew a passport or carta d'identità. Where an annual fee applies, non-payment suspends access rather than deleting the identity: with PosteID you keep 24 months from your last login to pay and switch SPID back on immediately. You can revoke a SPID, move to a different provider, or hold identities with more than one provider at the same time. If you lose your phone, your provider can reset the level 2 device after a new identity check, which is another reason to keep your registered email address alive.

SPID vs CIE, and what changes next

SPID has three security levels. Everyday public services need level 2: username and password plus a one-time code from the provider's app or an SMS. Level 3 uses a physical certificate and is required only for a handful of operations. The provider app, PosteID for example, is the least painful way to handle level 2: confirming a login takes a couple of seconds. If you already hold a CIE, the Italian electronic identity card, you can log in to most portals without SPID using Entra con CIE: an NFC phone plus the PIN you received when the card was issued. The government has said it intends to converge digital identity on the CIE and the IT-Wallet inside the IO app, but no shutdown date for SPID has been set and new identities are still being issued every day. The practical reading for 2026: if you need Italian public services now, open SPID now; if you already have a CIE with its PIN, you may not need SPID at all.

Checklist: what to prepare for SPID

• A valid Italian identity document: carta d'identità or CIE, Italian driving licence or Italian passport
• If you do not have one yet: residenza at the comune first, then request the CIE at the anagrafe
• Codice fiscale: the card, your tessera sanitaria or the Agenzia delle Entrate certificate
• A personal email address you control and will keep
• A mobile phone for one-time codes (an Italian SIM avoids failed SMS)
• A provider chosen from the official comparison on spid.gov.it, checking price and methods
• An identification method: in person, by webcam, or online with CIE, CNS or digital signature
• The original document, not a copy, for an in-person appointment
• The provider's app installed on your phone for level 2 logins
• A reminder for the annual renewal date if your provider charges a fee