From today, Italians and foreign residents can apply for a new passport at almost any post office in the country. Poste Italiane has finished equipping 7,500 branches—6,932 ‘Progetto Polis’ rural outlets plus 431 offices in major cities—with biometric-capture hardware linked directly to the Interior Ministry’s document-issuance platform. Launched as a pilot in Bologna in March 2024, the service has already delivered 206,000 passports, 80 % of them to residents of small municipalities previously underserved by police-station passport desks. The completion brings passport services within 20-minutes’ drive for 97 % of the population and is expected to shorten appointment lead-times for non-EU work-permit holders renewing their travel documents.
![Passport on the Corner: Poste Italiane Completes Nationwide Roll-Out of In-Branch Issuance]()
For travelers who still want expert guidance—or HR managers coordinating multiple applications—VisaHQ can streamline every step of the Italian passport and visa process through its online portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), offering document checks, slot booking and real-time tracking that dovetail neatly with Poste Italiane’s new capabilities.
For global-mobility teams, the expanded network means expatriate employees no longer need to travel to provincial police headquarters—often an all-day commitment—to replace full visa pages or renew five-year biometric passports. HR departments can book slots online through Poste’s CRM interface and have passports delivered by registered mail to corporate addresses, reducing downtime. The €1.2 billion project—part-funded by Italy’s PNRR post-pandemic recovery plan—also integrates other e-government services (pension certificates, civil-status documents) that are relevant when relocating staff. Smaller towns housing new green-energy plants or logistics parks stand to benefit most, making recruitment campaigns in those areas easier. Poste Italiane estimates the passport roll-out has generated over 18,500 jobs and added €1 billion to GDP through construction and IT procurement. The model is being studied by Spain and Portugal as they prepare similar ‘one-stop’ mobility hubs under the EU Digital Identity framework.
For travelers who still want expert guidance—or HR managers coordinating multiple applications—VisaHQ can streamline every step of the Italian passport and visa process through its online portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), offering document checks, slot booking and real-time tracking that dovetail neatly with Poste Italiane’s new capabilities.
For global-mobility teams, the expanded network means expatriate employees no longer need to travel to provincial police headquarters—often an all-day commitment—to replace full visa pages or renew five-year biometric passports. HR departments can book slots online through Poste’s CRM interface and have passports delivered by registered mail to corporate addresses, reducing downtime. The €1.2 billion project—part-funded by Italy’s PNRR post-pandemic recovery plan—also integrates other e-government services (pension certificates, civil-status documents) that are relevant when relocating staff. Smaller towns housing new green-energy plants or logistics parks stand to benefit most, making recruitment campaigns in those areas easier. Poste Italiane estimates the passport roll-out has generated over 18,500 jobs and added €1 billion to GDP through construction and IT procurement. The model is being studied by Spain and Portugal as they prepare similar ‘one-stop’ mobility hubs under the EU Digital Identity framework.
