Passports in post offices, 90,000 requests. From September 5 more cities

The issuing of passports at post offices is proving to be a crucial service throughout the country, but it is especially in municipalities with fewer than 15 thousand inhabitants and in less populated areas that it is making a difference. The number of documents issued since spring last year, when the service was launched, has risen to 90,000.

There are 13 urban centres in which the service has been extended, including Rome and Milan. From 22 September, five more cities will start up: Brescia, Livorno, Trapani, Vercelli and Novara, with their hinterlands. The group led by Matteo Del Fante has set itself the goal of completing the activation of the issue in all the municipalities involved in the Polis project (those with fewer than 15 thousand inhabitants) by March 2026. Today it is possible to apply for a passport in about 2,300 of these municipalities, by March this will rise to 6,900.

Of the approximately 90,000 passports issued, 68% requested delivery home; 63,200 were requested in Polis project offices, 26,800 in offices in larger urban centres. The activation of the service has so far involved 40 police headquarters. The areas where the largest number of requests has been concentrated are not the big cities, but the smaller centres. In terms of the number of requests, the questuras of Verona stand out, with 12,000 documents issued, Bologna with 10,300, Vicenza with 8,400, and Monza with 6,400. Important numbers also for Rome, with 4,850 documents issued (the service here started in September 2024) and Milan with 1,330, but here the issue started last March. This initiative has been particularly successful in the small municipalities of the Polis project. To give a few examples, in Colà di Lazise, a municipality in the province of Verona with 7,000 inhabitants, 422 requests were received; in Trissino (a municipality in the province of Verona with 7,000 inhabitants) 319 requests; in Fiumefreddo Bruzio (a municipality in the province of Cosenza with 4,000 inhabitants) 374 requests. And again, in the smaller realities, in Albareto (a municipality in the province of Parma with 2 thousand inhabitants) there were 70 requests; in Rovito (in the province of Cosenza with 3 thousand inhabitants) 30 requests; in Villa Minozzo (in the province of Reggio Emilia with 3,500 inhabitants) 70 requests.

Among the innovations launched last June is the possibility of issuing passports even in some 30 very small towns where there is not even a post office. Until a few months ago, residents had to go to the provincial capital to apply for the document at the police headquarters. Since a couple of months, however, it has been possible to go to the post office in the nearest municipality to make the application.

Demand in some areas, such as Vicenza, Monza, Bergamo and Potenza, is so high that the delivery group will have to recalibrate with the police headquarters the number of daily slots granted by the latter for document requests at post offices. A check that the company led by Del Fante will have to start after the summer with the Ministry of the Interior to assess all the areas where the capillarity of the Post Office network makes the service more efficient and more useful for citizens.