Invalidità (disability) & passport matters: minor children

Disability under Italian law

In Italy there are different degrees of disability, and the amount of welfare benefits depends on them. Disability status is recognised for foreign nationals who hold a long-term residence permit in Italy (permesso di soggiorno). Since the beginning of 2022, Ukrainian refugees have also been able to apply for it.

To use the rights and benefits available, Ukrainians with disabilities need to obtain official recognition of their disability in Italy.

To have your disability confirmed, you need to submit a disability application to the local ASL (local health authority) for the place where you are registered as resident (la residenza) in Italy.

Italian law distinguishes between several types of disability, including

I. Invalidità civile (civil disability, legge 118/1971)

II. Handicap (legge 104/1992)

III. Disabilità (legge n.68/1999)

Each of these types of disability meets specific criteria, and each is assessed by a different medical board.

Note that a single medical certificate (certificato medico), like a single disability application, can request several assessments, for example: invalidità civile and handicap, handicap and disabilità, invalidità civile and disabilità, or even all three at once.

I. Invalidità civile (legge 118/1971)

Anyone, adult or minor, who has an impairment, loss or abnormality of an anatomical, physiological or psychological structure or function may apply for an examination to assess civil disability. The assessment leads to a recognised disability expressed as a percentage, ranging from a minimum of 33% (i.e. ⅓) to a maximum of 100%.

Note that being recognised as totally unable to work (100%, with or without an entitlement to an allowance) does not in itself rule out employment.

Even recognition of the right to the attendance allowance (l’indennità di accompagnamento), which presupposes being unable to walk without the constant help of a companion and/or to carry out everyday activities, does not prevent you from working.

Recognition of civil disability gives access to various benefits, including financial ones, depending on the percentage awarded and the category the person falls into (prostheses and orthopaedic aids; registration on the special lists for targeted job placement; exemption from the medical ticket (prescription charge); a monthly allowance; a disability pension; the attendance allowance; the school attendance allowance; welfare support, etc.).

Recognition of civil disability is not tied to any specific contribution requirements, which are instead needed to receive an incapacity pension or the ordinary disability allowance.

When this form of disability (Handicap) is assessed, account is taken of the difficulty of the person’s social integration caused by the condition or impairment found.

In some cases, even when an illness or impairment does not amount to a 100% loss of working capacity, the person may be recognised as having, because of the condition, serious difficulties in social life and social integration, and so obtain handicap grave.

In other words, the status of severe disability (handicap grave) can be obtained even without recognition of civil disability.

Recognition of handicap grave brings the person no financial benefits, but it is a prerequisite for a range of other benefits, including the leave from work granted to workers with disabilities and to those who care for a disabled family member, two years of paid leave reserved for family members caring for a person recognised as severely disabled, etc.

It is important to note that legge n.68/1999 is aimed precisely at helping into work people whose disability makes it harder for them to enter the labour market, and it requires companies with more than 15 employees to hire a certain percentage of people with disabilities.

For this reason, the work of the medical board assessing disability is always directed at establishing the overall, current and potential capacity for employment of the person with a disability.

For a person with a disability to obtain work under law 68/1999, they must be registered on the special targeted job placement lists (liste speciali del collocamento mirato), and for this they must have a disabilità assessment together with the invalidità (disability) assessment. Without it, the person cannot be included on those lists.

IMPORTANT: in Italy you need a recognised incapacity of at least 74% to receive financial support, which goes by the following names:

• Assegno di inabilità (74-99%)
• Pensione di invalidità (100%)

*Since foreign nationals are often awarded 64%, which does not give the right to financial support, remember that you are entitled to appeal against the board’s decision.

Financial support is also granted to people who cannot look after themselves independently and need a carer (accompagnamento).

Important: disability support for minors (indennità di frequenza) is granted only on condition that the children attend school or a rehabilitation centre. Children with disabilities are also granted the attendance allowance (accompagnamento).

How to obtain disability status in Italy, step by step

1. Your treating or accredited doctor sends INPS (National Social Security Institute) the online medical certificate (certificato medico online), stating the diagnosis and attaching the application for disability/handicap/accompagnamento.

2. Next, you need to go to an Italian patronato (welfare advice office) and submit the civil disability application itself (per invalidità civile). Note that you must have a registered residence (residenza) and a bank account into which the financial support can be paid.

3. The next step is an examination by the medical board, for which you will need your medical certificates (if they were issued outside Italy, with a translation into Italian).

4. Receive the board’s decision on your degree of disability.

Note that if you are refused financial support, there are two options:

– take the case to court;

– wait 6 months and apply again on the grounds that your health has worsened (aggravamento invalidità civile).

Passport matters: minor children

First of all, if your child was born in Italy, before you can take the baby home from the maternity ward you must register the birth with the Ufficio di Stato Civile (civil registry office) of the Comune, by submitting the Dichiarazione di nascita (declaration of birth) either to the management of the hospital where you gave birth (within 3 days of the birth) or directly to the Ufficio di Stato Civile of the Comune where the mother lives or where the child was born (within 10 days of the birth).

Your next step is to obtain your child’s birth certificate from your Comune (municipality).

Please note that in Italy there are different birth certificates (copia integrale dell’atto di nascita, estratto di nascita and certificato di nascita), depending on which details you need. The Embassy/Consulate of Ukraine requires the Estratto dell’atto di nascita in the international format (It. internazionale).

Once you have your child’s birth certificate, we recommend having it apostilled at the legalisation office of the territorially competent Prefettura (prefecture) (under the legislative changes of April 2023, the certificate is valid without an apostille at the Consulate/Embassy, but it will not be valid for any other competent authority in Ukraine).

If your child is entitled to Ukrainian citizenship, your next step should be registering the child as a citizen of Ukraine (and obtaining a certificate of registration as a citizen of Ukraine for this from the Consulate General or the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy).

Once the child has been granted Ukrainian citizenship, you must submit to the Consulate General or the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy an application and the documents required to issue the child with a passport for travel abroad (after first booking an appointment through the electronic queue).

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR A PASSPORT

1. Application form for entering data in the Unified State Demographic Register (generated electronically by the consular officer during the consular appointment, on the basis of the documents provided by the applicant);

2. A document proving the child’s identity and Ukrainian citizenship (passport of a citizen of Ukraine, passport of a citizen of Ukraine for travel abroad, temporary certificate of a citizen of Ukraine, the child’s travel document), with copies of its first page and of the page bearing the stamps for permanent residence abroad and permanent consular registration (if there are such entries);

3. If the child’s passport for travel abroad has been lost or stolen, a document (original + copy) confirming that one of the parents reported the loss or theft of the passport to the police or the Carabinieri (denuncia). This document may be submitted without a translation into Ukrainian;

4. Certificate of registration as a citizen of Ukraine by birth, if the child was born abroad (original and a copy);

5. The child’s birth certificate (original and a copy of all its pages);

6. Original and copies of the first page of the valid passports of one of the parents/legal representatives of the child. If the passport of a citizen of Ukraine for travel abroad has expired, the passport of a citizen of Ukraine is submitted (original and copies of all pages);

7. Original and copies of the documents of the child and of one of the parents/legal representatives confirming the right to permanent residence or temporary stay in Italy, or the fact of being in Italy at the time the passport application is submitted;

8. One 10x15 cm photograph of the child’s face (the face must take up 70 to 80 per cent of the total area of the photograph, on a white background).

Issuing and delivering a passport at the Consulate General usually takes at least three months.

For persons under the age of 16 (hereinafter, the child), the passport is issued for 4 years.

A consular fee of €37 is charged for issuing the passport (including automated data processing), payable by card or transfer only (no cash).