Difference between revisions of "SPID"

Revision as of 14:53, 14 March 2022

SPID

Sistema Pubblico d’Identità Digitale is the unified access system to the online services of the italian public administration. Citizens and companies can access these services through a unique digital identity. This system was introduced to cope with the ever increasing number of web services, in order to have a single account instead of different credentials. The system, in principle, should be integrable at European level.

Italian ID card holders

In order to get your credentials you need to choose a service provider: some of them have a free subscription, some other have a fee to pay at the moment of the recognition. The insertion of the data generally requires 10 to 15 minutes. Then you will have to set an appointment (physical or virtual) to validate the registration. We suggest to subscribe to the National Post Service (Poste Italiane) as a provider. You can register here.

Also people coming from a country not belonging to EU can obtain their SPID credentials. However they must already have

• the Health National Service hard card (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale or SSN in italiano)
• an Italian document. In order to have an Italian ID card you NEED to appoint your Residence in Italy!

For more information: SPID (Italian digital identity)

Inforcert provider: SPID without an Italian ID card

IMPORTANT: you MUST hold a Codice fiscale hard card or a Health Insurance (tessera sanitaria) hard card

Inforcert provider allow you to ask for a SPID without an Italian ID card.

Procedure

From the InfoCert website, select the options "InfoCert ID Personale" and then "Online con Video Riconoscimento"

Set up an account and enter all your details: name, address, phone number, tessera sanitaria (health card), Codice fiscale (Italian fiscal code), passport, etc. There were two things I found confusing here:

1. There were three parts to the address field. I can't remember exactly, but it was something like, "tipologia indirizzo", "indirizzo", and "numero civico". I didn't understand what "tipologia indirizzo" meant, but I typed in "Via" because my experience with previous forms is that the "Via" is often put in a separate box, so I guessed that this is what it meant (?).

2. When typing in my passport details, it asked for "Ente di rilascio", and there were various options, like consulate, embassy, etc. I didn't know what to choose, so I picked "altre" and typed in "Passport Office, Dublin", which is the issuing body listed on my passport.

After entering your details, you also have to upload an image of your passport.

Once you complete this process, the system gives you some documents to download, including a paper form which asks for name, address, signature, etc. I filled out this form, but it turns out this wasn't necessary. I think they just give you the form so you can look at it, but you don't actually need to fill it out – they do this for you during the interview.

I then proceeded with the webcam interview. I did it on a Saturday afternoon (they are available seven days a week, which is nice). I waited just a few minutes for the operator and the whole process took about 10 minutes. She spoke English, so the process was quite straight-forward. I had to show my codice fiscale and passport to the camera, and she asked me to confirm my phone number.

At the end of the interview, she suddenly disappeared without saying goodbye, which I thought was weird, so I didn't know what to do. I just continued to wait, and after a few minutes the system said that the process was complete, and it gave me the option to download the completed form (i.e. the same form I mentioned above, but it was filled out by her).

Then on Monday morning, I got an email to say that my SPID was activated, so overall it took about 36 hours (over the weekend).

She asked me to show my codice fiscale, so I showed her the health card because that's what I had to hand. She then asked to see the other side of the TS – so I think she basically just wanted to confirm that the numbers were correct. I guess that's another important thing to note: I think you need to have a TS to get the SPID through InfoCert. I'm not sure what will happen when my TS expires next month – do I somehow have to provide the new TS number (or maybe it doesn't matter).

The cost was €36 (including IVA) and I paid by debit card. There's also an option to pay by bank transfer, but it takes longer.

The website says "SPID InfoCert ID Personale è GRATIS. Il servizio si rinnova automaticamente, sempre in modo gratuito, ogni 2 anni." and my SPID expires on 05/07/2023. I'm not sure what will happen after two years – will it just renew automatically for free, or will I have to do the whole process again? I don't know.