How to Get an Italian Codice Fiscale From Abroad — By Email, Without Flying to Italy

Opening a bank account in Italy, signing a lease, even getting a phone contract — almost everything starts with one thing: your Codice Fiscale, the Italian tax identification number. The good news: if you live outside Italy, you do not need to be in Italy to get one. This is a full walkthrough based on a real application filed in October 2026 — one email to the Italian consulate, no appointment, no flight.

What it is — and what it is not

The Codice Fiscale is a 16-character alphanumeric code generated from your name, date and place of birth. Three things worth knowing before you apply:

1. It is an ID number, not a tax bill. Holding a Codice Fiscale creates no tax liability and no annual filing duty by itself. Italian taxes only come into play if you actually have Italian-source income or assets.
2. Non-residents apply at the Italian consulate for their place of residence. The Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) states this channel explicitly on its own page for foreign citizens.
3. It is free. The Revenue Agency issues the number at no charge, and consular email applications carry no official fee.

The Revenue Agency's own page for foreign citizens — the "apply abroad" route is described right there:

What you need before you start

1. A valid passport. The name and date of birth on the form must match it exactly. You will attach a copy (a clean photo converted to PDF is fine).
2. A concrete reason. For non-residents, the consulate needs to know why you need the number. Opening an Italian bank account is one of the standard reasons; studying, working or buying property in Italy work the same way. Keep it truthful and one sentence long.
3. An email address that can receive a PDF. The certificate comes back as a PDF attachment. A typo here means starting over.
4. Your competent consulate. This is decided by your place of residence — not your birthplace, not where your passport was issued.

Step 1: Find your consulate (residence decides)

Italy runs several consulates per country. In China, for example, there are four posts, split by province of residence:

Consular post	District (province of residence)
Embassy of Italy in Beijing — Consular Chancellery	All other provinces (incl. Hubei, Henan, Shandong)
Consulate General in Shanghai	Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui
Consulate General in Guangzhou	Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi
Consulate General in Chongqing	Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Shaanxi

Worked example: living in Wuhan → the Beijing Embassy's Consular Chancellery handles your application, even if you were born in Fujian. Wherever you live, find the post responsible for your area on the Italian foreign ministry's consulate network pages before you send anything — sending to the wrong post is the most common cause of a bounced application.

The Beijing Embassy's consular services page lists "CODICE E PIN FISCALI" (tax code and PIN) among the services of its Consular Chancellery:

Step 2: Download the one and only form — AA4/8

There is a single nationwide form: Form AA4/8, available as a fillable PDF in English on the Agenzia delle Entrate website (search "AA4/8 form English"). It has two pages: page 1 is a privacy notice (nothing to fill in), page 2 is the actual form:

Step 3: Fill it in, box by box

Part A, Section I (applicant type) - Tick D — Direct application for yourself - Applicant type code: 04 (codes: 01 non-resident student, 02 non-resident employee, 03 person temporarily living in Italy, 04 all other direct applications). If you are not going to Italy to study or work, 04 is your code.

Part A, Section II (application type) - Tick 1 — Allocation of a tax code (first-time application) - Also tick 4 — Request for tax code certificate. The official instructions expressly allow 1 + 4 together, and the certificate is the document you actually need. - Do not tick the plastic tax code card box — consulates abroad do not issue cards; the certificate carries the same legal value.

Part B (personal details) - Surname / Name: block capitals, exactly as in your passport, no abbreviations, no special characters - Sex: M or F - Municipality of birth (or foreign State): if you were born outside Italy, enter the country name — for China, CINA - Province: enter EE (the code for births abroad — do not put your birth province here) - Date of birth: day / month / year

Part C (Italian tax domicile): if you have no tax domicile in Italy, leave the whole section blank — the official instructions say so. Your foreign address does not go here.

Part D (residence overseas) — always complete in full - Foreign State: your country (e.g. CINA) - Federal State / Province / County: your province or state - Town of residence: your city - Postcode: your postal code - Address: your full address, no abbreviations

Part E: only if you were previously allocated another Italian tax code. First-timers leave it empty. Documents enclosed: write "COPY OF PASSPORT". Signatures section: date it and sign it yourself — the signature should match your passport. An unsigned form is void; this is the one box people forget.

Part A close-up, showing the tick boxes:

p>

Tip: fill the PDF on a computer, print it, sign it, scan it back to PDF. No handwriting, no corrections — and far fewer rejections.

Step 4: Email the application to your consulate

For the Beijing district, the Consular Chancellery's published email is consolare.pechino@esteri.it. Shanghai works slightly differently: its consulate instructs applicants to email the completed form plus an ID copy directly to shanghai.sociale@esteri.it. Other posts publish their own channel — always confirm the current address on your consulate's website before sending.

Structure of the email: - Subject: Request for attribution of Codice Fiscale – YOUR NAME (resident in City, Province) - Body, four short paragraphs: (1) who you are and where you reside, noting you fall in their district; (2) the request and your one-line reason (e.g. opening a bank account in Italy), adding that you cannot delegate someone in Italy to file at a Revenue Agency office, which is why you apply through the consulate; (3) the two attachments listed; (4) a request to send the certificate to your email address, with your contact details. - Attachments: name them clearly — AA4_8_YOURNAME_signed.pdf and passport_copy.pdf.

Before hitting send, check three things: signature on the form, passport copy legible, recipient address typed correctly.

Step 5: Wait for the certificate — and keep records

There is no online tracking portal; the answer comes by email with the certificate PDF. Timelines vary by post: the Italian Consulate General in London, for instance, states five working days for delivery by email. Posts in China publish no fixed deadline; based on consular practice generally, one to three weeks is a realistic expectation (an estimate from experience, not an official promise).

• The reply may land in your sending mailbox or in the contact mailbox named in your letter — check both, spam folders included.
• If three weeks pass in silence, reply on the same thread with a short follow-up quoting your original sending date.
• Once the certificate PDF arrives, back it up in more than one place — you will reach for it at every Italian bank, landlord and notary from now on.

FAQ

• Does it cost anything? No. Issuance is free; anyone selling you a paid "fast track" is selling you something the consulate gives away.
• Will I owe Italian tax once I have the number? No. The number alone creates no tax liability and no yearly return. Taxes only enter the picture with actual Italian income or assets.
• What if I am already in Italy? Different channels: immigration one-stop shops (Sportelli Unici) or police headquarters handle those tied to entry/residence procedures; everyone else files Form AA4/8 at a Revenue Agency office.
• Country or province in the birthplace box? Country — plus province code EE. This is the single most common mistake on the form.

Sources

• Agenzia delle Entrate — Tax identification number for foreign citizens: https://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/portale/web/english/nse/individuals/tax-identification-number-for-foreign-citizens
• Embassy of Italy in Beijing — Consular services (incl. the Consular Chancellery email and the tax code service entry): https://ambpechino.esteri.it/zh/servizi-consolari-e-visti/
• Consulate General of Italy in Shanghai — tax code application by email
• Form AA4/8 and its official instructions, Agenzia delle Entrate
• Procedure as filed and verified in October 2026 (Beijing district, by email). Consular details can change — always check your own consulate's website for the latest instructions before applying.