PEC and Accesso agli Atti: Push the Questura

The questura is silent for months, the case status is frozen, the appointment has drifted into nowhere - a picture familiar from every chat. The applicant, meanwhile, has two legal pressure tools: accesso agli atti - the right to look into your own file under law 241/1990, and PEC - the certified email whose messages legally equal a registered letter with return receipt. Below - when they work, how to write, and ready-made templates in Italian. This is not legal advice: with a refusal or an expulsion order the deadlines are short and you need a lawyer - see refusal and ricorso.

The law you cite: L. 241/1990

Law 241/1990 is the general law on administrative procedure, and three things in it matter for a foreigner:

• Art. 22 and following: accesso agli atti. A party to a procedure has the right to inspect the documents of their case and obtain copies. The authority must answer the request within 30 days; silence beyond the deadline counts as a refusal, which can be appealed.
• Art. 2: procedure deadlines. Every administrative procedure has a maximum term; for a permesso case the statutory benchmark is 90 days for a decision (art. 5 c.9 D.Lgs 286/98; 60 before D.Lgs 83/2026, in force since 04.06.2026), in practice longer - verify. Exceeding the term is a lawful ground to demand that the case be concluded.
• Art. 10-bis: preavviso di rigetto. Before a refusal you must be warned and heard - that mechanism is covered in the article on refusals.

The texts of the law are on normattiva.it; check the terms by permesso type on interno.gov.it.

PEC: why this channel

PEC (posta elettronica certificata) is certified mail, the legal analogue of a registered letter: the fact and time of sending and delivery are recorded. How to get your own PEC is in the article on PEC and CIE. For letters to the questura, per community experience, what matters is:

• find the ufficio immigrazione address of your questura on questure.poliziadistato.it - large questure use addresses like dippsXXX on the pecps.poliziadistato.it domain;
• put the substance and the case number straight into the oggetto - some questure sort mail by subject, and staff explicitly ask for the unit to be named;
• per the community, messages from Russian mail services may not reach police addresses - if you write from ordinary email, use a neutral international service, and better yet a PEC;
• attach PDFs: the document, the ricevuta, the passport - and keep the delivery receipts.

Template 1. The accesso agli atti request

When to use it: the case is stuck, the status is unclear, you suspect the file is sitting idle or something is missing from it. The template is generic formal Italian; replace the words in CAPS with your own data.

Oggetto: Richiesta di accesso agli atti ex artt. 22 e ss. L. 241/1990 - pratica permesso di soggiorno NUMERO PRATICA

Spett.le Questura di CITTA - Ufficio Immigrazione,

il/la sottoscritto/a NOME COGNOME, nato/a a LUOGO DI NASCITA il GG/MM/AAAA,
cittadino/a NAZIONALITA, codice fiscale CODICE FISCALE,
residente in INDIRIZZO COMPLETO,

premesso che in data GG/MM/AAAA ha presentato istanza di rilascio/rinnovo del
permesso di soggiorno per MOTIVO (pratica n. NUMERO PRATICA, ricevuta postale
n. NUMERO RICEVUTA),

chiede

ai sensi degli artt. 22 e seguenti della Legge 7 agosto 1990, n. 241, di poter
prendere visione ed estrarre copia degli atti relativi alla propria pratica,
al fine di conoscere lo stato del procedimento e le eventuali cause che ne
ritardano la definizione.

Si allegano copia del documento di identita e della ricevuta postale.

In attesa di cortese riscontro nei termini di legge, si porgono distinti saluti.

LUOGO, DATA
NOME COGNOME

Line by line, what it says:

• Oggetto - the subject: a request for access to the case materials, citing the law and the case number. Take the number from the ricevuta.
• Spett.le Questura di CITTA - the formal address to your city's questura, immigration office.
• il/la sottoscritto/a... - the introduction: name, place and date of birth (GG/MM/AAAA - day, month, year), citizenship, codice fiscale, address. Keep il/nato for a man, la/nata for a woman.
• premesso che... - the preamble: when and for which motive the application was filed, the case and ricevuta numbers.
• chiede... artt. 22 e seguenti - the request itself: to inspect the file and obtain copies, in order to learn the state of the procedure and the causes of the delay.
• Si allegano... - the list of attachments: copies of the ID document and the ricevuta.
• In attesa di cortese riscontro nei termini di legge - a polite "awaiting your reply within the legal deadline": a reminder of the 30 days without open conflict.

Template 2. The sollecito - a demand to conclude the case

When to use it: the statutory term has clearly expired, fingerprints were given long ago and there is no card; or silence after the first letter. The sollecito is firmer in tone but stays polite.

Oggetto: Sollecito definizione pratica permesso di soggiorno n. NUMERO PRATICA

Spett.le Questura di CITTA - Ufficio Immigrazione,

il/la sottoscritto/a NOME COGNOME, nato/a a LUOGO DI NASCITA il GG/MM/AAAA,
codice fiscale CODICE FISCALE,

premesso che:
- in data GG/MM/AAAA ha presentato istanza di rilascio/rinnovo del permesso di
  soggiorno per MOTIVO (ricevuta postale n. NUMERO RICEVUTA);
- in data GG/MM/AAAA ha effettuato i rilievi fotodattiloscopici presso codesto
  Ufficio;
- ad oggi la pratica non risulta ancora definita, essendo ampiamente decorsi i
  termini previsti dalla normativa vigente;

sollecita

la definizione della pratica in oggetto e chiede di conoscere lo stato del
procedimento e i tempi previsti per la sua conclusione, riservandosi, in
mancanza di riscontro, ogni azione a tutela dei propri diritti nelle sedi
competenti.

Si allegano copia del documento di identita e della ricevuta postale.

Distinti saluti.

LUOGO, DATA
NOME COGNOME

Line by line:

• Oggetto: Sollecito definizione pratica - the subject: a demand to conclude the case, with its number.
• premesso che - the chronology of facts as a list: the filing date, the fingerprinting date (rilievi fotodattiloscopici - the fingerprinting at this very office, codesto Ufficio), and the statement that the statutory deadlines have long expired.
• sollecita - the key verb: you demand the case be concluded and the state and expected timeline disclosed.
• riservandosi... ogni azione a tutela dei propri diritti - the formula "reserving every action in defence of my rights in the competent venues": a polite hint at court, standard in Italian correspondence.
• Then the attachments, the signature, place and date, as in the first template.

When it works, and when it does not

Per community experience the honest picture is this:

• Works: transferring a case to another questura, a written answer on "which documents will satisfy you", requests to move the appointment with documented urgency, a sollecito after a clear breach of the deadlines - next-day replies are on record.
• Works partially: speeding up the card issue. The letter creates a paper trail and sometimes moves the case, but the plastic depends on the queue and on Rome, and no PEC can teleport it.
• Does not work: overloaded questure that per the community do not answer PEC at all - people wrote four letters with no reply. Then what remains is the queues, the patronato and escalation.

Check the case status through the online channels too - how to do that is covered in the article on checking the permesso status.

Escalation: what comes after the letters

1. A repeat letter after 10-14 days, marked as the second request.
2. A patronato or CAF - they have their own channels into the questure, and it is free.
3. A lawyer and the court. Once the deadlines have expired, lawyers use the tools against administrative inaction, and with a refusal the short appeal deadlines kick in - the whole chain from preavviso to the TAR is covered in the article on refusal and ricorso.

Keep the entire paper trail: PEC receipts, status screenshots, copies of the letters. If the case reaches a lawyer or a court, that folder becomes your main argument.

Related materials

• Refusal, preavviso and ricorso - what to do if a refusal arrives instead of an answer.
• PEC and CIE - how to get your own PEC.
• Checking the permesso status - the online channels before any correspondence.
• Renewing the permesso - the rinnovo timing and mechanics.
• Patronato and CAF - free intermediaries in questura correspondence.

Official sources

• normattiva.it - the text of law 241/1990 (accesso agli atti, procedure deadlines).
• questure.poliziadistato.it - questura pages with contacts and PEC addresses.
• interno.gov.it - the Interior Ministry: permesso procedures and deadlines.
• agid.gov.it - PEC rules and the list of accredited providers.