Consulate General Of Italy In London

If you do the procedure how it is set on the website you will have no problems. People treated us in an educated manner. I know people complaint because they go there expecting to get all the information from the officers , but they got to deal with a big number of people and long ques and for that reason they advice you to go to the website and check first. We did that, did all procedures as the website requested and our petition was granted. Thanks!!

As an Italian I feel completely abandoned by the Italian Consulate in London. I'm trying to renew my passport (the only valid document to be able to travel and stay in this country) and it is completely impossible. All telephone lines have been disabled, they say they add appointments to the online booking but is not true as there are no appointments for any day of any month of any year. How can a consulate work so bad!! At this point I don't know what to do to renew my passport that by law I am entitled to and the consulate is denying me of this right!!!

Great service and great helpful staff. I was there to renew my passport and all the people involved really showed care and professionalism.
If they fix the online appointment system, it would be one of the best consulate experiences i have had.

Don't get me wrong, the booking process for the passport renewal IS a nightmare. Once you go through that, the physical appointment at the consulate is OK.
The staff is not unpleasant, they just try their best to keep order inside and outside the premises. Nobody is queuing in an orderly fashion outside, so the public should take part of the blame too.
Once in, they will release you a new passport in a matter of 30 minutes, so this looks as efficient as it can be. IF only the booking system was that hassle-free too...

No service, useless, ridiculous. It's just a shame.

I've never written a comment or reviews, but just to warn others (although I think all the comments below echo a similar sentiment), this office sets a new almost impressively low benchmark for inept, opaque, unresponsive service. Even by bureaucratic standards, this consulate takes poor performance to a new level. I've been waiting since January for them to register my baby. There is no way to make an appointment for this service to speak to them, I've emailed 5 times, and in spite of the fact that they have a legal obligation to provide the registration within 180 days no one ever responds and I have no document. Well done.

Awful! To renew a passport you have to book an appointment over the phone, except that it is IMPOSSIBLE to do that. I've been calling the number for 4 weeks multiple times each morning and nobody ever answers. And there is no other way to contact them. It would be much better if they just say they don't provide this service at least they wouldn't waste people's time!

I have come to this consulate two times before as I could not get a hold of them by phone. Once I got through after several months, I got an appointment that is way too late for me. I came in yesterday, with ALL THE NECESSARY PAPERWORK, to get an emergency passport and they told me that they are only going to check my documents on that day and that I would have to come back tomorrow, as they only take three people for an emergency passport a day. (He told me I was the sixth person). He also told me to come at 8am. I have come at 7:15am and I am literally sitting in front of the building with two other people that were here before me. Let's hope that I get my flipping passport today, shall we?

An absolute abomination. They expect to run a massive service with only 50 people working in this building. The staff is very rude and inefficient. The cherry on the cake as we all know is to request an appointment for the passport. With over 500.000 Italians living in London they have only 3 operators at they call center which makes IMPOSSIBLE to receive an answer. I have been calling every day since 4 months without being able to get an appointment. I do also see around mine and my con national frustration for this disservice. I beg you to improve your services and to take example from other perfectly working sistems. Obviously I gave you one star because 0 wasn’t possible.

Sto cercando di mettermi in contatto con loro da un mese senza avere nessun esito. Il mio passaporto sta per scadere e loro non mi hanno aiutata per niente, anzi se ne sono fregati. Mi hanno dato un numero per chiamare me risulta sempre occupato. Sono ridicoli " Italian style"
Spero che un giorno questi personaggi avranno lo stesso problema è lo stesso TRATTAMENTO. Solo vergogna.

Same as for many others. I am trying to book an appointment with them and the phone line is always busy. A few years back sent all passport renual documents by post and the pictures were lost. Two years ago had to get an ID for my new born child and that took only 3 months, just because I went there my self and told them I would not go until they gave me the documents I needed, as my partner was stuck in Milan with our child and his expired provisional ID. In contrast, when I emailed directly my MP here in the UK I always got a prompt response. DISGRACEFUL

I have always had great experience with the Italian Consulate.
The only issue I had is the booking system, the phone line was always busy.
The staff was very helpful!!!

The staff was very helpful and we got everything sorted quickly and professionally.

Unfortunately times to process and receive anything are ridiculously bad as usual. Italian style.
EDIT: Explanation on what happened in my case:
A common mistake which seems to happen when sending passport and birth transcription requests is that they will open the envelope you're sending, find the birth transcription first and put everything in the birth transcriptions queue.
Passport requests are handled in 1 month, birth transcriptions get processed after 3-4 months. If you haven't received your passport in 1 month I suggest you to go and tell them you sent a passport request with your transcription. After I did that I receive the passport in 2 weeks.
The same happened to 2 friends of mine.

1 Star just because is impossible to give them 0.
I confirm what someone said in the review Passport phone is NEVER available. It sounds as they don't even have a line. Plus now there is no online booking service too.
It's been a month I'm trying to contact them and the first time they told me something was wrong (I've just followed the step on the website) and now there is no way to reach them. I am speechless. Even in London they work with Italian style.

They are NOT here to help you!!!!! Do you need a new ID? Well first you need to register at AIRE, to register or update your address at AIRE (what is my case) they say it take nearly 6 months, only after that you can renew you ID!!! Well probably when they update my address I will need to update again because you know we are in London, we are moving around all the time, for work or because you are paying too much in your room... Do you need a passaporte??? Booking online extremely hard! Until now I was not able but you have a call line, £0.75/min, yes I did try it too, after they steal 1 or 2 minutes (£1.40) a machine answers and ask you to leave a message and that's it!!! What should you say in the message? Ask them to call you back? What obviously they will not. This service is terrible, terrible terrible!!! I have 1 month and half to renew my passport and I am really thinking of going to Italy to do it because the service is disgusting!

Just finished what i had to do at the Italian consulate. Very happy as i get up at 5am to catch the bus from Bristol though i may won't make on time. I done all i need to do in a tic. Very well organised and lovely people working there.
Well done and thank you for the advice on most of the time things can be done online.

Had to renew my Italian passport 3 years ago for a trip to the USA, which required 6 months validity on the Passport. After countless calls (nobody there to respond), and after trying to obtain an appointment on the online facility, I gave up. There were no appointments available before my trip, and this was a good 6 months before travelling.
I am lucky enough to have dual nationality and for the 1st time in my life I decided to issue a passport on my 2nd nationality. It took 3 weeks for me to obtain said passport...and this was my first ever non-Italian passport issued. When you compare with other administrations, the Italian Consulate is simply a joke.

The Italian Consulate in London offers an exceptional service. In its new modern building, in a convenient location, everything runs smoothly with the added advantage of the warm personal touch, typical of Italians. Under the expert guide of present Consul the service has improved to an exceptional standard. Every time I had the need to visit or contact, I received a prompt, corteus and efficient service.
Many thanks to all of you who work so hard to deliver.