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I have already booked my flight from Italy to the Netherlands through Ryanair. I'm staying in Italy legally and have a carta di soggiorno. However, after booking my flight, my wallet was stolen, which contains all my IDs except my passport. I filed a police report, and I'm trying to get a new residence card. However, I need to go to the Netherlands ASAP. Will Ryanair accept the police report and receipt of getting a new residence card from the post office?

UPDATE (17.07.2014)

Thanks for helping me out. BTW it's OK now. I went to our local CISL here in Florence, Italy, where they process your envelope for renewing your permesso di soggornio or carta di soggiorno (residence permit for foreigners) to be submitted to the post office. That's where you pay and get your postal receipt, and they make an appointment for you at the questura. Anyway, long story short, they processed a application for IMPROVISED residence permit which is good for 30 days to travel within the Schengen area, so all I have to do is go to the questura, bring my travel booking, the police report and copy of my passport. Now I can travel, and it's my first time to fly with Ryanair because I always use Transavia to go to Holland. =) Hope this helps for future persons who will have the same issue with lost or stolen residence permits...Just wish me luck that the questura will process my improvised residence permit immediately.

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    The chances are that they will not, because neither the police report nor the post office receipt are valid forms of ID. Your passport on the other hand could be used. Why not call ryanair and ask?
    – Aleks G
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 13:36
  • I did called ryanair. And they said they accept national ids. But says on my carta d identita its not for travel.. and im a non eu..
    – erin
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 13:42
  • Why can't you just use your passport then?
    – Gagravarr
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 13:43
  • I can .. but dont know if theyll ask for a residence card or visaalong with my passport
    – erin
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 13:48
  • @Gagravarr AleksG Since they don't have a visa, residents from countries whose citizens require a visa typically have to present their residence cards when boarding a flight to their country of residence (together with their passport, which they have to present in any case).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 14:06

3 Answers 3

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Ryanair will not board you with only the postal receipt.

With Ryanair if you are not an EU citizen prior the boarding you need to go to the their visa check desk, there they will check your documents and apply a stamp on your boarding pass, without a valid document (visa or a residence permit) they will not put the stamp in your boarding pass, without this stamp it's not possible to enter the airplane.

The Italian ID card released to non-EU citizens is not valid to travel outside Italy, it's marked on the back with non valida per l'espatrio (meaning not valid to leave the country).

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    Why would you go to a visa check desk on an intra-schengen flight? There's no immigration controls!
    – Gagravarr
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 14:56
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    @Gagravarr it's a Ryanair rule, more information here ryanair.com/en/questions/…
    – Guido Preite
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 15:59
  • +1 for the info on Ryanair's policy, that's the most important thing to know. If you have first-hand experience with this check for an internal Schengen flight, it might be useful to stress it in your answer and would make it even better.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 18:11
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    I travel often with Ryanair and my wife needs to do this visa check every time. As far as I know only Ryanair has this check, other low cost airlines (as Vueling for example) don't check the documents prior the security checks.
    – Guido Preite
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 19:28
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Airline/ground handling personnel will in any case look at your passport to check your ID (as all low cost carriers do in my experience) but I don't know whether they will go past the ID page and look for a visa (more often than not, they don't, in my experience but Ryanair does apparently, see Guido's answer).

Since the flight is an internal Schengen flight, the risk of being denied entry (and therefore of the airline being fined) is very small so that they don't need to check your status as thoroughly as they would, e.g. for a fly to the UK. In all likelihood, you won't have any interaction with the police either.

However, I didn't find the receipt of your application for a new residence card in the official EU database of valid travel documents so legally speaking I don't think it is valid (by contrast, similar documents from France are in this database).

Finally, if your citizenship allows you to enter the Schengen area without a visa, not having an entry stamp would technically be a problem but that's not something the airline would care about. Since you will not go through a Schengen external border, this shouldn't be an issue.

So all in all, it could work in practice but, depending on your citizenship, it does sound risky.

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Afaik there is no such thing as staying legally in Italy, there's only staying in the Schengen area legally. If you're legal in Italy, you should legal in The Netherlands (and most countries in between). Ryanair will check your ID, but since you've got your passport you should be fine. There is no border check so I don't see why other documents need to be checked. You'll probably get on the plain without any issues. If they don't let you board you still lost nothing, in the very worst case you end up explaining your situation to the police, but they will let you go since you're legal in Italy and therefore allowed to travel throughout the Schengen area.

Depending on the urgency you could also consider driving to NL by car, if you avoid Switzerland there will be no border checks and you'll get there without ever even showing your passport (been there, done that). Again, the worst thing to happen is having to explain your situation to the police. Outside of Italy it might take a while to check your legal status, but that should be all. Just don't loose your passport, don't panic and you'll be fine.

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    he currently has only the postal receipt, and the postal receipt is not a valid document outside Italy. Ryanair has a mandatory check for documents for all non EU passengers.
    – Guido Preite
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 16:00
  • His passport, which he still has, should (assuming he isn't from a very exotic country) be a valid ID. All Ryanair has to check is his identity, so a passport should be sufficient.
    – AVee
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 16:21
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    his passport is not an EU passport, and because he lost his residence permit he has only a piece of paper given by Italian post office that proves that he asked for a residence permit, that piece of paper is valid only inside Italy. Ryanair will check if he has valid documents, only the passport is not enough.
    – Guido Preite
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 16:25
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    That's completely incorrect. Most third-country nationals have the right to stay in one Schengen member state and can merely visit other countries in the area, there is no such thing as a unified “right to stay in the Schengen area” for more than three months. In some limited cases, visiting might not even be possible. In any event, even if a person presumably has the right to visit other Schengen countries based on her status, not having proper documentation can create problems when crossing a border so it's a perfectly reasonable thing to ask.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 18:05
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    Finally, even the practical advice is wrong. Switzerland is part of the Schengen area and does not impose systematic border checks. OTOH, France has been known to do spot checks on its border with Italy, to the extent that some people complained that it might be breaking Schengen rules there.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 18:07

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