The Ice Flow

By Red Sox Steve

In talking to a few people, I've learned that there is an interest in my pursuit of Dual Citizenship - Americans with Italian heritage MAY be eligible to become Italian citizens, which is effectively a gateway to the rest of the EU. I'm going to write what I know so far here, in the hopes that others will take up their own efforts if they are so inclined. My own appointment at the Italian Consulate (the LAST step in the process) is in October 2009, so even I am not an Italian citizen yet.

I am Italian-American, 3rd generation born here in the US, which means that it was my great-grandparents that came over here, back in 1920.

I first learned that I may be eligible through a former coworker - he simply stated the possibility that I could apply for Italian citizenship, so with the help of google, I confirmed this to be the case. Essentially, the "right to citizenship" is passed down through the paternal line, from the last of your ancestors to be born there. My great grandfather, Francesco, was born in Italy in 1892, married in a small town there, and, before having any children there, immigrated here with his wife and his parents.

What the Italian government calls this is "Italian Citizenship jure sanguinis", which means Italian citizenship, through blood relations.

The application process can be quite long, and, since I was unsure if I was actually eligible, I took it upon myself to obtain all the needed documents - birth, marriage and death certificates going back to my great grandparents. Even with all that (took about 6 months), there was still one key piece of information missing, which is essentially the lynchpin to eligibility:

If the person who came over here was naturalized as a US citizen before giving birth to his or her progeny, then no one down the line is eligible through that person. I don't want to give wrong information here, so I urge you to check out your own situation based on the documentation available at the website for the Italian Consulate. Here is the link to the Consulate in New York (where I live), but you must use the consulate that covers the state that you live in: http://www.consnewyork.esteri.it/Consolato_NewYork

To give you a bigger picture of the process, you have to 1) prove, through the marriage, birth and death certificates of your ancestors, that you are related to the person born in Italy, 2) prove that the first generation born here was born BEFORE the immigrant parents were naturalized, 3) obtain birth and, if applicable, marriage certificates from Italy (may take a while) for the folks who immigrated here, and 4) translate all the english documents into Italian using an official translation service.

There are notaries and apostilles and such which are part of the process, but the key is obtaining all the documentation which proves you are eligible. Currently, I have all needed birth, marriage and death certificates (even the ones from Italy!), AND the naturalization papers issued by the court system in 1925 (my grandmother was born in 1921, so this proves her father was naturalized AFTER she was born, passing down the eligibility for citizenship). What I am waiting for at this point is the USCIS (part of the Department of Homeland Security) to send documentation also related to the naturalization. It should only take another few weeks to get them, but I sent the request just before Christmas; obviously, I wish I sent it sooner.

Oh, and then, I made my appointment at the Italian Consulate here in December 2008... the earliest available appointment was October 2009! Like I said, the process takes a little while...

Furthermore, I highly recommend using a business/consulting service that will assist you in the process - there are businesses that are set up solely to assist individuals in obtaining their Dual/Italian citizenship. In total, the process is going to take me 2 years and probably cost almost $1500. That being said, because the consulting services have experience with the process, they are in a good position to guide you, and help you work as efficiently as possible. I did not start using a consulting service until I was about 10 months into the process, and highly regret not employing them earlier. I recommend this one: http://www.italiandualcitizenship.com/index.htm. You do have to pay them through paypal before they will assist you, however. So far the people I've been working with have been extremely helpful, and, without them, I wouldn't have figured out how to obtain the naturalization documents.

All in all, I'm happy to answer any specific questions, am not an authority on this process, and highly recommend that you do your own investigations within your own family or on the internet, and, if you are serious about getting your citizenship, enlisting a consulting business to help you with the process.