Posted by Chris De Sisto on October 11, 2011  |  0 Comments More from this author  |

I have never set foot in Italy and can barely speak Italian from a menu. However, I am still eligible to be an Italian citizen and I am pursuing it. You might ask, how can a born and raised American become an Italian/EU citizen?… Yeah, that’s right a citizen of Italy is also a member of the European Union… But Italy along with other countries including Ireland and the UK grant citizenship by jure sanguinis, which basically means “law by blood,” or something like that.

Before I delve into this, be aware that I am nothing close to a lawyer and cannot offer any advice beyond my own personal experience, so don’t read this as gospel.

The long story short of this wonderful loophole is that 4^th generation Italians, living anywhere in the world are eligible for Italian citizenship. This means you can work and live freely in Italy and the EU and access to healthcare and education. Plus, by gaining citizenship by blood instead of naturalization you become a dual American-Italian citizen, reserving rights in both countries. Being a dual citizen doesn’t really hinder things for you as an American, here is the official stance on dual citizenship from the US State Department. From what I have read the only drawback is that you may be denied security clearance while working for the US government, on a case by case basis. A bonus of becoming an Italian in the 21^st century is that their military is now voluntary so you won’t be forced to serve!

Just because you are pretty sure you have an ancestor from Italy, you aren’t in like Flynn. Here is a quick test to see if you qualify. There are a lot of qualifiers that can deny you citizenship and you need to do some homework to be sure. Here is a quick rundown of some of the stipulations from Joseph Shumway at ProGenealogists:

“The specific terminology for citizenship by descent is jure sanguinis. It’s a Latin term that denotes right by blood. According to Italian law, an Italian citizen may pass their citizenship onto their posterity down to the 4th generation. In other words, you can lay claim to Italian citizenship back to your great-grandparents! Now, there are some stipulations. For example, women could not pass their citizenship on until 1948 and so most people can only claim citizenship through a grandfather or great-grandfather. Also, your ancestors must not have denounced their Italian citizenship before the birth of their children. A person would have denounced their Italian citizenship when becoming a naturalized citizen of another country. So, if a person emigrated from Italy and became a citizen of the U.S. (or another country) before their children were born, their naturalization would have nullified their children’s claim on their Italian citizenship. However, if the ancestor never naturalized or did so after their children were born, then the children were still considered Italian citizens.”

I have been going through the process since March 2011 and have hit a lot of speed bumps because you need to have documentation for EVERYTHING relating to your Italian ancestor and the lineage that relates you to them. For instance, I am using my paternal grandmother for my ascendant (who had my father after 1948 and was naturalized as a US citizen after his birth, important to note) so here is a list of what I need to supply the consulate with my application, keep in mind that all documents must be certified and if in English, translated into Italian and notarized:

Grandmother:

Birth certificate – from Italy

Naturalization certificate – with translation

Petition for naturalization – not usually required, but helps settle name discrepancies – with translation

Marriage license – from Italy

Grandfather:

Birth Certificate – from Italy

Death Certificate – with  translation and apostille

Father:

Birth certificate – with translation and apostille

Marriage license – with translation

Mother:

Birth certificate – with translation

Myself:

Birth certificate – with translation and apostille

That’s a laundry list of documents and for my Italian born/married grandparents it required obtaining certified copies from their home communes in Italy. Luckily, my grandmother is still around and has kept all of her original documents and my Great Aunt in Italy picked up a copy of grandpa’s birth certificate from the court house.

The purpose of all of these documents is to prove that you are part of an unbroken lineage of Italians, you can trace as far as your great-grandparents. This means that all of the dates must line up on the records and the names must be spelled correctly so there is little doubt that you are lying. In my family’s case this is a challenge because my grandfather’s name was changed when he was naturalized as an American and my parents’ names were misspelled on my birth certificate, which is why I have a space in my last name. Fortunately, I have been working with the Italian consulate in San Francisco to gather documents to support my case and I hope they will pass muster with the powers that be.

These are just some of the challenges to gaining dual citizenship and there are plenty of costs associated. Obtaining certified copies of documents can be expensive, especially if must pay someone to find them, English documents must be translated to Italian, and birth certificates require apostilles. All of these documents require postage to be securely sent to the proper officials. It’s highly recommended by myself and others to spread the work and costs by enlisting siblings and parents to gain their citizenship as well.

If this is a possibility for you, check out the quick test above and then move onto contacting your consulate for further details in the process. Each consulate requires different documentation, for instance some consulates translate in-house saving you time and money. Here is a document that tells you which consulate’s jurisdiction you fall under. For those of you from the PNW, we respond to San Francisco, which has a page devoted to this topic including recommended translators. Documents there provide documentation checklists and help you make sure you are eligible for citizenship

Don’t think this is an instantaneous process either, even if you have the proper documents in hand. The waiting time to get an appointment (which can be just mailing in your documents versus showing up in person) is 6 months in my case. During your appointment the documents are processed at the consulate and then sent away to Italy for further processing before you can obtain an Italian passport and the rights that come with it. If you can’t wait for the process, you can live in Italy while awaiting citizenship, check out this blog to learn how.

I expect to gather the final documents in time for my November appointment. Updates to come!