Italian American applying for Italian Citizenship...

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Permalink Reply by Mary Trigiani on June 19, 2008 at 5:47pm

Hi Shelley. Great question. I did some research for a friend a few years ago, and I called the Italian Consulate here. They are most helpful.

Here's what I remember. You need to identify the grandparents/great-grandparents who were born in Italy. I think you'll have to dig up their birth certificates. Then I think you'll have to determine if they relinquished their Italian citizenship at some point. Using myself as an example, my mother's father became a citizen when he fought for the US in World War I. He relinquished his allegiance to the Italian king at that point -- so while I haven't asked, my understanding is that I couldn't apply for Italian citizenship through that family line. Now, my great grandfather on my father's side was a stowaway, I've heard, so maybe I can go through that line! Ha.

There's more involved, of course, and it will take time. But my understanding is, you can't pursue citizenship through a line that relinquished it earlier.

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Permalink Reply by Matteo Fabiano on June 20, 2008 at 12:06pm

Genna went through the same process a few years ago. She had to trace back naturalization papers for her grandparents. You guys should talk. Rules may have changed though.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Gendimenico on June 21, 2008 at 10:21pm

My sister and I just applied for citizenship in SF last month - (both of our grandparents were born in Italy). You first have to see if you qualify and then start gathering all the docs if you do.

First thing to do is look at the Consulate checklist and application process here: http://www.conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/Consolato_SanFrancisco/Menu/I... (click on Jure Sanguinis link to download the word doc with all the info)

For further information, there are two really great forums that I used immensely during the process:
http://www.icgsmb.com/board/
http://www.italylink.com/?L=smf.mwindex (Dual Citizenship)

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Shelley Costantini on June 22, 2008 at 3:43pm

Thank you Mike, This is exactly what I was looking for : )
Gook luck!

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Permalink Reply by Consolato Italiano in San Francisco on June 23, 2008 at 5:48pm

Roughly: If the male ancestor who immigrated from Italy relinquished his Italian citizenship to become an American citizen before his descendants were born the blood line is interrupted and the Italian citizenship cannot be transmitted to descendants.The same applies for descendants of Italian women born after January 1 1948. More detailed information cam be obtained from the citizenship department o f the Italian Consulate General in San Francisco please refer to our website – consular services - citizenship.

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Permalink Reply by Shelley Costantini on June 26, 2008 at 9:48am

Thanks so much! I'll get started right away.

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Permalink Reply by Sonia Alioto on July 7, 2009 at 11:22am

One should first of all visit an Italian Consulate web site which contains a rather complete explanation for those that know nothing or little about the process, This may seem obvious but you would be surprised the number of people that do not take this first step.

Italian Legal Langauge Services
www.italianlaw.net
Novato, CA

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Permalink Reply by Mike Gendimenico on July 7, 2009 at 2:18pm

FYI, there is a new Italian Citizenship message board here: http://italiancitizenship.freeforums.org/index.php. The old ICGS board is pretty much all spam now, so this is a much better resource in addition to Italylink forum.

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Permalink Reply by Baron Antonio Massa on April 13, 2011 at 10:43am

The best way to answer your question is to go under the website of the Italian Consulate and find out if you qualify for an Italian citizenship. 

Good luck

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