This article is intended to assist
Italian Americans to:
- Learn if they quality for an Italian Passport (Dual US/ Italian citizenship)
- Understand the steps and documents required to demonstrate this qualification
- Provide insight to some of the obstacles and how they can be overcome
Do I Qualify?
The first step in the process is to
determine if you qualify to be a dual US/Italian citizen. According
to Italian law, dual citizenship is explicitly permitted under
certain conditions if acquired on or after August 15, 1992.
There are
a number of websites that can help you determine if you qualify for
dual US/Italian citizenship. I found the following sites to be
helpful:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_nationality_law
- http://www.italiamerica.org/id72.htm
- http://www.niaf.org/citizenship/index.asp
I Qualify, Now What?
Once you determine that you qualify for
Italian citizenship, the work begins. I would budget $2,500 to
complete the entire process. This is a rough budget and includes:
- Locating all the necessary Italian and US documents required to demonstrate your qualification
- Obtaining and having all of the documents reviewed for complete accuracy (my process was held up because of a typo)
- Getting all of the documents certified with an international seal (Apostille)
- Having the entire application translated into Italian (the consulate says this is not required, but it is)
- Traveling to the consulate for your interview
- Paying for the passport fees
The first step is to obtain all of the
birth, marriage, and death certificates that demonstrate you qualify
for dual citizenship. In my case, this meant locating my great
grandfather Carsanaro’s birth, marriage, and death certificate from a
handwritten church archive in a small Sicilian village.
I recommend using a local professional
to assist you with obtaining the documents if you do not already have
them. I wasted months trying to do this myself. Then, following this
bloodline, obtain all of the birth, marriage, and death certificates
that led to your birth.
In my case I also had to obtain my
great-grandfather Carsanaro’s naturalization papers that confirmed my
grandfather Carsanaro was born in the US prior to my great-grandfather being
naturalized.
Once you have obtained all of the
necessary documents, you must send them to get an international seal
(Apostille), I would copy each document and keep a file for your
records to follow-up. Even better, if cost is not a major
consideration, I recommend getting 2 official copies of each document
because one or more will likely get lost in the process.
Once you have all of your documents,
they have been reviewed for complete accuracy, and each has an
apostille, you will need to complete the passport application. Here is the link for the application.
You should check to see which Italian consulate you will be dealing
with to process your application. The application form for
citizenship and other useful information can be found on the English version of the Italian Consulate site.
Lastly, I highly recommend getting your
entire application translated into Italian. The Consulate does not
require this. However, the process is difficult (and slow) enough and
asking the consulate to translate the package for you will, I suspect, put it on the bottom of the pile!
Once I submitted everything, the
process took about 6 months. I received a very cryptic one sentence
note in Italian through the mail that said for me to call for an
appointment.
At the Consulate, the people were
great, and the process was finished that day.
You must bring your passport pictures as described on the
application. Additionally, you will need to bring cash for your
passport. Some hours later, you will finally be done!
The entire process took approximately
two and a half years from start to finish. I could not have gotten it
done without the assistance of Italia America (a consultant based in
Italy which specializes in the process, locating difficult to find
documents and translations.)
Best of Luck!
