Joe is a broadcast technical operator from Orange County, California. He first connected to his Italian heritage and considered acquiring Italian citizenship to honor his dad’s legacy. “My wife and I made a pilgrimage trip to Italy, and the first thing I wanted to do when I got off the plane was to touch the…
In one of our previous articles we analyzed the reasons why many people, especially in the U.S. qualify for Italian citizenship by descent. Among these are the mass migration waves from Italy to the United States, which occurred starting from the late 1800 and the efficiency of the Italian and U.S. record keeping system, which…
My grandparents were from Italy – my mother’s parents from Sicily and my father’s parents from Lake Como. I applied for citizenship at first to honor my mother, who spent quite a few years scouring Italian churches and courthouses searching for documentation to validate her right to Italian citizenship. She also went to Ellis Island to…
My great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the United States in the early 1930s. I did a lot of research before starting the application process for Italian citizenship by descent so I knew that I had to inquire with USCIS to determine my eligibility. I had poured over census records and knew that my great-grandfather became…
Are you ready to apply for Italian citizenship by descent? Do you have all the vital records needed to apply at an Italian consulate and are wondering how to go about your appointment and which forms to present? If the date for your appointment is approaching and you would like to know what to expect…
I can’t quite remember when I found out I was eligible for Italian citizenship, but I do know I had been working on the process for many years before I contacted ICA. My cousin suggested I may be eligible as she had activated hers. It only took her a matter of months, as her side…
Italian citizenship by descent is one of the easiest citizenships to obtain compared to other countries for a number of reasons. Among these are the lack of generational restrictions, the time line within which the mass migration waves from Italy to the United States occurred, and the efficiency of the Italian and U.S. record keeping…
As an Italian American girl growing up in New Jersey during the sixties I always believed that I was just as much Italian as both sets of my grandparents who were born in Italy. In fact, my maternal grandparents raised me because both my parents worked. Like most of my neighbors in a small Italian…
When enquiring about the eligibility requirements to apply for Italian citizenship by descent it is not uncommon for many individuals to wonder about the extent to which they will need their family’s cooperation throughout their application process, from retrieving the necessary information to locate their ancestors’ vital records to signing the consular forms which are…
If you do not qualify for Italian citizenship by descent or by marriage there is an alternative route to obtaining Italian citizenship and it entails establishing residency in Italy. EU citizens can apply for citizenship by residency after four years of legal residency in Italy. On the other hand, non-EU citizens need a visa to…
Being the son of Italian parents, my wife and I started considering Italian Citizenship in 2014 but never pursued it. Then one day, our son expressed an interest and approached us to reconsider it and we did. At that point, we started to investigate the options in making it happen and did some in-depth research.…
My path to Italian citizenship began many years ago as a child playing on the floor in my grandmother’s kitchen, listening to my grandparents bicker in Italian while she cooked and he read the newspaper. I didn’t know what they were saying but I remember their voices, their mannerisms, and the wonderful aroma of tomato…