This article will outline what the giustizia civile app is, as well as its relevance and use for those who are seeking Italian citizenship through a court in Italy.
An Italian citizenship by descent claim is made via a court in Italy if the applicant has an Italian-born female ancestor who gave birth to her child prior to January 1, 1948. These are known as 1948 cases. 1912 citizenship law prohibited Italian-born women, and women born abroad who held Italian citizenship, from being able to transfer their Italian citizenship to their children. It was only with the advent of the Italian Constitution in January 1, 1948, that women were granted the same right to pass Italian citizenship on to their children. The caveat to this being only children born after January 1, 1948. It is for this reason that all Italian citizenship applications, whereby the applicant is applying through an Italian-born female ancestor or female ancestor born abroad, whose child was born before January 1, 1948, are dismissed by Italian consulates. And those who have an Italian-born female antecedent must apply to have Italian citizenship recognized retroactively, which is done by filing a 1948 case. These cases have a high likelihood of success, as the legal argument is that the principles of equality that are enshrined in the Italian Constitution should be applied retrospectively. Courts are now able to rule that female ancestors can transfer Italian citizenship on to their children, on the condition that the ancestor did not naturalize before the birth of the child.
Prior to June, 2022, all 1948 cases had to be filed before the Civil Court of Rome (Tribunale Ordinario di Roma); however, on the aforementioned date the Italian government implemented a new law, and this allowed those living abroad to file a petition for citizenship at the court in the region where the Italian-born female ancestor was born. The option to file a petition with another court has served to significantly reduce waiting periods.
Recently it also became possible to file a judicial proceeding when the process via an Italian consulate was proving too lengthy, to be more precise, when the process would take longer than 24 months. In fact, Italy has a law that stipulates that to receive a service rendered by the public administration, private citizens should not have to wait for longer than 24 months. For more information click here.
The giustizia civile app
The giustizia civile app allows consultation of the registers of the Ordinary Court (Tribunale Ordinario), Court of Appeal (Corte d’Appello) and the Justice of the Peace (Giudice di Pace). Consultation is done anonymously and is confidential, no private or sensitive data of those party to proceedings are visible. The giustizia civile app is a mobile phone application that enables you to check the status of petitions in civil trials. Italian citizenship applications fall under the jurisdiction of the Civil Court (Tribunal or Corte di Appello), and the “Giustizia Civile” app is used to verify the citizenship procedure in these courts, monitor the status and progress of a case, and check for updates. The giustizia civile app is free and can be downloaded from the google play or apple store, and is compatible with both Android and iPhone devices. The app can only be utilized by those who have filed cases that are now in the court arena. In order to access the status and check for updates regarding your case, you will be required to select the ordinary court of reference, for example, Tribunale Ordinario di Roma, provide the R.G. (ruolo generale) case number, the year of the filing, and the court where the case has been filed. The R.G. is the unique reference number that is assigned to your case by the cancelleria (the office of the court’s clerk) once a claim has been filed. Once confirmed, the information and details relevant to your case will appear, such as the name of the judge who has been allocated to your case, important dates pertaining to the case, such as hearing dates, and updates regarding the status of your case. It will also list the eventual outcome of your petition, and state whether or not your claim for citizenship has been granted or denied. The applicant does not have to be present in Italy to file a case and it can be done by an attorney who the applicant has signed “power of attorney” to. The appointed attorney can file the claim on behalf of the applicant using the allotted online platform, and must submit the required documents- vital records– when filing the claim. These documents will be the birth, marriage, and any naturalization certificates relating to the individual making the claim, and the vital records of each ancestor that prove the direct line of decent between the Italian-born ancestor and the applicant. Once the file is submitted, the cancelleria verifies the filing and assigns a R.G, and the indication iscrizione ruolo generale will be shown together with the date when the cancelleria registered the filing as accepted.
Role of the clerk’s office
The cancelleria is the office of the court’s clerk that supports the judge. It is responsible for communicating to the attorney any instructions or orders that have been issued by the appointed judge. All communication is done via PEC, which is a certified and secure e-mail. Once the file is submitted, the cancelleria verifies the filing and assigns a R.G, and the indication (iscrizione ruolo generale) will be shown together with the date when the cancelleria registered the filing as accepted. Other examples of the communication that will appear on the app will be the setting of the hearing date (fissazione udienza di comparizione parti), postponement of the hearing, any requests for integration, and the final decision. In addition to the above, other updates and changes to status are shown on the app, for example designazione giudice, which means the case has been appointed to the judge, or deposito atto non codificato, which appears when the attorney files an integration of documents. This means that additional documents are filed after the iscrizione a ruolo (the filing of the claim), either at the request of the judge or by the attorney. One instance where this might happen is if the certificate that proves none of your antecedents ever naturalized, which in the U.S. is issued by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), did not arrive in time to be filed with the original documentation bundle, and so when the certificate has been retrieved it is then integrated with the documents already submitted. It should be noted that the information that appears on the app is not always in real-time, and events may occur that has not yet been updated by the cancelleria.
What happens once your claim has been heard in court?
After the hearing, if the judge does not rule immediately, the item riserva will be displayed in the app. If the judge has deemed that it is not necessary to hold further hearings on the case, the app will show accoglimento totale, which means the claim has been granted. Alternatively, if the claim has been denied, the term Rigetto will appear on the app. With that said, the important point to state is that the app does not allow users to read the final judgement of a hearing, and so it is always necessary to wait for the attorney acting on behalf of the applicant to send the judgement that has been served to them by the cancelleria.
This segment has addressed what the giustizia civile app is and the process involved.
If you have any further questions about this topic, or would like more information about applying for Italian citizenship, you can visit our homepage, or contact us directly, and one of our friendly experts will be in touch to answer your queries.
