In order to qualify for Italian citizenship by descent, specific eligibility requirements must be met. Depending under which category you will be applying, your Italian citizenship claim will be made either at an Italian consulate in the United States, a municipality in Italy, or via a court case.
In all of these cases, the documentation/vital records you submit are fundamental to a citizenship claim. This article discuss applications made via court, known as 1948 cases, and the documents that are required for these citizenship claims.
Why are vital records important?
Vital records are an essential part of a citizenship application. They consist of birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates (where applicable), as well as certified copies of naturalization certificates, and records that prove your ancestor never naturalized or when he/she naturalized. All citizenship applications require presenting vital records pertaining to you and your Italian family. Vital records are the documents that prove your family lineage, and evidence the direct line of descent from your Italian ancestor to you; therefore demonstrating an uninterrupted line between you and your Italian-born ancestor. Vital records validate your claim to have your Italian citizenship recognized.
What is a 1948 case?
1912 Italian citizenship law permitted men to pass Italian citizenship on to their children (born in Italy or abroad), the only requirement being that they were Italian citizens when the child was born. The same law did not allow them to transfer Italian citizenship to their children.
It was only with the advent of the Italian Constitution on January 1, 1948, which granted women the same right as men, and permitted them to transfer Italian citizenship to their children. However, this applied only to children born after January 1, 1948.
It is for this reason Italian consulates reject and deny all citizenship applications whereby the applicant is using an Italian-born female ancestor, or female ancestor born abroad, whose child was born before January 1, 1948.
In 2009 an Italian court a case challenged the above law on the basis of it being antiquitus, discriminatory and unlawful. It asserted that individuals who fall under such categories should be able to make an application in court and have their citizenship recognized. This challenge was successful and established a new precedent. The argument that the gender equality principles and values set forth in the 1948 Italian Constitution should be applied retroactively, and should include and be applicable to events that happened before the advent of the Italian Constitution, has now been adopted by courts and claims made via court tend to have successful outcomes. Another gender inequality in Italian citizenship law prior to January 1, 1948, was that Italian women who married non-Italian men automatically lost their Italian citizenship, which again meant they lost the right to pass Italian citizenship on to their children.
It is on the above basis, and with this mandate (these cases are known as complaints (ricorsi) rather than petitions (atti di citazione), that courts now advocate that Italian-born female ancestors can transfer Italian citizenship on to their children born prior to 1948. Similarly, Italian women married to non-Italian man according to the court retained their Italian citizenship as women should not have lost their Italian citizenship by marrying a non-Italian citizen. The only caveat to this being that the woman did not autonomously naturalize prior to the child’s birth.
Establishing eligibility
Once you have determined your eligibility and established which ancestor to use, you will know what documents are needed for your application. For example, if you find in your preliminary research that your male ancestor became naturalized before the birth of the next person in the Italian line; then you may be able to apply through your Italian-born female ancestor. However, if your female ancestor gave birth to her child before January 1, 1948, then the only route through which to apply is via the court system.
It is also necessary to establish the naturalization status of your Italian ancestor in respect of Italian 1912 immigration law. Prior to the 1912 immigration law, under Italian law if an Italian citizen became a citizen of another country through naturalization, he, his wife and all his minor children lost Italian citizenship together. However, if the Italian father naturalized on or after July 1, 1912, then all of his foreign-born or adopted children retained Italian citizenship, even if they were minors, as long as they were granted the citizenship of the foreign country they were born in automatically.
With the above considered, if your ancestor appeared on the 1900 and 1910 census as “NA”, this would indicate that they were naturalized before 1912, which means you would not qualify for citizenship by descent through that ancestor. However, you could still possibly qualify through the wife, if they married before 1922, on the basis that she would have become naturalized automatically and involuntarily.
What documents are needed for a 1948 claim?
If your status falls under one of the situations/categories described above, you will need to collate and retrieve the following documents, assuming that you are making your claim through a great-grandparent:
- The birth certificates of your great-grandparents (from Italy);
- The marriage certificate of your great-grandparents from Italy, if the marriage happened in the U.S., it is necessary that you retrieve a “certified copy” of the license and certificate, as well as an apostille from the secretary of state of the state in which it was issued. All of which must be translated into Italian.
- Certificate of naturalization or proof of non-naturalization relating to the Italian ancestor through which you are making your claim;
- The birth certificate of your grandparent and parent in the Italian line of descent, both with attached apostilles and translated;
- The marriage certificate of your grandparents and parents, with attached apostilles and translated;
- Your records, including birth and marriage, divorce certificates, apostilles and translated;
- Birth certificates of any children you have under 18;
- Death certificate of the Italian-born ancestor/s.
- Proof that one or both of your great-grandparents never became U.S. citizens. If one of them became a U.S. citizen, it is necessary to provide his/her naturalization records.
Document requirements and discrepancies
All of your documents and certificates must be “certified copies” and in the “long form”. Your non-Italian birth/marriage/death records relating to your Italian ancestors must have an apostille attached, the only exception to this being a certificate of naturalization or similar document.
Any documents issued in countries other than the U.S. or Italy, must be legalized in accordance with local regulations. They must be translated into Italian and the translation certified by the Italian consulate in the country where the document was issued or by an Italian notary or court clerk.
It is essential that documents are accurate and without discrepancies or changes, such as in names, dates and places of birth. Any discrepancies will require official corrections with an “affidavit to amend a record”, requested from the vital statistics office that issued the document, and this will cause delays in your application.
If you have any further questions or would like to know more about applying for Italian citizenship, you can contact us directly and one of our friendly experts will be in touch to answer your queries.
