The Italian side of our family comes from my father. His parents came to the US separately but coincidentally in 1920. My grandmother, Helen (born Elena), came from a small mountain town in Abruzzo, whereas my grandfather, Nick (born Nicola after his grandfather), came from a small town in Puglia, near Bari. She was only 14 when she came over, having been left behind by the rest of her family who had made the trip several years earlier. Her father was a baker and had decided to find new opportunity in the US, so he went first in 1916 to find work and housing. The rest of the family followed a year later. But these were the years of WW1 and submarine warfare, so to mitigate the risk of losing the whole family, Elena, the youngest, was left behind to care for her father in the event that something happened to her mother and siblings. Family lore has it that once she reached Ellis Island, she was left by her chaperones with a train ticket to Chicago where her family was living. For whatever reason the train left her on the outskirts of Chicago. Not knowing how to get to her family, some helpful track workers gave her a ride into Chicago on their handcar.
Nick was 17 when he emigrated, possibly with a group of friends looking for opportunity. Upon arriving at Ellis Island he immediately headed to Chicago where his uncle was waiting to welcome him. Like his father before him, Nick was a trained tailor, and went to work in a shop and struck out on his own. He was enamored with cars, and very soon had his first Model A. It was at this time that he met our grandmother, and with a ride in that car, started a long life together that eventually led to California.
We were very close to our paternal grandparents, largely due to proximity. We grew up only a mile away from them in a small town in Southern California. Multi-course Italian dinners at their house on Sunday was very common, as well as more frequent casual visits. Grandpa made coats for Rodeo Drive stores in Beverly Hills out of his home shop, with Grandma doing the fine needlework, and I would frequently sit with him as he worked listening to opera on the radio, ‘Live from the Met’. When I would ride up on my bike, the first thing he would say was ‘Did you eat?’, and he would send me inside to Grandma to be fed, whether I needed it or not.
The idea of getting our Italian citizenship probably started with my brother some 10 years ago. He very strongly hews to the Italian side of the family, and wanted Italian citizenship to cement that claim. He found out about the opportunity of ‘jure sanguinis‘ and pursued it successfully. This then planted the idea into our heads. My wife and I both like to travel, however she had always wanted to actually live abroad, so she encouraged me to pursue it as well. Although she is not of Italian heritage, being the spouse of an Italian citizen allows us to live in Europe with less paperwork for her than otherwise. And we had another reason to do it, that of our children. At their age a European passport would give them additional opportunity to work and live abroad, and experience life beyond the borders of the US.
As we started doing research we decided it would be best to get some help. Many of the blogs we read described the exacting nature necessary for the documents submitted to the Italian consulate. As we looked through the various groups that provided this kind of assistance ICA quickly stood out. From the outset they appeared to have the breadth of services that we needed and the depth of knowledge necessary to avoid errors and delays. The free consultation with Marco really helped with the decision. He reviewed my family’s history and quickly determined that I would be eligible for citizenship. He reviewed the process and timing very thoroughly and answered all of our questions with the confidence of someone who’s been doing this for a while. And not only was ICA’s pricing competitive, but adding our two children on to the effort resulted in a very economical and efficient project. Once all of the documentation was gathered for me it could then be leveraged for our children as well, making their applications much easier.
And if Marco wasn’t enough, then we were taken in hand by Claudia. What a pleasure it has been working with Claudia. After a brief introduction she immediately went to work on our application with step-by-step instructions for each and every required document. One of the nice things about Claudia’s approach is that she did not overwhelm us with the complete list of documents and instructions, rather she grouped them by people and type. As an example, Claudia would ask where my parents were born and when. With that information she would send back detailed steps of how and where to order certified certificates, and how to get them apostilled. Once these were acquired and verified by her she would then lead us to the next group of documents. Everything was explained thoroughly, completely, patiently, and in perfect English.
Because of the health emergency the process slowed way down for citizenship applications. We made our consulate appointments as soon as we contracted with ICA, but they were backed up almost a year. The interview was straightforward thanks to Claudia’s meticulous preparations. Everything was packaged neatly and in order for proper submission to the agent. Claudia did warn us about one possible hitch, which did in fact come up. My father was named Luigi on his birth certificate, but casually changed his name as he grew up to Louis, which is how all of his official documents after his birth certificate were named. While this is easy to understand, the Consulate needed something official to validate it. Normally it would require changing his birth certificate, which is a long court process, but the consulate was open to a Name Affidavit as a compromise, which Claudia quickly prepared for us. So long as my father had no intention of applying for citizenship himself this would suffice. After this it was just a waiting game to get the final notification of citizenship approval.
After waiting quite a long time, with little to no communication with the consulate, in 2021, just as I was about to contact Claudia for advice she reached out to us asking if we had received word. She advised us that she had several other clients also experiencing outsized delays, so unbeknownst to us she made some phone calls to the consulate and some six weeks later we received the email from the consulate officially advising us of our citizenship. What a thrill that was! Coincidentally, we were in California at the time visiting family and attending a family get-together the next day, the perfect opportunity to announce our new citizenship to everyone.
And ICA’s help didn’t end there. To utilize our citizenship for travel we needed Italian passports, so Claudia immediately offered to help us with these as well as this was part of the package. This too was somewhat complicated by our move to another state, and our plans to return to Europe at the end of summer. But true to form Claudia managed the process for us impeccably and helped me acquire the passport before our departure.
I have to say it’s really cool being in Europe as a European, rather than a visiting foreigner. While it doesn’t help us with our language challenges, it does smooth out the legal issues with staying longer than 90 days, which is our intent. With the passport we no longer need long term visas, I am now permitted to stay indefinitely and my wife only needs a residence permit. And our children can also freely come and live and work if they wish, which could be a wonderful opportunity to expand their careers, not to mention their exposure to other cultures and societies. All told it was well worth the investment in time and money to acquire our citizenship. And while we may have been able to do it on our own, ICA’s guidance and preparation removed a tremendous burden, made it immeasurably smoother and faster, and really insured our success. I simply cannot say enough about ICA’s value and in particular Claudia.
Written by Kurt Liddi, who decided to use ICA’s “step by step” service
