In Linda’s own words…
We both have Italian heritage, but we had much more information about Brian’s ancestry when we started the process. He hired a genealogist to trace his relatives from Cuggiono, a small town outside Milan, and our genealogist provided a very large binder with birth records and other interesting papers dating back to the late 1700s. We visited Cuggiono and met with a number of the town officials. We were introduced to a distant relative, visited the cemetery where many of Brian’s ancestors were buried, and found the street with the compound of apartments where his family lived. Our genealogist said that the documents were not “official” papers that could be used for an ancestry citizenship claim, but they could provide a reference point for starting the process. We had not intended to pursue dual citizenship, but that made us start thinking about it.
Initially, we planned to explore citizenship through Brian’s ancestry, and then I would apply as his spouse. After some online reading, I learned that I would have to take a language proficiency test. That seemed very daunting so I started looking up my own family history. I remembered that my grandmother was Italian, grew up in New City, and was a first-generation American. Through online research, I was able to find my great-grandparents, the ship’s manifest for their passage from Naples to Ellis Island, and several other documents.
Armed with our research, we decided that it might be possible to pursue citizenship by descent. We then searched for reputable law firms that could assist us and found ICA. The ICA team conducted further research and found the official documents that we would need to pursue citizenship. In my case, my great-grandparents arrived in the U.S. in the early 1900s but did not naturalize until the 1920s. My great-grandfather applied for naturalization after my grandmother was born in the U.S., and my great grandmother never renounced her Italian citizenship. With regard to Brian’s case, his great-grandfather naturalized in the 1890s prior to the birth of Brian’s grandfather, but his great-grandmother never renounced her citizenship. From that point onward, the ICA team managed the entire process. They found all of the Italian documents and many of the U.S. documents. Brian and I provided birth, death, marriage, and divorce records from our personal histories. ICA processed them for us (translated and appropriately notarized).
Martina filed our paperwork and applied for our court hearing with the Court of Rome. Many months passed with seemingly nothing happening, but that was part of the process of waiting for our court date. An exciting turn of events moved our court date up a year in time for each of us. We were some of the last cases to be reviewed in Rome (later cases are assigned to the commune from which the applicant descends). From start to finish the process took about 2 1/2 years to complete.
Looking back, we are surprised at how quickly the entire process was completed. We are happy that we decided to use ICA. It would have been very time consuming and stressful to try to complete the process on our own. It certainly is possible to find all of the documents, but I think it would have been quite difficult to have them all translated and notarized. In addition, we would have ultimately needed to hire lawyers to file our case with the courts and represent us on our court date. We don’t speak Italian well enough to manage the process on our own. We’ve also learned that many things in Italy depend on who you know and who is willing to help you get things done. We consider ICA a fabulous investment and have recommended the team to a number of friends who are considering pursuing dual citizenship.
In conjunction with citizenship, we bought a property in Italy and, as soon as we had our court-approved status, applied for residency in our commune. We just recently completed renovation of the property and are enjoying our life as full-time Italian residents and citizens on the Amalfi coast. Our next goal is to master the language!
We are very grateful to ICA. We view the team as a trustworthy set of friends who can help us with whatever issues may arise while we’re living in Italy. We have our citizenship, our home, and our health card, all with the assistance of ICA.
Linda and Brian have agreed to serve as subjects of this success story and have granted ICA the right to use their names and images.
