Have you reached the final stages of your citizenship application? Are you wondering what happens when you submit all of the necessary documentation? Do you know how long you will need to wait to be granted Italian citizenship and be able to travel to Italy without having to worry about a visa? This article will answer these questions and it will also explain what happens behind the scenes of an application for the recognition of Italian citizenship jure sanguinis, be it via an Italian consulate, a court or a municipality in Italy.
Applying via an Italian consulate
Once you have collected all the necessary vital records, proof of residency, forms of ID, and you have signed the consulate’s forms, you will be ready to submit your application at the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside. Some consulates require applicants to submit their application in person, whereas others have replaced in-person appointments with short interviews conducted over the phone, and they require applicants to submit their application via mail.
When the consulate receives your application, the citizenship clerk will create a file with your documents. The clerk will then assess your proof of address in order to make sure that you are eligible to apply to that specific consulate. Consulates generally require a recent utility bill or a bank statement which clearly shows the applicant’s full name and address. The clerk will check that you have submitted all the required documentation including a form of payment, and they will check that all the vital records have been authenticated with Apostilles and that they are original, certified copies issued in the long form. The clerk will also check that all the translations are attached to the corresponding vital records. As part of the application process, the citizenship clerk will examine all your vital records to make sure that there are no discrepancies and that all the dates of birth, marriage and death, and the names of the individuals in the Italian lineage match on all of the records. The clerk will also examine your Italian ancestor’s naturalization records or proof that your ancestor was never naturalized in order to make sure that the Italian chain is unbroken. In most cases, the clerk will let you know on the same day of your appointment if additional documents are required or if any of the vital records you submitted present discrepancies that the consulate will not accept, and need to be amended. However, it is also possible that the consulate will contact you after your appointment to ask for clarifications, document integrations, or amendments to vital records, though this rarely happens. Verifying your Italian lineage also entails ensuring that neither you nor the individuals in the Italian line never renounced your/their Italian citizenship voluntarily before any Italian authority. This is done by checking the registries held by the Italian consulates that cover the jurisdiction where you and each individual in the Italian lineage resided since the age of 18. With regard to your ancestor who was born in Italy, the consulate processing your application will ask your ancestor’s municipality of birth to check their registries. These verifications can take a few weeks to a few months depending on the response time and workload of the consulates/municipalities that the consulate processing your application will need to contact.
By law, consulates have up to 24 months to process an application for Italian citizenship by descent, however, it could take less. On the other hand, if you apply for Italian citizenship via an Italian consulate outside of the U.S., the processing time to be recognized as an Italian citizen might be shorter as consulates outside of the U.S. generally have fewer applications to process.
Once you are recognized as an Italian citizen, the consular clerk will send you an email confirming that your citizenship has been officially recognized. The consulate will then send a formal request to your ancestor’s municipality of birth via a PEC asking to register your birth, marriage and divorce records, if applicable. The municipality will then file your records and register you with the AIRE, the Registry of Italian Citizens Residing Abroad. Once you are registered with the AIRE you will be able to book an appointment to apply for an Italian passport at your local consulate.
Applying via an Italian court
If you have a 1948 case your citizenship application will be processed by the court in Italy which has jurisdiction over your ancestor’s municipality. Once all the records have been authenticated with Apostilles and translated into Italian, the lawyer representing you via a Power of Attorney will file your lawsuit and you will be provided with a case number. The president of the court will assign a judge to your case. The waiting time varies greatly depending on the president’s availability, but it can range from a few of weeks to approximately 2-3 months. The judge will then schedule the first hearing. This is normally set for 3 to 9 months after depending on the judge’s schedule. The attorney of record will be officially notified via PEC of the name of the judge and the hearing date, which can also be viewed by the petitioner in the mobile application “Giustizia Civile” made available by the Italian government.
On the day of the hearing the judge will examine all of your documentation to make sure that you have the required records legalized with Apostilles, and that the translations into Italian are certified. Generally speaking, certified translations are not required if you apply via an Italian consulate in the U.S., although some consulates such as the consulate in Washington or Boston require them. On the other hand, if you apply in Italy, be it via a municipality or a court, the translations of all the records will need to be certified in court by a sworn translator prior to being submitted to the relevant authority. If no additional documents or clarifications are required, the judge will decide whether to grant or deny your claim to citizenship on the same day on which the hearing is held, or within a few weeks from that day.
When the final judgment is rendered it will be filed with the clerk of the court and the attorney of record and the ministry of interior will be notified. The attorney who represented you will need to wait 60 days for the judge’s decision to become final and thus no longer subject to appeal. When that period of time elapses, the attorney will be able to request a certified copy of the final judgment from the clerk’s office, which will ultimately need to be sent to the Italian municipality where your Italian ancestor was born so that it can be registered together with your birth, marriage and divorce records, if applicable. The municipality will then register you with the AIRE and you will be able to apply for a passport at the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside.
Applying via a municipality in Italy
If you would like to avoid the consulates’ waiting times to be scheduled an appointment, or its processing times, you might want to consider filing an application via a municipality in Italy, which is generally faster than applying via an Italian consulate.
The first step will be to establish residency in the municipality where you intend to apply. This can be done by filling out the residency application form provided by the residency office in the town hall. You will need to fill out the form your personal information, residential address, the names of the family members residing with you, and the days and times in which you are at home. At this point, the residency clerk will send a request to a municipal clerk or municipal police officer to visit you in order to verify that the house or apartment is habitable and that all the family members who established residency are present (generally all residents are required to show their passport). Sometimes multiple checks are necessary and are performed in a 45 day period. After the check has been performed, you will be able to book an appointment at the citizenship office in the municipality’s town hall. On the day of your appointment, the citizenship clerk will assess all your vital records and if no amendments need to be made, or no additional supporting documentation is required, you will need to allow a few months for the municipality to process your application, but the waiting time may vary depending on the municipality to which you apply. The process to approve an application in a municipality is the same as the one in a consulate. In other words, the citizenship clerk will verify no one in your Italian lineage voluntarily renounced their Italian citizenship. This will be done by checking that your ancestor’s municipality of birth and the consulates that have jurisdiction over the areas where you and your ancestor lived do not hold any renunciation records. Finally, if no renunciation records can be found you will be recognized as an Italian citizen and you will be able to apply for an Italian passport. If you reside in Italy, you will be able to do so at the local police headquarters (Questura). On the other hand, if you plan on returning to your home country you will need to register with AIRE and apply for a passport at the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside.
If you are interested in applying for Italian citizenship by descent and you would like further information do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
