Many of our articles have analyzed the eligibility requirements to apply for Italian citizenship by descent and the stages involved in the application process. This article instead will analyze one of the most important phases, i.e., retrieving the documents needed to apply for Italian citizenship by descent. However, before we dig into the specific requirements, it would be worth providing a brief overview of the eligibility requirements to apply for citizenship by descent. As a general rule, you can apply for Italian citizenship by descent if your ancestor who was born in Italy was never naturalized or if he/she was naturalized after the child’s birth, and if none of your ascendants in your direct line of descent ever formally renounced their right to Italian citizenship. Please bear in mind that if there is a woman in your Italian lineage who gave birth to her child who was born abroad before January 1, 1948, you may not be able to qualify for Italian citizenship by descent through an application at the consulate, however, you may be able to pursue Italian citizenship via the court system. Moreover, if your male ancestor was naturalized prior to the birth of his child who was born abroad and prior to 1922, you may not be able to apply for citizenship via the consulate, but it might be possible to claim citizenship through the court system because prior to 1948 Italian women acquired their husbands’ citizenship automatically by marriage.
Having said this, in order to apply for Italian citizenship by descent you need to provide the consulate or the Italian municipality (if you decide to file an application in Italy), or the Court in Italy (if you intend to file a 1948 case), with certified copies of your family’s vital records. These include birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. As a general rule, birth, death and marriage certificates are issued by the U.S. state’s Department of Health, but in some cases they are also available at the county level.
Marriage certificates can generally be easily obtained from the county in which the marriage license was purchased. With regards to this, please note that – when available – it is also important to retrieve certified copies of marriage licenses or applications as the consular clerk, town clerk (if you are applying to a municipality in Italy) or the judge (if filing a 1948 case) may need to see the registrant’s parents’ names to verify the applicant’s Italian lineage.
Some Departments of Health do not hold records which are particularly old so you might need to retrieve them from the state archives or from the town in which the event occurred.
Divorce decrees can be retrieved from the court in which the divorce was filed. Please note that if you divorced you will also need a Certificate of No Appeal stating that no appeal was filed after the final judgment, or a case summary.
As for the retrieval process per se, in most cases you will only need to sign a few forms to retrieve your family’s birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates. These forms are available on the department, county or court’s websites. Depending on the specific Department of Health, county or court, and the type of record requested you might need to sign a form which requires your notarized signature or you might also need to provide proof of relationship to request your ascendant’s vital records.
Pease note that some states, such as NY state, for instance, will release birth certificates for deceased individuals only based on a court order (Article 78 proceedings). This is the reason why it is very important to read the specific requirements as to who can apply for a vital record and the procedure needed in order to retrieve it. Without a court order, in fact, the NY state department of health will only issue genealogical copies of a deceased individual’s birth certificate but these copies cannot be apostilled and thus will not be accepted by the Italian authorities for your citizenship application. The state of New York has some of the most restrictive laws in the U.S. regarding vital records, however some of them do not apply to records issued in the five boroughs of New York City. Please note that the certificates you need for your citizenship application must be certified copies as they will need to be legalized with an apostille and translated into Italian. An apostille is a certificate issued by the Secretary of State, which is attached to the original document to verify that it is legitimate and authentic. The reason why the vital records need to be apostilled is because an apostille is a means by which a document can be accepted in other countries which are members of the Hague Apostille Convention.
Some consulates may also require the non-in-line family members’ vital records (make sure you check the website of the consulate you are applying through for more detailed information).
In order to apply for citizenship by descent you must also retrieve the naturalization records pertaining to the Italian ancestor through whom you are claiming citizenship, or proof that the ancestor never naturalized. More specifically, you will need to retrieve the following documents pertaining to your ancestor: Declaration of Intentions, Petition for Naturalization and the Certificate of Naturalization. These documents can be retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which hold government and historical records, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or the county in which the naturalization took place. On the other hand, if your ancestor never naturalized you will need to prove this by providing the Italian authorities with a Certificate of Non-Existence of Records that certifies that no naturalization record was found pertaining to your ancestor. The certificate can be retrieved from USCIS; on the other hand, NARA will provide you with a Letter of Negative Search. Additionally, some consulates might ask you to retrieve supporting documents that prove that your ancestor never naturalized, such as a certified copy of a census listing your ancestor’s citizenship status.
Your ancestor’s vital records from Italy can be retrieved from the registry office (“stato civile”) of the Italian municipality in which the event occurred. You will need to contact the municipality and provide your ancestor’s details such as the date and place of birth and the parents’ names. If your ancestor’s name was misspelled when he or she moved to the United States, or if the Italian name was changed into the English version (e.g. Giovanni – John; Maria – Mary) you can also request a specific certificate from the municipality called “certificato di esatte generalità” which certifies that your ancestor was the only individual born with that specific name and on that specific day.
With regards to misspellings and discrepancies, it is worth pointing out that when you have collected all of your vital records it is necessary to make sure that there are no inconsistencies that might negatively affect your application. It is very important that the applicant’s names and parents’ names match on all of the applicant’s vital records. If amendments need to be made you will need to contact the amendment division of the Department of Health or the office that issued the record. Sometimes this can be done administratively or through a court order. In case of major discrepancies, you may have to obtain a “One and the Same person” court order. which is used to declare that two (or more) records pertain to the same person despite the name differences. More detailed information on how discrepancies can affect your application can be found in our A to Z guide to Italian citizenship.
We hope that this article has provided you with a basic understanding of the documents which are required to apply for Italian citizenship. If you need further information do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
