Gina secured Italian Citizenship for herself and her sons. She applied at the Los Angeles Consulate for Italian citizenship by descent through her grandfather. Here, Gina recounts their journey to becoming Italian citizens that started with years of frustration trying to complete the process on her own. Now that she and her sons have their passports she can breathe easier knowing how many possibilities are now open to her and her family.
In Gina’s words…..
Honestly, one of the best decisions I made for my family. I tried doing the Italian citizenship process on my own for YEARS. Every time I thought I was making progress I’d hit a wall trying to actually get someone at the consulate on the phone, and eventually I just kind of gave up following up because it was so demoralizing.
Calling ICA changed everything. My own citizenship got sorted in a little over a year, which still feels fast to me after how long I’d been stuck before that.
The kids’ passports were a little trickier. There were a couple of the usual bureaucratic hiccups along the way, but ICA stayed on top of it the whole time. They were in touch with Italy directly and kept me in the loop, and every time something annoying came up, their answer was basically “send it to us, we’ve got it.” That alone took so much stress off my plate.
We have everything in hand now and it honestly still feels a little surreal. Dual citizenship for the kids opens up a lot for them down the road: easier travel, more options later in life, all of it. I’m really grateful for how proactive and communicative ICA was through the whole thing. If you’ve been trying to muscle through this process solo, save yourself the years I lost and just call them.
Gina has agreed to serve as a subject of this success story and has granted ICA the right to use her and her sons names and images.
