My grandparents were from Italy – my mother’s parents from Sicily and my father’s parents from Lake Como. I applied for citizenship at first to honor my mother, who spent quite a few years scouring Italian churches and courthouses searching for documentation to validate her right to Italian citizenship. She also went to Ellis Island to retrieve family records. Eventually, she was successful. So, in April 2020, I talked it over with my three sisters and they, along with our respective children, decided to start the citizenship process. I think it’s important to bind to your ancestry and pass that legacy to your children. I applied also, of course, for the practical benefits of becoming an Italian citizen, namely:
- The ability to work and live in Italy without restrictions or time limits – our plan is to split time between our home in California and in Italy;
- The ability to have my spouse apply for citizenship or at least become a permanent resident of Italy;
- The possibility of purchasing property in Italy;
- The ability to vote in Italian elections;
- Pass down the legacy to my kids, and ultimately my grandchildren.
- Finally, it’s important to note that an Italian passport allows you to travel, work or reside in any of the EU’s member states
The first thing I realized is that there is no standard or uniform process to an application for Italian citizenship by descent. It starts with where you currently live in the United States and to which consulate you’re assigned to, each of which has different citizenship requirements. Other variables include which citizenship path you’re taking – whether through blood or marriage. Then there are simple, but important variables to your application, such as which consulate you apply to, and whether you have any discrepancies on your vital records. The documentation-gathering process took well over a year as the birth, death, divorce, marriage and church records of my ancestors and immediate family members needed to be collected, validated by means of apostilles, submitted and reviewed. This was difficult and in many instances I had no idea where to look. For example, who knew that in the U.S. there are several types of birth certificates?
In short, taking on Italian citizenship is sort of like trying to solve a Dan Brown novel. You have clues but you don’t really know where the path will lead. At times it was exhilarating and at times it was so frustrating that I wanted to give up. But it was all worth it. We all started the process in April 2020, and roughly 16 months later, on August 30, 2021, I received my citizenship notification from the Los Angeles consulate! At this point, six of the seven family applicants are now Italian citizens. My sister Lisa is just waiting for her application to be approved.
We turned to Italian Citizen Assistance (ICA) to help us on this journey. There were seven of us in total, each residing in a different part of the United States. From day 1 ICA proved their value. Our ICA guide, Anna Arpaia, was so diligent, thorough, and patient with us all. We honestly could not have completed the process without her help. She was our “passport sherpa”, leading us along the long and windy path to success, telling us at every step what to expect, and then, what exactly to do. Their experience is what you pay for. ICA also helped us communicate with the consulates and they knew which twists and turns to expect. They guided us on how to retrieve documents and then prepared our communications with the Italian authorities. So, we were “lucky”, but the bottom line is we really couldn’t have done this on our own; it is tricky and perilous in the best of circumstances! But so worth it!
Written by John Tarabini
