My journey started in 2018 when I decided to get Italian citizenship. My husband and I lived in Italy for two and a half years on a work visa (2012-2014) and fell in love with the country, the people, the culture and the food. That, combined with the fact that my grandparents were born in Sicily, solidified my desire to become an Italian citizen.
I did a lot of research initially and spoke with many companies because I have a 1948 case, and therefore needed legal representation. When I spoke with Marco Permunian (founder of ICA) initially, he was very encouraging about my case, while also being very realistic about timing and potential issues. I wanted to be sure that I was working with a company that had proven success with 1948 cases and provided excellent customer service since I was going to be gathering most of the necessary documents myself and I knew that I would need a lot of assistance. Marco assured me that Italian Citizenship Assistance (ICA) is known for its competence, professionalism and excellent guidance and responsiveness. After interviewing many companies, it was clear to me that I would have the best chance of success working with ICA, so at the end of 2018 I officially partnered with them, and it has been an extraordinary experience!
I was assigned to work with Susanna Viola. I did a ‘blended’ route to obtaining my documents: Susanna provided the direction to get everything I needed, but I did all the requests and gathered and compiled all the documents. Throughout the entire process (it took a while to collect the documents due to issues with my father’s birth certificate and delays caused by the health emergency), Susanna was outstanding. Her English is fantastic and she was extremely clear and concise in her direction. Her competence, professionalism, organization and customer service orientation are all incredible. This technical process can be confusing and I had many, many questions during this time and I never asked Susanna anything that she could not answer immediately nor had to research. She is very knowledgeable and she patiently responded to me the same day every single time I sent an email with thorough and clear answers. I cannot speak highly enough about what an extraordinary experience it was working with Susanna and I felt very fortunate to partner with her. At times, when we faced obstacles, she always came up with other options or solutions to get the information we needed. Susanna not only met, but exceeded, my every expectation. During the entire process, Marco was in the loop and provided guidance where appropriate and necessary, as he promised he would. I have the ‘minor age’ issue (my father was a minor – 12 years of age – when my grandmother naturalized) so that was an additional complication in my case. Marco provided guidance and explanations with encouragement, but also with realism and candor about potential outcomes when filing with this situation. His and Susanna’s extraordinary guidance and suggestions helped me make good decisions over the entire course of this journey. Together with Attorney Andrea Permunian, they put together a strategy which laid the path to my success.
On December 14, 2022, I was recognized as an Italian citizen by the Tribunale in Palermo. Words cannot express how elated I am to finally be an Italian citizen and a part of the country and culture that is my heritage and of which I am immensely proud.
I am absolutely thrilled, to say the least. I could never have accomplished this without the assistance of ICA, Susanna, Marco and Andrea. I know there are other companies who do this work—I spoke with many at the onset when trying to determine the best company to partner with. ICA is clearly the very best and I know for sure that I would not have had the outstanding experience nor the ultimate success, had I not chosen them. I am very, very appreciative of their excellent work on my behalf and recommend them without any hesitation whatsoever.
Grazie mille, ICA!
Written by Meredith Montalbano Savadove
