Anyone got Italian dual citizenship?

[smooch]

I'm trying to apply for Italian citizenship through descent from my father, to give me options for working in the EU post-Brexit. I'm finding the Italian Consulate website BAFFLING. I think you need to book an appointment, but the phone line for this is always busy and the online slots are always unavailable. I'd love to know if anyone has successfully managed to do this? My father never registered my birth at the consulate - wish he had! - but he is registered himself and is an Italian citizen. Any advice much appreciated.

Does this mean my old log in won't work next week?

Best to check and read the site carefully. My Italian is terribly rusty. I could order a meal, but I wouldn't want to direct an opera

Hey everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. I finally signed up to post on this thread because this is something I feel so strongly about.

I am an American citizen who has lived and worked in London for the past... oh, well, let's just say a lifetime. :-)

In 2018 I finally decided to bite the bullet and get my Italian dual citizenship (my grandfather was an Italian citizen at the time of my father's birth) because I figured it was time and I might as well legalize my status.

Anyway, I contacted Audra at www.getitaliancitizenship.com and she was so patient, thoughtful, and kind and really helped me through the process. She got her Italian citizenship something like 10 years ago, so her company knows what they're doing.

I ended up using their services to skip the long consular wait times and apply directly in Italy. The London consulate was A TOTAL MESS. Unanswered calls, impossibility of getting an appointment, etc.

All I needed to do was spend 2-3 weeks on the ground in Italy, elect residency with their help, file my application, and go home and wait. I ended up applying in September 2018 and got my citizenship about 2 weeks ago, so it was well worth it. Applying with a service provider was so much easier (and now my kids are citizens, too) and I would highly recommend them.

Anyway, that's my story. If you can get Italian citizenship, do it! It only has benefits. And if you need help don't feel bad because there are companies that can assist you. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. :-) And good luck everyone! xox

Oh, also! They provided us with accommodations, translated my documents into Italian, and basically held our hand throughout the entire process. My Italian is okay but they had assistants who speak both English & Italian who helped us during the whole process.

Hi!
Can I please ask how much did you pay for the service all inclusive? I'm trying to get my husband to apply for Italian passport as I'm Italian, but he's reluctant to deal with the burocracy. Plus although he's British he was born in India and there they don't have birth certificates he can request so I was wondering how we can go past this obstacles. Anyone any idea? Will the agency give you those kind of India or is there a number/website that can help? Any suggestion much appreciated. Thanks in advance

Hello Cake :)

Because everything with dual citizenship depends on your family situation there really is no one size fits all price. For example I paid more than my friend who went through just one generation, but I went back to my grandfather (obviously the more generations you go the more documents you need, which means the more money you will pay).

I would defo suggest e-mailing them as they are super nice and willing to work with your budget as well. As far as the birth certificate goes I am sure they can point you in the right direction too. Let us know how it goes!

Okay I will, many thanks for your help 👍😊

Hello
I have a question about getting Italian passports for my children. Both their births were registered at the Local Comune in Italy. I have applied for a passport for my youngest son but my eldest son is now 18. I have always presumed that he has automatic citizenship. Can he apply for an passport himself now? Thank you to anyone who can help. I feel awful that I never got round to getting him a passport before he turned 18!

Is he Italian by birth (jus sanguinis), or just born in Italy? If he’s Italian, he has to apply for himself. Consulate in London is absolute nightmare so it’d be better to do it in Italy at the questura of the place where he was last registered

If (as I’m suspecting) you’ve never registered him at the Aire when you moved to the U.K., then I think that FIRST he needs to register and (you guessed it) the procedure would take a few months to go through. But he can always ask for a passport with the urgent procedure if you have a good enough excuse and extra 50£

I am resurrecting this thread in the hope that someone has been successful in getting their dual Italian Citizenship! I have noticed a difference in the documents required depending if someone is a British Citizen or not. Can anyone throw any light on this? Also, I am at the computer every evening at 7pm and cannot get an appointment. Ridiculous system! I live in hope that someone has managed to get an appointment using this system.

Thank you for your message a few weeks ago which for some reason I missed! My son is now 18 and cannot be registered with Aire. So I am collating all the documents for him so that he can apply for Citizenship. He can't get a passport until he gets Citizenship. So now I have one son who is Italian and one who isn't. Completely my fault! I am just confused about which documents to get but I have noticed a difference between documents for a British Citizenship and documents for a non- British. I hope the Consulate will honour it!

I’m Italian by birth and was born in Italy etc etc. DH was not born Italian and spent 3 years queuing for permesso di soggiorno when he was living there, until he found out applying to the military service that as his father re-acquired his Italian citizenship whilst my husband was a minor, he automatically had a right to it. Proving that he deserves it was a completely different matter! At some point he was asked to prove that he never rejected his Italian citizenship (which he never knew he had in the first place, why doing the paperwork as a foreigner for 3 years otherwise? For the fun of queuing at a Questura at 4am every 6 months??). We did a grand tour of all the consulates where his dad’s papers were scattered (3 different counties), but no consulate would commit to put anything in writing. Eventually this was sorted out when he found a decent employee at the Comune. He sent a letter to all the consulates stating “you have 60 days to tell me if this person CAN’T be given an Italian ID card. If I don’t hear anything, I’m going to give him one”. Of course nothing happens in 60 days, so problem was solved. He still had to do his military service though ;-) (that’s one way of getting Italian citizenship, too! You do 10months in the army as a foreigner and then you can apply for it)

Hello I was born in Rome to Italian father and Brit Mum. Theoretically I have Italian nationality but have never asked for a passport. I think I was registered at the London consulate when we came here. Looking in to process now. Seems the Italian Gov has introduced language and culture tests for most applying for citizenship now. Do you know whether that also applies to new passport claims for Duals? My Italian is a bit scratchy now and taking language exams will also lengthen the time to get a passport. No info on Consulate site about this sort of situation.
Thanks iif you can clarify.

Now people can correct me if I'm wrong but surely language test would surely only apply to naturalised Italians. You're not naturalising, instead you're applying for a passport that you automatically should have because you were born to an Italian father. A bit like a Brit applying for a passport for the first time because they've never been abroad.

"1. Ancestry

You are automatically an Italian citizen if:

You were born to an Italian parent, even outside Italy.
You were adopted as a minor by an Italian national.
An Italian parent legally recognizes you as their child (e.g., if your father's name is absent from your birth certificate but he confirms that you're his child).
You were born in Italy to stateless parents, to unknown parents, or to parents who cannot transmit their nationality to their children.
Because Italy allows its nationals to pass down their citizenship, citizens of other countries who descended from a grandparent, great-grandparent or other ancestor born in Italy may have a claim to Italian citizenship through iure sanguinis, or "right of bloodline".

There is no limit to the number of generations back you can go, provided you can prove that the line of citizenship is uninterrupted – i.e., that none of your ancestors renounced their Italian citizenship before their descendants' birth. In theory you could claim citizenship via the paternal line all the way back to the founding of modern Italy in 1861 (though good luck finding those documents), or via the maternal line from 1948 (the late date at which Italian women were granted the right to transmit their citizenship to their children).

How do I apply?

If you live outside Italy, apply to the Italian consulate nearest to your place of residence. You can also apply within Italy to your local Anagrafe (registry office). While the legal criteria remain the same wherever you apply, different places may have different procedures and waiting times.

You should expect to have to provide full birth, marriage and death certificates for every relative you cite in your claim, as well as proof that that they still had Italian citizenship when their children were born. All documents will need to be translated into Italian and legalized with an apostille (an official certificate that confirms their authenticity)."

Source: www.thelocal.it/20181003/how-to-become-italian-citizenship-guide

Thanks so much! That is very helpful.
Roma65

I have spent hours researching citizenship so I think I know most of the answers!

If your birth was registered at your local Italian Comune then you can apply for a passport without going through the citizenship process. You will need to check with your local Comune if your birth was registered, which I am sure it was if you were born in Italy and you need to check with the London Consulate if you are registered with AIRE. There is a form online you can fill in. AIRE is a record of Italians living abroad.

If you had to apply for Citizenship the website states that you need:

the birth certificate issued by the Italian Municipality (called "Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di nascita") for the LAST person in your family born in Italy.

As well as the birth and marriage ceritificates of all the descendants.

I have understood that it means that I only need the birth certificate for the LAST person in my family born in Italy and all the descendants need the birth and marriage certificates. I have questioned this but it makes sense that the Ascendant is the person born in Italy and the Descendant is everyone else!

As for learning the culture and language, at the end of 2018 they introduced a new requirement that all those claiming citizenship through marriage must provide evidence of the language. So this requirement does not apply to those applying through descent.

It is quite straightforward getting all the documents together BUT can anyone help me get an appointment using the very frustrating online booking service!! I log on every evening and at 7pm the appointments vanish....

Thank you!!

Last time I did it (maybe last year? 18m ago?) they were opening the new dates on a particular evening only in the week, Wednesday by memory...

The appointmens just disappear as soon as I try to type in the code. I consider myself a fast typist! I have been trying for weeks...
Any tips would be gratefully received as I get very disheartened at 7.01pm everyday. Particularly on a Wednesday but I have tried other evenings and sometimes appointments become available!!

Hello,
I am in the process of collecting all the certificates I need and am still confused with the requirement of:
• Birth certificate issued by the Italian Municipality (called "Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di nascita") for the LAST person in your family born in Italy.
• Birth,marriage and death certificates for all the descendants including yourself.
Re your post Milnerhouse, do you understand that to mean we ONLY need to provide the certificate for the LAST born in Italy?
In my case, 3 siblings were born in Italy - I now have the birth certificate of the last one born there - will I also need the Birth, Marriage & death also of all 3 - if so, why should they emphasise the LAST born and not just ask for all of them.
Also, I have 2 younger siblings born in the UK like myself.
Do I need to provide their Birth & marriage certificates as well and also my marriage certificate?
Am I the only one that's very confused by all these different requirements? Please can someone help!!

Tello Teti57

Sorry for the late reply!
I have deliberated over this for ages and have come to understand that you only need the birth certifcate from the Italian Comune for the last person born in Italy. In my son's case, it is his grandfather. So he has his birth certificate and then his next descendent is me his mother and then it is him. It's like a family tree - direct descendants. That is how I have understood it. So the documents he has are the Italian birth certificate, his mother's birth and marriage certifcate and his own birth certifcate (unmarried). There basically needs to be proof the the line of descent. How are you claiming Italian citizenship? I believe it would have be to be you parent or grandparent and not a sibling.

Hello Teti57

Just a simple question to what I have just written in my latest message - how are you claiming Italian Citizenship? My son's mother (me) was not born in Italy so he had to go back a generation to my father - his grandfather.

I am STILL trying to get an appointment online but fail every time. So upsetting....

I’m really sorry about that. I’ve had my own struggles with the consulate, at one point I left the place screaming like a banshee something that can’t possibly be put in writing on munsnet, but the sad truth is that they are “under siege”... they have queues around the block almost every day, the number of tourists needing consular support is never low, plus we have all the new immigrants, plus we have literally a truckload of people like you of all sorts of background trying to sort out paperwork. I’ve never seen that many non-stereotypical-Italian-looking people in the waiting rooms, I think brexit is making everybody crazy with the drive to sort out papers and certificate and the staff is nowhere near enough. Just look at the fb page and you’ll read the litany of complaints...:-(((

When I needed to get an appointment via the phone I put earphones on, a SIM card with unlimited minutes, and I spent 3 days working with the right hand, and tapping “call back” with the left one. First day: 87 attempts. Second day a bit more. Third day, I was lucky and I think I spoke with someone after only 25’

Hello Milnerhouse.
Thank you so much for your reply. I think I have just understood what you mean!

So, in my case, I can apply for citizenship through either my mother or father, they were both born in the same village. I have 3 older siblings also born in Italy and 2 younger born in the UK.
I think you are quite right in that I only need the birth certificate of my mother (the last person born in Italy I am descendant from) and my parents marriage certificate. (I now have all the Italian certificates for good measure!)
I'm very relieved to know I don't have to provide all the various certificates for all 5 siblings!
In my case, I also have to provide proof that no-one in my family gave up their Italian citizenship.

Thank you again - this has saved me lots more work ... and money as all the UK certificates needed to be translated and notarised.

So sorry to hear of your problems getting an appointment. This will be my next step now! Good luck with that.

Oh, can you get an appointment via the phone? I thought it was only online. I fail every time I go on and type the code. It just says that nothing is available even though it is Green to start with! Soooo demoralzing!!