Well, not exactly. There were certain rules governing whether it was your paternal side or maternal side, depending on ascendants dates of immigration, etc. So, in my case, I had to verify through my father's father and retrieved my grandfather's birth record from Italy. It was necessary to have the most recent ascendant's record of whether he renounced his Italian citizenship. Though my grandfather did, my father never did because he did not need to. Thus, he remained an Italian citizen by birth. It was unimportant regarding my Italian grandmother's history as to my eligibility, but I did have to retrieve her birth record, as well, which I did.
I was able to get my Italian citizenship because my father was born before my grandfather renounced his Italian citizenship to gain U.S. citizenship. Since my father was born to Italians, he was considered Italian. He never needed to renounce his Italian citizenship because the U.S. automatically gave citizenship to the children of new citizens and their spouses. I learned of this law (juris Sanguinis) in 2005 and made two trips to Italy to my grandfather's birth town and secured an official copy of his birth certificate. That process took about 1 hour, once we got to the town and to the Ufficio. Funny thing, the men in the Ufficio both had my surname, but were of no direct relationship, so far as we could figure. I used the birth certificate prove my eligibility for Italian citizenship. Once I got the citizenship (3 years long process), I was easily able to get a passport. When I went to renew that passport in early 2020, the Consulato took my fingerprints, my $60, and the completed form, as well as my old passport with the corner now cut to show it was no longer valid. Within two weeks, I had a new passport in the mail. The three year long citizenship process was the challenge. I also secured citizenship for my children at the same time. I had 30 sets of official documents translated into Italian. That was the most expensive part of the process, close to $1000, but the translator was excellent. She worked for a law firm in LA and often translated for people like me.
Comments posted
Everything Besso.. said is consistent with my experiences here in the U.S. at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles.
Everything Besso... said is consistent with my experience here in the U.S. at the Los Angeles Consulate.
Well, not exactly. There were certain rules governing whether it was your paternal side or maternal side, depending on ascendants dates of immigration, etc. So, in my case, I had to verify through my father's father and retrieved my grandfather's birth record from Italy. It was necessary to have the most recent ascendant's record of whether he renounced his Italian citizenship. Though my grandfather did, my father never did because he did not need to. Thus, he remained an Italian citizen by birth. It was unimportant regarding my Italian grandmother's history as to my eligibility, but I did have to retrieve her birth record, as well, which I did.
I was able to get my Italian citizenship because my father was born before my grandfather renounced his Italian citizenship to gain U.S. citizenship. Since my father was born to Italians, he was considered Italian. He never needed to renounce his Italian citizenship because the U.S. automatically gave citizenship to the children of new citizens and their spouses. I learned of this law (juris Sanguinis) in 2005 and made two trips to Italy to my grandfather's birth town and secured an official copy of his birth certificate. That process took about 1 hour, once we got to the town and to the Ufficio. Funny thing, the men in the Ufficio both had my surname, but were of no direct relationship, so far as we could figure. I used the birth certificate prove my eligibility for Italian citizenship. Once I got the citizenship (3 years long process), I was easily able to get a passport. When I went to renew that passport in early 2020, the Consulato took my fingerprints, my $60, and the completed form, as well as my old passport with the corner now cut to show it was no longer valid. Within two weeks, I had a new passport in the mail. The three year long citizenship process was the challenge. I also secured citizenship for my children at the same time. I had 30 sets of official documents translated into Italian. That was the most expensive part of the process, close to $1000, but the translator was excellent. She worked for a law firm in LA and often translated for people like me.
Louise