As promised, part 2.

So by now you should know if you apply for citizenship jus sanguinis or not. If you do, congratulations! Welcome to the club, and I hope everything works out of you. But put on some comfy shoes and your game face, because there’s going to be a lot of going from office to office involved.  However, keep in mind that if your heart is set on living in Italy, you can always naturalize (I won’t go into that process here though).

First things first, let’s make up a hypothetical situation so what I’m about to explain makes more sense. Let’s say you’re getting your citizenship through your grandfather who was born in Rome. Okay, good. What you need to do is obtain your grandfather’s birth certificate from Italy. Also, if he married another Italian, you would of course need her birth certificate from Italy (just repeat the following process with her comune). If she were from America, of course that wouldn’t apply. But, moving along…

A few things you need to know about this process: in terms of identification, it’s much easier to obtain a birth certificate from Italy (in the U.S. you’d have to show I.D. and have a notarized letter of release from the person who is on the certificate if they’re still alive). A small fee is charged for issuing the certificate, varying from place to place, but on the average does not exceed Euro 1 (around $ 1.40).

To request birth certificates from Italy:
BIRTH CERTIFICATE (Atto di Nascita), provide full name of person at birth, place and date of birth, name of parents; specify that the document should include the name of the parents.

MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE (Atto di Matrimonio), provide full names at birth of both parties, their birthdates, place and date of marriage.

DEATH CERTIFICATE (Certificato di Morte), provide full name at birth of deceased, date and place of birth if available, place and date of death.

If your request is directed to a large city, address it as follows:

Ufficio dello Stato Civile
Comune di ___________
Italy

whereas a request to a small town may simply be addressed:

Comune di ________________
Provincia di _______________
Italy

If you need to do a google search to find the address where to send a request, it’s helpful to look for “Ufficio di Stato Civile (name of your ancestor’s comune)”.

Don’t get too hung up on this part since it really is simple but if you’re not comfortable making these requests on your own, I can do the work for you, just contact me and I’d be more than happy to take that work on.

You got the birth certificate from Italy, now what?:
Congrats! Now what you need to do is get all pertinent certificates from the American side. Let’s say this grandfather of yours is on your paternal side (your dad’s dad). You would need:

Documents for grandfather:

* Grandfather’s birth certificate (from Italy)
* Grandfather’s naturalization certificate (from the U.S. This document is special and need not be translated nor affixed with an apostille, but we’ll get into that later)
* Grandfather’s death certificate (if applicable. This also needs to be translated, and affixed with an apostille)
* Grandfather and grandmother’s marriage certificate (translated, affixed with apostille)

Documents for grandmother:

* Grandmother’s birth certificate (from Italy if applicable. If from U.S., not translated but still affixed with apostille)
* Grandmother’s death certificate (not translated but still affixed with apostille)

Documents for father & mother:

* Father’s birth certificate (translated, affixed with apostille)
* Mother’s birth certificate (not translated but still affixed with apostille)
* Father and mother’s marriage certificate (translated, affixed with apostille)
* Any applicable death certificates.

Documents for you:

* Birth certificate (translated, affixed with apostille)
* Marriage certificate (if applicable, translated and affixed with apostille)

Keep in mind, if you have a spouse, you will need to get their birth certificate and get that affixed with an apostille. If you have kids, they’re going to need their birth certificates and those will be translated and affixed with an apostille as well.

Can I do my own translations?:
Yes. You certainly can. But it is ALWAYS recommended to use a reputable professional.

Do I need to translate all documents?:
No. If you’ve noticed, only the documents pertaining to your “Italian side” (meaning, people who DIRECTLY come from your one Italian ancestor) need to be translated. So, if you’re going through your paternal line, none of your maternal documents (save for any applicable marriage certificates) need to be translated. You MUST affix an apostille on ALL American documents except for the certificate of naturalization, though. No exceptions.

What is an Apostille, anyway?:
Without getting too much into bureaucratic detail, basically an apostille is (at least in New York City), a separate paper stapled to your document which bears a gold seal from the State certifying its legitimacy and allowing it to be used for international purposes from the U.S. to Italy. Nothing more and nothing less.

Why are there so many documents to obtain?:
It’s Italy! You have to have a sense of humor about it!

Okay, so let’s assume you have all the documents ready to go, and you need your apostilles but don’t know where to get them? Check out Part 3!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at %I:%M %p and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.