You have an Italian ancestor who was born in Italy, maybe more than a hundred years ago, and emigrated to your country of residence (USA, UK, Brazil etc.). So, you wonder if you can apply for Italian citizenship in light of your Italian bloodline and what the benefits would be.
After some research online you discover that you actually are entitled to apply for Italian citizenship via Iure Sanguinis (by descent) because, thanks to your Italian ancestor, you are eligible to be an Italian citizen as well.
However, you also discover that you need the competent Italian authority to formally recognize your status of Italian citizen “by birth”.
So, you decide it would be a good idea to apply for Italian citizenship at your local Italian Consulate considering that there are many benefits for those who hold Italian dual citizenship. For example, as an Italian citizen you can live in Italy for more than 90 days (the usual length of a tourist visa), or you can study or work in Italy without time restrictions. Moreover, with an Italian passport you can also live, study or work in the European Union without any problem, and a dual citizenship could help you find a job or a better job or a higher salary.
Your children, husband or wife could also become Italians. So you think this is fantastic, and you are right!
You then look online, find out what documents you need, start collecting them (you probably struggle researching your ancestor’s act of birth) , adding apostilles and translations, and then, when you are all set and excited, you try to make an appointment to file your application, complete with all the documents you collected, with your local Italian Consulate.
When you do, you discover that the date for the earliest appointment is actually quite far off in the future, or as we often say here in Italy “at the Greek calends“.
If your competent Consulate is Los Angeles (USA) for example, your appointment could be in 2028.
So, now what should you do? Well, don’t panic! You should not lose faith or desist from trying to become and Italian citizen.
In fact, if you have officially booked an appointment with the Italian Consulate for 2022/2025/2028 or similar, you could consider this other option you have.
In the case that an Italian consulate is taking too long to give you an appointment, you can request Italian citizenship via a court order here in Rome.
In fact, according to the Italian law on citizenship, the consulate has 2 years to process your application and, therefore, in a case where the applicant is asked to wait several years before applying, in addition to the years (at least 2-3) needed to process the application, the applicant has the right to go to Court here in Italy and ask the judge to recognize his/her right to Italian citizenship.
Now, considering that you probably already have your documents ready, and that you officially booked your appointment with your local Italian Consulate, an Italian attorney can assist you with the drafting and filing of your plea to the competent Court here in Rome.
You will not need to wait several years in order to file your application, and then a few more years to complete the process, and you will avoid the expiration of the documents you have already collected (not all of them expire), or in any case keeping these documents, apostilles and translations with you in a drawer for 5-10 years.
Moreover, you will not need to come to Italy and the Italian attorney will be able to assist you from here.
You will considerably reduce the time you will need to wait in order to be recognized as an Italian citizen.
So don’t waste any more time and contact your Italian attorney immediately!
If you need assistance with your IS application case via court order, please send an email to assistance@vademecumitalia.com or fill out the Contact us form with your information, and we will send you a quotation of our fees for the assistance with the service.
We are having problems getting an appointment at the Consulate in London. We have all our documents to apply for Italian citizenship, can you quote what you would charge to get a court order and provide any further information please?
Dear Kate,
I need more information regarding your case. Therefore, I sent you an email.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
David.
Hi David, I have the exact same problem. Can you help?
Michelle
Dear Michelle,
Can you please send an email to assistance@vademecumitalia.com explaining your case in details?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
David.
I have been to the Italian Consulate in NY twice. All my documentation has been reviewed. At the last appt, I was told all I needed was to have two documents apostilled. Once I receive these documents back, can you finalize my package and forward to Italy for processing or do I need to back to the Italian consulate in NY? The wait is so long.
I would like to receive your newsletter.
I checked and you already did.
So all good.
Thanks,
D.
Hi David – I’ve sent you an email. I too am struggling in London and would love some advice!
I too have been trying to get an appointment for about 2 annals years, I have most of my documents, would be helpful if someone would go through them and than help me apply in `Rome for citizenship.. Could you give me an idea of your fees.
`thanks so much