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Pekinduck
May 10, 2008
Just a placeholder, I can give you advice in a bit.

Edit: ok here we go

Pollyanna posted:

TL;DR: my grandmother’s father was Italian. My dad has used this fact to get an Italian passport, though not Italian citizenship (yet?).

This is puzzling me. Passports are only rarely given to non-citizens. What does it say on the inside? He probably is an Italian citizen.

Pollyanna posted:

- Our birth certificates had some typographical/clerical errors that annoyed some consulate or another

Yep there's usually errors on some of the documents. You may have to get some documents amended or the consulate doesn't care, it depends.

Pollyanna posted:

- My dad needs to locate the documentation proving his juris sanguinis and that’s somewhere in Miami

His local consulate may be able to help him with this.

Pollyanna posted:

- The process requires lawyer assistance which is apparently a huge pain

If you're handy with government paperwork and bureaucracy you can do it yourself. I never hired a lawyer.

Pollyanna posted:

- Wait times are super long

oh yeah

Pollyanna posted:

Adding to the complication is that my name and gender marker on my birth certificate do not match my current legal name and gender marker, so I can see some bureaucrat whining about it.

I don't think this will be an issue as far as getting citizenship. You may have to have you birth name and gender marker on your Italian passport, alas Italy is rather backwards on that stuff though things are changing quickly.

Pollyanna posted:

(Also, I might have the option to claim Spanish heritage instead via my mom’s grandfather, but my family hasn’t explored that before. Maybe Spain would be easier?)

Worth looking into. Keep in mind every country's criteria for getting citizenship is wildly different.

Pollyanna posted:

Has anyone here claimed Italian citizenship through their ancestors? If so, did it work out for you? How hard was it? Any tips?

It takes a good amount of time and effort but its absolutely doable and easier than naturalization. I'm very glad I did. As I'm sure you know the ability to move to Europe at will is incredibly valuable.

The good news is it sounds like your father is already recognized as an Italian citizen. This means you should also meet the criteria. When I started the process I had to do a lot of research before I even knew if I qualified at all.

The first thing you'll want to do is gather all of the information your family has on all the people in the line to your Italian ancestor. When and where they were born, died, had kids, married, immigrated, gained US citizenship. Have your dad dig up any paperwork he still has from when he applied for citizenship, see what your siblings who stated the process managed to dig up. Even just talk to your relatives and write down their best recollections on when and where events happened. I think ancestry.com has a free trial period and you can see what they have, I didn't find much useful for my family but you might have more luck. You'll want all this information because to get the birth certificates and other documents you'll need to know when and where each event happened.

Here's a basic workflow of the entire process:

1. Research your family lineage. Make a list of the documents you need and what government agency you need to get them from.

2. Obtain official copies of all of the documents.

3. Apostille and notarize the documents as needed. Get them translated into Italian.

4. Meet with the consulate and hand everything over.

5. Wait. :rip:

6. Congratulations :italy:

There aren't really any downsides. You don't have to pay taxes or anything if you aren't in Italy. The only thing that might be an issue is if you want to join the US military or get a job that requires a very high level security clearance.

There's a great internet forum that's dedicated to helping people do this, I'll find the link. I'm probably forgetting a lot, feel free to ask questions!

Edit: Forum: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/italiancitizenship/

Pekinduck fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Oct 20, 2022

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