This article has been YEARS in the making. LITERALLY—YEARS!

I was very lucky to have been able to apply for and obtain Italian citizenship through my ancestral family line.

It was a long process that stretched over the course of 6 years, from 2018 to 2024. People who knew this was happening would check in occasionally and say things like “Oh yeah, is that still happening? It’s not dead yet?” 😑 No, it’s not dead yet. IN FACT, IT’S NEVER BEEN MORE ALIVE!

You’re reading this article now because it was, in fact, SUCCESSFUL! I am now the proud owner of an Italian passport, which affords me citizenship not just to Italy (which would have been cool enough on its own), but the entire European Union, which is a total game-changer!

If you have Italian ancestry, there’s a chance that you also might be able to do this. In this article, I am going to walk through exactly how to go about doing this. Note that many of the details of this are specific to applying for Italian citizenship from America, but you can do this from anywhere! It doesn’t matter where you and your family ended up. The only thing that matters here is your family’s ancestral point of origin.

ARTICLE INDEX

1. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA ✅

2. Implications: The EU/Schengen Area 🇪🇺

3. Other Questions 🙋‍♂️

4. HOW TO CLAIM CITIZENSHIP ✍️

5. How Exactly Is Italian Citizenship Granted? 🛠

6. MY STORY, FWIW 💁‍♂️ 

7. How Much this Cost In The End 💵

8. Final Thoughts 🍕

 WHAT MAKES SOMEBODY ELIGIBLE TO CLAIM ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP?

Random people like you and me can apply for Italian citizenship through an obscure piece of Italian legislation called “Jure Sanguinis.” Basically the eligibility criteria for Italian Citizenship via Jure Sanguinis is as follows:

1. You are of Italian descent.

2. The Italian person you are descended from immigrated to America (or wherever else) no more than 4 generations before you. So your great great grandparents are the cut-off.

3. The Italian person you are descended from never renounced their own Italian citizenship. Note that this is NOT the same thing as becoming a citizen of the US (or another country). Renouncing citizenship is an unusual thing to do, so most Italian immigrants likely ended up with dual citizenship. The big thing to watch out for here is military service. Often the military will force foreign soldiers to “renounce all other loyalties” which can mean giving up other citizenships, but I believe it is hit-or-miss whether or not this actually happens in a formal/official capacity.

4. The original Italian person you are descended from had the child to which you are related (so, for example, your grandfather had your mother) BEFORE they (your grandfather) became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Note that this may be changing slightly starting October 3 2024. Details will follow in the "caveats & exceptions” section below.

So if you’re Italian and your family immigrated from Italy to wherever you are now no less than 4 generations ago (which is almost every Italian-American), the big thing you need to figure out is #4 on this list. What was the timing of the the birth of the child ancestor (the one through whom you are applying) relative to the naturalization of the ancestor parent? If you have the right combination of dates, then that child is/was entitled to dual citizenship, and that entitlement is passed through generations. The whole thing boils down to 2 documents: a naturalization certificate (for your grandfather, hypothetically), and a birth certificate (for your mother, hypothetically). Again, the grandfather/mother thing is just an example. It can be any parent/child pair of people in your family tree. And I should note—becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen is NOT the same thing as arriving at Ellis Island or whatever port they entered through. This would have happened years after their actual arrival in America (or wherever else).

Major Caveats & Exceptions*

If you’re applying through a female ancestor…

One catch in this law is that women are excluded from Juris Sanguinis, if they had their child before the year 1948. So, to keep going with this same example, this applies if it’s actually not your grandfather, but your grandmother through whom you are claiming citizenship. If your grandmother had your parent before 1948, and there is some reason why you can’t apply through your grandfather (for example, maybe he was not Italian), then you are technically excluded from eligibility. This is called “The 1948 Rule” and it’s some old-world, sexist, patriarchal BS. However, there is a way around it.

Basically, the workaround is to file a lawsuit with the Italian government. There was a court case challenging the 1948 rule in the mid-2000s that went all the way up to Italy’s supreme court in Rome. In this case, the Italian courts ruled that the 1948 rule was unconstitutional. However, no legislation has yet been passed to strike down the 1948 rule, so for the time being, people claiming Italian citizenship through a woman are forced to file an appeal with the courts in Rome. It takes a bit longer than the usual process and is definitely more of a hassle, but the chances of the court ruling in your favor are basically 100%.

If you’re applying through an ancestor who was a minor at the time of their departure from Italy…

Also, people who were minors at the time of their emigration are often not covered by Juris Sanguinis. Until March 9, 1975, Italy considered its citizens to be minors until the age of 21, and often minors would naturalize concurrently with their parents. So, if your ancestor left Italy as a younger member of a family unit, it’s likely that they naturalized at the same time as their parents. I’m like 60% sure that, in this case, you could still feasibly claim Italian citizenship through the minor’s parents, but you may run into a generational cut-off, depending on how far back you are going. Either way, this will make your case more difficult. If you do need to apply through a minor, the burden of proof will be on you to provide appropriate documentation that they became a naturalized citizen at a later date than their parents.

If you’re applying through an ancestor whose parent got a new citizenship while they (the child) were still a minor…

And finally, on October 3, 2024, based on recently rulings by the Italian Supreme Court, Italy’s Ministry of the Interior outlined a new interpretation of this law that would be applied going forward. According to this memo, if the Italian-born ancestor voluntarily acquired foreign citizenship while their foreign-born child was still a minor, then that child lost his their right to Italian citizenship automatically. Therefore, this would have interrupted the chain of citizenship leading to the applicant, making them ineligible through this Italian ancestor. Remember that, before March 9, 1975, the age where Italians were no longer legally designated as minors was 21. So, the result is that it is now necessary that your Italian-born ancestor either (1) never acquired a foreign naturalization or (2) if they did, it was after June 14, 1912 AND after their child, the next descendent in line, was no longer of minor age.

However, if you fall into this category, there may still be hope. You can file a case with the local court in the jurisdiction where your ancestor was born. At the moment, judges have the authority to rule according to their own interpretation of the law; some courts are ruling favorably to these appeals, others unfavorably. So whether or not this closes the door on you depends on the judges in your ancestor’s zoned judicial branch.

Note that if you already received Italian citizenship before October 3, 2024, and this new interpretation of the law would have excluded you, you are safe! You beat the buzzer.

Now that we’ve covered eligibility, let’s talk a bit more about WHY you’d want to do this.

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ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP & the EU

Italy is great, but the first thing you need to know about this process is that the stakes are higher than just getting Italian citizenship. Italy is a member of the European Union (EU), and that means that Italian citizens automatically receive an extraordinary level of access to the entire EU by extension. This affords you the right to live and work in ANY of the 27 additional nations within the EU, as well as affords access to all of the social programs each of these countries have to offer. There might be some paperwork involved along the way, but that’s the easy part. I’ll get to some of the social programs next, but first, here’s a list of all the countries to which EU citizenship opens the door for you (in alphabetical order):

1. Right to Free Movement & Residence

• You can travel, live, and work in any EU country without a visa or permit.

• You can stay for up to 3 months with just a passport or ID card, no formalities.

• If you stay longer than 3 months, you may need to:

  • Register with local authorities.

  • Show proof of employment, self-sufficiency, or study enrollment.

2. Right to Work & Equal Treatment

• You do not need a work permit to work in another EU country.

• You have equal access to jobs and same working conditions as locals.

• Recognition of professional qualifications (e.g., doctors, lawyers, engineers) is easier but may require some registration.

• You can start a business or be self-employed under the same rules as nationals.

3. Right to Healthcare

• You are entitled to emergency medical care with your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).

• If you live or work in another EU country, you can access public healthcare like local residents.

4. Right to Social Benefits

• You can receive unemployment benefits, family allowances, or pensions under the same conditions as nationals.

• If you move, your social security rights (e.g., pensions, healthcare) can be transferred.

• If unemployed, you can look for work for up to 6 months while receiving benefits from your home country.

5. Right to Study & Equal Education Access

• You can study in any EU country under the same conditions as locals.

• You pay the same tuition fees as nationals (no higher international fees).

• You can apply for grants or student loans in some cases.

6. Right to Family Reunification

• You can bring your spouse, children, and dependents to live with you.

• Even if your spouse is from a non-EU country, they can join you without extra visa restrictions.

7. Right to Vote & Run for Elections

• You can vote and stand as a candidate in local and European Parliament elections in the country where you live.

• You cannot vote in national elections of another EU country (only in your home country).

8. Right to Consular Protection

• If you're in a non-EU country and your home country has no embassy, you can seek help from any EU country’s embassy.

9. Protection Against Discrimination

• EU citizens cannot be discriminated against based on nationality in employment, social security, education, or access to goods and services.

Italian Citizenship & The Schengen Area

The Schengen Area—for those of you who do not know—is a group of 27 European countries that have abolished internal border controls, allowing people to travel freely between them as if they were one single country. It is named after the Schengen Agreement, which bears the name of the village in Luxembourg where it was signed in 1985.

The countries that are included in the Schengen Area, but NOT in the EU are as follows:

Rights That Apply in Non-EU Schengen Countries:

In terms of the rights that that EU citizens have in countries that are in the Schengen Zone, but NOT in the EU, the list is as follows:

1. Free Movement & Short Stays (90/180 Rule)

• EU citizens can stay visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period for tourism, business, or visits.

• No border checks when traveling from another Schengen country (though temporary checks may occur).

2. No Internal Border Checks

• Just like in the EU, Schengen rules apply, so EU citizens can travel freely without systematic passport controls.

• However, identity checks may still occur, especially at airports.

3. Right to Work (with Conditions)

• While EU citizens can work in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein, they do need a work permit for longer stays.

• Switzerland, for example, requires registration and a work contract but grants easier access compared to non-EU nationals.

4. Right to Residence (with Registration)

• EU citizens can live in these countries but need to apply for residence permits if staying beyond 90 days.

• Self-sufficiency, employment, or study enrollment is often required.

5. Recognition of Professional Qualifications

• These countries recognize most EU professional qualifications, but extra steps (like accreditation) may be needed.

6. Consular Protection

• EU citizens can seek help from any EU embassy in these countries if their own country has no diplomatic presence.

Rights That Do NOT Apply in Non-EU Schengen Countries:

1. No Automatic Right to Work Without Permits

• Unlike EU countries, work permits are required (though procedures are easier for EU citizens than for non-EU nationals).

2. No EU-Wide Social Benefits

• EU laws on social security coordination do not fully apply.

• Benefits like unemployment aid may be restricted or require extra conditions.

3. No Right to Vote in Local or EU Elections

• EU citizens cannot vote in national or local elections in these countries.

• No participation in European Parliament elections from these countries.

4. Limited Family Reunification Rights

• While family reunification rules are similar, these countries are not bound by EU laws, and national laws may impose stricter conditions.

Look at the UK up there. 2 k00l 4 sk00l.

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Am I Even Allowed To Have 2 Passports At The Same Time?

Most countries DO allow dual citizenship. Most countries will even let you have more than 2 passports! However, there are certain places that restrict or prohibit dual citizenship. The official 2025 list of countries that might not allow dual citizenship (as far as I can tell) includes the following:

In these cases, you may actually have your original citizenship revoked if you receive a 2nd citizenship.

However, just because a country has not banned dual citizenship outright, that doesn’t mean they make it easy. For example, there’s Spain. In the past few years, I’ve had 2 friends of very recent Spanish descent explore claiming Spanish citizenship, and for various, complicated/nuanced reasons, it has not gone well. But that’s an article for somebody else to write. No matter where you’re from, you should do some independent research, but here’s the list of countries where—as far as I can tell—the legality and processes surrounding dual citizenship are a bit murky.

Can My Partner Get Italian Citizenship Too?

YES. If you are married (or have the equivalent in the form of a civil union), then your spouse can apply for citizenship through you. At roughly 2 years in duration, the process is actually much shorter than the one associated with Jure Sanguinis, BUT they will have to pass an Italian language test. It’s not supposed to be super hard though, so they could probably get where they need to go just by taking an Italian class at your local language center, which would actually be fun. And if you’re going to be a citizen or resident of a place, I would argue that you should make some effort to learn the language anyway.

There’s no language requirement for me, and I have taken a few semesters of Italian now just for funsies. Now I can say things like “non romperme le coglioni,” which usually gets a laugh from Italian people. 😂

Will I Have To Pay Taxes In 2 Countries At The Same Time?

In most countries, the answer to this is a blanket “no.” You only pay taxes in the country where you LIVE. In Italy’s case, Italian citizens only have to pay income tax in Italy if they lived there for more than 183 days of the year. So if you don’t live in Italy, you don’t even need to file taxes. International tax law is governed by a complicated spiderweb of treaties between each respective pairing of countries. You’ll need to do some independent research on tax treaties between your country and Italy.

The only country whose situation I know much about is the U.S., which has opted to make things a bit more complicated. It is one of the only countries in the world that requires its citizens to pay taxes regardless of where they live. However, the IRS provides tax credits to discount US taxes based on the amount you have been charged in taxes elsewhere to prevent you from being taxed twice. However, this exemption from double taxation only holds true up to a a certain threshold. In 2024, that threshold was $126,500, but it is liable to change slightly each year.

And, consequently, regardless of whether or not you make enough money for the US’s double-taxation to kick in, you will ALWAYS have to file a US tax return.

So, assuming that you don’t make above $126.5k per year, there is likely not a huge financial drawback here…. but it will definitely make taxes more complicated if you live abroad. Although, if you are living abroad, your tax situation was going to be complicated anyway, with or without the extra citizenship.

Are there any unusual Italian laws that I would become subject to?

So, in 2024 Italy passed a law banning citizens from having babies via surrogacy, even if they are traveling abroad to do so. Here’s a BBC article on the subject. The penalties for breaking this law look to be pretty steep so… if you are considering surrogacy, it might be best to hold off on Italian citizenship for now.

Are There Any Other Obligations I Should Be Aware Of?

The only other thing I can think of is that—in theory—Italy could attempt to conscript you into the Italian military. They have never drafted citizens living internationally before in history though, and they aren’t exactly a super militaristic country nowadays, so I am not personally worried about this. And I worry about most things.

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Okay so you’re sold! You’ve confirmed that you’re eligible to claim citizenship, and the benefits are attractive enough that you want to learn more about how to actually go about pulling the trigger on this. COOL. I will break all of that down for you in this section. In theory, you can do all of this on your own with no need for a 3rd party to come in and facilitate. HOWEVER, this is very dependent on the particulars of your situation. My family situation was not nearly as clear-cut as some of my Italian-American friends. I ended up needing to get outside help to make this happen, so I will also explain what your options are there as well.

What You Need In Order to Claim Italian Citizenship

In order to claim Italian citizenship, you need to pull original, certified copies of almost every single legal document between you and the ancestor through whom you are claiming citizenship. For purposes of this guide, I’m going to refer to this person as “ANCESTOR X.” Ultimately all of this will get packaged up into an application file, and will be turned over to the Italian consulate for them to keep forever. So if you only have 1 copy of a particular record… you’re going to want to order an extra.

Before we go any further, let’s talk about the Italian Consulate thing. There are quite a few of them around the world. In the U.S., there are either Embassies or Consulates in LOTS of different cities (the full list is below). Each Embassy/Consulate has a set jurisdiction. The punchline of this whole process is that you will need to physically show up at one of these places, hand over all the documents I’m about to outline below, and make your case for citizenship. So you will need to figure out which consulate’s jurisdiction you are in. We’ll circle back to this later.

1️⃣ What Documents Do I Need To Recover? 1️⃣

So the documents you will need are as follows:

1. Your own birth certificate

2. The birth certificate of ANCESTOR X

3. The death certificate of ANCESTOR X

4. The marriage certificate of ANCESTOR X

5. The naturalization records for ANCESTOR X

   • This is a record of when they became a citizen of whatever other country you live in, and this is THE key to your case for citizenship.

   • If the date on this document is before the 18th birthday of the next ancestor in line between you and ANCESTOR X, then you’re good to go!

   • If it’s between the date of birth and the 18th birthday… this gets complicated. Click here to zoom to the place in the article where I explain this.

   • If it isn’t, you’ll need to start looking for a new ANCESTOR X.

6. The birth certificates of every other person in your family tree that is directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

7. The marriage certificates of every other person in your family tree that is directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

8. If applicable, the divorce records for every other person in your family tree that is directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

9. If applicable, the death certificates of every other person in your family tree that is directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

10. The birth certificates for the SPOUSES of every other person in your family tree that is directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

11. If applicable, the death certificates for the SPOUSES of every other person in your family tree that directly in line between you and ANCESTOR X

So the total number of documents you will need to collect will vary depending on how many generations removed you are from ANCESTOR X. Remember, your Great Great Grandparent the farthest back you are allowed to go. So, if you do indeed need to go this far back, the total number of documents that you will need to recover could be as many as 23 for a single applicant. If you have other relatives in the mix—like a cousin for example—this number will go higher, since you will also need to track down documents for their parents.

And—to add one more curveball into the mix—you will need to pull separate sets of documents for every single consulate through which you and your relatives are applying. So if you’re the only one applying, you can skip to the next paragraph. But, if—for example—you are applying with your cousins, the places in which they live will play a big role in this. If you all live in the same place, then you will all go to the same consulate, and 1 set of documents is all you need. But if you live in different places, you will need to pull 1 set of documents for every consulate that is going to be in the mix. Each of you (or each group of you) needs to be able to hand over your case file to the consulate when you show up for your appointment.

2️⃣ How Do I Make An Appointment At The Consulate? 2️⃣

Before you make an appointment at the Italian consulate, the first thing you’ll need to do is figure out WHICH consulate you’re zoned for. There are a lot of different Italian Consulates in the US. Like, an unnecessary amount. But each Italian Consulate has a jurisdiction that needs to be considered. Those jurisdictions break down as follows:

1️⃣ Boston Consulate
Jurisdiction: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont

2️⃣ Chicago Consulate
Jurisdiction: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming

3️⃣ Detroit Consulate
Jurisdiction: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee

4️⃣ Philadelphia Consulate
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Jersey (only the following counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem. The remaining counties are under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General in New York), Maryland (except for the counties of Montgomery and Prince George which fall under the jurisdiction of the consular section of the Embassy) and Virginia (except for the counties of Arlington and Fairfax which are also under the jurisdiction of the Embassy)

5️⃣ Houston Consulate
Jurisdiction: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas

6️⃣ Los Angeles Consulate
Jurisdiction: Arizona, California (the following Counties: Imperial Valley, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Ventura), New Mexico, Nevada.

7️⃣ Miami Consulate
Jurisdiction: Alabama, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Florida, Georgia, Island of Saba, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, South Carolina, Turks and Caicos, U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Commonwealth of The Bahamas (DM n. 546/bis dated 09.24.2014 - G.U. n. 246 dated 10.22.2014).

8️⃣ New York City Consulate
Jurisdiction: New York, Connecticut, New Jersey (the following Counties: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren) and the British Territories of Bermuda Islands

9️⃣ San Francisco Consulate
Jurisdiction: Alaska, California (except the following counties: Imperial Valley, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, which fall within the jurisdiction of the Consulate General in Los Angeles), Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Hawai'i. Also, the following American territories of: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa, Wake Island, Midways Islands, Johnston Atoll.

⭐️ Washington D.C.
Jurisdiction: District of Columbia, Maryland (Only Montgomery and Prince George’s counties), Virginia (Only Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the Cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax). All other counties in Maryland and in Virginia fall under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia.

So whatever state you live in, that’s the consulate website you need to go to. I believe the exact procedures on how to make citizenship appointments can vary, but there will be instructions on each website for how to go about doing so. For example. the Detroit Consulate directs you to email detroit.cittadinanza@esteri.it to initiate the process of setting up the appointment. So get the website for the consulate you are zoned for, and follow the directions.

What if your living situation is a bit more complicated?

If you’re moving around often, or maybe even living abroad, it might not be so simple to just pick your jurisdiction. If you are in some version of this situation, I’d like to introduce you to the legal concept of the “domicile.” In layman’s terms, a domicile is the legal equivalent of “home is where the heart is.” If you’re originally from a particular place, or you spent most of your life living in a certain place, or most of your family and friends live in a certain place, etc—then that place could be your domicile. Your domicile could technically be any place that you have strong ties to. So pick your story and stick to it!

If you’re living abroad, then there’s no way around the fact that you’re going to have to come back to the U.S. and physically show up to this appointment, but that’s nothing a plane ticket won’t solve! You just have to take this process one step at a time.

3️⃣ How Do I Go About Recovering These Documents? 3️⃣

WELL THAT’S THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION ISN’T IT?

Depending on where you are in your family tree relative to ANCESTOR X, this might be pretty easy, or it might actually be pretty difficult. Regardless, you should start your quest with some calls to your extended family. Call your mom. Call your aunts. Call your Nonna if she’s still alive. Shake the tree and see what falls out.

It’s possible they will have everything you need in a box in somebody’s basement somewhere. But, more likely, you’ll need to do some digging yourself. Full transparency—I opted to shell out some cash and have somebody else do my dirty work for me (which I will explain in a moment), so I won’t be able to give you a step-by-step guide on how to do this, but I can give some resources to get you started.

One major gatekeeper that you’ll want to familiarize yourself with is the USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services). They have a Genealogy arm that helps people locate historical records from their families. That is a great place to start for any U.S.-based ancestors whose documents you are unable to locate. Another useful tool is Ancestry.com. Even if you aren’t able to recover any new information on there, it’s a useful tool to keep track of your family tree.

When it comes to finding the records from the old country, in theory, the Italian government should have the same sort of record-keeping systems in place. You may need to get in touch with the commune of the town where ANCESTOR X was born. However, this can be hit or miss depending on how far back in time you need to go and how reliable the information you have is. And it strikes me as unlikely that you’d be able to navigate this without some Italian language skills.

Are you up to the challenge?

I was not. Cue the next section.

4️⃣ How Can I Get Some Help? 4️⃣

Unsurprisingly, there is a small ecosystem of businesses that have sprung up to help people navigate this process. I did my research and decided to engage a company called Italian Citizenship Assistance (ICA). Before I engaged them, I actually messaged the people who had left their Facebook reviews, and they were—without exception—real people with very positive things to say. So I think ICA is a good place to start because they will—at no charge—do the research to verify that you indeed are eligible for Italian citizenship before taking your case. After going through this process with them, I would definitely recommend them, and have already referred a few other Italian friends to them, who have been having good experiences so far. Shout-out to Enrica who exchanged emails with me for YEARS (literally) to make this happen! 😘

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The first thing that will happen when citizenship is granted is that you will be registered on “the AIRE.” This is an acronym that translates to the Registry of Italian Citizens Residing Abroad. To the best of my understanding, this is essentially a big database containing the basic information of every Italian citizen living internationally.

Your point of contact for your ‘profile’ in the AIRE is the Embassy or Consulate zoned to your permanent residence. It will be your responsibility to let them know of major life updates like if you get married, have a child, or—most importantly—if you relocate. Because that could change your Embassy/Consulate zoning. If you get to this point in the process, you’ll have an email address where you can keep them up to date on this stuff.

Anyway, your registration in the AIRE means you are officially an Italian citizen. The basis for this citizenship will be new vital records, which the Italian government will issue for you retroactively. Most notably, you will be issued an Italian birth certificate. The place of birth listed on this birth certificate will be the same as the ancestor through whom you claimed your citizenship, and it will be issued by the city hall corresponding with jurisdiction over that place. From what I understand, there is commonly a few months of administrative lag time between citizenship being granted and your Italian vital records being issued.

Once your vital records have been issued, you’ve officially got the green light to apply for your Italian passport.

So here’s the order of operations with some rough timing notes:

1. Citizenship Granted / AIRE registration completed

2. Italian vital records issued (+3-4 months)

3. Passport application can be submitted

4. Passport is issued (+2-4 weeks)

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 Part 1️⃣: Setting The Scene

For me this all started when my Italian Grandmother got sick. We called her Noni, which was a play on the Italian word for grandmother, “Nonna.” I drove to see her in the nursing home a few times in the months before she finally passed away. I don’t think I realized it until around this time, but she was definitely on the level of being a parental figure to me. I felt the most myself when I was around her of any of my extended family. So it was a really difficult time for me. I still miss her. But the silver lining on these storm clouds was that these experiences reconnected me with other family members that I hadn’t seen in years.

One night after a visit to the nursing home, my cousin Jake and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking, and things got interesting. We shared experiences that each of us had had with our late grandparents, and I think each of us was completely transported. Honestly the world that our grandparents inhabited was utterly fascinating. From the outside, it felt like something straight out of Goodfellas. And we had been children in this world!

But what really gave all of this context was the stories of how these people’s families had arrived in New York. Some of them—especially my Great Grandfather, Domenico Albanese—had insane stories. The details of Domenico’s story are the subject of some debate in my family, but if you ever meet me IRL, feel free to ask me about it. It’s wild. Anyway, I’m sharing his name now because—little did we know—he would end up being quite important in this story.

Fun fact: the names of his wife (my Great Grandmother) and him are actually on the The American Immigrant Wall of Honor on Ellis Island, NYC! We went and found them when I was a teenager. Here they are on the wall:

Domenico and Grazia were from the Italian province of Calabria, which basically “the toe of the boot.” Specifically, they were both born, raised, and married in a tiny little place called Rizziconi before making the crossing to the new world in the year 1914, almost exactly 6 years after the devastating run of earthquakes culminating in the notorious 1908 Messina Earthquake that ravaged Sicily and Calabria, about 6 months before the start of WWI.

This period of heavy immigration from Italy to the US is fascinating. Back then, Italians weren’t exactly welcomed into America with open arms. It’s hard to imagine now, but once upon a time, the hate against Italians was pretty strong. An Italian friend of mine told me a story about their grandparents’ wedding in a small town in Ohio—apparently the KKK was burning a cross outside the church during the ceremony! Like… WHAT?? For an ITALIAN WEDDING? That story makes me feel very diverse. 😂 Here’s a really interesting article on how Italians finally came to be considered “white” in America. Talking about this is making me want to watch The Godfather II. Or, a newer and more in-depth look into this world can be found in the 2024 film, Cabrini, which is based on a true story! Both will also serve as a good segue into the hilarity of just how far Italian-American culture has diverged from Italian culture. The two groups barely claim each other at this point. But I digress…

Anyway, back at the kitchen table, when Jake and I finally came out the other side of this conversation and looked over at the clock, it was about 3:30am. Oops! This world was kind of a rabbit hole. And it was made all the more mysterious by the fact that our family is… fragmented. As far back as anybody can remember, there have been social fault lines that divided people. This person wouldn’t speak to that person, yada yada yada… and that dynamic has somehow managed to endure all the way to the present day! As a result, my mom and my aunts could barely fill in the basic information on their own aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My mom apparently met her own grandfather for the first time at her own wedding! Not Domenico; the other one. He was not well-received.

Noni’s passing brought a lot of information back into the conversation among my aunts and uncles that I had never heard before. But when I started asking even the most basic questions, nobody seemed to have answers. I was really frustrated that nobody seemed to know or care about their extended family and ancestry! So I put the Ancestry.com account that had been given to me as a birthday present to good use, and started reconstructing our family tree. There were lots of phone calls with my mom and her siblings where they would dig through old boxes to find old photos and scraps of paper on which Noni had scrawled the names of her parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles back in 2002. It was all very confusing. Especially because some of these scraps of paper contradicted each other. SIGH!

Now, this is the part of the story where all this family stuff will converge with my boredom of living back in the U.S. again. In 2015 I had moved to Nashville from Hanoi to try my hand at music (I started a band called The Great Palumbo—a name that also ties into the narrative of this family). It was going as well as could reasonably be expected… but sometimes I would find myself going down rabbit-holes of research on theoretical vehicles for living abroad again in the distant future. I was starting to lose steam with the Ancestry.com thing… until I stumbled onto Jure Sanguinis. 👈 (That link will zoom you back up to the part where I explain what this is.)

After that, I was a dog with a bone. There were more calls with my extended family until I was satisfied that I had extracted every piece of information available. They were probably getting pretty sick of me. It didn’t paint a full picture, but it was enough to get started. I was going to need to track down every single birth, death, marriage and naturalization certificate in the past 4 generations of my family to see if I was eligible for Italian citizenship. Because… if I was… total game changer.

So, my mom’s birth certificate? Easy. But my great grandfather’s birth certificate? Not so much. Where do you even start with tracking down a little scrap of paper issued in a tiny, poor village on the other side of the world more than 100 years ago?

Welp, I love a good project.

Part 2️⃣: Getting Some Help

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I had heard stories of friends-of-friends who had apparently figured this whole thing out on their own, but I was going to need some help. I needed to go a long way back in time to make this happen, and my family was not (and had never been) one for record keeping. I figured it would be a safe bet that the genealogical part of my case was going to be about as difficult as this sort of thing could get. So I turned to Google.

I quickly discovered the small economy of businesses that has sprung up to help people like me figure this out. I did my homework, and eventually settled on a company called ICA (Italian Citizenship Assistance) as the organization I would reach out to first. I was treading in unfamiliar waters, so I was a bit wary, but ICA had a long list of Facebook reviews from real people that had been written with some regularity over the past few years. That was some reassurance to me. So I shrugged and sent them an email!

Long story short, I wrote down exhaustive lists of information—mostly dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths—for everybody between myself and my closest Italian-born ancestors, and sent it back to ICA. These types of organizations need to verify that prospective clients (like me) are, indeed, eligible for citizenship before taking the case. So they did some legwork on the information I had provided and were eventually able to confirm that at least one of my ancestral lines would make me eligible for Italian citizenship. The question then was not “if” but “which one.”

One of the two potential paths to citizenship was going to be through a woman in my family tree… which meant I would have to go to Italian court (read my section on Jure Sanguinis for more details on this). The other potential line was through Domenico. Remember him? Based on what I knew about the people involved in these two lines, I was pretty sure Domenico was not the tree that was going to yield fruit. But according to ICA’s pricing structure, the price would be the same either way. The main thing was—even though we weren’t yet 100% sure how—THIS WAS OFFICIALLY POSSIBLE!

So this is the part where ICA would officially be hired to take the case. But before they drew up the contract, I made the rounds to all of my extended family to see if they wanted to jump on board. Some were interested but said they couldn’t afford it or that the timing wasn’t good. Some were skeptical and told me they were absolutely certain that this was a scam. I’m looking at you Aunt Nina! 👀

I did actually take these concerns seriously. SO, I actually went back through all of ICA’s Facebook reviews and messaged a lot of the people who had left them! I suppose these could have been fake accounts, right? Well almost every single one of those people messaged me back verifying that everything was legit. So let this be a big shining endorsement for ICA.

Regardless of my exhaustive due diligence, in the end, the only people who joined me were my brother and one cousin, the latter of whom later dropped out of the process.

Now that my co-applicants were nailed down, the next thing we had to figure out was which ancestral line we would be applying through. We started with our Great Grandfather Domenico, because he was the “best case scenario.” I was un-optimistic because I knew that he didn’t have my Grandpa until later in life, so it seemed unlikely that he wouldn’t already have been a citizen by then. However, after some time of searching, ICA was able to track down his naturalization records, and—to my surprise—it turned out that he didn’t become a U.S. citizen until his mid-50s! So, Domenico was our guy! That meant that, because we were not going to be applying through a woman, we would not need to go to Italian court. So the odds of success basically just went from 99% to 100%, and also this probably shaved at least a year off the process. Yay! 🎉🍾

Now here’s the bad news.

It was October 18 2019 when I locked in my appointment at the Italian Consulate in Detroit. The date was April 20…. 2021. 😑

So we had about 19 months to get our ducks in a row! Cue Part 3.

Part 3️⃣: Preparing Our Applications

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Now that we had nailed down our path to citizenship, it was time to actually prepare our applications. The first thing we needed to do was track down all the various documents from our ancestral lines. This is where ICA really started earning their fee! It took some time, but eventually I received hard copies of some very old documents, each of which were fascinating the behold! Here’s a cross-section of Domenico’s US naturalization certificate…

However, even with ICA steering the ship, there were still a few troublesome things that I had to project manage on the home front. Now that it’s all said and done, here are a few items that I feel are worth highlighting for others to potentially learn from…

1. My Cousin Had To Get His Birth Certificate Altered

On his birth certificate, his mother’s middle name was included. However, on his mother’s (my aunt’s) own birth certificate, there was no middle name specified. Apparently, these kinds of discrepancies are things that should be avoided when preparing a citizenship application, so we had him sign an application to alter his birth certificate to remove his mother’s middle name to correspond with his mother’s birth certificate. Did this really make a difference in the end? I’m told the answer is yes.

2. We Had To Hire A Lawyer In The State Of New York

In the state of New York, in order to pull original copies of vital records for people who are deceased, there is a complicated legal process that needs to be followed. Complicated enough that it is necessary to hire an attorney to handle the request for you. And this costs additional money. We ended up hiring a law firm called Jones Steves based out of Saratoga Springs, NY. ICA facilitated the whole thing, and all we had to do was fill out a couple of affidavits, get them notarized, and drop them in the mail. We hit a few speed bumps when COVID-19 hit, but ultimately we got the documents we needed. And Jones Steves was good to work with—I would recommend them!

3. The COVID-19 Pandemic Happened

Italy got hit hard with this in the beginning. Go figure. I can’t think of a people group that would be less receptive to the concept of social distancing than Italians. And to make matters worse, Italy has a huge population of old people. So when COVID-19 got to Italy, it was like a fox in the henhouse. And then, of course, the U.S. got hit ever harder with it, which felt far less inevitable. But then again, who knows. The main issue was that the government of the state of New York, along with other outposts of the US Government, all shut down for quite a while. So this caused some big delays in the process. But ultimately we were able to push most of this through with time to spare.

4. “Legal Addresses” Were Complicated

Italy has a number of different embassies and consulates around the U.S. If you’re applying for Italian citizenship, which one should you make an appointment at? Well it depends on where you live—I explained all of this in the section above.

Anyway, at this point in our lives, none of us were particularly settled. NONE of us still lived at the addresses on our driver’s licenses. This became an issue when, through one of my nearly infinite email exchanges with ICA, I realized that my cousin’s legal address, mailing address, and billing address were all in different states. My brother had similar (but less severe) issues to sort out. Ultimately the solution was, that when it came to our “permanent address,” we would have to decide on our domicile, AND THEN STICK TO IT. If any of our domiciles had changed, it would have necessitated the creation of new appointments at DIFFERENT consulates, where we would need to re-queue. And remember, the average waiting time for an appointment was more than a year! I would advise you to heed my warning on this topic, because I speak from experience. I actually re-zoned my consulate to London in the middle of this process, which created massive delays… but I’ll get to that part of the story in due course.

5. Going Through This Process From Abroad Was Tough

My cousin who joined our group actually lived in Asunción, Paraguay at the time. That was fun to figure out. But it does give me some insight into how this process works if you don’t live in America. It can be done, but it will be a hassle, and you’ll need to have a lot of things mailed back and forth from the U.S. The biggest challenge, in the end, was notary services. These are available through most US Embassies, but the Embassy in Asunción stopped offering nonessential services (like notarizing things) when COVID hit. Luckily for my cousin, we were able to sort everything out through me, since I was US-based at the time. Later in this process, he relocated to Santo Domingo (D.R.) and ultimately he chose to drop out of this process for personal reasons, but we could have gotten this across the finish line if he’d stuck it out. There were just lots more 1-off administrative costs that he had to deal with along the way. Likewise, I faced a few issues when I relocated to London, England in the tail-end of this process. That is something I will cover in detail below.

Part 4️⃣: OUR APPOINTMENTS AT THE ITALIAN CONSULATES

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In my application group, there were 2 Consulates in the mix, meaning we had to pull 2 sets of documents. My brother and I would be applying through the Detroit Consulate, while my cousin would be applying through the New York Consulate.

These appointments were both in 2021. Due to COVID, the Detroit Consulate ended up doing everything remotely (aka, through the mail), so we never actually needed to go there. We just got an apostille on all the documents in our application file, sent it off in the mail, and crossed our fingers.

After I sent the files over, all I got was a note from Fedex saying that my package had been delivered. Even though I had asked the Consulate to confirm when they received the documents, there was radio silence. I would have followed up make sure that they had actually received the documents if it wasn't for the fact that they had explicitly told me NOT to follow up or check in with them. That definitely gave me weird vibes, but this is literally the Italian government that I was talking to; I guess they get to make the rules here.

So I was torn. 3 months later I was ready say “f*ck it” and follow up anyway, when FINALLY, I got this email:

Dear Mr. Campbell,

Please find attached a receipt for your application. Note that this is just a confirmation that your citizenship application was received and your money order cashed. If you were asked to submit additional documents, send them in the mail and they will be added to your file.

Due to the current pandemic, the processing of citizenship applications has slowed down significantly as I am working from home for most of the week. Currently, the processing time is around 2 years.

Best regards,

…

2 YEARS?!

I marked my calendar, 2 years to the day. Which was July 24, 2023.

Part 5️⃣: Our Italian Citizenship is granted (FINALLY)

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Ok wow. I have been writing this article piece-by-piece as I went through this process, so I am typing these words 2+ years after I finished the section above. A lot has happened. 👴🏻

But one day—May 1, 2023, to be exact—I got out of the shower, checked my email, and BOOM!

Naturally, I googled the town of Rizziconi to see the city hall where my new vital records were slated to be issued. Along the way, with no additional search terms entered into Google, I found a lot of present-day mafia news, including a picture of a Calabrian mob boss getting arrested who looked EXACTLY like me. Seriously—there’s got to be a decent shot that this guy is like my 2nd cousin once removed or something, right?

Part 6️⃣: Getting Our Italian Passports

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More delays! For my brother, this process was relatively straightforward. We made him an appointment at the Italian Consulate in Detroit at the first available date (which—at the time—was ~8 months away), and we waited. That already felt like a painfully long time to wait after all of this, but my case was even more complicated.

Inconveniently, I was relocating from the US to the UK when this was happening, which meant that my profile in the AIRE immediately had to be updated and the consulate to which I was zoned had to be changed to the one in London. That sounds simple enough, right? Well, apparently not, because there were a few different forms that were required to be completed and filed by some local government employee’s desk in Rizziconi. And, for each of these forms, there was about a ~4 month delay. I’m picturing the Calabrian Parks & Rec here.

Just like my brother, I grabbed the next available appointment date—which, for me, was now at the consulate in London—and waited. Similar to the situation in Detroit, the wait was quite long; close to 8 months. But at the time I thought that this might actually be good news, because we needed time to get my records transferred from Detroit to London. This change—apparently—brought with it a higher burden of documentation before the passport was issued. Unlike my brother, I needed my Calabrian birth certificate in-hand when I arrived at the embassy, which had yet to be issued. But 8 months would definitely be enough time to take care of that… right?

Wrong-o! For every individual step of this process, there were months of delays from the town hall in Rizziconi. When the day of the appointment came, I still did not have the birth certificate. But given how difficult it had been to get the appointment in the first place, I showed up anyway with the rest of my documentation ready. As expected, they were not able to issue the passport. However, they gave me a document entitling me to an “open appointment” in order to avoid having to book another appointment and go through the waiting period again. This basically allowed me to show up without notice at any point before August 8, 2024 to get my passport. After that point, I’d have to get a new appointment, which would likely have come with the same ~8 month waiting period. That put a few more months on the clock for us to push Rizziconi to give us the documents we needed. And, at this point, I was no longer feeling optimistic. I knew we would have to spend this time PUSHING.

At one point, the delays became so bad that that ICA actually got the police involved and filed multiple legal injunctions to compel this mysterious government clerk to do their job and get out of our way. However, what ultimately pushed this over the finish line was when they went over this clerk’s head and contacted the provincial government of Calabria, which has authority over Rizziconi. They basically found this person’s boss and told on them. From the time they did this, the rest of the process—including actions that had to be taken by the consulate back in London—took less than 3 days.

I went back to the consulate in London and received my passport on August 7, 2024.

In retrospect, maybe it would have been easier to keep my zoned Consulate as Detroit. I could have just flown from London to Detroit for this appointment. Oh well. I went by the book and it worked out. Eventually.

Here’s me, emerging from the Italian Consulate in London with my new passport. cc: Aunt Nina 👀

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This what you really want to know, right? Well, let me break all of this down for you. It cost quite a bit of money, but it was also stretched over a long period of time, so it was really just a series of annoying expenses that popped up every 6-9 months or so. I think that it should be doable for most people, so long as they are not living completely hand-to-mouth and can manage their personal finances to a reasonable degree. From there, it’s just a matter of prioritization. When my brother did this, he paid an equal share to me, and I don’t think he’d mind me sharing with you that, at the time, he was POOR. But he’s also very frugal and really great with personal finance. So it’s possible if you are motivated.

I will also note before I jump into this that these costs are specific to my set of circumstances. I applied with the assistance of a 3rd party called ICA (Italian Citizenship Assistance), and I split the fee with 2 other family members. It was definitely more expensive to do this for 3 people than it would have been for 1 person, so I have attempted to control for that and show the approximate cost for one person only. If you want to figure out what it would cost you and X number of additional people, you can pretty much multiply all of these numbers by X. The only exception is the attorney fees, which I believe would have been the same regardless of the number of applicants. However, rates are likely to vary depending on your situation and the chosen law firm. You might not need to hire an attorney at all, depending on the U.S. State where your ancestor lived when they arrived in the United States. New York (which is where 90% of Italian immigrants to the U.S. arrived) forces you to hire a lawyer, but I think most other states do not.

Disclaimers & Caveats:

1. Currency Exchange Rate Variance: All of ICA’s fees, the corresponding foreign transaction fees, and some of the governmental fees were counted in Euros.

2. Adjustments for Inflation: These costs were incurred between 2018 and 2021, before inflation became an issue. So, depending on when you are reading this, you might want to increase these costs by a few percentage points.

3. Ancestral Situation: Again, this was all specific to my situation.

All things considered, this broke down to be (rounded) at…

~$6,570 per person ❗️

Here’s where that money went…

🇮🇹 ICA FEES: $3,516.91

Again, you don’t necessarily NEED to hire a company to help you through this process, ICA or otherwise. But in my case, it wasn’t just worth the money—I don’t think I could have done this without them. You’ll need to decide for yourself if this is worth the money to you. Note that the exact figure here would fluctuate with the specifics of your case, the presence (or lack thereof) of co-applicants, and exchange rates (these figures are counted in Euros, and the exact EUR/USD FX rate was slightly different at the time of each payment).

🧑🏻‍💼 ATTORNEY FEES: $2,250.00

We had to hire an attorney for a very specific purpose: in the state of New York, it requires a court order to access the vital records of a deceased person, even if they are your family. If you don’t have any dead New Yorkers in your ancestral line, you might not need to pay for this! But I have a hunch that like 80% of American applicants end up having to do this because most Italian immigrants came in via Ellis Island (including some of my ancestors), and many of them stayed in New York once they got there.

📎 GOVERNMENT FEES: $620.33

If you need an original copy of a document (i.e. a birth certificate), you’ll have to request it from the government. Whether it’s a state government somewhere in the U.S., or a local government somewhere in Italy, this usually has a small fee attached to it. And those fees will ADD UP. In my case, I had to get 15 different documents, carrying an average fee of $41.35.

💶 FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEES: $106.16

All of my payments to ICA were done through PayPal, which charges a foreign transaction fee when money crosses borders. The payments to ICA were associated with both their fees and reimbursements for fees they had incurred on our behalf pulling various documents for us. $106.16 was my share of the these foreign transaction fees.

📮 POSTAGE & NOTARIZATION FEES: $77.04

Pretty much every document you obtain will need to be (a) notarized, and (b) mailed somewhere at least once. Each time you do this, it costs like $2.00—but, after you multiply that across a bunch of different documents… it really starts to add up. This number is actually just my share of the total postage and notarization fees. In reality, I paid more than this… but this is where the dividing of expenses got really messy amongst us, so you can round this up to $100 if you want to be careful with your own budgeting.

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AND THAT’S IT!

This process definitely requires you to be motivated, but it is absolutely, 100% possible.

If you need some inspiration, here’s a playlist I made a few years ago that is all the scores to Italian movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. If you take a listen through, you will catch on to the musical theme pretty quick. It’s such a rich little rabbit hole in the world of film soundtracks, and one that should pair nicely with your next Italian-themed dinner party.

So, for the track of the day, let’s end with my personal favorites from the above list of film scores. It was between this and Puccini.

This track will obviously be the sound track of my life from now on.

IT OBVIOUSLY WILL BE. M’KAY?

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A few articles from Italy for your reading pleasure…