1.INTRODUCTION
The art. 1 of the law n. 91/92 establishes that the child of a citizen father or mother is a citizen by birth. The criteria underpinning the recognition of possession of Italian citizenship by descent is that of continuity of the “bloodline” from the first Italian ancestor who emigrated abroad from Italy to the applicant (“iure sanguinis”). In fact, Italian citizenship is transmitted by the Italian ascendant to the children, in concatenation, without generation limits, but with some limitations regarding maternal descent (see below).
2. REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION
Gather the following original documents: Documents concerning the ascendant who emigrated abroad from Italy (assignor):
- Original birth certificate (extract from the birth certificate) of the assignor (Italian ancestor who gave rise to the right to citizenship), complete with parents’ details (N.B. the certificate must also indicate the mother’s maiden name). This document must be requested by the interested party from the Italian Municipality of birth of the ancestor. In the event that the Municipality were to inform the interested party of the impossibility of issuing the extract of the birth certificate, due to the fact that the population registers were not yet in use at the time of the ancestor’s birth, the interested party must present a document in which the Municipality certifies the non-existence of the register and, in replacement of the aforementioned document, the Baptism Certificate issued by the local Parish can be presented, which contains the recognition by the Episcopal Curia competent for the issuing Parish , or the original Birth Certificate issued by the local Jewish Community.
- Certificate of non-naturalization. It is a certificate issued by the competent authorities of the foreign country of emigration (usually the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of the Interior) certifying that the Italian ancestor who emigrated from Italy at the time did not acquire the citizenship of the foreign country of emigration before birth of their children (i.e. of the applicant or his ascendants). The document will need to be translated and legalised/apostilled (see Section “Translation and legalization of documents“).
Beware!
a. Any naturalization of Italian ancestry does not prevent the transmission of citizenship, provided that the naturalization took place after the birth of the children. In this case, the original “Certificate of Naturalization” must be presented, with Apostille/legalized, subsequently duly translated into Italian by a translator and with Apostille/legalized on the translation.
b. In the event that the Italian ascendant has resided in different countries, it will be necessary to present a certificate of non-naturalization issued by the authorities of all the countries in which he may have resided. The interested party can contact the competent Italian Consulate for the place of issue of the document, which will provide instructions regarding the legalization and translation of the requested documents.
3. Marriage and Death Certificates:
If the marriage was celebrated in Italy, it will be necessary to present the original extract of the marriage certificate, issued by the competent municipality.
In the event that the Italian descendant has been married several times, it will be necessary to present the first marriage certificate, the death certificate of the first spouse (or any divorce) and the second marriage certificate, and so on.
If the marriage or death occurred in a third country, it will be necessary to produce the respective certificates issued by the competent authorities of the country in which they were originally registered.
Documents concerning the applicant’s ancestors of Italian origin:
- Birth, marriage and death certificates. All documents must be translated into Italian and apostilled/legalised. In the event that some civil status deed is not available, this can be replaced by a certificate issued with a judicial mandate, suitably apostilled, together with the process of judicial reconstruction of the deed, also apostilled and accompanied by the relative apostilled/legalized translation. It is not possible to accept a document of non-existence of the deed because this type of document is not valid for the Italian State.
N.B.: The presentation of birth and death certificates of spouses of ancestors in the transmission line of citizenship is also not required.
- Certificate of non-naturalization (see above). The document must be requested from the competent Authorities of the foreign State of residence also for any ancestors of Italian origin along the line of transmission of citizenship (usually the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of the Interior). This document is required to certify the non-interruption of the blood relationship due to the possible acquisition of citizenship of the foreign country of emigration prior to the birth of the children (i.e. of the applicant or his ancestors). The document will need to be translated and legalized/apostilled.
Documents concerning the applicant:
– Full copy of the birth certificate, translated into Italian and apostilled/legalized.
– If married, full copy of the marriage certificate, translated into Italian and apostilled/legalized.
– If there are minor children, a full copy of the birth certificate, translated into Italian and apostilled/legalized.
– Personal extract.
– Foreign Passport.
Beware!
- In the event that doubts should arise during the analysis of the documentation, the Consulate reserves the right to request additional or more recent documents.
- In the event of a booking for a family group, a family member must present all the original documentation starting from the Italian ancestor and, the other relatives, the personal documentation and a copy of the Italian certificates of the assignor (birth and possible marriage).
- In the case of ancestor deeds already filed with this Consulate and compliant with current provisions, it will not be necessary to present them again, except for the copy of the Italian certificates of the assignor (birth and possible marriage). To use the documentation resulting from the Consulate’s records, it is necessary to present the authorization of the person who filed them.
- In the event that a family member has already obtained recognition of citizenship in Italy or from other diplomatic-consular authorities, the new applicant will still have to provide all the documentation starting from the assignor.
- It is underlined that, without prejudice to the methods of civic access to the documents governed by current legislation, by virtue of the rules on privacy, it is not possible to consult the citizenship processes of relatives in the Consulate registers.
3. BOOK AN APPOINTMENT
Once you have collected all the documentation, you may send an email to consolare.gerusalemme@esteri.it to request an appointment, taking care to include in the text of the email the list of necessary documentation already in your possession and attaching your family tree (using this model). This tree must contain information starting from the assignor, even if a family citizenship process already exists in this Consulate. Our staff will examine it and make an appointment for you to validate the documentation. On the day of the appointment, you will need to present all the documents referred to in the previous point, your valid passport and cash for the payment of the consular fee.
4. PAYMENT OF CONSULAR FEES
The Law n. 89/2014 establishes the obligation to pay the amount corresponding to the value of 300.00 euros for each adult person who submits an application for recognition of Italian citizenship iure sanguinis. The contribution is due for the analysis of the documentation regardless of the successful outcome of the practice. In the event that the recognition of citizenship is not successful at the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, the amount paid cannot be refunded. The children of the applicants who, on the date of submission of the application for citizenship, on the day of the appointment, are minors, as well as ascendants already deceased or those still alive, who do not request recognition of citizenship, are exempt from paying the contribution.
5. DEADLINES
The administrative procedure for the recognition of Italian citizenship will be completed within 730 days from the date of submission of the application for recognition of citizenship, as established by the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers n. 33 of 17/01/2014.
6. MATERNAL DESCENDANCE FOR THOSE BORN BEFORE JANUARY 1, 1948
In cases of maternal descent, only children of an Italian mother and father of foreign citizenship are entitled to recognition of Italian citizenship if born after 1 January 1948 or children born before that date if their father is unknown (Article 1 paragraph 2 of Law 555/1912 and Art.7 of the Civil Code of 1865) and their descendants.
If there is a son or daughter of an Italian woman and a foreign father in the line of transmission of citizenship, only children born on or after the date indicated above will have the right to recognition, administratively through this Consulate. Children born before 01/01/1948 will be able to request the recognition of Italian citizenship through a judicial procedure in Italy.