Stuck on the Immigrant: Looking for Italian Citizenship

 

If you are as involved in helping people with their genealogy as I am, you have likely gotten a question from someone who is trying to obtain Italian Citizenship by Descent. There are a number of websites about the process, some taking advantage of the people applying or providing assistance and others that merely tell an applicant what to do. Here is one such website from the Consolato General D'Italia in San Francisco. 

https://conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/consolato_sanfrancisco/en/i_servizi/per_i_cittadini/cittadinanza/citizenship-by-descent.html

Many of these inquiries are coming to me because I am acting as a consultant for FamilySearch. By and large, the people calling are well aware of the requirements and are merely looking for copies of the documents from the FamilySearch.org website. The problem, in most cases, is that the records are either hard to find or restricted to viewing in a FamilySearch Center.

In reading the requirements for those looking back on their ancestral line, there is one major catch which states, 

• Category 5: your direct paternal or maternal ancestors were born in the United States from Italian parents and they never renounced their right to Italian citizenship.

The issue here would seem to be if an Italian immigrant obtained citizenship in the U.S. However, the rule in the US is that the United States allows foreign nationals to naturalize and become U.S. citizens and the country also allows people to hold dual nationality. People who are citizens of foreign countries may become U.S. citizens and they may not be required to give up their current nationality.

If you think you qualify you could investigate whether or not dual citizenship is advantageous to you personally. Be careful in applying, you might get more that you expected.