24/08/2022
Jure Sanguinis SUCCESS: GF-F-ME
9 Weeks after applying at a comune in Italy I received my Italian Citizenship
(NOTE: this photo is with my Carta di Identità, which allows me to travel, work and live throughout the EU… I won’t receive my Passport until September when the local Questuras restock the official paper needed to print passports)
I read through so many Jure Sanguinis stories trying to learn (the longer the better, I found), so here’s mine:
A few years ago our daughter moved to London after marrying a Brit, so in early 2021 I started diligently looking into Jure Sanguinis to see if I was eligible.
RESEARCH: I started mapping out the genealogy and dates, reaching out to family in America and Sicily. Searching ship manifests for my grandfather’s records. I knew where he was born and approximately when he immigrated, I just didn’t have dates. After a few months of sleuthing I was able to nail down everything. He entered the country under a different name (his mother’s maiden name, my GGM). Luckily, only the ship manifest reflected that change, the rest of the records contained his actual surname with just a slight Anglicization from Dominico to Dominick. Turns out, not a big deal, and the most important thing I uncovered was that he did not naturalize until two years after my father was born! So I was already an Italian citizen, I just needed to prove it.
VITAL RECORDS: I started requesting all of the certified documents in March 2021. Not as easy as I expected, as my grandparents’ Marriage Certificate from 1939 was likely lost to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, or so it seemed. They married in a small parish in Louisiana devastated by the storm, but there was an outside chance the records from that long ago were housed in a building somewhere across town. Only problem, I could not get hold of anyone there via phone or email. I’m an attorney, and thank goodness, after nearly a month of calling, I tracked down a sympathetic court clerk and who got involved and found someone in that building and badgered them to go down into the basement and dig through the boxes. Without this Marriage Certificate I was dead in the water.
So I called this clerk every single week for two months to check on the progress. Two months. FINALLY this other person found the certificate. During that time I started receiving the rest of my records. I was also on the phone weekly with the National Archives checking on my grandfather’s naturalization docs—I ordered these in March 2021 and received them in October 2021. Opening the envelope and seeing that red and gold ribbon I almost teared up b/c I realized I was actually getting close. I quickly sent this to the State Department for Apostille.
The most difficult record to retrieve? My own birth certificate! I requested and called every week. No response. Nothing. Finally in February 2022 I drove from Florida to New Orleans and visited the vital records office. They wouldn’t help me, as I was in a virtual queue waiting for an archivist to dig through the records and find mine. When? Who knows, it had already been six months.
Desperate, I went to the courthouse in a neighboring parish and identified myself as an attorney and spoke with a clerk (cutting in lines and getting people to take calls or meetings are definite perks of the job). Turns out the city of New Orleans must respond overnight to a legal request from another parish. I booked a motel, and the next morning had my birth certificate in hand. From there I drove straight to Baton Rouge, located the Secretary of State’s office and handed over an envelope containing ten documents for Apostille. I told the clerk how nervous I was giving them to her. She must have thought I was crazy, but I explained that his bundle required a year to assemble, not to mention the emotional roller coaster of frustrations and minor victories. She assured me they were in good hands, and ten minutes later the Apostilles were complete and I was ready to apply!
APPLICATION: I decided to apply in Italy. The reasons were many: first, I wanted to live in my ancestral homeland as a local and understand not only my grandfather’s childhood, but also my heritage; second, I wanted to learn to speak Italian; third, I wanted to experience all the romantic elements of Italy—the incredible food, the medieval castles, the crystalline waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Most important, I didn’t want to wait 4-5 years. So I booked a flight, packed a suitcase and moved to Sicily. I knew not a single person except those I had corresponded with online (my aunt, and also a translator & document sleuth Ruben Stabile, who located my grandfather’s birth certificate).
REALITY CHECK: There is no way to comprehend how difficult the process of applying in Italy on your own is until you actually attempt it. Talk about a harsh wake up call. The process not only entails navigating the bureaucracy at the comune, it requires dealing with multiple agencies and commercial vendors, and while I was excited to reconnect with my past, to them I was just more work.
I now laugh about it when I tell people that the first response I received for EVERY request, no matter if it was applying for a Codice Fiscale or trying to sign up for cell phone or internet service, or even renting a residence or buying a motorcycle, the first answer is always NO. Even when I offered to pay cash for a year up-front, the answer was No. And this was with Ruben at my side for every meeting. I know a cursory bit of Italian, but no one had time or interest (they have jobs to do, not to mention the line of people behind me (im)patiently waiting). If they tell you, No, and you go away, then the line is that much shorter and the workload is that much lighter.
Turns out, everyone that I later spoke with who actually applied in Italy DIY related the same experience. Every meeting you attend is critical, because while applying, as with collecting the Vital Records, every step is necessary for the next, and there are so many Catch-22s built into the maze that comprises Dual Citizenship recognition. No Codice Fiscale? Well then no residency, and no JS application. I spoke with one member who had to leave one city that told her NO on her CF (for no justifiable reason) and find another city that would actually grant it. The costs in terms of time, money and brain-damage are impossible to convey.
I also consulted with an Italian attorney during a few steps just to clarify my rights. Basic JS recognition is not a strictly legal procedure inside the court system, but it is an administrative procedure governed by laws that dictate rights and remedies, and several times I needed to cite the specifics to a clerk in order to move a No to Yes.
Anyway, after finally acquiring everything required for my JS application, I applied at the comune with a thorough and clear package. Whew! Next day, I started contacting the Italian consulates (3!) in America as an attorney seeking the Certificato Di Non Rinunciasse for my application, and nine weeks later received the final approval. I honestly was speechless when, waiting in line at the the comune to check on the status (no, Italian agencies will never proactively inform you of anything, I’m still waiting on my Permesso, irrelevant as I’m now a citizen), the clerk opened my file and said, “Oh, you were approved last week.” I didn’t hear that right. So I walked out into the sunlight in complete shock and made Ruben explain it to me five times. The next week, the mayor signed off. A week later, an appointment for my Carta di Identità. A week later, Carta in hand.
Anyhow, that’s my incredible journey. During the application process I learned so much (namely where the potholes are and how to even further shortcut the process). The experience in the end was so thrilling that I decided to partner with Ruben and we are now actively helping others. We realized that with our hard-earned experience we could save others much of the frustrations and difficulties we faced. If anyone has questions or gets stuck, DM me or visit our website.
Ciao!
Nicoló
