FAQs about my Italian citizenship

What's the deal with this Italy thing, you may ask?

A village in the Italian Dolomites we stayed in on bike tour. I remember thinking, “I could spend a summer here.”

As I’ve written about, in fall of 2020 I learned that I was eligible to seek recognition as an Italian citizen. For 3+ years, I navigated the bureaucratic process to make it happen. In October of 2023, I finally got the official stamp of approval from Italy.

It’s still wild to think that I’m a full-fledged Italian citizen!

During that process, many people shared their hard-earned lessons with me. Their help was huge, both for the nuts and bolts information as well as simply the reassurance that getting citizenship was possible! 

I’ve done the same for others since, including my college roommate, who is on his way to holding an Italian passport. However, to pass it forward to anyone on the internet who is curious about getting their own Italian citizenship, I’m writing this FAQs post. If you have other questions, please let me know!

1. What am I going to do with my citizenship? Why bother getting it?
   Who knows where this will lead me and my wife! We may use it for extended travel in Italy and the EU, or we may love that experience so much that we permanently relocate. Most likely somewhere in the middle. It was also a gift to my mom, my brother and his 4 kids, and I paved the way for other extended family if they choose to pursue it.

2. What are the benefits to dual citizenship?
   I can live and work anywhere in the 28 countries of the EU, with all the rights of citizens there. Including healthcare, booyah!

3. Am I a citizen or just a permanent resident?
   Full-fledged citizen! I can vote in elections as if I were born and raised in Italy.

4. Does getting Italian citizenship mean I have to revoke my U.S. citizenship?
   Definitely not. The U.S. and Italy have a dual-citizenship agreement where it’s possible to possess both without renouncing the other. (I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.)

5. Do I get a passport?
   Yes! An EU passport is part of the deal, giving me access to some countries a U.S. passport can’t take me.

6. Did I have to learn to speak Italian? Nope, although I chose to do so. That said, the government is upfront in their desire for new citizens to speak the language, which makes sense to me.

7. Can my spouse/legal partner also get citizenship?
   Yes! As of 2018, they’re required to speak Italian at a B1 level, which is basic communication for daily tasks. After that, it’s a relatively simple process of gathering documentation and then waiiiiting for 3-4 years for Italy to approve it.

   

   A lovely day pedaling through Italy.

8. What about taxes?
   The U.S. and Italy have a taxation agreement. Unless I live in Italy for more than 6 months per year, I don’t pay Italian taxes. However, no matter where I live, I pay income to the U.S. (Obviously don’t listen to anything I say about taxes and find an accountant!)

9. How does someone find out if they’re eligible for this?
   The first place to start is to find out if past ancestors in your Italian chain naturalized to the U.S. (or other country) and renounced their citizenship PRIOR to giving birth to the next ancestor.
   
   For example, my great-grandfather Annibale emigrated to the U.S. in 1906. He had a bunch of kids, including my grandmother, and THEN got his U.S. citizenship. Since all the kids were born while Annibale was an Italian citizen, that blood right passed to the next of kin (my grandma), who passed it on to my mom. (Women can only pass it on after 1948, an oooold school patriarchal law that many people have contested and won in court, but it requires an attorney).
   
   Note: there is currently another legal change that may become a roadblock. It’s called “the minor child” issue and says that if your ancestor (e.g. my grandmother) was a minor when their parent (e.g. Annibale) renounced their Italian citizenship, then that minor loses their right to being Italian. This isn’t finalized, so don’t let it scare you off. But keep it in mind.

10. How long does it take/why does it take so long?
    Not gonna lie: this process takes awhile! But after the initial research and document gathering, it’s mostly just waiting. (Hey, the time is going to pass anyway, right?) The waiting is due to the slightly insane process of booking an appointment at your designated Italian consulate. When appointments are available, they’re years out, but usually there simply aren’t any!
    
    It’s like getting Taylor Swift tickets, except the Italian consulate’s website crashes more and has far fewer slots available. It took me THREE MONTHS of daily trying to get an appointment at midnight Italy time when they release new appointments.
    

    

    Getting an appointment is about as easy as shooting rainbows from your fingertips…

11. Any way to do it faster?
    Yes! You can gather all your docs, move to Italy, and get it done in as little as three months. The speed depends where your ancestor is from and how backed up the village/town/city is. I’ve only read about this route, so it’s best to go learn about it in the Italian citizenship Facebook group.

12. How much does it cost?
    It totally varies. To fully DIY this for me, my mom, and my brother, along with some cousins, it cost $1,500 (that includes my $300 application fee, but not the fees for everyone else). On the other hand, it can be over $10,000 to pay a company for white-glove service.

13. Are there benefits to DIYing the citizenship process?
    Definitely. For me, the effort of researching and gathering documents yielded more connection to my ancestry. I found documents on Ancestry.com showing the ship log where my great-grandfather checked into Ellis Island with $11 in his pocket, along with census documents and many other items. I also felt inspired to learn to speak the language, which I doubt I would have done if I’d just paid a company to handle everything. If you have the bandwidth, I highly recommend DIY!

14. What’s the fastest way to find out if you’re eligible?
    Find out if or when your Italian ancestor naturalized. If there isn’t a naturalization certificate (i.e. they never became a U.S. citizen), you’re likely eligible. If there is a naturalization cert, track it down via Ancestry.com, NARA, or USCIS and confirm the citizenship date vs. the next of kin from that ancestor.

15. Resources for you to get started?
    The best resource I found was the Dual-Citizen Italian FB group. It’s a free (!) resource and community run by other Italian-Americans. There are entire modules walking you through how to approach this process, along with all the (searchable) questions from other members over the years. It’s an INCREDIBLE resource.

16. What’s it like to live abroad?
    Other than a stint in Sweden during college, I have NO idea what living abroad is like other than what I’ve read about. Our lives in the U.S. are fantastic and there’s no driving force for wanting to live abroad other than to have the life experience and see what comes of it. I know it won’t be all Italian pastries and sunshine though; leaving one’s homeland and culture comes with potential downsides, as documented in The Italians, a book about the country and culture:

    When we spend too many years on a foreign shore, we defer the reality of life, in such cases, until a future moment, when we shall again breathe our native air; but, by and by, there are no future moments; or, if we do return, we find that the native air has lost its invigorating quality, and that life has shifted its reality to the spot where we have deemed ourselves only temporary residents. Thus, between two countries, we have none at all, or only that little space of either in which we finally lay down our discontented bones.

    So yeah. We’ll see!

*****

Tutto insommato (summed up), I’d say this: like many things worth striving for, getting an Italian citizenship takes commitment, patience, some money, and a can-do attitude. BUT YOU CAN DO IT.

And it will be worth it.

Downtown Bolzano. Any place with this many bikes is my kinda place!