UPDATE (on 16 July July 2021): I’ve finally got my Italian citizenship. You can read about it here.
UPDATE (on 18 January 2021): The wait time for receiving citizenship has gone back to 24 months (with the possibility of it being extended to 36 months). This is a new law and only applies to those who have applied after 20 December 2020. I wrote a blog post about it here.
UPDATE (on 10 April 2019): As of 5 December 2018, the process for Italian citizenship via marriage has changed in the following ways:
- Application fee has been raised to 250 euros
Waiting time to receive citizenship (starting from the date your application has been accepted by the consulate abroad or the prefettura in Italy) has increased from 24 months to 48 months.- Applicants are now required to possess knowledge of the Italian language at a minimum of B1 level (lower-intermediate). You must either have a diploma certified by a state-run or private school in Italy or have a certificate issued by an accredited language institution (belonging to the CLIQ System -currently Siena University for foreigners, Perugia University for foreigners, University of Roma Tre, and Dante Alighieri Society.) See Italian Language Courses Abroad that can issue the relative certificate.
I wasn’t sure before, but I can now confirm that those who apply after 4 December 2018, will be required to pay 250 euro application fee and submit a language certificate. Those who applied before that date will not have to submit a language certificate or pay an additional 50 euros for the application fee.
However, all new and pending applications will now have to wait up to 4 years to receive their Italian citizenship. The start dates begins from the data di presentazione that is written on the Ministero dell’interno website.
If you would like more information, I suggest you join the facebook group Dual US-Italian Citizenship. While the group first started for those applying for citizenship through ancestry, they now include those applying through marriage. It is focused on Americans, but there is a lot of useful information there both in the comments on the page as well as in the Unit section. It is up to date and you can read about the experiences of others. I find it really helpful.
I’ve recently applied for my Italian citizenship. (Thank you, Marituccio!) And while my application was accepted and I had my appointment at the Italian consulate in London, I now have to sit and wait for maximum of two years to get my letter that says I’m officially Italian.
For those of you who have to go through the same thing, I’m going to tell you how to do it.
- Collect the documents (see below)
- Prepare yourself to spend some cash on translations, certifications, fingerprints, and apostilles.
- Submit your application and upload your documents online at the Ministero dell’Interno website (also known as ALI).
- The consulate will view your application and either accept it, deny it, or accept it with reservations (which happened to me because I uploaded the documents in the wrong way. Make sure when you upload, keep the documents — such as criminal records – state, FBI, and translations, all in one pdf)
- Once the consulate accepts your application you will be called in for an interview to hand in your documents, sign the application and pay for the certifications of the photocopies of you and your spouse’s passports and translation of the UK police certificate.
- The consulate will send your documents to the Ministero dell’Interno where they will then process it and then inform the consulate. You will then get a letter that you are officially an Italian citizen.
Time frame – I applied online in Dec 2016 and didn’t get my appointment at the consulate until Oct 2017. In the meantime, I wrote to the consulate numerous times and only when I told them that I was moving back to Italy that I got a response — first they looked at my application online and then they called me for an interview. The consulate has been swamped since Brexit as everyone and their mother in the UK that’s eligible for citizenship is applying and there are only two (TWO) people processing citizenship applications. I feel for them and understand that people in the consulates across the world are overworked. So, be prepared to wait.
If you apply for citizenship within Italy, the process can be a lot faster. Once we move to Italy, I may hear from the Italian government sooner as the answer will no longer have to go through the consulate, but I’m preparing myself for the worst and maybe I’ll be presently surprised.
(While Italian bureacracy is a soul-crushing bitch, after seeing what other friends and family members have gone through, this isn’t as complicated as getting British citizenship or a US greencard.)
Italian Citizenship through Marriage — documents you need
If you are married to an Italian citizen, you are eligible for citizenship after being 2 years of marriage if you reside in Italy and 3 years if you live abroad. (You can apply after 18 months no matter where you are if you have a child together). If you reside abroad, your spouse must be registered with l’AIRE (l’Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero) at the nearest Italian Consulate where you live. When we decided to get married, I was like to D, “Dood, you gotta do it.” Otherwise anything that he wanted to do he would have to go to Italy (get a new ID card, renew passport, register marriage, etc).
Since I’m an American from New York that resides in the UK, I’m going to tell you what I need to specifically get. Substitute your country and state where applicable.
Documents You Need
-
- Unsigned application.
-
- Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio. This is a document issued by the Italian municipality where the Italian spouse is registered and has had the marriage registered. Since me and D registered our marriage at the Consulate in London, we don’t need this form since they already have us on record. *So they say on the website. But they also say to call just to make sure.
-
- Full birth certificate. I was born in New York, so I needed to get this through the New York State Department of Health. (Not through the town hall where you were born as I first thought) This needs to be translated and certified in New York State. I also need to get an apostille through the New York State government. More info about the apostille can be found here.
-
- Certificate of no criminal records from your country. For those who are from the US, you will need one from the FBI and one from every state that you have lived in since you were 14 years old. So that means for me one from the FBI and one from NY State. (If I had gone to university or lived in another state, I would have to get forms from those states, too.) Each of these documents needs to be translated, certified, and with an apostille. Here are links to the FBI and NY State Criminal sites. You need to get the apostille from the US government for the FBI certificate and they apostille from New York State for the NY police records. These documents are valid for only 6 months, so make sure you don’t get them too far in advance.
-
- Certificate of no criminal records from the UK. More info on the certificate is here. This also needs to be translated, certified, and be legalised. The London Consulate says that they can certify this on the spot when I come in for the citizenship appointment. More info on the British apostille can be found here. Again, this document is valid for only 6 months. The consulate advises you to get this done after you make the appointment.
-
- Copy of the applicant’s passport and photocopy of the title page.
-
- Copy of the applicant’s UK resident permit (if applicable). The original and photocopy of the title page.
-
- Italian spouse’s passport and photocopy of the main pages.
- 200 Euros.
Thank you for posting your story! I’m an American from the east coast married to an Italian citizen. We’ve been married for 3 years, and I would love to apply for Italian citizenship. My only problem is that our relationship has been rocky lately, and I am afraid that he won’t cooperate with my citizenship application. I cannot begin to tell you about the hoops of fire I had to jump through to sponsor him for his U.S. green card. Now that roles are reversed (kind of) I’m very worried about my chances of getting Italian citizenship. I’ve heard conflicting stories about the process, and I understand that each consulate handles things in a different way. With everything now being handled online, that is a relief. However, I do know there is an interview and an oath ceremony. Are Italian spouses required to be present for either or both? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Hi Kim! Thanks for reading! I haven’t needed my partner for most of the process. He needed to be registered for l’AIRE through the consulate, but I put together the majority of the paperwork on my own. The only thing I needed my partner to do was contact his comune in Venice to get the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio. We were able to get it easily from them because we had already registered our marriage at the consulate in London (who then notified the comune back in Venice where he had previously been a resident). He also came with me at the consulate when I finally was called in for my appointment to present the original paperwork, but I don’t think it was necessary. His presence though helped them to see that we were still married, but they didn’t ask us any questions. For other things, I’ve heard that each consulate handles things in a different way, too. For example, the New York consulate website doesn’t say that the Italian translations of the documents need to be apostilled, but the London consulate does. I haven’t had to deal with the green card process, so I’m not sure what exactly you had to do for your partner (but I’m sure it was a lot), but for the Italian citizenship process, I didn’t really need him to do much. The process hasn’t finished yet and now that we’re in Italy, the consulate will send the paperwork to the Questura in Venice and they’ll finish it here (fingers crossed). I’m sorry things are rocky for you and your partner and hope you can find a way to get your citizenship.
Giovanna,
Can I ask, how long did it take to get approved from the time you presented all of the paperwork at the questura?
Thanks!
Hi Michelle,
Do you mean how long it took to get seen by the consulate once I applied for citizenship on the Ministero d’Interno website? It took 10 months and my process was sped up as we were moving to Italy and needed our application processed before we left. I think other people who have commented on this post have waited at least a year and half to be seen. While my application has been accepted, I haven’t received citizenship yet. It’s been over a year and I’m still in the first stage. So Im expecting to wait at least 3 years before I become an Italian citizen. Good luck! x
Hi Giovanna! Thanks so much for writing this post, I love the title! Haha I’ve applied to mine in 2018 and only got a response April 2020 to say that my documentation was wrong and the application was rejected. I’ve reapplied December 2020 with the right documents now and had my appointment at the consulate in London today. Well, I though that was it and that I would have soon my citizenship accepted but it seems that it can take a while still? You still haven’t heard back from the Ministero? ? we are also planning to move to Italy in May, so I was wondering how did you do it without having the citizenship? Did you apply for a permesso di soggiorno? Has it affected your citizenship application at all?
Sorry for all these questions but I am about to lose mu sanity here hh. Thanks so much!!
Hi Larissa,
Congratulations on submitting your application at the consulate today! Once you hand in your original documents, the process can take from 2-3 years if you handed in your application after 20 December, when the new law was instated that shortened the wait times. Any application submitted from then had a wait time of 4 years. When I moved to Italy back in 2017 I was still waiting for my citizenship to come through, so I had to apply for my permesso di soggiorno. I wrote all about it here. Because of Covid, you may have to fill out a modulo (found at the post office) and submit it there to get an appointment instead of just showing up at the questura like I did. Hope this helps and good luck! x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna
Thank you for sharing this! I applied online on August 2017 (also for London) and still waiting for their answer. Where Can I check my status or call them? Do you have any number I could use? I check my email every day looking for this reply and nothing!
Hi Nass, You can check your status on the Farnesina site (the Ministero dell’interno site where you submitted your application). From my experience, I waited almost a year before I had my appointment at the consulate. I submitted my application online in Dec 2016 and it wasn’t checked by the consulate until Aug 2017. I then had my appointment in October. You can contact the citizenship office by email and they usually respond in a day or two. When I went for my appointment, the lady told me there were only two of them in the citizenship department and showed me a huge pile of applications that she had to go through and said that since Brexit they’ve had hundreds of submissions. Once you have your appointment at the consulate, by law, they have to process your application within two years. From what I’ve read online and what people have told me, it takes a long time and the consulates are notoriously understaffed.
I applied for my italiani citizenship in 17/6/2017 i have a baby me and my husband we are married for 7 years and ha is italian man I mean my husband, so my question is am I in the new law? Because when I applied it was two years, but the new law is 4 years, I will be greatful to get any answer thank u guys
I am like you, I have applied through london since dec 2016 online, there has been no response not even email to accept or deny the application.. I email them around 19 feb.2018 and this was their response: “Gentile Signora/e,
Stanti l’esponenziale incremento delle richieste di cittadinanza da un lato, soprattutto a seguito del fenomeno BREXIT, e le esigue risorse a disposizione dall’altro, desideriamo assicurare l’istante che questo Consolato Generale provvederà all’esame della pratica non appena possibile, in modo tale che possa ricevere il codice K10/C quanto prima e sia così in grado di monitorare autonomamente lo stato di avanzamento della pratica.
Cordiali saluti
Ufficio Cittadinanza
Consolato Generale d’Italia in Londra
HARP HOUSE
83/86 Farringdon Street
London EC4A 4BL
cittadinanza.londra@esteri.it
http://www.conslondra.esteri.it”
I still don’t have the k10/C to check my application on line, no communication from them, i am actually in this forum to have an idea and to read about other people’s experience maybe that could help me to be more patient as i am getting really fed up of it..
Hi there,
I recently applied for the Italian citizenship for my husband on August last year and I didn’t received an email confirmation of the submission. I wondering if it’s normal or it not has been sent as I tried to contact the consulate and no answer so far.
Could anyone please advise?
Many thanks
Fabiana
Hi Fabiana,
When you log into the Ministero dell’Interno website and click on the ‘Compila e invia domanda’ in the Cittadinanza section, you should be able to find a little pdf symbol next to the modulo that you’ve submitted. The pdf is the application you submitted which you can download and next to that pdf symbol is another little symbol. If you click on that symbol you can download the receipt that you’ve sent your application. Once the consulate/prefettura looks at your application and accepts it, they will send you an email via the Ministero website. You’ll receive an email that says that you have an email on the website. Hope that helps, x
In your post, you said this:” [UPDATE: As of February 2017, you can apply for Italian citizenship as soon as your marriage is registered in Italy]”
Do you mean right after I marry my Italian boyfriend, I can immediately start applying for an Italian citizenship without waiting for 2 years? (I will be marrying my Italian boyfriend sometimes next month in our local comune, near to Padua.)
Hi Shelia,
That’s what it says on the Italian consulate website for London. It seems that the law has recently changed, but I’m not sure if that applies for people who reside in Italy or for those that live abroad though. Perhaps you can check with the consulate of your region in the US. They could tell you better.
The Feb 2017 amendment was done to include (non-marriage) civil partnership; a provision to include same sex marriages (performed abroad). The registered partnership duration period still applies.
Thanks Adi. For a few months on the London consulate website, it said that those who had just been married could apply for citizenship straight away and didn’t have to wait the three years. I assume that was because of the long processing times for the application. I’ve just checked and it’s not there anymore. I’ll update the blog post.
Hi everyone
I applied my cityizenship through marriage on 2015 starting, and now it’s 2 years and 10months gone but no any response from their side. Hopefully get this year then I’ll let you know about it
O that’s such a long time to wait, Park. I hope you hear from them soon!
Hi again! Last question I’ll bother you with! Do you work with an Italian accountant to help manage filing American and Italian taxes? We have an American accountant.. and an Italian accountant… but having some trouble finding someone who can do both and advise on American business while residing in Italy. Any advise for agencies would be great. Thanks so much!
Hi Laura! I’m on the look out for an Italian/American accountant as well, so I don’t know of anyone at the moment. If I come across some, I’ll let you know. Maybe we could help each other. x
Hi Giovanna, are there any travel restrictions during the application processing? I am also going to be applying from London, but does this mean I have to stay in London till its done? Is it 2 year wait after you submit the application or after you have your interview with consulate?
Hi Elena,
There are no travel restrictions during the application process. When you apply online, you upload scans of your passports and when you go to your appointment, they only take a photocopy of you and your spouse’s passport. Unfortunately, it’s a two year wait after your interview at the consulate, but you’re free to travel. If you move out of the jurisdiction of the consulate during the process, you have to let them know so they can find you when the process is complete. Hope this helps and best of luck with the application! Giovanna
Hi Giovanna! Thank you for this post, I am preparing to apply in London and starting to think about getting the documents. I saw that the Consulate advises you to get some documents done only after getting the interview appointment because they expire in 6 months. But then how can you upload them in step 3? At the interview will they accept the same documents you uploaded, even if expired?
Thank you again for sharing your experience!
Hi Henry,
Your police records need to be under 6 months old when you apply online and upload them to the site. They will still be valid when you go to your interview to present the original documents because the documents refer to the date from when you made the application. Good luck with the application!
Hi Giovanna,
I am having the same dilemma I submitted my application May 2017. I have been married for 17 years, have sent few emails to the embassy requesting an update still not getting any reply back from the embassy not sure if I am sending the email to the correct department. The most annoying part is my application haven’t been looked at.
I do understand they are understaffed, being transparent and giving guidelines for the waiting time on the website does go a long way.
Hi Tosin,
Ah, I know how you feel. It’s not exactly clear and this is the frustrating and mind-numbing nature of Italian bureaucracy. For correspondence, I’ve used the email address cittadinanza.londra@esteri.it. I applied online in Dec 2016 and had my appointment in Oct 2017, but I suspect I would have waited much longer if I hadn’t emailed to tell them I was moving back to Italy. Also, they checked my application in August 2017 and then emailed me my consulate appointment two weeks before I had to go in. Now that my application has been accepted and sent to the Questura in Venice, I now will most likely wait up to two years for the citizenship to finally go through as once the Questura looks at it, they will send it to Rome. Good luck with everything! Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
Hope you are doing well. Finally, they are now looking at my application with K reference number “Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono stati avviati” which I believed it is the first stage of the application process.
All I have to do now is wait for the interview date. Thanks a lot for your help and support
Kind regards,
Tosin
Hi Tosin, Congratulations and best of luck! I hope you get your interview soon. x Giovanna
Hello Tosin,
Im waiting a long, long time. My process is in the same situation ” Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono stati avviati”.
Do you remember how long does this stage take?
Hi Lidia,
Apology for my slow response. Honestly, I do not know how long it’s going to take, my application has been on the same stage for over 8 months and still waiting for the interview
Received an email few days ago for my interview in Jan 2020. took over 2 years to get to this stage, probably I will have to wait for another 2 years
Congratulations, Tosin!
am in Italia Napoli via ferrante d Aragona 72 80049 somma visuvaina for Years am apple for Italia citizenship
Hi Giovanna,
My application is now at the final stage
Pratica definita. Riceverà una comunicazione dalla Prefettura/Consolato – Vedi comunicazioni
it’s matter of waiting time now to see when they are going to call me
Hi Giovanna,
I am in the process of applying for citizenship in London and after a few months struggling I finally managed to get all documents required. Is there any website you could recommend for guidance on how to fill in the application on the Ministerio dell Interno website? There are a few confusing part and when reading the FAQ’s and guidelines it wasn’t that helpful.
Thanks,
Carlos
Hi Carlos,
Sadly, I haven’t come across any websites that help with filling out the application. I had trouble uploading the documents and I later found out that you have to load all the criminal record documents and translations together as one pdf, both passport scans as one pdf, etc. Sorry I can’t be more helpful. Good luck with everything! Giovanna
Hi all, I applied online on August 2017 and I went today to the consulate in London to check my application and the lady on the citizenship department (4th floor) didn’t even look at my application just told me that I have to wait as they are still checking online applications of 2016. She said they are very short of staff and that unfortunately they can’t do anything else, she asked me to check back next year if nothing! But she says that they are doing “their best” . So she just asked to wait!! What a long wait…. in order to help us each other in this group I suggest we share information regarding our timing, so if any of you guys gets an answer please do let’s us know to have an approximate of the timing taking. So today she said they are going through applications of 2016 but didn’t mention month. Hopefully is end of 2016.
Hi. I applied in November 2016 and still haven’t been processed.
Hi, I applied online in October 2016 and still haven’t heard anything. It is infuriating because there is no reference number to track the progress of the application. If I knew I had another six months to wait (and saw the wait time counting down!) I’d be a lot happier.
Hi,
I am one of those that applied in DEC. 2016, its now October 2018, I am still waiting…
Hi Giovanna
thanks for your wonderful blog. I’m an American about to go to Europe on a Shengen visa to be near my fiance. He’s an Italian citizen now living in Germany.
– We’re trying to determine the best/easiest way to get married. Can we do this in Germany at an Italian consulate, or do we need to go to Italy?
– Can I be on a Shengen visa for this process?
– Do I have any options for after my Shengen visa runs out in 3 months?
thanks!
Sara
Hi Sarah, Thanks for reading! Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! I don’t have experience doing this so I can’t really answer your questions. As you plan on spending more than 90 days within the Schengen area, I’m not sure if you need a specific entry visa in order to enter into Europe with the intent to marry, like a fiancee visa or something. If so, then you may have to get the visa in the US before you fly to Europe. Italy and Germany may have different requirements and I would check on the websites of the German and Italian consulates that cover your region in the US to see if they explain what you need to do. If you don’t need a specific visa, you may need some documentation from either the consulate that certify that you’re eligible to marry. Hope this helps and good luck! x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna! thanks so much for sharing your story. My partner is Italian but living in Germany. I’m now in the US and we are trying to determine the best way/place to get married in the EU. Can I do this while on a Shengen tourist visa in Europe? Do you know if we can do this process through the Italian consulate in Germany?
thanks!
Sara
Hi, Giovanna! Thanks for the information. I sent my application online on 18th March 2018 and kept on checking the communication on the ALI website every now and then as I am scared that my No criminal records certificate will be expired prior to acceptance of my application and submission of the original documents to the Italian Consulate. I didn’t know that the consulate takes time to reply. I just don’t know here in Hong Kong. Most probably, the number of applicants is less compared to London.
If you applied on December 2016 and got an appointment with the Consulate on October 2017, so therefore, your no criminal record certs are already expired during the presentation/submission of the original document to the Consulate. Hopefully, if the Consulate here will accept the expired documents if they will give me a late appointment.
Keep us updated on your application. I will be checking this forum from time to time. Thanks!
Hi Maria,
All your documents must be valid by the date you submit online, example in your case your no criminal records must be valid by the 18th Mach 2018 not by the time you get your appointment as this can take weeks, months or even years so don’t worry about it, mine expired ages ago and I am still waiting for my appointment to submit the originals but when I submitted my application online everything was valid.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Nassra
Hi Nassra,
Thank you for your information.
I received a message yesterday at the “Comunicazione” section of the portal that my application has been accepted and that the Consulate will call me to provide an appointment to submit the original documents. In this message, they provided the K10/C (reference number) of my application. Also, the status of the application is registered under the “Visualizza Stato Della Domanda Di Cittadinanza.” I am happy to know that the staffs of the Italian Consulate here in Hong Kong are working (got a reply after a week only).
Good luck to all of us!
Regards,
Maria
Hi Maria, congratulations! Hope you get your appointment soon!
Thanks, Giovanna! I hope the same for you.
Thank you for this very informative blog. I wish it had existed when I applied! My application was submitted online in November 2016, but I am still waiting for a response from the Consulate. It sounds like your threat to move to Italy was a good one! Did you ever try telephoning the citizenship office? When we have tried, we just stay on hold for 90 minutes and nobody picks up.
Hi Adam, I never tried phoning the citizenship office, however I always got a reply from them when I emailed them. Most of the time, it was just a form letter that said they were doing the applications on a first come first serve basis, but towards they end they replied to me when I told them I was leaving the UK to go back to Italy. If I hadn’t left, I would probably still be waiting. There are only two of them in the office and when I saw them they looked overworked and tired.
They have only ever replied once to many emails, and then just a standard reply that didn’t give any of the information I was asking for.
Hi Adam,
I am guessing you are also applying from the London consulate, in timings you should be next getting an answer as you applied 2016. Phone is useless if I where you and if you’re living in London I’ll go to the consulate 4th floor and check direct with them. Good luck and please keep us updated on your times specially if you get the answer!!
I just got an answer to my latest email today, but still no appointment. My UK passport expired since my application, so I asked whether I need to submit details of the new one. They said just to bring the new one to the appointment. But no info on when that might be!! Funnily enough, the two times they replied were when I wrote in English. Whenever I have written in Italian, no reply! A friend who works at the Italian foreign office also suggested going to the consulate in person, but your experience (in your earlier post here) put me off, especially as we live in Birmingham so it’s not just around the corner!
My husband is italain and he lives in italy and i live in uk so can i apply italain passport without registered in AIRE??
Hi Sarah,
I believe that if you want to apply for Italian citizenship through the consulate in the UK, your partner needs to be registered with AIRE and your marriage also has to be registered with the consulate. If not, then you’ll have to apply for citizenship in Italy, but I believe you also have to show that you’re a resident in Italy. You can find out more info on the Ministero dell’Interno website and download the citizenship via marriage for residents of Italy. x
I uploaded my application some time ago and got back a PDF, which I have saved. When I log into the site to check the status (Visualizza Stato della Domanda, also Storico Domande), there’s nothing to see. Was that your experience too?
S
Hi S, I had the same experience. I believe it means that the consulate hasn’t gotten to your application yet. It’s in the system, but it hasn’t been checked yet. Thanks for reading, Giovanna
Yep! When did you submit? It’s a long wait at the moment, if you submitted through London.
Visualizza Stato della Domanda -> Non risultano domande associate al tuo utente. Se non hai compilato la domanda online ma hai inviato una domanda cartacea prima del 18 giugno 2015 puoi effettuare l’associazione utilizzando il link – Primo accesso alla pratica -.
Comunicazioni -> Attualmente non ci sono notifiche
Hi Giovanna! brilliant post! we are also from NY, but living in London. I have my italian passport (i applied in italy), now trying to get the italian one for my husband. The application link is coming up as an error. Do you have anyone you’d recommend to help with the translation/ceritifation for the NYS Birth record and Criminal records for FBI, NYS, UK? Would I be able to have someone translate/certify these documents in NYS even though we live in the UK (in other words, do i have have my husband there in person, or can it be done via mail, or a relative)?
Hi Stacy!
Thanks for reading! For New York and the FBI documents, I used Gianluca Croce from Flatratetranslation.com. He was great and very informative. I think Gianluca also can do apostilles, but I flew in the New York to do that side of the paperwork since it was a lot cheaper if I did it myself. But I had him post the translations to my sister and then picked them up from her when I was in town. For the UK translations, I used Cristina Boscaiano from Wordsathand.com. I was able to work with the translators online and sent them scans of the documents and they sent me the translations by post. Hope this helps x Giovanna
Thank you! I’ve just seen this! 🙂
Hi Giovanna, Wow this is a great blog, thank you so much!! I applied for my Italian Citizenship through the virtue of being married to an Italian in January 2017, till today I have not had an appointment or proper update 🙁 it is really frustrating! The only update I got was that my application is code GBR, i don’t know what it means, do you know perhaps? I did ask them what it means but with no response. I might move to Italy in November this year but now I am not sure if I can move if I still wait for my application here? Also as my husband works mostly abroad on short contracts, will I be able to get a visa to stay in Italy alone? I am a Non-EU citizen and nowhere can I get information on this if he doesn’t live in Italy himself?
I applied in London
Hi Chanzanne,
Unfortunately, it’s a really long wait. Other people have commented that it takes a really long time. If you’re going to move to Italy, email them and tell them, they may start the process sooner. That’s what’s happened to me. I had my appointment before I left and then they sent my application to the Questura in Venice where my residency is registered. As a family member of an EU citizen, you’re allowed to travel and live anywhere in the EU with your spouse. For all the paperwork that you need to do when you arrive in Italy (permesso di soggiorno and residency), you’ll need your spouse around in order to check that you two are still married and live together. (This may also be necessary for your citizenship as well, the Questura may send the local police to your place of residence to check. It happened to me). I was able to do most of these things during the first two weeks of moving to Italy (through the Questura di Venezia, it may take longer in other regions), so perhaps you’ll able to time things around your husband’s job. If he’s based in Italy, too, and travels for work, I don’t think it’ll be a problem (although it may be more of a bureaucratic headache, although that’s inevitable in Italy). Good luck! x Giovanna
Sorry I am from Nigeria and my wife to be is pregnant for me and we have planned to do our marriage 2months after birth….please how fast can my document comes out when I apply after the marriage since we both have a child now … in just 2months before marriage
Hi Giovanna,
Great blog – I’m in a very similar scenario regarding countries and I’m putting together all my police background checks now. One confusing thing I can’t understand is, that after getting the police checks apostilled, I’ve read on some Italian Consulate websites that the police check (already apostilled), then needs to be translated into Italian, and the translation itself also needs to be apostilled.
Did you have to get your translations apostilled too?
Thank you!
Hi Nick,
Yes, I had the translations apostilled as well. My translator was based in New York City and I chose to go to the various offices to get the apostilles done myself as it was cheaper, but he offered those services as well. Not sure where you are based and the apostille requirements vary from state to state and country to country. The translator provided me with a certified and notarized translation. I then went to the county clerk office in Manhattan to get the notary signature verified and then I sent them to the New York Department of State offices for the apostille. I had each translation apostilled. I did something similar in London with my UK translation of my marriage certificate (not related to the citizenship application, but for something else). Hope this helps!
Thank you Giovanna! Good luck with your citizenship journey!
Hi everyone
I applied for Italian citizenship in Italy in april 2016, and now we move to UK my husband want to register to Italian consulate for transferring our resident from Italy to UK.
Please I want to know how this will effect my Italian citizenship that I submitted in Italy by moving my resident from Italy to here.
Hi,
very helpful review, thank you. On the Italian Consulate (London) website, it doesn’t seem to say anything about contacting the FBI and any other states to get the no criminal records, is this very necessary? My husband is Italian and our marriage was registered at the Italian Consulate in London.
also, re my birth certificate (born in Connecticut) when you say get translated and certified in the state – do you mean into Italian? and how is it to get an apostille?
The form MoD1 which we need to have says its for an adult over 18 years and mentions parents consent etc – this is so confusing!!
any help much appreciated am so exasperated!
Many thanks in advance, Caro
Hi Caro,
It’s necessary to get the criminal records from the FBI and from every state that you’ve resided in in the US. Those documents then need to have the apostille. The apostille for the FBI criminal records needs to be from the US, and the apostille for all the state documents need to be given by each respective state. You can find information on how to get the apostilles from the federal office and state offices online. For the translations, I got an an apostille for each translation. I used the same translator based in New York City for all the US documents and he was able to certify them for me and then I sent the translations to the NY state office for the apostille.
Not sure for other states, but for NY state documents you need to get them certified first by a notary public from where the documents originate and then send them to the NY state offices. For the FBI certificate and for my NYS birth certificate, they were already certified since they came from federal and state offices, so I just needed to send them off for the apostille.
Hope this helps and good luck! x Giovanna
I applied via london in November 2016 and have been chasing for an appointment with no joy. I have been told they process strictly in date order and to wait my turn. You applied in Dec 2016 and have alewafy been seen! Any advice?
Hi Rosemary, I applied on 21 November 2016. What date did you apply? I am also still waiting
I also applied via London, to be clear.
Hi Adam,
Any response from the consulate? I can’t believe it’s taking so long!!!
I applied 1st November 2016. I have just been given an appointment at the London Consulate for this coming Thursday, 31st May 2018.
Congrats! That’s good news this means is moving and we are not stocked! However I applied in August 2017 so looks like I still have lot to wait
That’s great! So I might hear something soon…. Did you get the appointment by waiting or do you think chasing it up with them helped?
Hi Adam, did you get your appointment ??? Let us know! Good luck
I’ll let you know!
Hi Rosemary,
How was the appointment ? Everything in order? Is just bringing the originals or anything else we should know?
Hi Rosemary (and thanks for replying Adam and Nass),
I was seen sooner by consulate because I told them I was moving back to Italy by November 2017. So they checked and accepted my application in August 2017 and then I had my appointment in October 2017. I had to keep emailing them to remind them of my moving date. Once I moved back to Italy and established my residency in the town, I sent them an email to tell them and they sent my application to the questura in Venice and it’s now being processed in Italy. I’m still in the first stage and I’m expecting it to take at least two years.
Hi Giovanna, I am a bit confused with the timings and can’t find information anywhere. My husband is Italian (I am not), we got married a year ago and we live outside of Italy. Does that mean that we have to register our marriage, then wait three years from the date of our marriage to apply for my citizenship, then wait for another two years for it to get approved? Or I can apply for Italian passport already as by the time they approve it, we are going to be married three years already anyway?
Than you in advance.
Gala..if you want to apply for citizenship while living outside Italy, you need to wait 3 years from the date of marriage. If you live in Italy, 2 years continuous residence qualifies to apply for citizenship. If you have any children of your marriage, natural or adopted, the time period to be eligible to apply for citizenship is halved; 18 months if you live abroad and 1 year if you live in Italy
Hi Khadim, thank you for your reply. My question is, after living 3 years abroad and applying for the citizenship, then it takes another two years from the application date to get the passport?
Yes
Hi Gala,
More than 2 years after your application I would say around 4 years. Plus at least 3 of marriage to be able to apply is around 7 years in total until you get your citizenship if you apply from London
Hiya just wanted to ask can you just apply before 2 years or you have to wait 2 years then only u can apply for the citizenship
Hi Wandere..assuming you’re living in Italy, 2 years residence is required. After 2 years is complete, you can apply for citizenship. If you have any children of your marriage, natural or adopted, the time period to be eligible to apply for citizenship is halved i.e 1 year residence required to apply for citizenship
Thx khadim for the reply, yes v r living currently in italy after 2 years of residency i can apply for the citizenship
Bcz the people confuses, some say right after 6 months of ur marriage u can apply for citizenship then when your 2 years will be completed u will get the citizenship, so that was not true
Hi Giovanna,
Thanks for your detailed and helpful blog. My husband (Italian) and I got married in London where we have been living for many years. We will have been married for two years soon, and the same month we will be relocating to Italy. Do you think I can apply for citizenship straight away? Or do you think I have to wait another year because those two years were spent abroad? Thanks in advance in case you can advise on this.
Best wishes,
Giorgia
Hi Giorgia..You need to live in Italy for 1 year and then you’ll be eligible to apply for citizenship. If you have any children of your marriage, natural or adopted, you could apply for citizenship straightaway. Also see my response to Gala and Wandere above!
Hi Giovanna,
As you’ll see from the blog post and some of the comments, the London consulate is extremely slow processing applications. So even if you could apply now (e.g. if you have a child with your Italian husband) then DON’T do it. Applying from Italy will hopefully be quicker than doing so via the consulate. If you don’t have a child then as Khadim said, you will be eligible 3 years after your marriage so you can apply in Italy at that point.
I meant hi Giorgia, sorry!
thanks for sharing info
if i have never been to italy, and marry italian citizen for 3 years, will i get the citizenship?
im in london and married to italian .. but i never went to italy
Hi Jonh
Yes you could apply for the Italian citizen foe being married to an Italian citizen for more than 3 years. The whole process can take around 4 years or more until you get the citizenship. The first thing you need to do is register your marriage at the Italian consulate following instructions online in their website. Good luck
Hi Nass, any news on your application?
Nope, you? You should be next !
You never know!
Still waiting, by the way!
Hi Adam, can’t believe it!!! I was hoping you were next!!!
Me too! My wife’s friend in the Italian foreign ministry wrote to the Consul a couple of weeks ago on my behalf, but they ignored him! Apparently there is going to be a new Consul in the next few months, and they are aware of the backlog of cases. It’s not just citizenship applications – I have an Italian friend in the UK who can’t get an appointment to renew his passport. He actually thinks he applying for naturalisation and a UK passport will be quicker!!
Hi Adam,
I am going back to the consulate next month (late August) to register our son and will take the opportunity to go back to the citizenship department and ask again about my application. I will let you know what info I can get !
All the best, and do let me know if you hear anything.
Hi Nass,
Our contact in the foreign ministry wrote a second time and got a reply from the Consul confirming that the Citizenship Office is currently working on applications from October 2016 and I should hear from them in 2-3 weeks. Not sure how that squares with Rosemary (above in this thread) who applied on 1 November 2016 and got her appointment back in May. But anyway, I’m happy with 2-3 weeks if it happens!
BTW there’s a Facebook group that seems useful:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/161998134423899
Hi Adam,
That’s great news. Please let me know if you get it and how it goes!
All the best ?
Still waiting!
Still waiting……..
Still waiting ……………………………………………………………
Oh noooooooooo
I’ve got my K10!!! Only 683 days in the end!
Congrats Adam, how did the appointment go?? Please let us know what to expect!
Thanks
Hi everyone
I applied my citizenship on June 2015 now it June 2018 3years gone but no response from their side. I think you have to wait too long because due to brexit everyone in rush to apply their dual nationality, so too much time they need to process every single file. If I hear anything about my application then il let you know about it.
Good luck everyone
Hi Mark. Do you mean you applied through the online system in June 2015 and you are still waiting for the London Consulate to give you an appointment? Or have I misunderstood?
Hi there. Does anyone know if I can apply now being married for 2 years since they are taking more than one year to check the documents? I know it was written in the London consulate in the past but did anyone actually ask them if they are still accepting? I tried to contact them by email but no luck till now.
Thanks,
Guilherme
Hi Guiherme,
I once read on the London consulate website that you can apply once you’re married since it takes so long, but that is no longer on their website. I believe that they don’t allow that anymore, but I haven’t asked them. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
In fact I asked them and they said the husband/wife can only apply after the 3 years.
Thanks a lot!
Hello eveyone,
my husband applied for Italian citizenship in 2015, at the Consulate in London . The citizenship process finally reached the last step, it has been signed off, but is still a long way before getting the passport.
At the moment he is waiting to receive the notification of the Decreto from the Consulate. I would like to know if anyone got the notification,and after how long from when the citizenship was signed off. I think it will be a good 6 to 8 month before the swearing. And probably other 6 months to get the passport, from the giuramento.
Thanks in advance
Cristina
Hi Cristina,
It is amazing to hear your husband is almost at the last steps; I hope he gets his passport very soon. May I ask you few questions please if you could inform me; how long have you been waiting to get an appointment at the Italian Consulate? what is the process after getting an appointment up to citizenship? Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused, I hope to hear from you please whenever time suits you. Thanks in advance.
Bibo
Hi I applied for Italian citizenship april 2018, I didnt get replay, my problem is my son is now 16 years old, can he get italian citizhenship, if he become adult ? what i have to do get soon Italian citizenship, If I go to solicitor , they can do something for me .
Hello,
In order to try and speed up application process for citizenship via the London Consulate prior to getting an appointment and K10/C number, I wonder …. Does anyone have experience of going in person to the London Consulate ? And if so, have you been at all successful?
Many thanks, Miriam
Hi Miriam,
I applied in August 2017. Almost a year ago. Early this year I went to the consulate in person to the citizenship department 4th floor if I don’t remember wrong, and the lady on the front desk was very rude, she didn’t even looked at my application number just asked when did I apply and when I said August 2017 she said: no way you are not even close, we are looking at the moment at 2016 applications, you have to wait. And she asked me to leave. Maybe I wasn’t lucky and she wasn’t in a good mood? Not sure, anyways if you go let us know how it goes!
Good luck!
Hi Nass,
I wish you a good luck in your application. Do you mind if you could tell me please, did you go to the consulate with a booked appointment? I am trying to book online, but there is no availability at all.
Thank you so much in advance.
All the best,
Bibo
Hi Bibo,
When I went I didn’t book any appointment online, just walked in. My husband was doing something scheduled (I think he was collecting his Identity card, can’t remember) and I went with him and when we were inside the consulate we just asked where was the citizenship department and walked in. I don’t think you will get an appointment for enquiries or questions to be honest. We will go back in August to register our son and I will probably take the opportunity to do the same and go and ask, any luck I will let you all know !!
I am irish applied as I am in civil partnership/marriage in uk with Italian citizen submitted my application August 2017 waiting. A friend working for Italian embassy in Argentina said I will only hear from them just before the two year deadline
Hi Emile,
Do you know what will happen then? I applied in January 2017 and still haven’t heard anything from them 🙁
Hi Chazanne
You mentioned that you applied in January 2017. Dose it mean you submitted online application in January 2017?
I applied online in April 2017 and haven’t heard anything from them as well. Still waiting for an interview.
Hope we would hear something soon.
Best
Pat
HI Pat,
Yes I applied in January 2017 online and still have not heard back from them on anything….
I am just wondering when the whole two year timeline starts… is i from the time you submit your application online or when you have your interview??
Hi,
I applied for the Italian citizenship online through internal ministry website. I checked my account and its written ” Istanza Accettata”
and they called me after and give me appointment to submit the documents in 17 September in the prefettura of torino.
so please can I know how long it will take after giving them the papers by hand in September 17.
thanks a lot
Hi Hasan,
I hope everything will go perfectly in your favour, is it possible please to mention how long have you waited since you apply, to get this appointment?
In regard with your enquiry, I found on a website “The consulate by law has a 730-day time frame to process your request since your online application. You will be informed between 6- 12 months, if you are awarded Italian citizenship by mail or e-mail”, I hope it might help, all the best to you.
Bibo
Please I would like to know how long it took before they called you to submit your document in person. Thank you.
Hi all,
I hope to hear from anyone of u.
thanks a lot
Hi Bibo,
after 10 months from applying online the status changed to accepted. then I went to them to the prefettura and they gave me the appointment to bring the original papers by hand.
thank you
Hasan
hi all,
when my application was accepted in the online system and they asked me to bring the originals to the prefettura, then what they should look for after I submit them the originals? what they have to check?
thank you
Hasan
Hi Hasan,
There’s a website that explains the different stages of the citizenship process and what happens at each step. Here’s a link to step 1 (in Italian) that explains that the prefettura and police check double check your residency, where you live, police record, etc. https://www.cittadinanza.biz/si-e-in-attesa-dei-pareri-necessari-alla-definizione-della-pratica/ Once that’s all been okay, you then go on to step 2…I’m still on step 1 and it’s been about 5 months.
Giovanna,
Grazie Mille, very succinct and helpful note.
Best, N
Thank you!
Hi Giovanna
Thank you so much for sharing your story.
I submitted my application online in April 2017. Now it’s August 2018 but I still have never heard from the embassy in the UK.
You mentioned they called you for an interview. Is your case special or it is common that they will call? Would you suggest me to keep an eye on my email or Ministero dell’Interno website or keep my phone close to me at all time?
I am so happy for you that you have done the interview. I hope you will hear good news soon.
All the best!
Pat
Hi Pat,
The London consulate sent me an email through the Ministry website. I received notification to my personal email address from the Ministry that I had a message, so I wouldn’t miss it. I didn’t have to respond to the message to confirm, I just had to show up for the appointment. I saw from a comment from Farana down below that they replied in Sept 2016 and received an email from the consulate in June 2018. Even though I’ve had my appointment and my papers were sent to Venice and will have the rest of the process take place here in Italy now that I live here, I’m still in the first stage according to the Ministry website and I suspect it will take me a couple of years. All the best, x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna
Thank you so much for your reply.
Thanks to your blog, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
I think I need to keep calm and carry on waiting.
All the best!
Pat
It seems helpful for us all to have some idea of how the processing is going. So my application is citizenship via marriage and through London. Applied august 2016, got an email in April 2017 saying accettata con riserva. They wanted evidence of a bunch of stuff that I’d already uploaded like copy of the money transfer plus a copy of the atto of our marriage from the comune my wife used to live in years ago even though our marriage was registered through l’aire in London. Anyhow got all that, uploaded in one PDF and my application was updated to say Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono stati avviati dated start of may 2017. I guess it is stuck now in a queue hopefully waiting for an appointment. I sense though my application was August 2016, the demand to re-upload things they already had will have put me back a bit.
Hi Ian, Thanks for writing and letting us know your experience. Perhaps you can send an email to the consulate directly and let them know? They’re not great at responding, but if your application may have gotten stuck somewhere and is not just in the normal queue, they may take a look at it. Good luck with everything!
Hi
I applied for my citizenship in Sept 2016.I only got a reply in June 2018. It’s by marriage. It seems I don’t have to go with my spouse. I just have to take his passport with me. I have an interview booked for Sept 4th. I read that you have to wait for almost 2yrs for them to respond to you about finally getting your citizenship after the interview . Seems like such a long time considering the whole process :(. I’m in Manchester and going to London for the day. Just wanted to find out how long did you spend at the embassy . Like how long does he interview take?. I need to plan the journey.
Thanks
Hi Farana, Congratulations on getting your appointment! If I remember correctly the appointment itself didn’t take very long, only perhaps a half hour. But you will need some time to go through security at the consulate. I had to wait in a queue outside to get in, but it moved pretty quickly. During your appointment, they’ll tell you to go downstairs to the cashier and pay for the certification and marca da bollo, so depending on the amount of people, you may or may not have to wait. I would give yourself two hours since you’re coming from Manchester just in case it’s a crazy day at the consulate. Good luck with everything! x
Hi. thanks for replying and yes I managed to go for the appointment and get my bus back. I think I lost weight that day running Hahahah..I was told that I now have to wait for another department to look at my application in regards to accepting it. Once accepted. I will recieve a letter inviting me to say the Oath to be made a citizen and after that I can apply for a passport. They told me they very under staffed at the consulate 🙁 and have no idea when that would be . I should keep checking the Ali portal . I have noticed that there is another link on the portal that I never saw before
Inserimento/Variazione/Cancellazione del legale . I clicked on it and it’s asking me about whether I have legal counsel or not and if I want to upload documents. I’m assuming it’s asking if I want to change or add anything to my application ??. Has anyone else seen that on they Ali portal page please?. Not really sure what to do. I emailed them but as we all know it takes ages if not never hahahha to reply . I’m in UK..thanks…xx
Hi Farana,
I noticed that on the Ali page, too. I think it’s something new that just showed up in the past few weeks. I don’t think we have to do anything with that. I submitted my application to the consulate last year and they sent it to Italy as I now live here, but I’m still on stage 1 (of 7 stages). I’m not sure how long it will take now that I live here, but the consulate told me that once you have your appointment, it will take at least two years for the process to finish. Good luck with everything! x
Great info here, thanks! I now live in NYC but formerly lived in London. I have received all of my former USA State/domicile background checks, and have had all of them apostilled. I will now have each report translated here in NYC.
I have already received my UK police report, filled out the online legalisation request form, and physically mailed the police report to the Foreign & Commonwealth office to have it legalised/apostilled. I am very concerned as I did not have it translated prior to sending it in for legalisation/apostille. Questions please: Will I have to have to have my police report translated by a UK translator and, will I then have to resubmit it for the legalisation of the translation? I am aware that I will then have to travel to London and have the Italian Consulate certify the translation, but do I need to have the actual translation of my UK police report legalised prior to receiving my apostille and before visiting the Consulate in London to have them certify the translation? Thanks for any clarification you can share!
Hi Alyson, thanks for reading! I don’t think you need to follow a certain order, just as long as the police records are legalised and issued within the last 6 months prior to applying. For my permesso upon moving to Italy, I had my marriage certificate legalised first and then translated and it didn’t matter.
For the legalisation of the translation of your UK police record, the consulate certified it when I went in for my appointment, so it wasn’t necessary to have it legalised. But if you have trouble getting an appointment at the consulate just for them to certify a document, you can also get it legalised. That’s what I did when I needed to get the translation of my marriage certificate legalised at the last minute. In that case, I needed to get the translation notarised by a London notary who had the translator’s signature on file and then send it off to get legalised. The translator I used for all my UK documents was Cristina Boscaino of Words at Hand and the two notaries that Cristina uses are De Pinna notaries and Leone Notaries based in London. They both worked quickly. Good luck with everything!
Giovanna, Many Thanks for the very helpful info.
Am awaiting my legalisation/apostille from gov.uk (I requested through the online portal, and snail mailed the police report to them), will contact your translator Cristina, then fly to London to have the consulate certify the translation. Note that in my case, my consular visit will be on a Monday only between certain hours, so do check the hours for specific services.
One important piece of info for the USA folks here. . . the state that I requested my long-form birth certificate from has an 80-90 day turn-around period. I filed on 10 July and will get it in late September. Of all docs procured, this one had the longest processing time. Thanks again 🙂
HI, I will start the process of citizenship through marriage with my wife who is an italian citizen.
I have some doubts about the background check. I requested an got already the FBI one. I am asking now to the Colorado State BI to get it but they issue the on line one otherwise i need to fill a form and have fingerprint a card and go for a long process. Do You know if the online Criminal records for the state one is OK?.
After i got both of them i should go for the legalization and appostille right?.
tks!!
Hi Wilson, I’m not sure if the online one is acceptable. I got the long version for my NY State criminal record and sent them my fingerprint card from the London. In my experience dealing with Italian bureaucracy, I would get the long version. You want to be as thorough as possible because in the end if they say that the online version isn’t enough once they finally check your documents on the system (which could take at least a year), you’ll have to go through all the work again of getting the long version, plus all the apostilles and translations. Once you get your records, you’ll need to get an apostille on them (FBI apostille is through the US government, state records through the state). You’ll also need to get them translated and each translation needs to have an apostille. I believe you’ll need to get the Colorado criminal records translated by someone in Colorado and then have those translation notarised by Colorado State. I hope this helps and good luck!
Question after reading your response to Wilson: I know the USA State backgound check and the FBI background check must be apostilled.
But, after translating those state/federal documents, I thought the consulate will simply ‘certify’ the translation- an apostille for the translation is not needed. Help please! Thanks for clarifying!
Hi Alyson, it’s confusing about certifying translations as it’s not exactly clear. From my own research, the consulates can certify translations if the translations were done within their jurisdiction. So for example, a NY state document needs to be translated by a New York State translator and be certified by the consulate. However, because the consulates are so busy and it could be close to impossible to get an appointment just to get a translation certified, you can get your translated documents apostilled (or legalised in the UK) instead of certified by the consulate. This is what I did for the translations of my US documents (I used the same translator for all of them). For the translation of the UK police record, the consulate certified it when I went in for my citizenship appointment, but I don’t know what the process is if you only need them to certify it. This is what I found on the London consulate website. If you’re going to London specifically for the documents, it may just be easier to do have the translation legalised and avoid the consulate altogether. However, you should ask Cristina the translator, she’d be able to tell you what the best thing to do is as she’s done this many times before.
i finally went through all the docs. Just to clarify this legalization process, i sent both Colorado and FBI Criminal records to be translated/apostiled at the One Source process (U$323 for both). I sent the originals by mail and they sent me back very fast.
After that i sent by mail too to the Consulate to be legalized (U$ 30.4) together with the returning mail envelop. I scanned everything and applied on line.
I was asked to go to the Consulate to deliver all the originals and so i did.
I have the K10/c Nbr already.
Does anyone know where i can check the evolution of my process?
Hi Wilson,
You can track your application online on the Ministero dell’Interno website where you had applied. It’s under the ‘Visualizza stato della domanda’. There are 7 stages to the process. You can find out more about the stages here. x Giovanna
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. I saved the link and I always double check just in case. Just a quick question, is it necessary to translate the apostille, for the police certificate for example!?
Thank you again.
Yes..The first step is to get original police certificate apostilled. Then you proceed to Italian translation of the apostilled certificate!
Hi Farana..how did your interview go? Anything you would like to share, especially what documents are required to be submitted at interview? Thanks!
Hi Stuart
The interview was quick. It was more like a informal meeting. I have them original Uk police clearance with stamp and Apostille and foreign one as well. Birth certificate translated Apostille and stamped , receipt for the €200 fee , the marriage certificate they had already as it was sent via email from Asti commune . I had to pay some charges about £60 for the documents at the embassy and then I handed them in to the lady. She asked me a few questions about application ( I assume to verify I am who I say I am ?). I then asked her how long it will take to hear back from them . She was honest to say she has no idea as they do under staffed . The particular department that deals with the next stage apparently had only 2 staff members?. It seems that we need a miracle for them to look into our applications . I still haven’t received any notification about my application to date after I handed the interview . I was actually thinking I will email them u until hopefully someone replies me with an update . So far on Aaliyah portal There’s nothing showing
Dear Giovanna,
Thank you for posting your story, very helpful info.
I am applying to become an Italian through marriage. Getting the documents are very challenging as I have lived in three countries before moving to London. I am married to an Italian citizen from Spenia Venezia. We registered our marriage at the London Consulate in January 2018 and I have been waiting for the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio to arrive. Instead of waiting I would to get the Estratto myself but the question is how and where? My husband does not know where to start.
I would be very grateful if you could let me know how did you get your Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio?
Thank you, May
PS: Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
Hi May, Thanks for reading and I’m glad you found it helpful. I received the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio directly from the comune. We had previously registered our marriage at the consulate in London who then communicated our marriage to my husband’s comune so they had us on record. At the time, the comune just sent us a letter to confirm that his civil status had changed. When it was time to get the Estratto, my partner phoned the comune and asked for the document and they sent it to his mother’s house who then sent it to us in London. Out of all the documents, this was the easiest one to collect. Good luck with everything!
Hi Giovanna, Thank you very much for your reply. My husband has to follow up the Estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio directly from his comune in that case. I hope to get this soon. Thanks once again, May
Dear Giovanna,
my application status now is “Stato della pratica:
Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono in via di definizione”
how many months should I wait more?
thank you
Hi Hasan,
You can check this website in Italian for a description of each phase. According to the website, it looks like you’re in stage 2 (out of 7 stages). I don’t know how long you should wait. It’s been 9 months now for me and I’m still in stage 1. Good luck!
I am not sure if this is first for you. My same sex husband and I have been together for 37 years, married legally for 9. We both live in NY. We both want to retire in Italy for at least half the year as we have grandchildren keeping us from moving there full-time. Entrambi siamo italo-americani. My question is; will it be easier for him to get dual citizenship because all his grandparents are from Italy. My grandparents are bit more complicated due to multiple name changes and bad record keeping. If my husband became a dual citizen, would I be able to apply for dual citizenship through him? Mille grazie. Lo apprezzo.
Hi Stephen, Thanks for reading. If your husband can get dual citizenship through his grandparents, it would save the headache of applying for elective residency visas and residency permits. However, the process could be very long and could take years. Although I’ve found some sites online that say they can help you skip the citizenship process. Also, you can look into applying for a visa/residency permit to live in Italy while the citizenship application is being processed. I don’t have experience about same-sex couples and the immigration process, so you’re better off getting more reliable information from a lawyer. While Italy doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, as of 2016 they do recognize same-sex civil unions which could give you the same rights and recognize you as a family member of an EU citizen. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, but there are a few options for you. Good luck with everything!
Citizenship is better. Seriously just do it.
It costed us approx 1k.
The key is the italian grand parent did not naturalize to US citizenshio before your husband’s father or mother or whoever the bloodline is was born.
You may need to dig through court record for this.
We did it in LA and the whole thing took maybe two years?
It was a bit of a pain.
If you can also apply for citizenship via ancestry just so that. Then both of you will get it.
If you do it through him then it is Like two years for him to get citizenship. Another few more years, if he dies or divorce during the process it stops. So if your record.can be straightened up. I would recommend doing it together.
However if he gets citizenship, then you can live in Italy as a resident, no problem for as long as u want. I assume applying for Italian citizenship via marriage inside Italy is prob a lot faster.
Love your blog!!! – We’re almost ready to submit – what a trip –
My husband was born in Mexico and has lived in the States since he was 10 years old. We’re flying back to Mexico next week to pick up his police clearance, translation, and get it certified from the Italian Embassy in Mexico City. We have ALL other documents, translations, ect.
We’re in month 4.5 – here’s my question – we just found out that on his Mexican birth certificate his date of birth is one day later than all of his other documents – US passport, US naturalization certificate, driver’s license – everything! He also shorten his name when he became a US citizen, but do you have any advice on how to apply through ALI – which birth date? do we use his legal name now or his birth name ? in Mexico legal names include his mother’s maiden name and he legally dropped it. Do you think the date of birth will give us trouble. We’ve done everything ourselves, but now are nervous and thinking of using a company to submit the documents through (we don’t want to screw up anything now) – they want USD 500 – any thoughts? We will be applying through the Consulate in Detroit. Thank you so much – hopefully we’ll see you in Sicily soon Dave
Hi Dave, This is a good question. I think you should use the birth date that is on most of the legal documents. When the consulate checks the paperwork online, they may come back to you with questions. Also, when you upload your paperwork, make sure you upload the multiple documents as one pdf, for examples when it asks you to upload the passport, upload yours and his passports along with the drivers licenses as one pdf. I didn’t do that and the consulate, when they checked it, asked me to re-upload the documents on the Ali website. It then took them two more months to check them again. I don’t want to tell you that you should or shouldn’t pay a company to submit the documents for you. I didn’t do it, but I speak Italian and there is an instruction manual. I worked through it slowly and you can always save it and come back to it later. Do you have any Italian friends that you can ask to help you with the application? You can give them a gift or pay them for their help. Good luck with everything and I hope you make it to Sicily soon! I haven’t been there yet, but hope to be there some day soon. x
Hi Giovanna, I have now received my K10 and my appointment at the consulate in London. Frustratingly, my Italian wife is going to be out of the country on the day of the appointment, so I have to go alone. It would be really helpful to know what the process is at the consulate. My Italian is very much beginner/intermediate – will they take pity and deal with me in English or insist on conducting the whole process in Italian? Thank you!
Hi Adam,
Could you please tell me, how long did it take since you submitted your online application; to get K10 for an appointment at the Consulate?
Best of luck in your case.
Hi Bibo, 683 days. I applied 21 November 2016 and got my K10 on 5 October, with my appointment a month later (but I had to rearrange that). I suspect the famous 720 day rule applied in my case – the appointment they offered was a few days before the 720th day from application.
Thank you for your reply, best of luck. I have just applied in this June 2018, which seems to be long way for getting an appointment.
Hi Adam,
Congratulations on getting your appointment! If I remember correctly, the appointment was quite short. She looked through my original documents and then I went downstairs to pay for the consular fees. While I was downstairs, my husband chatted to her and when I came back, I gave her the receipts and shook her hand and we were done. We spoke in Italian, but I’m sure they will speak to you in English. She didn’t give me much information, just that she would send my documents to Italy once we arrived and changed our residency. And that I could wait up to two years once my documents are submitted. Good luck!
Hi Giovanna, this is incredibly helpful. I have one question. You need to submit all these documents online on their portal. Then you will need to go to the appointment whenever they call you and show the documents.
If I have to introduce today a criminal record, and they call me 10 months later for the appointment, Do I need a NEW criminal record? Because the one I submit will be out of date after that.
I am very confused about that.
Hi Francisco,
As long as your criminal record is valid during the time you submitted your application (within 6 months of the submission date), then you will be fine. They won’t make you get a new one. Good luck!
Hi Giovanna! Great information – I LOVE your blog! My husband is an Italian citizen and we are currently living in Chicago. I am in the process of collecting all my documentation needed to submit for my citizenship. One kind of hiccup… we plan to move to Italy in Spring of 2019 and I should be ready to submit my application by that time. I know the wait time can be at least 2 years if I submit while living in the US. Would it be worth it to wait until we are in Italy? If so, do you have any idea on where I would submit my paper work or how the process works if we are living there?
Thanks so much!!
After u submit your application the wait time have been extended up to 4 years instead of 2 years, new rules ?
Hi Lydie,
Thanks for reading! If you’re planning on moving to Italy in the spring, then I would definitely apply in Italy. If you apply in Italy, you would submit through the Ministero dell’Interno website, the same that you would if you were to apply through the consulate. However you would fill out Modello A – Cittadini Stranieri residenti in Italia – Art.5 richiesta per matrimonio o unione civile con cittadino italiano. You can sign up on the website now and have a look at the application and see what other documents are needed. I suspect you’ll need to show your PdS and Carta d’Identita’ and other documents that show you’re a resident in Italy as well as a criminal record in Italy. It may take longer to get those documents, but the wait time may be a lot shorter applying through Italy rather than through the consulate. Good luck with everything!
hi Wandere, the 4 years wait time applies retroactively?
As for as i heared this 4 year rule apply on every one who ever applied already or the one’s who will apply
As for as i heared this 4 year rule apply on every one who ever applied already & the one’s who will apply
Hi Giovanna,
Thank you once again for great blog. I hope you don’t mind me asking: Did you use your maiden name or your husband name for your Italian citizenship application?
I only asked as I have dual citizenship; one passport is with my husband name, the other is with my maiden name. I just want to make sure I get my Police clearances only once. I would be very grateful for your help. Thank you.
Hi May, I’ve kept my name so I only applied with one name. I’m not sure how it works when you’ve changed your name, but maybe you can ask for your Police clearance using both of your names so they’re on the same document? Sorry I can’t help more. x
Hi am a partner of Italian citizen living here in UK..our marriage certificate has been fully converted by the commune in Italy..i have all the document from my country translate and legalised by Italian embassy in Nigeria.birth certificate,police report but the stamp on police report and birth certificate seem to have been more than 6month.do need to legalised them again or just police report..how many years wait now to get citizenship?
Kola: On the documentation, my reading is that all docs (legalized/apostille) cannot be older than six months at the time of your first time online application where you have to scan and upload all documents required. I think by reading through the various posting above, you may find more useful information on this. Or you can refer to the Italian Embassy in the UK for specific info on this based on your specific situation.
I can talk about the wait time a bit. I heard the wait time is now 4 years (per marriage and naturalization), even applicable retroactively for those cases still pending. The worst news is that you will have to present a B1 Italian language certificate which is a very high-level standard as compared to the other EU States, e.g. the Netherlands required an A2 certificate? But I also read there are few exemptions (for applicants already assessed on the basis of Italian language via Italian permanent residency status etc). For this, I am not so sure if the Italian B1 language certificate stuff applies retroactively for those cases still pending, as well ( but in my mind, I am afraid, it freaking does). I also read in another forum that the new language requirement is not retroactive, again am not sure. So, maybe folks who know more can help us here with better clarification/explanations. pls refer to the amended law, which was passed recently: https://www.cittadinanza.biz/nuova-legge-sulla-cittadinanza-la-riforma-salvini-in-6-punti/
Ok this is going to be LONG.. but I’m sure it will help some of you…
I have just read through a few of the comments posted already and I thought I’d add my 2 cents regarding applying for Italian Citizenship by Marriage to an Italian Citizen.
I am a South African citizen married to an Italian Citizen (residing in South Africa and registered as an Italian living abroad).
Although we have been together since 2001, we only got married in August 2015 and I have just submitted my application for Italian Citizenship (in November 2018).
Firstly, Italian women do NOT change their surnames when they get married… so your Italian Citizenship application and eventual Italian Passport will be in your MAIDEN surname. Please make sure that your Online Application is made with your MAIDEN surname and that all your supporting documents (Police Clearance Certificate, etc.) also reflects your MAIDEN surname.
It is also important that you check with your Department of Home Affairs of your Home Country what the rules are regarding DUAL CITIZENSHIP. In South Africa you need to APPLY for “RETENTION OF CITIZENSHIP” BEFORE you are granted Italian Citizenship or you will AUTOMATICALLY LOSE YOUR SOUTH AFRICAN CITIZENSHIP as soon as you gain Italian Citizenship if you do NOT have the certificate giving you permission to retain your South African Citizenship!!!
You need to get a letter from the Italian Consulate / Honorary Consul stating that you qualify for Italian Citizenship and that Italy allows Dual Citizenship with your country – you then have to take that letter to your Department of Home Affairs and Apply for a “Retention of Citizenship Certificate” (Local cost was ZAR300.00 for this certificate) – keep this certificate SAFE!
Steps:
1. Your spouse must obviously be an Italian Citizen – registered as an Italian living abroad (if not living in Italy
2. You need to be married for 3 years if living abroad and 2 years if you live in Italy before you can start your application (18 months from date of marriage if a child is born from the marriage)
3. Get your documentation in order before you do your online application;
3.1 You need to register your marriage with your spouse’s registered municipality in ITALY – this can be done through the Italian Consulate in your home country or your local Honorary /Vise Consul if you can’t do it yourself in Italy.
3.2 You will need the original certificate from the Italian Municipality stating both your details and details of your marriage – this is easier if you can give permission to a family member that still lives in Italy to collect the certificate on your behalf at the municipality in Italy where your spouse is registered and courier it to you.
3.3 A certified copy of your Passport – the page with your photo identification and passport/personal details on
3.4 Your original Unabridged Birth Certificate (has your details as well as those of both your mother and father – you will also need their details for the online application, so keep it handy)
3.5 Your original Police Clearance Certificate
3.6 There are TWO of these original documents that need to be ‘Apostilled’* and ‘Translated into Italian’**:
1. your Unabridged Birth Certificate and
2. your Police Clearance Certificate
So to save costs on courier/postage fees, I would advise that you wait until you have both these documents before you send them to be Apostilled and Translated – send them together
Herewith the process of getting your documents “Apostilled” and “Translated”:
*Apostille: in South Africa we have Government Documents “Apostilled” by DIRCO – Department of International Relations and Cooperation. You need to courier your original Government Document/s to them with a covering letter stating for which COUNTRY you require the Apostille/Legalization for – you obviously select ITALY
Follow your local “DIRCO” instructions for submitting and retrieving documents to and from them.
The “Apostille” is a page (certificate) with a seal on attached to your original document with ribbon (can’t be removed from the original document thereafter without damaging/nullifying the Apostille/seal). This “Apostille” (certificate attached to your original document) has the details of the person who signed the Government Document and confirms the legality, signator and his/her official title/position.
** Translation: When you receive your Original Document with “Apostille” back from DIRCO, you will have to send it all to a ‘Registered Sworn Translated’ to have it all Translated into Italian (you can get a list of Registered Sworn Translators from your local Italian Consulate). The sworn translator normally has their own stamp with details & credentials on that they will stamp on the official translation page/certificate and send the original to you. (I paid ZAR200/about Euro12.50 per translation page in October 2018).
The Italian Translation then needs the appropriate Italian Revenue Stamps from the Italian Consulate / Honorary Consul (Euro24 for these stamps as at November 2018) and “legalized” by the Italian Consulate or your local Honorary Consul. The Italian Consulate or Italian Honorary Consul/Vise Consul must sign next to the Sworn Translator’s signature and physically write that he/she confirms that the person who did the translation is a ‘Registered Sworn Translator’ and the amount paid in Euro and your home currency is recorded next to the revenue stamps).
You would have done both your Unabridged Birth Certificate as well as your Police Clearance Certificate (not older than 6 months) this way – Apostilled and Translated and Revenue Stamps Applied, etc. – so you will have THREE pages for each (original document, Apostille Page and Italian Translation) – make sure you scan all THREE these pages for each original document TOGETHER > i.e. ONE pdf file for 3 pages (3 pages in ONE pdf file for your Unabridged Birth Certificate and 3 pages in ONE pdf file for your Police Clearance Certificate) > you MUST UPLOAD all 3 these pages in ONE pdf file on your online application! VERY important
3.7 Make the required payment for the Citizenship Application Fee (as of November 2018 it has gone up to Euro250!)
Instructions and banking details can be obtained from the Italian Consulate.
You will need to print the proof of payment
So, herewith the list of all your documentation needed:
1. Unabridged Birth Certificate – Apostille + Translation (3 pages in 1 pdf file)
2. Police Clearance Certificate – Apostille + Translation (3 pages in 1 pdf file)
3. Italian Marriage Certificate (1 page)
4. Certified copy of your Passport (1 page)
5. Proof of payment for Application Fee (Euro250) (1 page)
4. Online Application: https://nullaostalavoro.dlci.interno.it
Unfortunately the whole online application & website is in ITALIAN – so unless you can speak Italian, it is advisable to get someone that DOES speak Italian to help you.
5. Once you have completed all the steps of the Online Application and successfully uploaded all your documents – you can submit your Online Application (follow website instructions)
6. I received an email the very next day from the Italian Consulate, with my local Honorary Consul “cc’d” into the email – requesting that he complete the “legalization” of the sworn translations correctly (he had put the revenue stamps and amounts on but did not physical write and sign and put his own stamp next to the translator’s signature – there is a certain way they need to do it) – so I had to go back to my Honorary Consul and have the document corrected – the next day I was able to re-upload those 2 translation documents on the online application and resubmit my online application
7. As soon as you submit your online application you can print your “questions” / completed online application in PDF form – you need to print this out – it’s called “Modulo di domanda compilata on-line” (9 pages) – YOU NEED TO SIGN THE LAST PAGE (PAGE 9) and your Honorary Consul / Italian Consulate needs to SIGN THE LAST PAGE as well and attach ANOTHER Italian Revenue Stamp (about Euro15.00 as at November 2018) > it is also important to note that wherever you need to SIGN you need to sign in your MAIDEN SURNAME!!!
8. You will also have received an email with an attachment page stating that your application has been received:
“Gentile xxx La informiamo che il modulo informatico è stato ricevuto correttamente.” (We inform you that the information form was received correctly) – and it has the your details and your application number on it.
9. About 3 days after submitting my online application I received another email from the Italian Consulate, requesting me to submit my Original Documents” – here they also give you your “K10/C” number.
Email wording:
Your Italian citizenship application n. K10/C/xxxxxxx has been provisionally accepted. Please acknowledge receipt of this notification.
You are kindly requested to present yourself to this Consulate or to the Honorary Vice Consul in xxx – as soon as possible – with the documentation
submitted on line for the necessary verification, authentication of signature and application of prescribed revenue stamp.
The following documents must be presented;
– Original unabridged birth certificate, Apostille, translation and legalization of sworn translator’s signature;
– Original criminal record certificate, Apostille, translation and legalization of sworn translator’s signature;
– Marriage certificate issued by the Municipaliity of registration in Italy;
– Proof of payment of Euro 250;
– Identity document submitted with our application;
– Printed version of the application submitted online.
Revenue stamp for the authentication of your signature amounts to R 228.00 which you can pay via eft (banking details attached) or in cash
10. You have to submit in person /courier ALL your original documents and the printed version of your application with the last revenue stamp on to the Italian Consulate.
11. And then you wait… a notification was sent out to all Italian Consulates and current pending applications in October 2018 that the waiting period for the PROCESSING of Citizenship Applications has been INCREASED to FOUR YEARS!
12. There are 7 “phases” of your Application (mine is currently on “fase 2”):
1. Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio Periferico sono stati avviati (fase 1)
2. L’istruttoria degli Uffici centrali è in corso, si è in attesa di acquisire tutti i pareri necessari (fase 2)
Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’ufficio periferico sono in via di definizione
3. è avviata l’istruttoria degli uffici centrali. è avviata l’istruuoria degli uffici competenti (fase 3)
4. Sono stati acquisiti i pareri – la pratica è in fase di valutazione finale (fase 4)
5. Sono stati acquisiti i pareri necessari. Il decreto di concessione è agli organi competenti per la firma (fase 5)
6. L’istruttoria si è conclusa favorevolmente; è in corso di trasmissione il provvedimento di concessione alla Prefettura che ne curerà la notifica. Se risiede all’estero, il decreto sarà inviato all’Autorità Consolare (fase 6)
7. Il decreto di concessione è stato firmato; sarà contattato dalla Prefettura per la notifica del provvedimento e dopo la notifica dovrà recarsi presso il Comune di residenza per il giuramento. Se risiede all’estero sarà contattato dall’Autorità consolare competente (fase 7)
7 Phases translated into English:
1. The assessments pertaining to the Peripheral Office have been initiated (phase 1)
2. The Central Offices’ investigation is underway, all the necessary opinions are awaited (phase 2)
The assessments pertaining to the peripheral office are being finalized
3. the investigation of the central offices is started. the investigation of the competent offices is started (phase 3)
4. Opinions have been acquired – the practice is under final evaluation (phase 4)
5. The necessary opinions have been acquired. The concession decree is to the competent bodies for the signature (phase 5)
6. The preliminary investigation ended favorably; the provision of a concession to the Prefecture which will take care of the notification is being transmitted. If he resides abroad, the decree will be sent to the Consular Authority (phase 6)
7. The concession decree was signed; he will be contacted by the Prefecture for the notification of the provision and after the notification he will have to go to the Municipality of residence for the oath. If he resides abroad he will be contacted by the competent consular authority (step 7)
13. Once your Application has gone through all “7 phases” and you have presented yourself to the Italian Consulate for the “Oath”, you will be granted “Italian Citizenship” – only THEN can you start the process of applying for your Italian Passport
GOOD LUCK! 😉
Wow, Vicky, thank you so much for your thorough explanation of the process through the consulate in South Africa. And especially thank you for going through all the stages both in Italian and English. This will be very useful to a lot of readers. Congrats on your application and for already reaching phase 2. I hope the rest of the process goes quickly for you!
Thank you Giovanna… it’s only a pleasure 🙂
I wish someone had explained it all to me before I started…even if one little piece of information can help someone else it’s worth it 🙂 Best of luck to all of you embarking on this frustrating, time-consuming, lengthy and sometimes infuriating process.. but it will all be worth it in the end 🙂 🙂 🙂 La vita è bella! Ciao xXx
Is this true that now they require b1 level of italian test for citizenship
Good afternoon
@Wanderer: I actually came back to this page to post this update when I saw your question…
You are quite correct… the new requirement is at least a Level B1, (Intermediate B1)
“Law December 1, 2018 n. 32 (which converted into law and modified/integrated Law Decree October 4, 2018 n. 113) introduced a new requirement for applications for Italian citizenship by marriage presented after December 4, 2018. Such law establishes that applicants for Italian citizenship by marriage must have an adequate knowledge of the Italian language (B1 level) which must be certified by an educational institution approved by the Italian Ministry of Education (“MIUR”) or Ministry of Foreign affairs (“MAECI”)”
Although it does say “applications for Italian citizenship by marriage presented AFTER December 4, 2018”, I am in communication with our Honorary Vice Consul regarding the matter to find out if it will affect EXISTING/PENDING applications as well or if it is only for NEW submissions uploaded ONLINE after 4 December 2018. He said they are still “waiting for confirmation”.
I have “Advanced 2” level with “Dante Alighieri”, but I am waiting for confirmation that this certificate will still be valid just in case I need it (I wrote the exam in 2009). The problem is also that we no longer have any Italian Language schools or courses in the town that I currently live in.. so if I need to write another exam it will cost me quite a bit of money to go write it elsewhere 🙁
I doubt that this will affect existing/pending application (well we hope and pray it doesn’t)… but I will post another comment here as soon as I have more news…. unfortunately all NEW applications will have to include the “Intermediate Level B1” qualification certificate
Hi Vicky,
Thanks for this. I see your information comes from italiancitizenshipassistance.com, but I don’t see this new language requirement on the Italian consulates websites (New York, London and Sydney) or on the Farnesina website. They all mention the rise in the application fee to 250 euros, but there is no mention of this new language requirement. I tried looking for more information online for it, but I only found info on the italian citizenship assistance website. Can anyone else point to somewhere else?
@vicky
This is terrible, such a long wait and now the b1 test
Hi Vicky,
Many thanks for your detailed post. I am an English woman, married to an Italian man and currently resident in Italy. My biggest concern/query is about what name I should use on the application. You suggest only using the MAIDEN name, but as my English passport and all residence/fiscal/tax documents here in Italy are in my married name, I’m not sure how it will work. It’s worth noting that I will be applying directly from Italy, and not via a consulate.
Does anybody else have any experience regarding the use of Maiden/Married name?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Helena
The Italian Ministry is quite clear on this matter; your application MUST be in your MAIDEN surname (the surname you were born with and that appears on your Birth Certificate)… regardless of marriage or other surnames abroad.
Regardless of what is reflected on your English passport / other legal documents, your Italian passport will be in your Maiden Surname. My South African passport and all my other tax/legal documents are also in my Married Surname… but my Italian Passport will be in my Maiden Surname. Italy does not recognize Married Surnames for women, you keep your birth surname for life in Italy.. regardless of marriage and surname in other countries. I had to sign as a witness at our Honorary Consul on some Italian documents for a family member here in South Africa and I even had to sign that in my Maiden Surname… very strange if you are so used to signing your Married Surname… I had to stop and think what my old signature even looked like! lol
It is also important to note that the last page of your printed online application (the one that you must SIGN and have an Italian Revenue stamp on) must also be signed in your MAIDEN surname (your birth surname that your application will be made in).
As far as I am aware, even though you are in Italy, your application will go through just about the same process as if you were not in Italy… the only major difference being that you can apply after 2 years of marriage because you reside in Italy as apposed to 3 years of marriage if living abroad.
You will still need to supply your Unabridged Birth Certificate with your application… and this will prove your BIRTH surname (Maiden Surname) for your application.
I also asked our Honorary Consul about having 2 passports with 2 different surnames on when traveling as I wasn’t sure which surname to book my plane tickets on, etc…. but he said obviously the people at Border Control in Italy are aware that women don’t change their surnames in Italy and as I will be traveling with both passports I won’t have a problem presenting the correct one when asked. He did advise me to always carry an original Unabridged Marriage Certificate in my passport as well… this will reflect my Maiden Surname as well as my Married Surname and my husband’s details.
Good luck and best wishes 🙂
Hello Vicky,
Many thanks for your swift and detailed response. I was unsure as on the modello section 2, ‘Dati del Richiedente’ asks for
‘Cognome’ and ‘Nome’, but then in section 4 under ‘Dati del Certificato di Nascita’ it asks again for ‘Cognome’ and ‘Nome’, so i figured that they had finally recognized the fact that people in other countries legally change their names after marriage 😀
The thing is that my identity card and legal documents here in Italy are all in my married name, yet my citizenship/passport will be in my maiden name?!This certainly is a crazy country!! 🙂
Thanks again and best wishes 🙂
Hello, do you by any chance know what happens after the application for citizenship (via marriage) is approved. What documents should be bring to the Consulate? Mine has not been approved yet, but it might be soon (as i am approving the wait period) and just to avoid any surprises, i wanted to know what to bring (e.g., original docs submitted with the application, the language certificate, etc). I have applied before the new reforms of 2018, but i wonder if someone was asked to bring the language certificate after the application has been approved. Thank you!
Hi Lia, I brought all the original documents submitted with the application. I follow the Dual Italy-US Citizenship facebook group and I haven’t come across someone being asked to bring the certificate even though they applied before the new reforms. If your application has been accepted, then I think you bring all the original documents that you had submitted in the first place. From what I’ve gathered from the various prefetture in Italy, the only thing that is retroactive for the new reforms is the 4 year waiting time. Good luck! x
Hi Giovanna
You can find the new legislation on the “Gazzetta Ufficiale della Republica Italiana” (Anno 159° Numero 281 del 3 dicembre 2018). Other changes were brought through on “Numero 231 del 4 ottobre 2018”
Here is the full “Gazetta Ufficiale della Republica Italiana: Numero 281 del 3 dicembre 2018” > the part you are looking for is on page 5 (page 9 on pdf): http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2018/12/03/281/sg/pdf
Here is a 6 point summary:
https://www.cittadinanza.biz/nuova-legge-sulla-cittadinanza-la-riforma-salvini-in-6-punti/
You can also read the following:
https://www.cittadinanza.biz/lingua-italiana-obbligatoria-per-la-cittadinanza-nel-decreto-salvini/
Excerpt translated into English:
“n Article 14: in paragraph 1, after letter a) the following is inserted: ‘A-bis) after Article 9 the following is inserted: “Article 9.1 – 1. The granting of Italian citizenship aipursuant to Articles 5 and 9 and subject to possession, by of the interested party, of an adequate knowledge of the Italian language, not lower than the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for knowledge of languages (CEFR). To this end, the applicants, who have not signed the integration agreement referred to to article 4-bis of the consolidated text referred to in the legislative decree 25 July 1998, n. 286, or who are not holders of permission to EU residence for long-term residents as referred to in Article 9 of the same single text, are kept, at the time of presentation of the instance, to certify the possession of a qualification issued by a public or joint educational institution recognized by the Ministry of Education, the University and the research and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation international or the Ministry of Education, University and of research, or to produce appropriate certification issued by a certification body recognized by the Ministry of Education, of the university and research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international cooperation or the Ministry of Education, of the university and of research”
I hope this helps 😉
Have a lovely day further
@vicy
Now the question is when to present this b1 level certificate while the time you apply for citizenship i mean after 2 or 3 years
Or at the end when all the 7 steps ends, I don’t really have any idea when to present this because I didn’t applied yet because i am left with few months to apply for Italian citizenship, now they will want me to present it with the documents i will submit i mean birth certificate, pollice clearance certificate, etc etc
@Wanderer… If I understand you correctly, you have not yet done your online application?
You will then unfortunately have to have the “Level B1” or higher language certification… as your date of application will be AFTER 4 December 2018.
I would presume that if you are a new applicant you will upload the “Level B1” or higher certificate with your other documents when you do your online application… although I don’t know whether the “file upload option” for this “document” has been added to the online application page of documents to be uploaded yet… so if the online application website hasn’t been updated yet, I would presume that your consulate will notify you of the new required document to include it when you send/submit your original documents to your consulate.
IMO it would be a logistical nightmare to apply the new law to existing applications as you will have already submitted your application and original documents… which will now be sitting somewhere at a consulate or in Italy already… so to add another piece of paper to an application already being “processed” will be almost impossible.
Therefore I also don’t think that you will be allowed to submit your application now and only submit your “Level B1 Certificate” at a later stage as your application is done as a whole with ALL your required documents… if anything is missing they will not complete your application.
You were asking when you will “present this b1 level certificate” when you only have a few months left to apply for your citizenship? I have not seen any “deadline” actually enforced in which you need to apply for citizenship after the “eligible date”. The “deadline” for the MINISTRY is now 48 months (4 years) in which your Application needs to be finalized… only after this time can you take the matter further if you have not yet received any notification regarding the status of your application, if there is no just cause… obviously if your application was incomplete and you didn’t submit all the required documents the Ministry will have just cause not to grant your application.
It would be wise to send an email to your local Italian Consulate asking for clarification and advise regarding this matter… and if there is such a “deadline” if they will allow you more time to submit your application – to be able to obtain the Level B1 Certificate… as you will NOT be able to submit your application at all if you don’t have ALL the required documents (including the new requirement)… the consulate will not submit your application to Italy if you do not have a complete application.
Unfortunately if you already have your “Police Clearance Certificate” you will need to get a new one closer to the time when you have ALL your required documents as the Police Clearance Certificate can’t be older than 6 months before the date of your online application.
This serves as a friendly warning to anyone out there that has been married for a while already, but who hasn’t submitted their application yet… don’t waste any time on this… submit as soon as you can after the required 2 or 3 year waiting period… you never know what new regulations like this can stall or stop your application completely. You have 2 or 3 years of being married to get all your documentation in order… don’t delay.
Also… you have at least 2 or 3 years of being married to an Italian before you can apply for citizenship… so encourage him/her to speak Italian to you to help you learn the language. It’s a beautiful language and I know it might be hard to learn a new language, but it does show a little respect to the country you are asking to give you citizenship… and it also might “score you brownie points” and help you to interact better with your new Italian in-laws 😉
Good luck guys
Buon fine settimana!
@vicky
Thx for the reply, yes I didn’t applied yet for the citizenship i will apply after few months but if i have to present this B1 with the documents it is impossible to do it, if they have the option to submit it while the application is under process it will be v easy for us
Any way what to say
We have to work on it from now
Thanks Vicky for all of the info and links! It’s so helpful! I keep looking on the Farnesina website and there isn’t any mention yet of the new language requirement for citizenship via marriage, although they do have an update about the rise in the application fee based on the new ruling. I suppose we’ll hear eventually from the consulates and Farnesina website. Fingers crossed!
Thanks Giovanni for starting this blog. I am going through the process and have one tip to share and one question hoping someone might know the answer to.
First the tip: After going through the very lengthy process of collecting, notarizing, certifying, translating, stamping ….etc the police certificates from the two countries I lived in since the age of 14 and submitting these along with the rest of the documents I get an email 48 hours later from the Italian embassy where I applied saying that my application was received but I need to also submit a police certificate for the country I was born in even if I haven’t lived in that country beyond the age of 14. This is something that they don’t mention anywhere on their website. I know that this might not apply to many people but there are folks out there that were born in countries where they did not live at all (left right after birth) or left before the age of 14. So it was very frustrating after completing all the paperwork to get that curve ball and have to go through another bureaucratic dejavu of notarization, stamping, certifying, translating, all over again. So keep that in mind if you are like me and were born in a country but left before the age of 14. You STILL need to provide a police certificate from that country.
My question is: I’m now concerned about the validity of the police certificates from the two countries that I submitted to the Italian embassy as they might be expiring (exceeding 6 months since they were issued) soon. Im worried that they would expire before I can get the police certificate from my country of birth. I know that the 6 month expiration counter stops once you submit the documents online but Im not sure if that applies to my case since they haven’t fully accepted my application as its still missing the country of birth police certificate. Does anyone have a similar experience that they can share?
Hi Bimmer
Wow, you really have had a terrible time getting all your documentation together 🙁
I wish I knew how to help you… the only advice I could offer you is to contact the consulate again to query the following:
As far as I can tell you have already submitted your Online Application and you have physically handed in/couriered your original documents to the consulate?
If this is the case, there MIGHT be a small chance that you will not have to redo the other 2 Police Clearance Certificates as the requirements state that the police clearance certificates need to be not older than 6 months from DATE OF ONLINE APPLICATION. As you have already submitted your Online Application with those 2 valid Police Clearance Certificates, they should accept them and allow you to obtain the other Police Clearance Certificate to add…. BUT… it would be best to confirm this directly with the Italian Consulate, explaining your case to them. Maybe they will give you a “grace period” to add the missing Police Clearance certificate from your birth country?
I will try to do some more research on my side for you as well… but in the meantime, prepare for the worst and start getting everything together again to re-apply for those 2 Police Clearance Certificates 🙁 Holding thumbs that you don’t have to…. but try to get that Police Clearance certificate from your birth country ASAP. I know it’s hard, but try to stay positive… you’ve come so far already…. this too shall pass 😉
Best of luck
Hi Giovanna – thank you for this excellent summary, which reflects my own experience. Wish I had seen it sooner! We now have our final documents together (the process of submitting our apostilled and translated marriage certificate via the consulate in London and to receive the estratto took thirteen months)!
Has anybody raised any issues with the €200 transfer to the Ministero dell’interno . We’re entirely UK based and don’t have a Euro account. My high street bank (Santander) will make the payment and we can stipulate recipient to receive €200 (so the bank simply deducts the necessary sterling from our account to achieve this). But I have horrible visions of the international payment system making further fee deductions from what we send (for example I used to have a UK based Euro account and my bank charged about €10 to receive a payment) so potentially less than €200 arriving. Even worse, despite having some kind of printed receipt (which may in fact only be a screen shot from my bank) I can’t imagine how the consulate in London will identify my €200 payment amongst the millions of payments that Poste Italiane receives !
Does anyone have any experience of this or guidance ?
Good morning Harvito
Herewith my experience regarding the payment of the Application Fee… probably a bit of useless information for you, but I am doing it as a ‘general information’ post that might be useful to someone else as well 😉
1. The fee is now €250.00 and not €200.00
2. Do you use Online Banking / Banking App with your Bank Account? Most banks have an option for “Forex Payments” on your Online Banking profile. You can phone your bank to help you setup your Online Banking Profile if you haven’t done so yet… they should also be able to explain to you how to make a Forex Payment with your Online Banking. I could give you a full screenshot tutorial on how to do the online Forex payment, but it won’t help you one bit as all banks and their online banking / Apps are so different.
3. The Italian Consulate will give you the correct banking details… it will look something like this (take note of the required payment reference). **Please check the banking details yourself that you received from your Italian Consulate, this is just an example:
Payment instructions
a- Revenue stamps to be paid in cash/ EFT to the Consulate
b- Euro 250 to be transferred internationally into the following account:
Type: post office account (POSTE ITALIANE SPA)
Bank and Account holder: MINISTERO DELL’INTERNO D.L.C.I. – CITTADINANZA
Address of account holder: Piazza del Viminale n. 1 – 00184 Roma
IBAN: IT54D0760103200000000809020
BIC/SWIFT code: BPPIITRRXXX
reference must state: “Domanda cittadinanza”: name, surname (for women maiden surname only) and date of
birth of the person who applies for citizenship.
4. When you do the actual payment online, it will ask you if the charges [SWIFT/IBAN (International Fees)/Banking fees] are for the account of the BENEFICIARY or for your OWN account… you must select for YOUR OWN account… otherwise your payment will be short. There should be no other deductions from the recipient’s account as you have already selected to pay ALL fees from your own account. On my payment (under “Charge Details”) it clearly stated “Charge Option – All charges for applicants account”.
Could it maybe have been that your “UK based Euro account” was charged €10 because the person paying you didn’t select to pay all the charges him/herself?
For those of you that would like to know what “SWIFT” / “IBAN” stands for:
SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. It is a messaging network that financial institutions use to securely transmit information and instructions through a standardized system of codes.
The main difference between an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and a Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) code lies in what they identify. A SWIFT code is used to identify a specific bank during an international transaction, whereas IBAN is used to identify an individual account involved in the international transaction.
The payment from the FOREX Payments section on your online banking profile will always be in the recipient’s currency (i.e. Euro for Italy). You will be asked to select which country your payment will be made to (select Italy and it will automatically change the currency to Euro).
You can phone your bank to ask what their SWIFT/banking fees are for Forex payments online, but my online banking actually gave me a quote with all the applicable fees/charges and amounts as well ask asking which one of your bank accounts need to be debited for the fees… you then need to “confirm” the quote in order to process the payment. Once the payment is made you can download the proof of payment from your online banking profile… my bank also emailed me confirmation as soon as the payment when trough… this is what I printed to send with my application.
4. If you are not comfortable with doing the payment yourself via online banking, you can go to your bank and ask them to make the payment for you (I don’t know if the fees will be more this way or not). You will also have to phone your bank first and ask what documents they require from you in order to do the payment (not all banks require the same documentation)… you will then also tell them that ALL the fees will be for YOUR account. Double-check that they insert the correct banking details and PAYMENT REFERENCE and make sure you get a stamped proof of payment from the bank for the €250.00. Be very clear with your bank consultant/clerk that you need a proper proof of payment reflecting the amount in Euro, date of payment, beneficiary details, beneficiary account details and the correct payment reference. (Take a printed copy of the ‘payment instructions’ from the Italian Consulate with you to the bank).
5. Your consulate in London will not have to “identify the €250 payment amongst the millions of payments that Poste Italiane receives” > Your payment goes straight to Italy (Rome), not to your local consulate… it is a bank account belonging to the Italian Ministry – for Citizenship Applications (Bank and Account holder: MINISTERO DELL’INTERNO D.L.C.I. – CITTADINANZA)
It is very important that your PAYMENT REFERENCE is correct though:
“reference must state: “Domanda cittadinanza”: name, surname (for women maiden surname only) and date of
birth of the person who applies for citizenship” (E.g. DOMANDA CITTADINANZA: JAMES FRASER 15-05-1981)
Your payment will also have a unique “payment reference number” from your bank… this will all be on your “proof of payment” you will send with your application – so they (Italy/MINISTERO DELL’INTERNO) will be able to ‘pick up your payment’ on THEIR bank account. Your consulate in London will only look at your printed proof of payment to see that it has the correct details and amount on, etc. before they send it off to Italy with your application.
Best wishes for 2019 and I hope you all have a great week ahead 🙂
Hi Harvito (and thanks Vicky for the reply about your experience),
For me, I paid the application fee through my UK Santander bank and made the transfer online (bank fee £15). I then saved the page as a pdf that confirmed the payment was made with a receipt. I uploaded that pdf to the site when I did my application and no one questioned me about it.
Also, as Vicky as already said, the application fee is now 250 euros.
Good luck! x
Hi Giovanna,
I submitted my application in early October 2017 (after spending 6 months collecting all the required paperwork and more money in postage that I care to admit). I also paid the application fee. I like, many others, have had no feedback. I have two concerns – I did not upload all the paperwork as a single PDF file – does that mean they will have only received the last one I uploaded? It’s impossible to for me to see what was actually uploaded and received. Also I have heard there is a change in the law and now it can take over 4 years (which seems slightly absurd). The UK is also being bombarded with applications yet my husband’s in totality took less than 8 weeks. Finally I read somewhere if they have not acknowledged or declined your application after two years you automatically have citizenship (which is of pointless because you can’t get in touch with anyone). The email address you mention has been disabled now. Is there anything that a solicitor can do to assist in the process? They want £500 just to have a chat – again seems like bonkers given the process. Thanks,
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
I hear your frustration! I know some of the people that commented on this post mentioned that they waited at least about a year and a half before they heard from the London consulate and some people I know in New York waited 3 years for an appointment. To answer your first question, I uploaded my pdf incorrectly and when the consulate checked my application, they asked me to do it again in the correct way by going back on the Farnesina website where next to my application, there was a little button that I could click on to upload a new pdf. Once I did that, two months later the consulate sent me an email to notify me of my appointment.
The previous law was that once your application was accepted (meaning you had your appointment at the consulate and handed in your original documents), if two years had passed and you were still in the process, you would automatically get your Italian citizenship. The new law which was passed in December has now changed the wait to 4 years, requires those who apply for citizenship via marriage also have a B1 level of Italian and has raised the application fee to 250 Euros, but other than the parliament website which published the new law when it was voted on, I’ve only seen the consular websites and Minister dell’Interno website updated with the new application fee. There is no mention of the change in wait time or the language certificate requirement. I don’t know what that means and I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I don’t know what a solicitor could do, I haven’t used one for my process, so I can’t tell you if it’s worth paying that money or if they can speed up the process for you now that you’ve already sent in your application. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. Everything takes ages. I had my appointment at the consulate last year and they transferred my application to the citizenship office in Venice when I moved here at the end of 2017 and I’m still at stage 1. I’m expecting it to take at least another two years, but probably longer. x Giovanna
Hello Giovanna,
I didn’t know I had to legalise my documents before submitting them online.
Do you know if I can upload it after receiving the code K10/K10C or should I submit it via email?
Thanks a lot,
Keshef
Thank you everyone, especially Giovanna and Vicky. Giovanna, I used Words at Hand for my UK Police Report translation, thanks for the referral. The 150 quid was well worth it- timely translation and a physical visit to Consulate in London for Certification of the police document, which saved me a trip from NYC to London. For the USA docs, I used Rev.com and they were speedy and about $33.00 for every page of up to 250 words per page.
Vicky, thanks for laying it all out there. My process was pretty much exactly as you wrote.
I began collecting my 5 police reports, birth cert etc in May 2018. My translations & apostilles were all in place by mid October. I uploaded my docs and fee to Italy in early November. My Consulate interview here in NYC was in early December. I am currently in “Step 2” of the “7-step” process.
My estimate is that I saved somewhere between 4-5K$ by doing everything myself and not hiring a consultant (except for the UK translator).
A few things that helped me along:
Organization: I put together a 3-ring binder with loadable plastic sleeves to store my physical docs and keep track of everything. I made a task list with timeline and deadline for every document needed, and made this Page 1, writing down the dates for every request/mailing/translation time/apostille etc. Very OCD but it kept me on track time and task wise, and my consular official was quite impressed lol.
Names: What Vicky wrote above about maiden names is very important. My passport has my maiden and married names, and thus for every application, request, even return mailing address I used exactly those names. I’ll add that if you have an a/k/a for example, a shortened version of your formal name which you more frequently use, make sure to include it.
New Laws: My understanding is that if you applied prior to 5 Oct 2018 (when the law was still provisional) you are exempt from from the new up to 4-year waiting period (please correct me if this is not true). I was also told by an official, that there would potentially be an applicant language requirement of “B-level” (I think he said B-sorry, we don’t use this level system over here so again, correct me please).
Thanks again for all, and now, we wait.
Ah yes, above I see B1level.
Hi Alyson
Thank you for your input of personal experience as well 🙂
Just a note on your last comment regarding the “4 year waiting period” for people that applied prior to 5 October 2018…
My brother-in-law submitted his application over 2 years ago (October 2016) and he is actually the first one that told me about the new “4 year application period” as he received an email notification from the consulate to inform him that the “application processing period” has been increased to 4 years… so I think it applies to ALL applications, existing as well as new applications 🙁
I sincerely hope that the people here on Giovanna’s site will keep us updated and let us know when they eventually receive their Citizenship/Italian Passports (with date of application/submitting online) so we can see how long it takes and from where they applied, etc. … and of course so we can congratulate them at last 🙂 🙂 🙂
Good luck and best wishes for the long wait 😉
Hey Giovanna,
I’m starting the process soon and it looks like a new law went into effect in December 2018, where applicants applying through marriage now need to provide evidence of Italian language at a b1 level (intermediate).
Hi Giovanna/all,
Thanks for all the info posted… really helpful specially with all the latest changes.
Are there updates on where people who uploaded documents before 4th of December stand with the B1 Italian certificate? I uploaded all my documents in February 2018, still no response and I don’t know whether I have to get the certificate when I apply for citizenship.
thanks,
Carlos
Hi Giovanna,
an amazing blog. Thanks.
I am in the process of applying for an Italian passport but cant understand whether i need to have the English and Italian translation of my Birth Certificate and Criminal Record legalised or only the English. Any ideas?
many thanks
Hi T De Lisio
Firstly, I presume you mean you are in the process for applying for Italian Citizenship, not “passport”… as you can’t apply for an Italian Passport if you don’t have Italian Citizenship yet 😉
I would also need to know what country you are applying from (your home/official language) and what you mean by “legalised” to understand your question better.
Your question could mean 1 of 2 things…
1. You have TWO translations… so your original Birth Certificate and Criminal Record Certificates are not in English or Italian and you translated them into BOTH languages (English + Italian)? If this is the case you would not have had to translate it into English… they are only interested in the ITALIAN translations (you should have just had your original certificates translated into Italian).
2. Your question could also mean that you have already translated your original ENGLISH birth certificate and criminal record certificate into ITALIAN and now you want to know if you need the originals as well as Italian translations “legalized” by your Department of International Relations?
This is why I need to know a little more about your situation to be able to answer you accordingly..
There is the difference between “Apostilled”/Legalizing your ORIGINAL (government issued) certificates and “Legalizing” (putting an Italian Revenue Stamp on and relevant confirmations & signing of all your documents that are in ITALIAN)…
Your country’s Department of International Relations can only “legalize/Apostille” documents that have been issued by your country… so they can’t “legalize/Apostille” anything else like your Italian Translation, etc… they ONLY legalize documents issued by GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY (e.g. Birth Certificates and Police Issued Criminal Record Certificates, etc.)
Any government issued certificate (Birth Certificate + Criminal Record Certificate, etc.) must be “legalized” (Apostilled) by the country that ISSUED it (your country of birth/residence). In my country we call it “DIRCO” (Department of International Relations and Cooperation). This department is just confirming the legality of your certificate/s – confirming that the certificate is not a fake and that it recognizes the official that signed the certificate and their rank/position. Once you have your ‘Apostilled Certificate” attached to your Original Certificate, you must have it all Translated into ITALIAN. It is recommended that you have your ORIGINAL certificates “legalized” (Apostilled) FIRST, before your have them translated into Italian as the information on the Apostilled Certificate attached to your Original Certificate is needed to do the translation into Italian correctly (name and rank confirmations of officials, etc.)
These ITALIAN translations will be stamped and signed by the registered sworn translator, BUT these translation documents then have to get an ‘Italian Revenue Stamp’ on and the sworn translators’ signature must be verified on the Translation by the Italian Consulate (Italy’s form of “legalizing” your Italian Documents)
Herewith the process again of getting your documents “Apostilled” and “Translated”:
*Apostille: in South Africa we have Government Documents “Apostilled” by DIRCO – Department of International Relations and Cooperation. You need to courier your original Government Document/s to them with a covering letter stating for which COUNTRY you require the Apostille/Legalization for – you obviously select ITALY
Follow your local “DIRCO” instructions for submitting and retrieving documents to and from them.
The “Apostille” is a page (certificate) with a seal on attached to your original document with ribbon (can’t be removed from the original document thereafter without damaging/nullifying the Apostille/seal). This “Apostille” (certificate attached to your original document) has the details of the person who signed the Government Document and confirms the legality, signator and his/her official title/position.
** Translation: When you receive your Original Document with “Apostille” back from DIRCO, you will have to send it all to a ‘Registered Sworn Translated’ to have it all Translated into Italian (you can get a list of Registered Sworn Translators from your local Italian Consulate). The sworn translator normally has their own stamp with details & credentials on that they will stamp on the official translation page/certificate and send the original to you. (I paid ZAR200/about Euro12.50 per translation page in October 2018).
The Italian Translation then needs the appropriate Italian Revenue Stamps from the Italian Consulate / Honorary Consul (Euro24 for these stamps as at November 2018) and “legalized” by the Italian Consulate or your local Honorary Consul. The Italian Consulate or Italian Honorary Consul/Vise Consul must sign next to the Sworn Translator’s signature and physically write that he/she confirms that the person who did the translation is a ‘Registered Sworn Translator’ and the amount paid in Euro and your home currency is recorded next to the revenue stamps).
You would have done both your Unabridged Birth Certificate as well as your Police Clearance Certificate (not older than 6 months) this way – Apostilled and Translated and Revenue Stamps Applied, etc. – so you will have THREE pages for each (original document, Apostille Page and Italian Translation) – make sure you scan all THREE these pages for each original document TOGETHER > i.e. ONE pdf file for 3 pages (3 pages in ONE pdf file for your Unabridged Birth Certificate and 3 pages in ONE pdf file for your Police Clearance Certificate) > you MUST UPLOAD all 3 these pages in ONE pdf file on your online application! VERY important
I hope this helps 🙂
Hi Vicky,
apologies for the misunderstanding. Yes you are quite correct, I am applying for IT citizenship with the end goal of getting a passport.
I am British and my birth certificate/Criminal record certificate are in English. I have had them translated into Italian and I wasn’t sure whether or not the original and/or the translation need to be legalised.
I see from your response above “Once you have your ‘Apostilled Certificate” attached to your Original Certificate, you must have it all Translated into ITALIAN. It is recommended that you have your ORIGINAL certificates “legalized” (Apostilled) FIRST, before your have them translated into Italian as the information on the Apostilled Certificate attached to your Original Certificate is needed to do the translation into Italian correctly (name and rank confirmations of officials, etc.)
*sigh – i had them translated before they were legalised.
wish the instructions were clearer.
thanks again.
Hi T,
You don’t mention if you’re a US citizen or UK citizen and that your original documents are in English. Assuming that they are in English, the originals will need an apostille (or be legalised if your documents are from the UK). The translations will also need to be legalised/apostilled. As Vicky mentioned in her reply to you (thank you, Vicky), depending on where you’re from or where your documents are being translated, the process may be a little different on how you get the apostille. However, whatever the case, the original copies and the translations need to be legalised/apostilled. The translator I hired in New York to translate my US documents was very helpful in giving me more information about how to get the apostille. I hired a British translator to translate my UK police certificate and then I had it legalised. Good luck with everything! x
Hi Vicky,
apologies for the misunderstanding. Yes you are quite correct, I am applying for IT citizenship with the end goal of getting a passport.
I am British and my birth certificate/Criminal record certificate are in English. I have had them translated into Italian and I wasn’t sure whether or not the original and/or the translation need to be legalised.
I see from your response above “Once you have your ‘Apostilled Certificate” attached to your Original Certificate, you must have it all Translated into ITALIAN. It is recommended that you have your ORIGINAL certificates “legalized” (Apostilled) FIRST, before your have them translated into Italian as the information on the Apostilled Certificate attached to your Original Certificate is needed to do the translation into Italian correctly (name and rank confirmations of officials, etc.)
*sigh – i had them translated before they were legalised.
wish the instructions were clearer.
thanks again.
Dear Giovanna,
thank you for taking the time to respond.
so, i need to do the foolowing:
1. have my birth certificate and criminal record legalised by (Legalisation Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, PO Box 6255, Milton Keynes, MK10 1XX)
2. have the legalised version translated into italian, including the apostilled certificate
3. then the italian versions need to legalised*. Now the question is, how do you get the IT consulate in London to legalise the translations? do you take the documents in in person to the consulate before you apply for citizenship? Or do they do this when they invite you in for a meeting (in a couple of years).
4. all 3 pages need to be uploaded as a single pdf.
* The Italian Translation then needs the appropriate Italian Revenue Stamps from the Italian Consulate / Honorary Consul (Euro24 for these stamps as at November 2018) and “legalized” by the Italian Consulate or your local Honorary Consul. The Italian Consulate or Italian Honorary Consul/Vise Consul must sign next to the Sworn Translator’s signature and physically write that he/she confirms that the person who did the translation is a ‘Registered Sworn Translator’ and the amount paid in Euro and your home currency is recorded next to the revenue stamps).
apologies if i am asking very obvious questions.
many thanks for helping.
Good morning T
Apologies for only seeing your reply and followup questions now… I haven’t checked in on this site for a while.
As always, thanks to Giovanna for this lovely site and all your help and information 😉
I’m sorry the instructions are not clear enough… I also wish I knew everything before I did my own application.
It was a lot of trial and error, but thankfully I had a very helpful Honorary Consul in our town that assisted me… (he can perform certain duties (consular services) and act on behalf of the Italian Consulate as we don’t have an Italian Consulate in our town)… and if he didn’t know something he would communicate with the Italian Consulate on my behalf to get answers. Even HIS instructions (from the Italian Consulate) were not very clear and after submitting my documents online with my application the Italian Consulate emailed both of us (myself and the Honorary Consul Member) to state what he needed to physically write on my Italian Translation documents (see his wording a little further down) and that I then need to resubmit those documents online.
It is a bit confusing to use the term “legalizing” for your ‘home country documents’ (e.g. English Government Issued Documents) and then you have “legalizing” for your Italian Translations as well… all the information and processes can be quite overwhelming, I know… but just take it 1 step at a time.
Now that you understand how to “legalize” (Apostille) your English/home country documents… herewith the explanation of what “legalizing” your Italian Translations means”…
I must just add here that there is normally a list of “REGISTERED Italian SWORN translators” in your country… you can get the list from your local Italian Consulate… make sure you use one of the sworn translators on THAT LIST.
Once you have your Italian Translations, you will have to have the sworn translator’s signature “verified”… and this is what “legalizing” that document/translation means. As it is an ITALIAN document (your translation/s), it needs to be verified by ITALY… and this is done by the Italian Consulate (or Honorary Consul in your town if you don’t have an Italian Consulate).
This is the explanation/instructions from our Italian Consulate in South Africa:
“Signature of sworn translator must either be legalized by means of an Apostille (issued by the Cape Town High
Court, free of charge) or legalized by the Consulate of Italy (Revenue stamp of R391.00 to be paid upon
legalization). Said legalization must be done prior to submitting application”
**Please take special note of the last line… “Said legalization must be done PRIOR to submitting application”.
When you scan your 3 pages together in 1 PDF file (original English government issued certificate, the Apostilled certificate page attached to the original government issued certificate, and your Italian Translation)… your Italian Translation MUST be “legalized” already. My Italian Translation had the Italian Revenue Stamps on as well as the signature and stamp of our Italian Honorary Consul, BUT it was missing some writing on by our Honorary Consul when I submitted my documents with my application online and the Italian Consulate emailed me and the Honorary Consul Member the very next day to tell us about the error… they won’t accept / process your application if your documents are not all 100% correct and “legalized”.
Once you upload your documents online with your application and you SUBMIT your application, you CAN NOT CHANGE anything… but after the Italian Consulate instructed us to fix the error on my Italian Translation pages and to “re-submit” those documents ONLY, I logged into my online application the next day and I could still not change anything on my application/questions (all the pages were grey’d out).. but only the section where you upload your documents was open to re-upload… I couldn’t re-upload any other documents or make changes to question answers, only the sections that you have to submit your “3 page, 1 pdf file” of your documents that need the Italian Translations on was open to upload again… once I uploaded the corrected documents, my application was “closed again” for alterations.
This is probably a lot of information you won’t need, but maybe it could help someone else that landed in the same position as me and they might not know what to do/expect next and how to “re-upload” documents after “submitting” their online applications. This is just to let you know that you will be informed by the Italian Consulate of incorrect documentation and only when THEY “open up” your online application can you re-upload documents as requested by the Italian Consulate. I also don’t know if all Italian Consulates operate the same as ours and you might not get notifications of incorrect documentation and your application could just be held back / delayed or not processed… so it is always best to make 100% sure that your documents and application information is 100% correct BEFORE you SUBMIT.
Back to the instructions from the Italian Consulate…
Obviously I wasn’t going to go to the High Court to verify the Italian Sworn Translator when I could just go to our Honorary Consul (or Italian Consulate in your case)… I just took my Italian Translations to our Honorary Vise Consul and he verified the sworn translator’s signature on my Italian Translations by signing next to her signature, putting his stamp on and physically writing in Italian that he verifies the signature of the sworn translator and that she is registered with the Italian Consulate in Cape Town (yours will say London/whichever Italian Consulate your translator is registered at)… and then he puts the Italian Revenue Stamps on it as well.
This is what he wrote on my translations:
Visto per la legalizzazione della firma della Sig.ra XXXXX XXXXXX (name of translator), traduttore giurato, la cui firma è dipositata presso il consolato d’Italia in Cape Town
Roughly translated:
I have seen for the legalization of the signature of Mrs. XXXXX XXXXXX (name of translator), sworn translator, whose signature is held at the Italian consulate in Cape Town
Am I correct that you are in London?
I am not sure how to setup an appointment for consular services in London… but I have found their contact details online… maybe send them an email or phone them? Tell them what you need to have done (legalize Italian Translations) and ask them how to proceed…
Italian Consulate General, LONDON
“Harp House”, 83/86 FARRINGDON STREET
LONDON EC4A 4BL
Tel. 0044 (0) 20 79365900
email: consolato.londra@esteri.it
web: http://www.conslondra.esteri.it
Opening hours: Monday-Friday, 9am – 12 noon
Consular district:
England, Wales, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Channel Islands, Gibraltar and South Georgia & Sandwich Islands.
Hope my reply was of some help and not too confusing
Good luck 😉
thank you so much. really appreciate your help.
Hi T,
I believe each consulate may have slightly different criteria about for legalising and translating the documents, so it sounds like Vicky’s experience was slightly different than mine.
For me, I had each original document and its translation legalised/apostilled separately as that was what I had interpreted on the London consulate website (although the NY consulate says that you can legalise the original with its translation together.) My application with the originals and translations was accepted.
I only had one British document (the UK police certificate) as part of my application. I had it translated (and not legalised) and uploaded it as part of my application. The consulate certified the document when I handed in my documents during my appointment a year later.
I used Cristina Boscaino who is a listed translator on the London consulate website. During my appointment, the person accepting my application signed and stamped the translation certifying it. I then had to go downstairs to the cashier desk and pay for the stamp. Then I went back and gave her the receipt and that was it.
The consulate then sent my application with the original documents and translations, all certified/legalised/apostilled, to Italy for it to be processed.
Good luck with everything! x Giovanna
thank you so much. really appreciate your help.
Hi Giovanna I want to ask you something I am in Italy and I have applied for the cizitenship but now me and my wife want to move to uk
I have 5 years family card but I don’t now if i should transfer my resident in uk or not I am not shure if I lose my family card
Hi Ben,
I’m not really sure either if you’ll lose your family card. However, when you and your wife move to the UK, she will need to register with l’AIRE at the consulate in the UK (London or Edinburgh depending on where you live). As a spouse of an Italian citizen, you will be registered as well and the consulate can tell you about what will happen with your family card. But I suggest your wife registers with l’AIRE as they will be able to find you and let you know of your citizenship status. Good luck with everything! x
Hello Giovanna! This is great, thanks, I’m in the process of applying myself, and I have one question that maybe someone can help with. On page 9 on the portal it asks for addresses, and it seems it wants my past addresses rather than just now. How far back do they want me to go? I have lived in a lot of places! Did you give a full address history?
Hi Gillian
I see Giovanna hasn’t replied much in the past few days…so I hope you (and Giovanna) doesn’t mind me butting in here again 🙂
They want your full address history from the age of 14.
This was my experience:
I had a problem with the portal accepting my “dates” for the addresses on “page 9” and it was because of the date that I had entered on “page 3” (under date I started living at my current address) – the dates can’t overlap. I just adjusted the date on “page 3” to 1 day after I “left my previous address” and it accepted the dates.
I also wasn’t sure how far back I should go so I asked our Hon. Vice Consul and he said they want to know every single address you lived at from the age of 14. As I only left my very first address (from birth) after the age of 14 (I was 17 when we moved for the first time), I entered the following addresses and dates:
PAGE 9 > Address 1:
my date of birth (1981) – 31/07/1998
(I was older than 14 when we moved in 1998, so I put the date “from” and “to” as “date of birth” to “the day we moved”)
*You would then also have to look at where you lived when you turned 14 and put the “from” date as your actual date you started living at the address when you turned 14 and the date you left that address…. then enter every single address you lived at after that
PAGE 9 > Address 2:
01/08/1998 (day after we moved from “address 1”) – 22/09/2014 (day before I moved to my current address)
***PAGE 3 > this is where you put your CURRENT address
23/09/2014 – on page 3 they just ask you for the date you started living at your CURRENT address… so it will be 1 day after the day you left your previous address (on page 9)
Hope this helps 😉
Hi Gillian (and Vicky 🙂 )
I gave my full address history from 14 years of age to the time I applied. I tried to be as thorough as possible as I didn’t want any mistakes to hold the process.
Thank you, Vicky, for giving such a thorough answer!
Good luck with everything x
Hello! I just learned from the consulate official I’ve been working with to update all my vital statistics and register my kids and wife in Italy that now there’s this Italian Language requirement. It’s devastating. My wife isn’t great at languages and doesn’t, obviously, speak Italian. Is this a law change? How realistic is it for a 40-something native English speaker to be able to achieve a B1 proficiency? I don’t even speak Italian – my family spoke Neapolitan, and didn’t teach it to me growing up.
Hi Rick, A new law was passed in December 2018 that requires those who are applying for Italian citizenship through marriage to have a B1 level (lower intermediate) of Italian. They need to have a certificate issued by an accredited language institution. I’ve written some more information about this at the top of this post and you can check out here on where institutions abroad can supply you with a certificate. While this is a new law regarding a language requirement for getting Italian citizenship via marriage, there is already a language requirement for those who apply for citizenship based on residency. A B1 language level is lower intermediate and I imagine that, bar any learning disabilities, it’s not impossible to achieve this level of language at any age. It’s not clear yet at which stage of the citizenship process you need to provide evidence of meeting the language requirement, but as the process can take a long time (up to a four year wait now), the time could be used to take a language course and pass the exam. x
Hi Giovanna
I agree with Rick that the B1 test requirement is frustrating. I am just researching now to find out what I need to apply for Italian Citizenship thru marriage. My husband just got his American citizenship within the past year and now I want to get my citizenship for Italy. I just saw in the news now about how the US now will need to get a visa to travel to Europe. So I figure I should get my Citizenship started. After reading the comments on this post I have learned that getting Citizenship for Italy is going to be a very long process. I am still not understanding the B1 test and how to go about getting it. I apparently need to take a language course to take the test but not sure how or where. The Italian Consulate in Boston doesn’t have any direct links to anything and I am finding it confusing.
Hi Jessica,
The new language requirement is frustrating because there seems to be little information out there. However, I see that the consulate websites have been updated and you can find out about which language schools abroad provide the certification via this link. The new visa law for Americans visiting Europe will start in 2021, so you have a little bit of time. It’ll be very similar to the ESTA visa that’s been a requirement for a few years for citizens from visa-free countries. Hope this all helps and good luck! x Giovanna
I have just received my citizenship confirmation in the post! Applied in Sep 2016, notification on website changed end Sep 2018 to ‘approved and all parties are being notified’
Waited another 6 months for the official letter! I was a bit scared that the new law will have an effect, but clearly it did not.
Congratulations! Could you please give us a few more details? Did you apply in Italy or from abroad? When did you submit original documents? Thanks!
Congratulations Irma! That’s great news! x Giovanna
Does anyone have leads on courses that will take you through beginner (speaking 0 words of standard Italian) to B1 enough to be confident in taking the test? Does the test have to be taken in-person at U Pennsylvania? Is there anyone who can do remote training that would have a certification acceptable to Italy?
Hi Rick,
You should join the facebook group Dual US-Italian Citzenship. Although it was started for those applying for JS citizenship (through ancestry), it has since included info for those applying for JM citizenship (through marriage). If you search the units, you’ll find some up to date info on language classes for the new requirement. And if you don’t find the answer there, you can always ask the group. Good luck! x Giovanna
Also, any advice on when I should submit my wife’s application? This is all very frustrating and disappointing. I know things with immigration are not great in Italy right now but this blanket policy change (and the slowdown in processing) hurts Italian citizens.
I am in the same position as you, and am too feeling devastated. For me it’s difficult as it’s a lot to ask of my wife. I am stressing about this!
Hi Giovanna,
Firstly, thank you for sharing your experience and trying to help others. I’m wondering if you can help me.
I’m Brazilian and also have an Italian citizenship. I’m married for more than 10 year and I’m current living in London with my husband. My Aire is registered in here (actually is under lavorazione since Oct/17). We are preparing the documents to apply for my husband’s citizenship. My question is: Will he get any document allowing him to continue living in here while the process is pending of approval? His visa is now being sponsored by her employer but he wants to resign / change jobs.
Could you please help us with this doubt?
Kind regards.
Hi Tatiana,
As a family member of an EU citizen, your husband can apply for a residency permit in the UK. This will allow him to live and work in the UK. However, with Brexit, I’m not sure how that will change or what the new laws will be. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
I applied for citizenship under Jure matrimoni in the US on 11/17. Since I submitted the original documents a year before the new law went into effect, I had a natural concern that the language requirement would possibly be applied retroactively. While I have a few semesters of Italian under my belt, I wouldn’t want to jeopardize an ongoing process through an exam. The consulate has been responsive where I live and it would seem that the only aspect which applies to the applicants in queue is the increased waiting period of 48 months. I found this circolare (http://www.prefettura.it/FILES/AllegatiPag/1247/Circolare_666_25-01-19.pdf) from January of this year which supposedly indicates that only applications after 12/05/2018 will be required to present the B1 certificate.
Hi Matt, thanks so much for sharing the link, that’s great news. I’ll update my post to reflect that. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
Thanks a lot for all the information. I have been married with my husband for 2 and a half years. I am Italian but he is Venezuelan, We currently live in Venezuela. I have a couple of questions:
1- If we move to Italy is the process faster?
2- It went to 4 years of marriage before you can apply? After that how long would it be?
3- I haven’t present any papers to Italy of my marriage should I start the process?
I have tried requesting help in the consulate in Venezuela but the people is incredibly rude and do not provide any help.
Again Thanks a lot for all your help.
Hi Isabella,
Your spouse is eligible to apply for Italian citizenship after 3 years of marriage if you reside abroad or 2 years of marriage if you reside in Italy. If you also have a child, the time is reduced by half (so 1.5 years if you live abroad and 1 year if you live in Italy). The December law changed the application wait time from 2 years to 4 years. I’m not sure if the process in Italy will be faster. For example, I first uploaded my documents in Dec 2016,handed in my documents to the London consulate in Oct 2017 (after telling them I was moving to Italy, I would have probably waited another you before getting an appointment), and I’m still on the first stage now. All I know, because of the new law, I will get my citizenship by Oct 2021, four years from when I handed in my documents.
In any case, whether you apply via the consulate or within Italy, you shoulder register your marriage with the consulate in Venezuela.
x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
I hope you are doing well. Is there any way at all of checking the status of an application? I uploaded the documents on website over a year ago and nothing seems to have moved.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Carlos
Hi Carlos,
You can check your status through the website. You’ll receive communication from the consulate through the website and they will tell you whether your application has been accepted or not and they will also tell you when your appointment is. You can also email the consulate if you haven’t heard from them. The consulates are really busy and understaffed (depending on where you applied). I believe most people who apply to the London consulate wait at the very least a year before they are called in for an appointment. I hope this helps! x Giovanna
I have got a reply from the Italian Consulate in London, in regards with what point you will be requested to show your language certificate.
Gentile Signore,
il certificato B1 è richiesto a partire dalle domande presentate dal 04.12.2018.
Cordiali saluti
Ufficio Cittadinanza
Consolato Generale d’Italia in Londra
HARP HOUSE
83/86 Farringdon Street
London EC4A 4BL
Thank you Bibo!
Hey, i have two questions to ask.
1. I am currently in Italy, i have applied for the Italian citizenship through an agency that help with applications, I have submitted all required documents. they never said I would have to be called in to submit my original document. all they said is i will have to wait for 4 years. not sure about this because all is been done in Italy. Please enlight me if i will still be called in for an interview.
2 . My marriage is in a rocky stage right now, are they ever going to know this? i mean are they going to know we are not together anymore? because we not divorce yet and we still have the same residency although we do not live together. are they ever going to find out?
Hi Francis,
I’m not sure if you will be called in for an interview. I don’t have any experience with applying through an agency and I applied through the consulate in London.
As for your second question, I believe that you will need to stay married during the whole process. If you have the same residency and you are still married than I believe you would be considered married by the state. However, you should join the facebook group ‘Dual US-Italian Citizenship’. Even if you’re not American, you can still find a lot of useful information in the unit section on the group page. They cover both citizenship applications via ancestry and marriage. Good luck x Giovanna
Hi, I am living in London. I applied my Italian citizenship form 1.4.2017. I haven’t got anything news since then. Also I can’t go online to check my status on the Ali Portal website. We have tried email Italian consulate couple of times before all they have said you need to wait. When last emailed even haven’t got any answer.
Is that normal to not go online website? If anyone knows please let me know.
Thanks for your help
Hi Hulya,
When the consulate finally checks your application, they will contact you via the Ali Portal website. Is there a reason why you can’t check your status on the Ali website? The login process changed back in December and you will need a SPID number (Public Digital Identity Number) to log in. You can get more information here on how to get a SPID here. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna, thanks for your quick reply, i do not have a carta d’identita or codice fiscale to apply for the SPID; can my husband apply for it under his name and we can use it for the application? many thanks, Hulya
Hi Hulya,
If you google SPID online you can find some info on how to get one. There are a number of different providers you can choose and they can verify your identity via a webcam and passport. This is just one of the ones that I found. You can also calculate your codice fiscale online via this website. Good luck with everything x
Hello Giovanna,
I have search before but it was saying that you have to pay for get this SPID number.
Is that correct ? or maybe I can not find right website to register.
Thanks for quick reply xx
Hi, I am in a similar situation, I applied 2017 and no contact from them since. You can log in without the SPID, if you had an account set up when you originally applied. On th etop left of the page of Ministero Dell’ Interno – top left of the page, you can log in with the SPID, or under that is a link that says: Accedi con vechie credenziali/Registrati senza SPID
Thanks a lot for this informative blog, it’s good to know I am not the only one who has got confused trying to navigate my way through this whole process.
My wife is an Italian citizen (born in Argentina) and I applied for citizenship in February 2017, to the Italian consulate in London, This week I finally received the appointment to present documents (in June). Initially, elation! But then, questions arise that it seems impossible to get an official answer to. Maybe someone reading this can help:
– My wife’s Italian passport will be expired by the time of my appointment. She has been trying to renew it, but there is a well known problem getting appointments to renew in London (even websites set up to protest about the issue). So it is highly likely that she won’t have a new passport by June. Does anyone know if this will be a problem? The passport was obviously valid at the time of submitting the application.
– At the time I submitted the application, the fee was 200 euros. I have the proof of payment. This has now been raised to 250 euros, is this going to cause any issue?
– Here’s the one that perhaps worries me the most…the London consulate’s website just says that the birth certificate and police certificate need to be translated into Italian “by a translator”. No mention of exactly who qualifies as a translator. It also mentions that on the day of the appointment that there is a 13 euro fee payable for “art. 72A Confirmation that a translation into Italian complies with its English original.” So I thought, “fine, I can translate it myself (I have a degree in modern languages plus some help from an Italian friend, so confident of getting it right), and then they will just check that it is correct.” Now, reading some of the posts above it seems like actually this should have been done by some sort of official translator? But the consular website makes no mention of this so how can I even know what professional body the translator should belong to? Do you think I can get away with this or should I be trying to get an “official” translation done asap (which then may be different to the one I submitted)? So confusing!
Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed any light on these points!
Hi TC,
Thanks for writing. I’m not sure if I can answer your first two questions. But I believe that if you show the original passport that was uploaded and explain that your wife is waiting for an appointment, it may be all right. Also I believe the 250 euro fee is not applied retroactively and only applies to those that apply after 5 December 2018.
For the third question,
You will need a professional UK translator to translate your UK documents. There is more info on the consulate website and you can download a list of suggested translators here.
I used Cristina Boscaino and the consulate certified the translation during my appointment to hand in my documents. She works quickly, so you should have enough time to present the document. Good luck! x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna,
Ive uploaded all required docs back in September 2017 and they still didnt email me about the appointment, I contact them twice by email asking about my process and the answer was that they are running short of staff and due the brexit things got worst with hundreds of applications.
Its really annoying to wait such long time but there’s really nothing else to do but wait.
Hi Jeff,
I’m sorry it’s taking a long time. I’ve found that getting anything done in Italy takes a tremendous amount of patience. It’s really annoying. I hope they contact you soon! x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna, and All,
This is in regard to the update posted in header (scroll down, in quotation marks), concerning the new language requirement cut off date.
I uploaded my docs, paid the fee, and completed the online application, on 9 Nov 2018. On 20 Nov 2018 I received a letter from the consulate in NY saying my application “has been checked and accepted”.
So, according to your kind update, since I applied before 4 Dec 2018, I do not need to submit a language certificate.
Also, the $250.00 fee was in effect prior to 4 Dec 2018 because I had to pay it on 9 November.
However, if a language certificate is needed, how far in advance may one test for that? I’m only 5 months into the new 4-year process, and am at “step 2”, but if I need to test out, I’d like to get it done. Thanks-
“I wasn’t sure before, but I can now confirm that those who apply after 4 December 2018, will be required to pay 250 euro application fee and submit a language certificate. Those who applied before that date will not have to submit a language certificate or pay an additional 50 euros for the application fee.”
i am living in italy for 13 months now but eill be moving to another country soon. does it mean i have to wait for 3 years before i can apply for citizenship including my length of stay in taly? or back to zero?
Hello
Thank you for posting this , I would like to know one thing .
Have you had to send your original passport to them and if yes how long they kept it for ?
Thank you
Cecilia
Hi Cecilia,
I kept my passport. During the appointment at the consulate where I gave them my originals, they only checked my passport against the scan that I had sent when I sent in my application online. x
Hello.giovanna
Another question , if we do the whole process from Italy do you think it will be faster ?
I m resident in the UK but I m italian , the passport is for my husband that is Colombia and resides in UK too.
Thank you
Hi Cecilia,
I’m not sure how much faster it will be. The new law that came into effect in Dec 2018 says that there is now a maximum four year wait (from when you hand in your original documents) instead of a maximum two year wait. It’s possible it could be faster if you apply in Italy, but it could still take a long time. I’m still in stage 1 and I handed in my documents in October 2017. x
I just got married to an Italian citizen her in the U.S. in Feb. when can I start the process. Or do I have to wait 3 years to start. I’m hoping since it takes so long to process, I can start now and in three years the process will have finished?
Also do I need to have a B-1 level certificate for language?
Hi Wesley, You are eligible to for Italian citizenship via marriage after 3 years of marriage if you live abroad and after two years if you live in Italy. If you have children, that time is halved (1.5 years abroad, 1 year in Italy). You can not apply before you are eligible. As of 5 December 2018, you need to also submit a B1 language certificate. Also, the wait time has now increased to four years from the time you submit your original documents. Unfortunately, this is a really long process and it can take years. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna, and everyone following this blog and the comments. I had my appointment at the consulate in London back in November, and now the status of my application has changed on the online system to:
Pratica definita. Riceverà una comunicazione dalla Prefettura/Consolato. – VEDI COMUNICAZIONI –
No communication yet though. Has anyone else had this bit and any idea how long to receive the message? And do you suppose this is a final decision or just the consulate passing things on to Rome?
Thanks!
Hi Adam, My status changed yesterday, too. I think the Ministry has changed the wording for the various stages of the process, so I’m not sure what yours means. The wording for the final stage (stage 7) was up until now ‘ Il decreto di concessione è stato firmato: sono in corso le verifiche propedeutiche alla notifica del provvedimento. Successivamente sarà contattato dall’ufficio competente per la notifica del provvedimento e dovrà poi recarsi presso il Comune di residenza per il giuramento.’ So I’m not sure stage your status means. You can join the facebook group US – Italy Dual Citizenship to get more info. It’s US focused and originally started for those who were seeking citizenship through ancestry, but they include JM applications, too, now and they have a lot of info in their UNIT section about the JM process and the different stages of the process once you submit your application. I asked about my status yesterday and got some info, but I think in the upcoming weeks, we’ll get more info about the new wording for each stage. x
I forgot to say Adam, that my status also says ‘Vedi communicazioni’ but I haven’t received any thing. I think it means just stay tuned for communication.
Thanks for the quick reply! That’s disappointing!! I thought something was moving but if they just changed the wording then who knows? I can’t remember what the old wording was, and I wish I had kept a note of it. I think it was something along the lines of ‘we have gathered the necessary details, something something something’. Oh well! Sounds like yours is very close to completion though – good luck!
OK, it was previously:
Sono stati acquisiti tutti gli elementi informativi necessari. La pratica è in fase di valutazione
Which looks like stage 5 on the US-Italy Dual Citizenship Facebook page – thanks for that suggestion, really useful!
Hi Adam,
Here is the new list of phrasing for the different stages. It looks like you’re in the last stage. That’s amazing, congratulations!
Hi Adam,
I applied back in April 2017. How you connect to Aliportal or how did you get your SPID number?
Because I can go online on the website to see my application process.
Thanks for your help
Hi Hulya,
I’ve never used anything called Aliportal. I applied through the portal at dlci.interno.it and after 2 years I received my K10 number and my appointment to attend the consulate in London.
Adam
Hi Adam, thanks for your reply
i just received the communication from the consulate after more than 2 years; they refused because they are claiming that the translation of the ACRO certificate in italian has not been legalised, i thought you get it legalised at the appointment paying the fee; was this the case for you? many thanks, Hulya
Hi Hulya,
I’m sorry about that – very frustrating. The ACRO certificate must be legalised by apostille by the FCO. You then submit to the online system your legalised ACRO certificate AND the translation.
Adam
Hi Giovanna & All,
Thanks for keeping this website alive, it’s very helpful. This is an update regarding timeline for late 2018 applications (prior to the language requirement being implemented). I also have a question please, in regard to whether I possibly moved to “fase 3” of the admin process.
Mid-November 2018: application, fees uploaded
Early Dec 2018: NYC Consulate, paper docs taken
Late Dec 2018: moved from “fase 1” to “fase 2”, remaining there until end of June 2019 (7 months).
Early July 2019: status, “Sono in corso verifiche istruttorie sugli elementi acquisiti relativi a chiarimenti e integrazioni con altri uffici coinvolti nel procedimento.- VEDI COMUNICAZIONI -”
Question: For each “fase” wording is slightly different, but the main gist seems the same; might this be “fase 3”? Thank you!
Hi Alyson,
Here is a link to the new phrases and their corresponding stages. It looks like this wording refers to stages 1/2. I submitted my papers in Oct 2017 and I’m still in the same 1/2 stage. x
MY ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP ONLINE APPLICATION PROCESS SO FAR…
**06/11/2018: Online Application Submitted and documents uploaded
**07/11/2018: Received email letter of confirmation of submission: RicevutaDomandaZAF00xxxxxxx
**08/11/2018: Received email notification and “K10/C/0XXXXXX” – number from Consolata d’Italia Città del Capo > with request to submit original documents to my Honorary Vice Consul
Official “Online Application Submission Date” = 08/11/2018
**12/11/2018 (Monday): Went to see my Honorary Vice Consul to sign my last printed page of my Online Application and for him to put the required “revenue stamp” on the last page of my printed online application.
All original documents (that were uploaded) as well as printed copy of online application with signatures & revenue stamp ready to send to Cape Town
**13/11/2018 (Tuesday): Courier collected all original documents to go to Cape Town Consulate – with cover letter to Ms Xxxxxxxxxxx
**14/11/2018 (Wednesday): Courier delivered parcel to Consolato d’Italia a Città del Capo – signed by “Xxxxx”
PHASES OF APPLICATION:
19 NOVEMBER 2018 – 30 JUNE 2019:
“Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono in via di definizione”
[OLD PHASE 2]
**NB: The “phases” (wording/description of the stages of Citizenship Applications) changed on 01 July 2019
So, although the wording changed on my “application status”, I am still on “Phase 2”
01 JULY 2019:
“Sono in corso verifiche istruttorie sugli elementi acquisiti relativi a chiarimenti e integrazioni con altri uffici coinvolti nel procedimento” – VEDI COMUNICAZIONI –
[NEW PHASE 2]
(Note: there is no new “communication” on my online application)
NEXT (NEW) PHASES TO WAIT FOR:
Nuova [fase 3]
“Sono stati acquisti elementi istruttori e cognitivi, oggetto di necessari accertamenti utili alla definizione del procedimento“.
“Instructors and cognitive elements have been acquired, object of necessary verification useful to the definition of the procedure”.
Nuova [fase 4]
“Sono stati acquisiti tutti gli elementi informativi necessari, la pratica è in fase di valutazione”
“All the necessary information elements have been acquired, the case is being evaluated”
Nuova [fase 5]
“La procedura relativa alla pratica in questione è conclusa ed il relativo provvedimento è stato inviato agli Organi competenti per i conseguenti adempimenti e determinazioni“.
“The procedure relating to the practice in question is concluded and the related provision has been sent to the competent Bodies for the consequent fulfilments and determinations “.
Nuova [fase 6]
“L’istruttoria si è conclusa favorevolmente; è in corso di trasmissione il provvedimento di concessione alla Prefettura che ne curerà la notifica. Se risiede all’estero, il decreto sarà inviato all’Autorità Consolare”
“The investigation ended favourably; the provision for the concession to the Prefecture that will handle the notification is currently being sent. If he resides abroad, the decree will be sent to the Consular Authority”
Nuova [fase 7]
“Pratica definita riceverà una comunicazione dalla prefettura/consolato“
Thanks for the update, Vicky and for translating the new wording of the stages! This is very helpful to everyone. Hope the process goes quickly for you. I’m still on stage 1/2. x
The end part of the “phase description” (of the new “phase 2”) has changed slightly, it now reads:
“Sono in corso verifiche istruttorie sugli elementi acquisiti relativi a chiarimenti e integrazioni con altri uffici coinvolti nel procedimento. – Consulta anche la sezione “comunicazioni”, dove potrebbero esserci ulteriori informazioni -”
Translated: Investigations are in progress on the elements acquired relating to clarifications and additions with other offices involved in the proceeding. – See also the “communications” section, where there may be further information -”
The old description ended off with “– VEDI COMUNICAZIONI –”
Translated: SEE COMMUNICATIONS
I presume they changed it as they might have had a lot of people contacting them to query what the “communications” were as there were no further communications shown on their profiles
And still we wait patiently
Buon fine settimana a tutti x
Hi, this is a useful site! I’ve got my appointment next week and am going back to Rome especially. The only thing is I no longer have the physical bolletino from the 200 euro payment (I paid in cash when living in Rome). I scanned the receipt when I applied and still have the digital photo. I’ve been told via email that I need to present a denunzia di smarrimento (report of a lost object to the caribinieri), but I won’t be able to do that as I arrive at night and the appt is in the morning. I really don’t want to give up on the whole thing for such an obviously footling reason, but am seriously wondering whether it’s worth my while making the trip or if I can somehow postpone the appointment. Can anyone help??
Hi Giovanna!
I have been reading so many comments but I did not find an answer to my doubt. You see, my husband has Italian nationality. We are from Paraguay but we came to the UK to study. My student visa will last until March and we will be married for 3 years this November. By reading everything I realised that there is no way for me to get my Italian passport before March. I already have all the necessary documentation but because of all the problems that they are having here but because of all the issues they’ re having here at the consulate in London I was thinking if there is any chance for me to start the processes in Italy and maybe from there it will be faster.. the thing is that we will only be staying here for one more year.. otherwise, my other option was to apply for another visa here in the UK..
kind regards,
Lara
Hi Giovanna!
I have been reading so many comments but I did not find an answer to my doubt. You see, my husband has Italian nationality. We are from Paraguay but we came to the UK to study. My student visa will last until March 2020 and we will be married for 3 years this November. By reading everything I realised that there is no way for me to get my Italian passport before March. I already have all the necessary documentation to start the process but we still have to wait.. My doubt is that because of all the problems that they are having here at the consulate in London , I was wondering if there is any chance for me to start the processes in Italy and maybe from there it will be faster, even if we don reside there. The thing is that we will only be staying in The UK for one more year.. otherwise, my other option was to apply for another visa here in the UK..
kind regards,
Lara
Hi Giovanna, thank you for your posts.
I would like to share with my own experience on citizenship through marriage application.
In May 2016, after a year of unsuccessful trying ( I was trying since February 2015 to apply for an Italian citizenship) to get an appointment online to submit all my papers to the Consulate, the Consulate has advised me to upload all my papers on a new website of Ministero Del’ interno . In September, 2016 I uploaded all my documents on the said website and only on the 2nd February, 2017 I got an update saying that my documents were accepted and they gave me appointment for the 12th of February. On the 12th of February, 2017 I submitted my original documents and was told that the process will take 2 years. Now it’s more then 2 years and I still didn’t get any update on my application. I was in touch with one of the lawyers in Italy if he can speed up the process but was advised to wait another year and then he can follow up for me. It’s a very very long wait, hope I will hear good news soon.
Xx Jill
Hello everyone,
I applied my Italian citizenship in London back in 1 April 2017. Finally I have got an email on the 19 July 2019 they refused. I am Turkish so I did my documents everything translated and appostil/legalized in my country and also in UK for Police Criminal Record. They have said reason of refusing I didn’t proof my police record in Turkey ones appostil/legalized. Actually I did everything and my husband uploaded when I applied. I really don’t understand how they refused my application. In the mean time my husband said while he uploaded there was error on the website and you can not upload big files. What should I do now? How will I have to contact London Italy Consulate please? If any one tell me I would be much appreciated it.
Many thanks,
Hulya
I am in a similar situation – refused last week, as I dont have all the documents, when really I do, they just didn’t upload properly and they’ve never contacted me since. The consulate in London is impossible to communicate with. I am asking around for italian lawyers that can help me but I’ve had no luck so far…
Hi Ryan, I’m sorry to hear about that, that’s so frustrating. I recently came across citizenship lawyer Lara Olivetti at Italian Citizenship Institute. You may find her website useful. Good luck x
Hi Lara, Thank you for reading and I’m sorry for the late reply. July was such a busy month. The wait time for getting your Italian citizenship through marriage has increased from 2 years to 4 years, so it is probably unlikely that you will be able to apply for citizenship and get your passport before you have to renew your visa in the UK. It’s possible that you can apply through Italy, but your partner will need to register with their comune first. Even then, it may not be any faster. Bureaucracy in Italy is incredibly slow and time lines vary among the different questure. Good luck with everything x Giovanna
My partner’s application was submitted 9/2017. The Italian consulate in geneva says the new law made the waiting time now 4 years and it is retroactive. I spoke to one lawyer who said this is not the case. What’s the real story and verdict on this one? Should I send a Sollecito to the ministry of the interior to remind them if indeed this is a farce?
Hi John. This point about the law change is correct. However, it’s still a maximum and I doubt they’ll all just sit on their hands for 2 years. I read somewhere else that the rule change in December – now requiring a language certificate – led to a big drop in applications as there was an extra major hurdle for new applicants to jump over. This has meant that on the Italian side they’ve been able to work through some of their backlog. Hopefully you’ll hear something soon!
Hi John, I believe that the Italian consulate is correct. From what others have reported on the US- Italy dual citizenship facebook group, the wait time is retroactive. A number of people have written to their prefetture in Italy looking after their applications and they have said that the waittime applies for all pending applications. However, the B1 language certificate requirement only applies to those who applied after 5 December 2018.
Hi Giovanna!
And hi everyone who has been following this post and replying to my comments on this post. I just wanted to report my good news – I received confirmation from the London Consulate this afternoon that my citizenship application has been successful. I have my oath and ceremony in November. Very exciting – and I’m very grateful to you for all your work in setting up this post with all the important details here. It was a great help during my application!
Wishing you and everyone else the best of luck for a speedy and successful application!
Adam
p.s. in case it’s useful, my timeline has been: applied November 2016, appointment at consulate November 2018, confirmation of citizenship July 2019, oath and ceremony November 2019.
Hi Adam,
Congrats! The timeline is helpful, many thanks for sharing. Were there changes in your application status between November 2018 appointment and confirmation of citizenship in July 2019? wanted to know if they notified you in every stage or they only gave it in one go in July 2019?
Hi Sly. I must admit I didn’t keep track of changing statuses, and I wish I had now. I’ve seen the list of statuses, and I definitely saw some and not others:
As far as I can remember, the status after my appointment was this:
“Gli accertamenti di competenza dell’Ufficio periferico sono in via di definizione”
Then perhaps early 2019 it changed to:
“Sono stati acquisiti tutti gli elementi informativi necessari, la pratica è in fase di valutazione”.
I then had this status right through until I got this one at the beginning of July:
“Pratica definita. Riceverà una comunicazione dalla prefettura/consolato.”
Then it took the Consulate 4 weeks to action this and offer me my appointment for the oath ceremony. Sorry I can’t be more specific with dates – I should have kept a closer track of it all!
Many thanks, Adam. We would be grateful if you could kindly share your oath-taking experience with the group in November. Congrats once again!
I will do!
Hi Adam,
Congratulations that is spectacular news! I’m sorry for replying so late, July was such a busy month and I haven’t had a chance to reply to comments. Although you had to wait two years for your appointment, that’s quite fast! I’m so glad you found the post useful and congrats again!
Hi Adam, When in November is your oath? I am taking mine of the 13th. Might we be there together? Rose
Hi Rose – how was it? Mine is this week, 20th 🙂
Hi Adam , I read all the comments of this post. We are also waiting, my husband applied back in 1st July 2017, but actually we got the email of “accettata” on 28th July 2017 and he flew to Edinburgh Consulate to sign and all on 16th August 2017. The stato de la domanda still on “La procedura relativa alla pratica in questione è conclusa ed il relativo provvedimento è stato inviato agli Organi competenti per i conseguenti adempimenti e determinazioni. ” and has been like this for about 6 months already… Do you Know if the 730 days counts from the day of “accettata”? or from the day of the appointment at the consulate?
Many Thanks
Hi Naiara,
Not sure! My understanding was that it was 720 days from application to being processed by the consulate, then another 720 days from the appointment to the end. That understanding is based on 1) I got my appointment in the week of day 720 after application, 2) at my appointment, the woman told me to expect to wait a further 2 years. However, as you might not know, last December the 720 days rule was effectively doubled, so it could take up to 4 years now. All this said, I got my citizenship decision 8 months after my appointment, rather than 2 years, so things can move quicker. As for your husband’s timeline, I really don’t know. If your application was dealt with by Edinburgh within a month then that’s brilliant because that stage between application and appointment can be 2 years. But what is happening now, I don’t know!
Hi folks,
First off, thanks to Giovanna for creating this site, it’s very informative. I’m hoping the community here can assist me. My wife is Italian and I’m Canadian, we both live in the UK. We married in Nov 2013 and I applied for Italian citizenship in March 2017. I’m aware of the change in regulations so was prepared to wait up to 4 years. I received a message via the Portal in June that my application was REFUSED due to “lack of legalization or apostille” on my birth certificate (Canadian), criminal certificates (Canadian & UK) and both of their translations to Italian.
My questions are:
1) My Canadian birth certificate and criminal record check have been legalised (stamped & signed by the Department of Foreign Affairs — Canada doesn’t issue apostilles) and my UK police certificate has an apostille. How do I get the translations legalised? Is that done in the UK or Italy? The documents were translated in the UK.
2) How do I re-submit these documents? There aren’t great instructions on the website.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Richard
Hi Richard,
According to the consulate directions, the translations need to be done by a translator within the jurisdiction of the consulate of where the original documents originate from. So for example, my birth certificate and both US and New York State police records were translated by a New York City translator recommended by the NY Italian consulate. I then had those translations apostilled by New York State. My UK police record was translated by a London-based translator and I had that translation legalised in the UK. So your Canadian documents will need to be translated and legalised/apostilled by the Canadian government. When I first applied, I uploaded my documents incorrectly and so when they checked it they accepted my application with ‘riserva’ and they reopened my application on the Ministero website so I could upload the files again. Can you email the consulate and ask them if you have to start the application process all over again or if you can upload the requested documents? Good luck with everything! Giovanna
Im from the US, married to an Italian for 15 years! We are expats so have lived in over 10 countries, (including three times in Italy), making the application process a complete failure. We have paid the 3000 euros equivalent at least 3 times so far. Because where you had to prove residency in on the UK, I had to do it in 10 different countries plus 4 states that I lived-in in USA!! My application was submitted on December 24, 2017. And so far, this is all i have received
” Sono in corso verifiche istruttorie sugli elementi acquisiti relativi a chiarimenti e integrazioni con altri uffici coinvolti nel procedimento”.
Surely there will be more communication between now and the approval correct? It has only been one and a half years but I am reading 4 years processing time?? Is that correct? You mentioned 2 years processing time, is that still accurate or has something changed? Thanks for your feedback, Neima
Hi Neima,
O, I can imagine how difficult it was for you to get all the required documents! Congratulations on getting it all together. You didn’t mention what consulate you applied to, but I know it can take up to two years for the London consulate to check your application, issue a K-number and give an appointment to turn in the original documents. Those documents are then sent to Italy where there is a processing time up to 4 years. The wait time changed from 2 to 4 years during the new law passed in Dec 2018 and applies to both new and pending applications. The four year date starts from the ‘data di presentazione’ that is listed on the Ministero website. To give you an idea, my time line so far is 1) Application uploaded Dec 2016, 2) presented documents to London consulate Oct 2017, 3) Moved to Italy in Nov 2017 and the consulate sent me an email to confirm that the application will now be handled by the Prefettura in Venice where I now held residency, 3) my status is still on the first stage, same as yours. ” Sono in corso verifiche istruttorie sugli elementi acquisiti relativi a chiarimenti e integrazioni con altri uffici coinvolti nel procedimento”. Sadly, this is a long process and can take years. x Giovanna
Ciao Giovanna,
Would you know if the 4 year wait for citizenship would revert back to 2 years now that Salvini is gone?
Grazie
Hi Antonio,
As far as I know the 4 year wait and language requirement is still in place and I haven’t heard on any of the forums any plans to change it. x
Hi Giovanna and all,
I read that they are going to return to the 2 years of wait time instead of 4 years. They will also introduce “ius culturae.” Follow the link here: https://www.cittadinanza.biz/ritorno-ai-2-anni-e-riforma-della-cittadinanza-italiana-ius-culturae/
Hi Sly,
Thanks so much for the link! This is interesting news, I hope the law gets passed soon. x
Hi Giovanna
Along these lines to you think there is any chance that the B1 language proficiency for naturalisation though marriage may be revoked?
Many of us on this page will agree that it is very difficult to learn the Italian language during the later stages of life…
Many thanks for your feedback!
Hi Tony,
I hear ya! I haven’t come across any mention of revoking the language requirement. There is some talk turning back the wait to two years from four years. Check out https://www.cittadinanza.biz/ (in Italian), they’ve been following the voting in Parliament and it’s up again for discussion on 31 October. x
Buongiorno 🙂
It would seem that the draft bill does unfortunately NOT include the “revoking of the language requirement”, but it does include the “revert to 2 years processing time”… as Giovanna has said, it is coming up for discussion again on 31 October 2019… holding thumbs!
Here is the draft bill in writing for those that might be interested… https://www.cittadinanza.biz/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/leg.18.pdl_.camera.105.18PDL0005420.pdf
They are trying to speed up the process of amending the law on citizenship by linking it to a school education course in Italy.
I think it is highly unlikely that they will get rid of the Italian Language requirement though, but you never know… according to the Italian Constitution:
“ART. 3 – All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, LANGUAGE, religion, political opinion, personal and social conditions.” http://en.camera.it/application/xmanager/projects/camera_eng/file/costituzione_EN_dicembre2014.pdf
…BUT they could just argue that it applies to people that ARE ALREADY citizens (“all CITIZENS have equal social dignity and are equal before the law”), not people who are APPLYING to be BECOME citizens. As you have not yet taken “the oath” and you are not an Italian Citizen yet, the Constitution does not apply to you…
Therefore, in my humble opinion, if you don’t have that “Level B1 Certificate” yet, the sooner you start the better… just take it one step at a time… it all starts with taking the first step… sign up for the course and just push on with it, no matter how long it takes. I know it sucks, but if you just leave it because you feel “it’s too hard” or “I’m too old to learn”, etc. you will look back in 5 or 10 years time (without your Italian Citizenship), wishing you just tried it. It will only be beneficial for you in the long-run and will help you to integrate and appreciate the Italian Culture more. I know it’s always easier said than done, but I do think that it is a privilege we have been granted to be able to apply for Italian Citizenship and learning the language of the country you are trying to become a Citizen of is the least we could do… BUT, my only problem with the language requirement is the COST of these courses & exam… especially for someone like me that doesn’t have any Italian teachers or qualifying institutions (like Società Dante Alighieri) in our town… so we are left with doing the courses ONLINE (via Skype) which costs a fortune! Here in South Africa the Skype sessions at the moment cost around R3500.00 for 10 x 1hr sessions (around USD230.00)…. then after you are actually ready to take the exam, we need to travel 1200km’s to write the exam! The group classes, if you are lucky enough to have Dante Alighieri in your town, ranges from R2400.00 – R2800.00 for 10 x 1hr sessions. It wouldn’t be too bad if you ONLY needed 10 sessions, but as we all know it’s not so easy 🙁
I wish there was some form of rebate / reduced fees for Citizenship Applications
Anyway… have a great week everyone.. things could be worse 😉 In bocca al lupo
Thanks so much for the insight Vicky! x
Hey! I wish to get some more verification due to a situation at hand base on obtaining a Carta di Sorggorno.
I have a married certificate from the commune where we did our marriage. I’m a foreigner living in Italy with illimitata carta. But my partner is not regular into the system. Our marriage was done and the certificate issued.
So i wish to find out how can i apply for her to get her sorggiorno.
Hi Linto,
I’m only familiar with getting a PdS/CdS as the spouse of an Italian citizen. I imagine that you would need to submit the similar documents as well as a copy of your carta di soggiorno. You may also need to provide financial statements. Is there any way you can go to the questura of your region and ask them what you need? Perhaps the Portale Immigrazione can give you more information? Also, I’ve found the facebook group Ultimate Italy to be really helpful. You can ask your question there and you may find someone else who has gone through a similar process. Good luck with everything! x
For those of you that don’t like to read 😀 … here is a podcast video about the process of applying for Italian Citizenship by marriage from the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4UHYBUoPY
I haven’t heard any news yet about the draft bill concerning the Citizenship Application Processing Time (back from 4 years to 2 years), which was supposed to be discussed again today in Parliament
Hi I reached out to you earlier as I was not sure all my documents were uploaded and of course there was no one to call or check. I was just rejected after 2 years on the basis on the missing documents as I think now it all need to be uploaded as single PDF? I am still not sure I of course have all of the originals. They have said I can pay and reapply again with new rules and wait time? Is there anything I can do?
Oh Brenda, this is painful to hear! I’m so sorry. NB the new rules include the B1 Language certificate so that would be your first step if you can’t prove an error on their part I guess… Good luck 🙁
Hi Brenda, I’m so sorry that’s happened to you. I know that previously the application, if it there was something missing or uploaded incorrectly, it could be accepted with reservations and you’d have the opportunity to re-upload the documents, but since the Salvini law that came into effect in Dec 2018, that option was removed. I’m not sure if this is what has happened to you, have you tried contacting the consulate? Have you gotten any reply?
Thank you for a great story and the details. I live in London and will be applying to the citizenship shortly. Do I have to apply from London or it is possible to apply from Italy? What would you recommend? Thank you!
Hi Tatiana, applying in Italy may take less time, but you’d have to be a resident of Italy in order to apply. The wait time between the time they check and accept your application to when your citizenship is granted is still up to 4 years. If you apply through London, you’ll probably have to wait a minimum of two years before your application is checked and then there would be another 4 years on top of that. Hope this helps! x Giovanna
And one more question 🙂 Question regarding criminal records from the US / NY for applicants in London. Trying to understand how certification of the criminal records report work.
I understand that the report has to be apostiled and translated. Should translations be apostiled as well? What kind of proof they require to confirm that translations are ok.?
Thank you!!
I had each of my translations apostilled as well. For my US criminal records and birth certificate, I used a translator based in NY City which is in the jurisdiction of the NY consulate. The translations were certified and notarized by the translator. I then took them to the NYC clerk to get the notary signature verified and once that was complete, I sent them to Albany to get the apostille. For my UK criminal record, I had it translated by someone in the jurisdiction of the London consulate and then had it notarized and sent to the legalisation office for the UK apostille. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna. Very happy to report that I had my Giuramento yesterday and as of midnight last night I became an Italian citizen, acquired through marriage. Having applied on 21 November 2016, I have completed the process in 3 years to the day. I thought you might like an account of the process yesterday.
The letter inviting me to the Giuramento said the process lasts from 9:30am to 1:30pm, and this was very accurate. I arrived with my wife at 8:45 to find a long queue already outside the front of the Consulate General. Last year when I attended my document check appointment, there were two queues outside the consulate – one for those with appointments and one for those without. Yesterday, there was just one queue for everyone. At 9, they began admitting people to the building, and this is quite slow, one at a time. Once we were in, we had bags checked then joined the queue for the reception desk. The receptionist took my invitation letter and issued me a numbered ticket – citizenship appointments start at 700 and I had 703, so three couples ahead of me. Upstairs to the waiting room on the 3rd floor, and then we waited to be called. They began calling a little after 9:30, and by 10 we called up to the office on the 4th floor. They checked passports and proof of address for both spouses, then we had to sign a document confirming we are still married and we don’t have any other children than the one I declared in my application (I don’t!). I was then given my original decree to be legalised downstairs. For this we had to go down to the ground floor cashier and paid £14.50 for her to stamp it. That completed part 1 and at 10:15 we were outside and had some free time.
We were told to come back at 12:30, and once back we returned to the 3rd floor waiting room with all the same couples as the morning. We were then called up one couple at a time, in the same ticket order as the morning.
Back to the same office as the morning. They took the stamped decree and passed me over to the Vice Commissioner. She had to read out the act of citizenship, which takes a couple of minutes, at the end of which I had to read my oath:
“Giuro di essere Fedele alla Repubblica Italiana e di osservare la Costituzione e le Leggi dello Stato”.
Then I signed and she signed the act document we had read, and it was stamped. They keep the original documents but I received a photocopy of the signed and stamped act of citizenship and the stamped decree. The Vice Commissioner was very nice, shook hands and congratulated me after the oath was complete; she spoke Italian throughout, of course, and congratulated me on my pronunciation of ‘costituzione’ (not constituzione!) This second part of the process took around 10 minutes in total, and we were out at 1:15.
So the good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I worried at times that the process would drag on forever, but things did speed up as I went along. I applied November 2016, had my document check in November 2018, then received the ‘pratica definita’ status in early July 2019, the email inviting me to the oath ceremony at the end of July, and the ceremony yesterday. The bad news, I guess, is that there were only 12 people receiving their citizenship through marriage yesterday, so if that’s the number being processed each week the backlog might still take a long time to clear. Good luck everyone!
Wow, congratulations Adam! I am so very happy for you 🙂 Thank you for your detailed account of your process, it really does help us understand a little more of what is to be expected… holding thumbs that our time will come soon as well 🙂
Auguri!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Adam, Congratulations!!! Thank you for sharing your whole process, it’s so interesting and you and your wife must be so happy right now! It’s such a long process and it’s great that yours went relatively smoothly regardless of the uncertainty of waiting. I applied in Dec 2016, had my application appointment in Oct 2017, and I’m still on phase 1. I’ve been in contact with the prefettura that is handling my case, but they’ve only told me that I will have my citizenship by Aug 2021. Sigh. But it’s comforting to know your process and that it’ll come eventually. Congratulations again! x Giovanna
Sorry to hear this 🙁 It’s ironic that you’ve collected together all this information that is helping so many people, but your own application is taking forever! Did you not have the jus sanguinis option for citizenship? Any sense whether that would have been quicker or about the same?
Hi all
I applied my Italian citizenship through marriage on june 2015, I try to contact consulate london but they replied that my application at ministery now, but online it’s still showing in first phase now, I hired an solicitor at Italy but shes doing nothing, any one have an idea I can I get this, because it’s over 4 years 7 month now?
Thanks
Hi Mark
Have you checked under “communications” on your online application? If there is anything there, what does it say?
At this stage I presume all your documentation was correct, uploaded correctly and the originals accepted in person by the consulate in London?
I am sorry I can’t be of much help as I am still in the early stages of the “waiting game” and also still on “phase 1/2” (after just over a year since my application was accepted and K10 number issued)… I really do hope that my application doesn’t take as long as yours 🙁
It might be worth it for you to join the Facebook Group that Giovanna states on her blog: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dualusitaliancitizenship/ … since it has been more than 4 years, maybe you can ask there for help regarding contacting a good / well known Italian immigration lawyer to assist you with the next steps? It is mainly people from the USA on the group, but I’m sure someone might be able to give you some advise from personal experience… and although they might be in the USA, their immigration lawyer would most likely be in Italy as any legal correspondence to the Ministry should be done in Italian if you want to stand any chance
Best of luck and please keep us updated of any further progress
Yes mate already check COMUNICAZIONI section nothing up there, I send a form call soicsto I think to consulate london and ministery of external affairs Rome in January, but they didn’t respond. I’ll try to go in this Facebook section hopefully get some advice. It’s nearly 5 years now and still on phase 1.
I have plan to go italy next month to check in perfettura that what’s going on with my application.
Thanks
Hi Mark
Have you had any more information regarding your application?
Hopefully you have managed to find out something in Italy?
Kind regards
Vicky
I am marrge titan women 3/5 years today apple droves possible I Apple pospot Italy
GIOVANNA — Nice page. Helpful. I’m a dual national Italian/U.S. I do not speak Italian (well). We’ve been marriet 3 years. Now the consultate tells me that my wife’s going to need a B1 language cert. So my question: She can stay in Italy forever. Like all things Italian, I’m wondering if the “language” requirement will just sort of “go away” if we’re actually living there? I know your answer is just an opinion, but I’d value it. Grazie tanto.
Hello Giovanna & everyone else…. it sure has been a while since I’ve posted anything here!
I hope you are all well and staying healthy?
As we all know, due to the Coronavirus, Italy and all it’s institutions came to a sad and grinding halt ;(
I am so relieved that my family and friends in Italy are still ok… and there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel…
I received this message from an Italian Lawyer in Italy last week… “Greetings from your friends in Italy. I am happy to tell you that the country is opening up on May 3 and courts will open on May 12”
… so hopefully we are all on our way to returning to some form of “normal” soon… and hopefully our Citizenship Applications will start being processed again now.
Best wishes to all of you!
Kindest regards, Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Thank you so much for the update! I hope you are keeping safe, we’re okay over here in Italy. I’m still on phase 1 since handing in my documents 2.5 years ago, but it’s nice to know that offices will be open soon. All the best, xx Giovanna
Hi Giovanna
I am so glad you are well 🙂
I know, it’s so frustrating to wait so long… let’s hope that the people working at the offices will have a new jump in their step and get through our applications soon 🙂
Stay safe… all the best to you as well xXx
Hi
I have applied online on Jun 2018 and never heard from the embassy in London nor I can see my domanada status (application status) in the website. I have a PDF file that is the proof of my application being submitted with a code and thats it! They never respond to any email or calls! I only want to know if 2 years waiting for my online application to get a status is normal or not?! because It is like my application doesn’t even exist? I appreciate anyone who have the same experience.
Hi Anahita and all,
I applied on March 2018 and my appointment was booked to present the documents in June 2020 but unfortunately cancelled due to COVID19. I guess it will now take a long time to book another appointment 🙁
I was wondering if I move to another country and transfer my AIRE what would happen? Do you think my process would be transferred and continue from where it stoped? extra documents would have to be added? It’s so frustrating the wait.
I applied in my home country, moved to another and informed my “home” Consulate, registered with AIRE in the new location (though it took them about 9 months to process the AIRE registration). All in all, 2.5 years after moving, I got an email from the Consulate in the new location regarding my citizenship application. Unfortunately though, they ended up asking for documents already submitted, as well as a new police clearance, so it wasn’t the smoothest thing in the world. The portal also doesn’t seem to permit you to upload anything once your domanda has been sent… so you have to try to get through to them on email, not easy…
Hi all.
Just to share my experience so far:
I live in London and applied online on 18 Apr 2018. They booked an appointment for me to present the documents on 18 June 2020 but due to the pandemia it was postponed to 31 July 2020. So, it took a little over 2 years from the online application to my appointment. Sadly, from everything I’ve been reading online, I believe it could talk 2 more years until the process is finished.
All the best to all of you on the endless waiting list.
Good afternoon
I’m not sure if any of you have looked on the website for “Ministry of the Interior” lately to check the status of your Citizenship Applications?
There seems to be a new notice on today that states as from 1 September 2020 you will be required to have SPID credentials to log in… up until now we have still been able to log in with “old credentials”… I’m just worried that if we don’t register for SPID before 1 September that we won’t be able to check the status of our applications anymore.
I have tried to register for SPID, but it seems you need to be an Italian Citizen already to apply for it… which doesn’t make sense as we are all still NOT Italian Citizens as we are still waiting for our applications to be finalized/processed.
I wish they would at least say that PENDING CITIZENSHIP APPLICATIONS will still be able to log in with their “old credentials” after 1 September 2020… also, how will NEW applicants be able to have SPID credentials if they are only then APPLYING for Italian Citizenship?
Here is the notice on the landing page:
ANNOUNCEMENTS’
From 1 September 2020 , access to the portal for the electronic submission of applications by citizenship applicants residing in Italy, must take place exclusively with SPID.
Please note that to access via SPID, applicants must register with an ID provider among those already identified and listed on the AgID website (www.agid.gov.it).
If you do not yet have a SPID identity, by selecting the “Do you not have a SPID?” Button, you will be redirected to the portal https://www.spid.gov.it/richiedi-spid, where you can choose the Identity Provider. After obtaining a SPID identity, the applicant accesses the portal by selecting “Enter with SPID” and displays the available services to be accessed.
After accessing the portal with SPID, in order to view an application already submitted, the applicant must select one of the two functions described below:
“Associate Practice sent online” to retrieve the application for Italian citizenship sent online;
“First access to the paper application” to recover the paper application.
At the end of the association, the “View application status” and “Communications” functions are made available in the side menu.
DECREE-LAW 19 May 2020, n. 34, Urgent measures in the field of health, support to work and the economy, as well as social policies related to the epidemiological emergency from COVID-19. Starting from 1 June 2020 and until the end of 15 August, it will be possible to send requests for the emergence of employment relationships pursuant to art. 103 of the aforementioned Decree. The information relating to completing the forms themselves will be available on the application forms pages. Remember that in order to access the forms, it is essential to have a SPID digital identity.
Hi Vicky, thanks so much for the update. I have a SPID and I’m not an Italian citizen (yet). I got it for free through the post office here in Italy, but you need to go there in person in order for them to verify your identity. There are SPID providers that you can do online for a fee and they can verify your identity through a webcam. If you google ‘SPID providers’ you can find a lot of articles in English that explain it. The SPID is becoming more and more prevalent here in Italy and my husband needs to get one now, too, in order to do a lot of bureaucratic things online. It’s not so hard to get although I believe that for those who live abroad, there are no free options available. From what I remember, it’s not a high fee. Maybe between 5 – 20 euros. x Giovanna
Hi Giovanna
Thank you for your reply.
I contacted our Italian Honorary Vice Consul in our town yesterday and asked him about it. He sent me a form to complete and he will apply for a “Codice Fiscale” (Italian Tax Number) for me, even though I am not officially an Italian Citizen yet…. he said he has applied for other non-Italians in the past and has been successful.
He says it normally takes a couple of weeks…so I am sending it all to him today to get things going as we only have about a month and a half before we will need an SPID to be able to log in to check the status of our Citizenship Applications.
As soon as I have my Codice Fiscale I will try to get my SPID.
I will keep you posted 😉
Have a lovely day further
Kindest regards, Vicky
UPDATE: I received my “Codice Fiscale” 6 days after sending my application form 🙂
I received an email from the Italian Consulate with my Codice Fiscale (Italian Tax Number) and a message to say that my card has been ordered and should be here within about 8 weeks and they will inform me when it arrives for collection
Hi Vicky, thanks for the info. Have you tried requesting the SPID already? I’ve been researching and it seems like you need an Italian identity document on top of the Codice Fiscale.
Thanks,
Carlos
Hi Carlos
I have noticed that too… or an Italian “health card”… so I haven’t completed the SPID application yet… I am waiting for “the card” that our Italian Consulate said they have ordered for me… they said it should be here within 8 weeks. I will see what that “card” looks like and if I can use that to register for SPID.
I have heard that PosteID is the best/easiest to use… so I will try to sign up with them as soon as I receive my card. Some cards have a chip in that you can scan with NFC for verification when signing up for SPID, but I have no idea what the card looks like that they are sending to me…. as soon as I receive it I will post another update as well as my experience once I manage to register for my SPID….
If anyone else on here manages to do it in the meantime, please let us know your experience as well.
Thank you
Hi Vicky, thanks for your reply. So that you are aware I’ve contacted multiple institutions to enquire about SPID request for people who are in the same situation and they confirmed the codice fiscale is not enough and we need at least the health card or an Italian identity document, however, I also got in touch with the help desk of the Ministerio dell Interno and apparently we’ll still be able to log in with old credentials after the 1st of September, the only people that will require SPID are people who haven’t created user before the 1st of September. This was their reply:
“Interventi:
Gentile utente,
la informiamo che da settembre in poi non sarà più possibile creare un utenza NON-Spid, ma l’accesso al portale non dovrebbe avere variazioni, per maggiori informazioni la invitiamo a contattare Per quesiti di carattere amministrativo può scrivere alla mail politicheimmigrazione@pecdlci.interno.it . Altrimenti può
rivolgersi presso lo Sportello Unico Immigrazione.
Saluti”
Best regards,
Caros
Hi all, I was looking on the Ministero dell’Interno website and it says ‘Dal 1 settembre 2020, l’accesso al portale di invio telematico delle istanze da parte dei richiedenti la cittadinanza residenti in Italia, dovrà avvenire esclusivamente con SPID.’ So from 1 September, those citizenship applicants who are residents in Italy can only enter with a SPID. That could be why you need the health card with the chip and an Italian ID card in order to get the SPID. But I don’t know what that means for the many non-residents that have applied or will apply in the future. There must be a way. x
Ciao Carlos & Giovanna
Thank you for your efforts and further information.
It will be good news if we can indeed still log on with our “old credentials” after 1 September… but I also wonder about new applicants… I’m sure there will have to be a way for them to be able to log in after 1 September if they are only then applying to become Citizens… surely the ministry will understand that these people are only APPLYING to be Citizens and are not Citizens yet and therefore they won’t have Italian ID’s and Italian Health Cards?
We will just have to wait and see I guess.
Anyway… I hope you all have a wonderful weekend
Kindest regards, Vicky
Hi guys,
I have emailed the Italian consulate in London and they have replied that I have been granted citizenship and that it says so on the portal. All they are waiting for is for the ceremony date.
I have checked he portal and I can’t see anywhere that states this and we have moved the address of my application is my old address and I’m so worried that they have sent a letter . I have tried to change my address online but it needs you to an Italian national. How do I manage to change my address. Hubby is an Italian national so are our daughters and I don’t understand how I can alert them to the fact that we have moved homes on my application especially as they have said my Italian citizenship has been granted . I applied Sept 2016 . Handed in my original papers AUG 2018 and today they replied to my email that I have already been granted citizenship. Also does hubby need to come with me to the ceremony.
Sorry meant June 2018 I handed in my original documents at the London consulate . I am just panicking now about the address as it’s I high possibility from reading some of these comments that they send a letter by post . The whole process to this point has been so emotionally exhausting.
Hi Farana
Firstly…. AUGURI!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
As for your “ceremony”… I am not sure what the process is like for London or elsewhere, but in South Africa you need to make an appointment directly with your nearest Italian Consulate to “take your oath” after you receive an email to confirm your Italian Citizenship has been approved.
It sounds like you have moved since you applied and I presume you are concerned that you can’t “take your oath” at your new local Italian Consulate?
I would contact your new local Italian Consulate with your email received and try to just make an appointment with them to “take your oath”.
My brother-in-law only received an email to confirm his Italian Citizenship was granted and that he must make an appointment to take his oath within 6 months of that email… so I wouldn’t wait to get into contact with your new local Italian Consulate as you only have 6 months from that email confirmation.
Best of luck and please keep us updated 😉
Kindest regards, Vicky
Grazie . Yes I have moved and have not received an email as yet . I was concerned that they sent a letter as we have moved . Thanks so much for the info . I can’t believe after almost 5 years ( when you include getting all the paperwork together hahaha) I’m almost there . Thanks for the info
Congratulations, Farana! I also completed my citizenship application through London last year. The portal doesn’t say you have been granted citizenship, but something like “Pratica definita. Riceverà una comunicazione dalla Prefettura/Consolato.” This means your application has been successfully processed and returned to the consulate in London.
You will then you will receive a letter as a PDF attachment by email, not a postal letter, from the consulate inviting you to a ceremony on a specified date. Text of mine begins “In relazione al Decreto n. K10/X/XXXXXXX con cui Le è stata conferita la cittadinanza italiana, è invitato/a a presentarsi, accompagnato/a dal/la coniuge italiano/a, presso l’Ufficio Cittadinanza del Consolato Generale d’Italia a Londra al fine di prestare il Giuramento di fedeltà alla Repubblica italiana ed alle sue leggi in data…” etc.
Regarding changes of address, the emailed letter continues:
“Se avete cambiato indirizzo e il/la coniuge italiano/a non ha informato l’Ufficio AIRE o se il cambio di residenza è stato inviato all’AIRE e siete in attesa di ricevere conferma, consultate il sito del Consolato (www.conslondra.esteri.it) per la procedura per il cambio di indirizzo e presentatevi all’appuntamento muniti di numero di riferimento automatico generato dal sistema a seguito del cambio di indirizzo e prova di residenza per entrambi i coniugi.”
There was around 3-4 weeks between the status changing on the portal and getting the email, but this might be longer for you because they are rearranging all those ceremonies cancelled when the consulate closed due to covid. So I really think there’s nothing for you to worry about here.
Regarding the ceremony, I wrote a detailed description of it earlier on this page – comment dated 21 November 2019. You don’t need your husband to attend the ceremony, but you do need his passport. Everybody attending on the day of my ceremony came as a couple, however.
Good luck!
Adam
p.s. Giovanna, I hope you’ve had some progress after all this time!
Sorry Farana, that last bit was completely wrong. Your husband does have to attend – it’s in the text of the invitation. You both need to be there, provide passports and proof of address for both, and you both need to sign a declaration that you are still married and haven’t had any undeclared children!
Adam
Thank you so much Adam . I feel relieved as I was so worried they would send a letter to the old address. Yes I did notice that my application did state “ Pratica definita. Riceverà una comunicazione dalla Prefettura/Consolato.“. I also noticed that my application is no longer visible it’s been removed . I will await the email with the ceremony info and in the mean time get onto the AIRE to change the address. Yes I suspected we both will need to be there . Will have to make arrangements it’s so difficult with kids , work etc to both be off but we will have to manage something . Thank you so much again. I will rest peacefully tonight as this change of address was giving me sleepless nights ?. This blog is awesome so informative . Thank you . Grazie ?
You’re welcome! And yes, I know exactly what you mean. We had to deposit our daughter with my parents overnight to get down to London. BTW I couldn’t make the date they gave me originally, but a couple of emails back and forth with the citizenship office and they gave me a new date so that was ok. It says on the emailed letter who to contact if you can’t make the date they give you. I think they do citizenship ceremonies on Wednesdays – at least that was the case last year.
Hy guys . Oh no Giovanna fingers crossed for you that your application gets processed soon. Thanks so much for the advice. I just received an email from the embassy congratulating me that my application has been approved and they will get back to me with a date for the ceremony. They have asked for a ATTO INTEGRALE DI MATRIMONIO which I am assuming we have to request from the comune where we registered with is Asti ?. Any ideas anyone and also they want a police clearance . Can I use the same one I used to apply or do I have to get a complete new one from the acro police website . Gosh I feel
I’m so close and then they want all these other documents again Hahahaha . I tell
You the day I get it I am cracking open a bottle of champagne and I don’t even drink champagne hahaha . Any one have any help advise on this please? xx
Thanks Adam! Sadly, I am still on stage 1 after three years! After four years, even if things have not progressed, I believe you get automatic citizenship (but that requires you to send a certified email to the ministero). So I’m holding out until next August.
So close but so far away… my citizenship decree was just issued and at some point I will get an appointment to go and swear the oath at my local consulate. BUT they also told me I need to bring an “atto integrale di matrimonio” (not the estratto per il riasunto) which I need to get directly from the comune where our marriage is registered. As my wife was born in Argentina and has no current links with the comune (her grandfather left there aged 4), I have no idea how to get this! Can anyone shed any light? I checked the comune’s web page but it was useless
Hy Congrads . I am in the same boat I just asked the question as well. I am waiting on a response as well if anyone knows for certain . I’m sure we have to apply for it at the commune the marriage is registered though . I also noticed they asked for police clearance. I am not sure if I have to get a new one or use the one I used when I applied as it was not specific . So true so close yet so far xx
Hi Tom
Firstly, AUGURI!!! Congratulations, I am so happy for you 🙂
When you applied, uploaded your documents and presented your originals at the Italian Consulate… did you not have an “Italian Marriage Certificate”? i.e. the certificate issued by the Italian Municipality at which your wife is registered as an AIRE (Register of Italians living abroad), confirming that your marriage has been registered at the municipality in Italy?
This was needed in order to apply for your Italian Citizenship in the first place… so I’m not quite sure if we are talking about the same document? I don’t know how they would have concluded / granted your Italian Citizenship if they didn’t have this certificate in the first place.
If your wife is the Italian Citizen, she must be registered as an “Italian Living Abroad” (AIRE) and she will therefore have to be “registered” with an Italian Municipality in Italy… your local Italian Consulate can then assist you in “registering your marriage” at that Italian Municipality… once the marriage is registered in Italy (at your Municipality there), you can request your “Italian Marriage Certificate”… well the certificate stamped by the Municipality to say that your marriage has been registered there and it has both your full names, etc. on.
If you are referring to the “marriage certificate” they are asking you to bring with you to the “oath”… all I know is that when you go to take your oath you need to take with a recent “marriage certificate” (issued by the country you were married / living in) to prove that you are still married, and your wife must be present with you at the oath as well as “proof of life”.
I am interested to know what “marriage certificate” it is that they are requesting from you… we are not asked for any other “marriage certificate” other than those 2 in South Africa (your actual marriage certificate issued by the Department of Home Affairs in the country you got married in… and the proof of registration of that marriage by the municipality in Italy)
I find it fascinating how different the procedures are in different countries… you would think all the Italian consulates worldwide would do the process the same way.
I would suggest you reply to them and clarify the matter before you waste valuable time and maybe not have the correct documents they are asking for… you only have 6 months from the date you receive your notice of oath for Citizenship to take your oath.
Please keep us updated
Best of luck
Kindest regards
Vicky
Hi Vickie,
This is what it says in the email i received:
“ATTO INTEGRALE DI MATRIMONIO, rilasciato dal Comune italiano in cui è stato registrato. Il documento richiesto NON è l’estratto per riassunto dell’atto di matrimonio che era stato presentato sulla domada online. Pertanto il documento richiesto deve essere specificatamente richiesto al Comune italiano di competenza.
FULL MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE “ATTO INTEGRALE DI MATRIMONIO”, issued by the Italian Municipality. The required document IS NOT the “estratto per riassunto”of the marriage certificate, which was uploaded on the online application, therefore the required document has to be specifically requested to the competent Italian Municipality.“
My marriage is registered in Italy and the document I had to send with my application was the “estratto per riassunto”, which they are very clear they do not want to see now.
I managed to speak to someone in the comune and with my bad Italian I understood that they will not send me a physical copy but only something electronic called a “PEC”, which on investigation I need to open a special email account for, which involves sending a fax… the Kafka-esque bureaucratic web seems endless.
I will take your advice and speak to the consulate but they are not always responsive.
Last resort may be to travel to the comune, but that could involve 14 days quarantine when I return if coronavirus cases keep increasing…
Hi Tom
Oh dear… I honestly feel for you…
It is so frustrating if you don’t live in Italy to get any form of paperwork done or to communicate efficiently 🙁
It is still not clear to me what the document looks like that you uploaded online that they call a “summary / extract”.
It’s a pity we can’t upload pictures / documents on here so I can compare the documents to the ones we submitted and the ones we have from our Comune / Municipality in Italy.
I know our documents are correct as my brother-in-law has the exact same documents as me and he has just completed his oath (a month ago) and he received his Italian Passport last week.
Did you get married in Italy or elsewhere?
If you were married in Italy it would make more sense to request the actual “Italian Marriage Certificate”, which will be the same as the Marriage Certificate issued by the Department of Home Affairs in the country where you got married (in our case it is South Africa).
Please contact your local Italian Consulate for assistance… you will have to be persistent I’m afraid… email them first and then phone 2 days later to confirm receipt of your email if you don’t get a response… if needs be, call them every second day thereafter until you get what you need… but always be polite, you don’t want to anger someone with an “attitude” or they just won’t help you… be friendly and have a “grateful attitude” and you might stand a better chance of being helped quicker… from experience, some of them like to be “sucked up to”,. especially if they are in a position of power… I guess it’s the same all over the world *sigh*
Best of luck Tom and please keep us updated
Kindest regards, Vicky
So…I think I have made progress! I spoke to a lady in the comune and she sold me they will only send a copy of the atto di matrimonio electronically in “PEC” format. I looked into what this is and it seems to be a special type of mail format for sending official documents in Italy, for which you need a special mailbox, which in order to get you need to fill in a form and then fax it…I was gearing myself up for another round of Italian bureaucracy. However I sent an email requesting the file anyway, and it arrived with an attachment I could not open (as expected), however when I opened the email on my phone there was also a straight PDF copy which I have been able to print out. I checked with the consulate and they said they will accept a printed copy.
I am still however waiting for the consulate to confirm it’s the right document in the first place – it should be as I requested to the comune the exact document that the consulate told me I need, It looks different to the one I sent off with with original application, it just says “Atti de Matrimonio – Parte II – Serie C” and seems to be the document by which the official at the comune inserts the details of our British marriage certificate into the record of the comune. I remember receiving something similar when we registered our children’s births with the comune so I am reasonably confident this is the right thing. So now I just need a new apostilled criminal record certificate and hopefully I am good to go!
Hi Tom
Ok wow, very interesting…
So you also had to get a new (updated) criminal record certificate done?
This must be something new as well… or different to other consulates? … up to now we only had to produce the one we uploaded when we did the online application… well it seems that some other consulates don’t take in your original documents until much later… we do the online application and upload our scanned documents and within 3 days we receive an email with notification of receipt of online application and request to appear in person to present your original documents or courier the originals to them if you are not in the same town (which is what we did)… our consulate is about 1200km’s away!
I have noticed that a lot of people upload their application and documents and don’t get an appointment to present their original documents until a few months later?
The only “updated” document we have had to take with to our “oath” was a new marriage certificate to prove that you are still married… so I wonder if this new criminal record certificate is a new requirement as well now to prove you still don’t have a criminal record at the time of taking the oath?
I think you are right about the reasoning behind the criminal records certificate. I am also being asked to take along proof of residence (eg utility bills). I am also being asked for a residence permit, which of course I don’t have because I live in my country of birth…hopefully my passport counts as that and they don’t fail me at the last hurdle on such a technicality…
Hi Tom,
I hope you’re well and an Italian citizen now?
Wondering if that document you got worked for you… I got my appointment for the oath ceremony, which will take place in May, and I’m getting the same requirements (atto integrale di matrimonio + new police records + utility bills + residence…).
Before a do a whole research on the ‘atto integrale’, my husband is also Argentinean as your wife so I’m assuming she’s also registered in the Rome comune… Did you send an email to them to get the PDF that you got – and was it correct in the end??
Thanks in advance for any info! 🙂
Best,
Agus
I saw this far too late but for the benefit of others – the pdf I got via email from the comune where my wife is registered (not Rome but the little village her grandfather was born in) of the “atto integrale” was sufficient for me to be able to take the oath.
So finally I am Italian, and last week I received my first Italian passport. It took four and a half years but it was worth it!
Hi Tom, Congratulations!!! I’m almost there and waiting for the comune to call me with an appointment to take the oath. It’s taken 4.5 years for me too. I had to go to the Prefettura di Napoli to pick up my decreto and needed to bring with me a recent ‘atto di matrimonio’ from the comune where our marriage was registered.
If you are needing anything from the Comune/Municipality in Italy, you can always ask your local Italian Consulate for assistance
Hello, thanks so much for this info!
I have my Italian passport and have been married for almost 2 years. I saw that my husband would only be eligible within another year because we live abroad. However, we are looking to go live in Europe and was wondering if that would count towards accelerating the process. In any case, should I start the process now (since it takes so long) even if we have only been married for 2 years and live abroad?
Thanks in advance!!
Ciao Daniella
Unfortunately, if you don’t live in Italy your husband will have to wait for 3 years to pass before he can start his application for citizenship by marriage to an Italian… unless you have children… in that case you can apply sooner.
There are a few things you can do so long to prepare…
Does your husband speak Italian?
He will need to get his “Italian Language Level B1 Certificate”… he will need this to apply for his Italian Citizenship and if he doesn’t have it yet it could take some time to get, especially if he doesn’t speak Italian… so I would get him to start on that ASAP for the next year while you wait to start the application.
It is a long (and frustrating) process… but read through this blog and find out from your local Italian Consulate what he will need now already so you can prepare yourselves.
You can start to gather some of your documentation now already, like what I call your “Italian Marriage Certificate” (certificate from your Italian Municipality that states that your marriage is registered with them)…
You (the Italian) will have to be registered as an “Italian Living Abroad” (AIRE) and you need to register your marriage with your Italian Municipality… you will then need to get this certificate from your Municipality in Italy stating that your marriage is registered there.
You can ask your local Italian Consulate for assistance with this.
…some of the other documents unfortunately you will have to wait until just before you start your application as they are not allowed to be older than 6 months at the time of your submission of your application (like your ‘Criminal Record Certificate’)
The Citizenship rules are ever changing in Italy, especially due to the refugee crises and the ongoing court battle with Salvini and other factors… so try to keep your eyes and ears open for legislation changes.
I’m not sure what country you are from, but there is also a useful Facebook Group for US/Italian Dual Citizenship with lots of useful information from people going through the process and that have completed the process… even if you are not from the US, the processes are similar… and they are also bound to mention any legislation changes from time to time as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dualusitaliancitizenship/?ref=share
(sorry Giovanna, I hope that link is allowed on here?)
I know one change that might be coming soon is the “Application Processing Time”… it always used to be 2 years from date of submitting your application… then it was changed it to 4 years towards the end of 2018… and since then other groups were fighting for it to go back to 2 years, but is seems that they might have settled on 3 years now… but the legislation changes have been postponed until after the referendum / elections… so we might only hear the actual outcome/decision in the next few months….
So yes, unfortunately it’s a LONG waiting game… 3 years before you can START your application and then you have to wait another 4 years for your application to be processed… hopefully that “4 years” will be shortened soon
Best of luck to you and your husband… prepare what you can in the meantime… start making your list of “required documents” and tick them off as you get them together (make a note of dates you can start to get your Criminal Record Certificate, etc.) so you are ready for when your day comes to start your application 😉
Best regards
Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Grazie mille per la risposta!!!
I have another quick question for you. How does this apply to Schengen restrictions?
I have an Italian passport and my husband will not while we are travelling Europe. Does my Schengen exemption apply to him as well?
Thank you in advance for your help with this.
Daniella
UPDATE RE: SPID LOGIN
As at 16 September 2020 I am still able to log in with my “Old Credentials” on the “Ministero dell’Interno” website – without SPID (il Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale / Public Digital Identity System).
This is the roughly translated wording that you might have seen on their site for the last few months:
“From 1 September 2020 , access to the portal for the electronic submission of applications by applicants for citizenship residing in Italy must take place exclusively with SPID.
Please note that, to access via SPID, applicants must register with a provider ID among those already identified and listed on the AgID website (www.agid.gov.it).
If you do not yet have a SPID identity, by selecting the “Don’t have SPID?” Button, you will be redirected to the portal https://www.spid.gov.it/richiedi-spid, where you can choose the Identity Provider. After obtaining a SPID identity, the applicant accesses the portal by selecting “Log in with SPID” and displays the available services that can be accessed.
After accessing the portal with SPID, in order to view an application already submitted, the applicant must select one of the two functions described below:
“Associa Pratica sent online” to retrieve the request for Italian citizenship sent online;
“First access to the paper application” to retrieve the application submitted in paper form.
At the end of the association, the functions of “View Application Status” and “Communications” are available in the Side Menu.”
Although I have been able to obtain my “Codice Fiscale Number” (Italian Tax Code) without being an Italian Citizen yet, it was a concern that those of us that do not currently reside in Italy (and still in the process of obtaining our Italian Citizenship), will not be able to apply for SPID as we don’t have Italian Identity Documents yet… and therefore won’t be able to log into the site to see the status of our Citizenship Applications.
I am happy to report that it would seem that the new SPID only applies to people currently living in Italy and the site automatically identifies your location and that you are not in Italy and you can therefore still log in with your “Old Credentials”
I will update here if I experience any problems in this regard in future
Have a lovely day further everyone 🙂
*I might just add that the wording on their site has changed slightly from the very first time this notice appeared… it does in fact now state “…applicants for citizenship RESIDING IN ITALY must take place exclusively with SPID”… I presume it was due to many queries from concerned applicants abroad.
Hello! I am an American living in Salerno with my boyfriend. We are trying to file a civil union for now and get married a few months down the line after Covid craziness clears up. We have had some roadblocks with the technicalities of Coppie di Convivenza / Coppie di Fatto so might just pull the trigger and tie the know sooner than later. I am just writing to say thank you for offering this information in English, and in an easy-to-read format, with dates and everything!! Just want to let you know that when I clicked the FB link to join the Dual citizenship group it navigated me away from this page instead of in a new tab 😉 I love your website! Let me know if you are ever on the Amalfi Coast and want to have a limoncello!!
Hi Danielle, thanks so much and thanks for the invite! I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over so I can start travelling again. I’ve hardly left the island this year. I’m so happy you’ve found it useful and thanks for letting me know about the FB link and tab, I’ll update that now. I’ll let you know next time I’m on the Amalfi Coast. Good luck with everything! x Giovanna
am in Italia for 5 Years am apple for citizenship
Hello Iamin, I don’t know what your immigration status is, so I can’t tell you whether you are able to apply. I know that if you are married to an Italian citizen and reside in Italy, you are eligible after 2 years or 3 years if you reside outside of Italy. If you two have a child, the wait time is cut by half (1 year if you live in Italy, 2 years if you live outside of Italy.) If you are not married to an Italian citizen, then I believe you have to wait 10 years to apply for citizenship if you want citizenship via residence. This only what I know personally, so there may be someone else better to talk to. Good luck!
Hi Giovanna!
You’ve been a great help for me when I arrived in Italy last January 2018, all the informations that you provide made my life easier on processing all my documents. And finally last week I already applied for my Italian citizenship. I would like to ask you if you have any update from your citizenship? did you got it already??
Thank you!
Hi Mike, thanks so much and congratulations on applying for your Italian citizenship! I finally had an update in September. After being in stage 1/2 for the past 3 years, I was updated to stage 5. It’s now in Rome and waiting for a signature. So it may only be a few more months, can’t wait!
That’s wonderful news Giovanna! I am so happy for you 🙂 Please keep us updated 😉
I spoke to the head of the department at our Italian Consulate last month and she said they are now only receiving applications back from Italy for 2017… there has obviously been a bit of backlog due to Covid-19 so she thinks I possibly have another 6 months or so before they receive mine back (application date: 08-11-2018)
Thanks so much, Vicky! I’ll definitely give you all an update once it finally comes through. Hope you get news soon! x
Hi Giovanna, great to hear things are moving forwards, especially given the current situation. Quick question, where do you check the status? because I usually log on using old credentials and can’t find a place where to check the status of ongoing applications. Thanks,
Carlos
Hi Giovanna! That’s a great news!!! You just need to wait few more months to received your citizenship, you’re almost there. I wish you all the best, you’ve been a great help to me back in 2018 when i was getting frustrated on how to
apply my permesso di soggiorno. I just gathered all the informations from your website from Permesso di Soggiorno to How to Apply for the Italian Citizenship. All the informations here are very useful, specially that my husband had no idea how to process my documents (PDS, Carta di Identita, Codice Fiscale, ASL, SPID). lolz
Sadly because of Salvini i have to wait for 4 years to get my italian citizenship. But according to the lady in the Prefettura it’s only 3 years. i don’t know if its true. They gave me an appointment in Prefettura on April (6 months after i applied my citizenship) to submit all the original copies of the documents that i attached in Ministerio del Interno website. Hopefully ill get the citizenship soon. Best wishes to you!!!
Hi Mike, thanks so much! Hopefully it will only be a few more months, I’m so excited! There was a law passed a few months ago that changed the wait time from 4 to 3 years. I believe that includes all applications that are in the process. Then there was another law that was passed in December that reduced the waiting time to 2 years, but only for applications being submitted after the law came into effect. So, hopefully you won’t have to wait as long. Fingers crossed and happy New Year! x Giovanna
wooow!! really!!!???! i didn’t know about that law, thank you for that information!!!! Happy New Year to you too! and Best of luck!!!
Firstly, Happy New Year Giovanna…. as well as to everyone else on the journey to Italian Citizenship 🙂
I’ve been following the draft laws and updates and I was so excited about the change to 3 years and then 2 years, but they are all non-retroactive… meaning the change to 2 years only applies to applications made after December 2020. Even though it states 24 months (2 years), it can still be extended to 36 months (3 years) on the final bill.
Citizenship
The deadline for the conclusion of the procedures for the recognition of citizenship by marriage and naturalization is reduced from 48 to 24 months, which can be extended up to a maximum of 36 months (Article 4, paragraphs 4-7).
https://temi.camera.it/leg18/provvedimento/d-l-130-2020-disposizioni-urgenti-in-materia-di-immigrazione-e-sicurezza.html
Unfortunately, there are no changes to the Level B1 Language Certificate requirement…. you will still need this to apply.
I am currently sitting on 26 months on my application (from beginning of November 2018) and when I last spoke to our Italian Consulate in October 2020 they said they were busy receiving declarations of Citizenships for the end of 2017 and that they were expecting to receive 2018 applications soon. They estimated that I should receive mine in about 5-6 months… which would be around March/April 2021.
I do find it utterly disappointing and unfair that only the new applications have the 24 month period to wait and the rest of us that applied so long ago have to wait up to 4 years…. we should have had our Citizenship by now if the same rules applied… so I sincerely hope that they will take these older applications into consideration and push them through as soon as possible to be more fair… although I can’t see them starting on any new applications without concluding the old ones first… so let’s cross our fingers and toes 🙂
Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful, healthy and happy 2021… and may our applications finally be resolved THIS year 😉
Best regards, Vicky
PS: Giovanna, please post some photos of you with your Italian Passport when you finally receive it… hopefully very soon xXx
With the salvini decree being partially overturned (relating to migrants and asylum) in October this year, do you think there is scope for the jure matrimonio B1 language requirement to be removed also?
I really hope it does…
Good afternoon
For those of you that have already submitted your applications online, you might have already tried to log in with your “old credentials” (without SPID if you live abroad) to view the status of your application.
Since about yesterday (18/01/2021) you might have noticed that the platform for Citizenship applications/status of your application has been moved to another site.
You will need to re-register on this new site (as directed by the old site): https://portaleserviziapp.dlci.interno.it/AliCittadinanza/ali/home.htm
Follow the screens/instructions and enter your details as requested – use the same email address you used on the previous site.
When you get to the part where you need to link your old/already submitted application, you will need to click on:
“Citizenship”
Click on the “drop-down box” select
“Associate Practice”
You will then need to enter your details and your “Identificativo Domanda” (Question ID / Application ID Number)… this is NOT your “K10/C” number… you will need to search your documents / emails from the Ministry when you uploaded your online application and look for a document that says “RicevutaDomanda”.
(Your confirmation page that you received that your online application has been received successfully.)
On this document there will be your “Identificativo Domanda” (it should also be in the file name: RicevutaDomandaXXXxxxxxxxx).
The document will start with the following wording:
MINISTERTO DELL’INTERNO
DIPARTIMENTO PER LE LIBERTA’ CIVILI E L’IMMIGRAZIONE
Gentile xxxx
La informiamo che il modulo informatico è stato ricevuto correttamente.
Identificativo domanda: ZAFxxxxxxxxx
That is what you need to put under “Identificativo domanda”… the code and number next to it… NOT your K10/C number.
I hope this helps if anyone has had a problem signing in / linking your application to the new site 😉
Have a lovely day further
Kindest regards, Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Thanks so much for the thorough explanation. I’ve also written a blog post about the new website and new wait times for applications submitted after 20 December 2020. You can check it out here.
Hi Giovanna
That’s awesome… I will keep a lookout for your blog post 🙂
I just thought I’d mention it here so long in case anyone else has a problem with the new site… so they don’t have a mini heart attack like I did when I tried to put my K10/C number in first a few times and it didn’t work… the site told me they can’t find my application number…. all sorts of thoughts rushed through my head, like they lost my application in the switchover and I have to start all over! LOL…
I took a deep breath and started searching through my old documents to see if there is any other number it could possibly be and I came across my confirmation page with the correct “application number” on.
Here’s hoping we will see some good news on the status of our applications soon on the “pretty new site” 🙂
Buona giornata x
Hi Vicky, i am trying to find my Identificativo domanda number but i can’t find i check in my email too. Should i call to consulate?
Buongiorno a tutti!
Ugghhh… am I the only one that is so tired of seeing the sentence starting with “Sono in corso… “?
I don’t even bother reading the rest… it’s so disheartening every time I check to see the status of my application 🙁
Any news on your application yet Giovanna?
You are not alone. Three years this week, still “Sono in corso… “
I share your pain Sly 🙁
Hoping and praying we all get some good news soon 🙂
Sooo, after more than 3 years with no change in the status of my applications… this week it changed to “phase 3” (Stato della pratica: Sono stati acquisiti elementi istruttori e cognitivi, oggetto di necessari accertamenti utili alla definizione del procedimento – Vedi comunicazioni).
I presume everyone that has already received their citizenship will not even be looking at these posts anymore, but maybe Giovanna or some other kind soul could please let me know how long it took from “phase 3” until you received notification to take your oath?
Hi Vicky, First of all, congratulations! That’s an exciting change. For me, my application was on phase 1/2 for almost 4 years and then jumped to phase 5. It stayed in phase 5 for another 9 months and then I received an email with an appointment at the prefettura in Napoli to pick up my decreto. A few weeks later I took my oath at the town hall where I live and received my citizenship. I occasionally log in to see if my application has been updated to phase 7, but it’s still at phase 5, lol. So maybe the phases are all arbitrary and even if you’re at phase 3, maybe your application will be processed soon and your citizenship is on its way. It’s been 4 years already, so hopefully it’ll happen soon. For me it took 4.5 years from when I uploaded my application on the ministero website.
Hi Vicky! No news yet. My status changed after 3 years from stage 1/2 to stage 5 back in September 2020. It’s been at that stage ever since and check every day. Hopefully something will change soon because this August it will be 4 years since my application was accepted.
Oh my goodness Giovanna…. I would have thought that yours would have been concluded by now! 🙁
I’m sure you will let us know as soon as you have more news… hopefully soon 🙂
Buona giornata x
Hi! Giovanna,
Once again, i would like to thank you for helping me solved my problems regarding how to process all my documents in Italy.
After living in Italy for 3 years i got the opportunity to have my internship in Prefettura, it’s weird because last year i was very stress about how to apply for italian citizenship and now i’m working inside the office where they process it.
If your due date is September 2020 im sure they are processing already your documents and you just need to wait a little more time.
Hopefully you will get a letter soon of the decreto,
Best regards.
Mike
Hello Mike, Congratulations on your internship and thanks so much for the encouragement! That’s wonderful to here, I can’t wait! All the best, Giovanna
A quick question regarding citizenship. In what form does the Questura communicate to me to present my original documents e.g. by phone, email, aruba account, through the CAF I did it with etc?
I haven’t heard anything for about 10 months, maybe I should check with my Ricevuta di protocollo?
I believe I applied October 2020 or January (I am also doing the biometric residence card so I amy have confused dates). Appreciate any help you can give. Kind regards
Hi Giovanna
Congratulations on your citizenship! I am applying for citizenship through marriage – we live in the UK – I am English and my husband is from Napoli. I pretty much have all my documents completed and have a solicitor submitting them on my behalf. However, the biggest issue I have is with the payment receipt! It is impossible to add the whole of the payment reference that they wish me to enter – my UK account just does not allow me enough space! I am so frustrated as the solicitor has said that my application may be turned down for this. I wondered if you had the same issue and how did you rectify this? Thank you so much.
Ciao Giovanna! Just wanted to sincerely thank you for going to all the trouble to write this information for the ex-pat community in Italy. I so appreciate it! The Italian Driving licence post is especially helpful and helped calm my nerves (wish me luck for my test – so nervous!)
Un abbracione, Hannah
Ciao Giovanna,
I’m a NYer married to an Italian, and we are thinking about moving back to Italy in the next year or two. Originally, I figured I would just get the permesso di soggiorno, but I spoke with someone the other day who just received citizenship from Italy due to a distant Italian relative, and he said I shouldn’t bother with the permesso and should just apply directly for the citizenship. My husband and I got married in NYC four years ago now, so I believe I am eligible. I just wanted to know your thoughts about applying for the citizenship directly before we move back. Am I able to do that? Or must I first get the permesso?
Also, do you have any thoughts about having a lawyer help us with the process? We had to get one for my husband’s green card, so I was just wondering if you felt it was useful to have one to help me through the citizenship process, especially since we are still in NYC. Please let me know your thoughts. And thanks so much for all of the fantastic information you provide to all of us.
Grazie mille,
Beatrice
Hi Beatrice, the citizenship process via marriage takes approximately 2-3 years as it makes it’s way through the different government offices in Italy. As of October 2018, you also need to pass a B1 language test as one of the requirements. If you are planning on moving to Italy soon, then I would wait to apply after you get here. As the spouse of an Italian citizen, you have the right to live and work in Italy and also have access to the health care system. The immigration process for getting a Permesso di Soggiorno/Carta di Soggiorno can be time-consuming when you first arrive, but once it’s done, you’ll most likely receive a Carta di Soggiorno that lasts for 5 years. (I say most likely because sometimes a questura will decide to issue a PdS for a shorter duration that you would have to renew.) While you settle in Italy, you can put together your application for citizenship and hopefully you’d get your citizenship before you’d have to renew your CdS. I don’t think it’s necessary to hire a lawyer to help with the process, either for citizenship or the PdS. I did it on my own. You can join the facebook group Dual US-Italian Citizenship, they have a great guide that they update regularly on the citizenship via marriage and talk you through both applying at a consulate or within Italy. I would start there to get some more info. Good luck with everything!