To my husband! John is now an Italian citizen. He holds dual citizenship – USA & Italia. How did this come about? He married me..smart man.

Here is my disclaimer: This blog is detailed in regards to John’s journey to citizenship and for many, your eyes may roll back in your head out of sheer boredom. Sorry… bear with me. Either continue or wait for my next posting. 😉

As I am from Italian parents on both sides, I was able to follow a line back to my mother’s father and I was recognized as an Italian citizen in March 2017. It is called “jure sanguinis” or JS (by law of the bloodline), and in my case it took me about 2 1/2 years to be officially recognized. There are a number of agencies, sites and Facebook groups that help folks along with this process. My journey wasn’t complicated, as some, just nerve-wracking with all the paperwork. (And for those asking ‘why’ for wanting dual citizenship, here is a helpful link with some top reasons.

Once I was recognized, it was time for John to apply for his dual citizenship through marriage to me – jure matrimoni or JM. You can read about John’s application process while we lived in the USA here. It was a frustrating process, mostly because we had our timing off. We were a bit anxious and rushed the document collecting phase, not anticipating the expiration date on the background checks John had to collect.

When we moved to Italy, John had just finished his interview at the Italian consulate in Philadelphia. Everything had been submitted online as well as to their office. Now John had to wait for Rome to get to their part of the process where his application is examined and stamped. Wait time we were told just about 2 years. Little did we know a huge bump in the road would greet us here in our home province of Chieti. I’ll get to that shortly.

Abruzzo, the region we live in, has four provinces: L’Aquila, Teramo, Pescara & Chieti. The first year we lived in Italy, we were located in the province of Teramo. I was required to contact the Prefettura (government headquarters), stating that we now both had residency in the Teramo province and give them John’s case number. This transferred the control of John’s application from Philadelphia to Teramo. So to complicate matters, we bought our house in Roccaspinalveti, Chieti province, only a few months after notifying Teramo. I had to contact the Prefettura in Chieti, give Teramo a heads-up and we crossed our fingers that everything would continue as planned with John’s application.

Well, not…. here’s the bump… The Prefect did not understand or believe that I was a citizen from birth. He saw my recognition date of March 2017, and logged that as my official start date of citizenship. Not so for JS, as I mentioned earlier. Having that misinformation, he said John had not been married to a citizen (me) for at least two years (as required) as a resident here in Italy. I scrambled for help as per the Prefettura’s letter, I only had about 2 weeks to make my case. I contacted a lawyer here in Rocca, tapped into online help on a closed citizenship FB page, and Italian owned – US based citizenship business, ItalyMONDO. Oh I also tracked down some help from the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia. Letters were written and expedited, laws quoted, documents acquired. It shook out just in time of the deadline with two actions in our favor:

• A letter from our attorney here in Roccaspinalveti, stating law: The law n.91 of 5 February 1992 which regulates the matter of citizenship in Italy provides that the acquisition of citizenship occurs automatically BY BIRTH (IUS SANGUINIS)

• Attestation from Philadelphia via San Salvo – copy of CONS01 by e-mail and a copy of the statement (attestation) that Philadelphia has sent to my ancestral comune (San Salvo) when I was recognized. (Thank you Peter Farina of ItalyMONDO for pointing towards this essential piece of information!)

Providing these documents cleared up the issue and I received a call early March from the Prefettura stating they had what they needed to proceed with John’s application. Whew…. a huge weight off our shoulders.

You may ask what would be the downside to the application being rejected. Well, he would have to start a new application online (substantial fee), collect all his background checks from the US (more money spent and time), meet with the Prefettura, and wait at least 4 years for his citizenship. OH AND! Before all this could happen, he’d have to take an Italian Language test at a level B1 (Intermediate..and word out there it’s very difficult). Our thoughts were just forget about reapplying and he would renew his 5 year Carta di Soggiorno (Visa) when due. Not the solution his heart desired, but a livable one.

About three months to the day from the Prefettura’s call, I received another call from them. My stomach dropped when I saw their number come up on caller ID. What did they want now or what has gone wrong? Absolutely nothing! John was a citizen! We needed to come to Chieti for the taking of the oath ceremony. I was a bit confused, as I listen to the secretary firing away on the phone in Italian, as I thought our mayor would do the ceremony here in our comune. But from what I understood from that call we both had to go to Chieti. Slight misunderstanding…yes, we had to pick up John’s official documents to sign in their presence, but no ceremony. That will take place here in Roccaspinalveti at the comune office. (I’m still slow to understand fast Italian on the phone. I need to see faces and body expressions. lol)

Next stop was the Anagrafe office at our comune. The clerk organized the paperwork, got John to sign a few documents and set John’s oath ceremony for the following Saturday. That brings me to today, Saturday. Not sure why I was nervous… I think it was such a long road between both us working on this for a cumulative 4 1/2 years. And most importantly, just a grand event in our lives. Our mayor read her part of the ceremony, John read his oath, some signatures, pictures and a short celebration at the local bar with everyone. Perfectly Italian…

Was it worth all the work? All the frustrations over the past few years? Absolutely… I leave you with a few pics of the ceremony and a video with John valiantly reading his oath and church bells ringing.. (not necessarily for us, as it was noon, but sure topped off the event!)