tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197237662011-12-14T21:42:49.898-05:00I am an American who obtained "dual" US/Italian citizenship. My goal is to share my experiences and to be a resource for people who would also like to obtain Italian citizenship.Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-28009826861553489442011-05-01T20:57:00.002-04:002011-05-01T21:31:03.099-04:00

Well, my last post was titled "I'm still here" and that was in 2008. Since then I've continued to receive emails and comments from people who are in the process or are interested in obtaining Italian citizenship. I am so happy that my experience helped others. There isn't much new information relating to my Italian citizenship so that is why I haven't posted. However, there are a few new

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-90269081831005284892008-02-17T11:47:00.004-05:002008-02-17T12:59:36.729-05:00

Thank you all for your emails. I am still amazed at how many people I hear from who are in the process of applying Italian citizenship. Some of you were wondering if I was still around since it's been so long since my last post. Yes, I am still here. Hopefully I will start posting regularly again, so please keep checking back.

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-20634190745546859892007-01-26T19:53:00.000-05:002007-01-28T10:52:37.398-05:00

To register our marriage at the Italian Consulate, I was required to bring a certified copy of our marriage certificate. A few weeks after our wedding, I went to Boston City Hall and for a small fee, was able to get the document. Normally, vital statistics documents are located at a separate location. However, since our wedding was so recent, the certificate was still at City Hall where we had

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1160406307763549682006-10-09T10:53:00.000-04:002006-10-09T11:22:10.543-04:00

So finally our wedding day has come......and gone. It was a wonderful day, but it was over so quickly. One of the first things my new wife wanted to do was to go register at the Italian Consulate. Now that we are married, I have to change my status with the consulate here in Boston and submit our marriage certificate. This will then allow my wife to be eligible for Italian citizenship after three

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1149724535231873112006-06-07T19:35:00.000-04:002006-06-07T20:45:00.483-04:00

So I have listed a shorter one page version of the process I took to get my Italian citizenship. If you want to get the real details, you should read from the beginning. However, the below info should give you an idea of what I did.January 2004- Started researching the process I needed to take to get Italian citizenship.- Contacted my family members to get as much info as possible on my

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1146060471154947482006-04-26T10:05:00.000-04:002006-04-26T10:08:14.746-04:00

Ok, I promise that will do another post soon. Things have been very hectic around here recently. In my next posts, I am hoping to create a truncated version of my blog so that you can see the step by step process I have taken on one easy to view page.

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1142127608980095012006-03-11T20:38:00.000-05:002006-03-11T20:40:08.993-05:00

I have been super busy lately and haven't had a chance to post my next update. I hope to have something within the next week or so. Please continue to check back and also write me with any questions you may have.Ciao!

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1140486448855780412006-02-20T20:44:00.000-05:002006-02-20T21:09:29.553-05:00

After I received my Italianized birth certificate from Italy, I made an appointment to go to the Boston Consulate and complete the application process. From what I was told, this was a pretty short process where I just gave them a copy of the certificate and then signed a few items. This was pretty much the case. I showed up at the Consulate bright and earlier. This was near the end of May 2005.

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1139588613135937972006-02-10T10:56:00.000-05:002006-02-10T11:25:30.096-05:00

So now that I was on my last straw, I had to figure out a way to get the information I needed from my Commune in Manoppello. When I spoke to the Consulate in Philly, I was told that once they sent the documents to the Commune, that is where their job ends. They can send a request by mail to find out the status, but that would more than likely take a long time too considering how long it had been

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1138738436220174102006-01-31T14:58:00.000-05:002006-02-02T16:29:36.530-05:00

I followed up at the end of Sept 04 with the Consolato d'Italia - Filadelfia (Italian Consulate of Philadelphia). They still hadn't heard back from Manoppello and told me to check back again in November.I checked back in November and again in December, both with the same responses that nothing had come back. Now, because of the Christmas holiday and New Years, I was told that it would be best to

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1138303048451809542006-01-26T13:57:00.000-05:002006-01-26T14:48:37.673-05:00

I was told by the Philly consulate that it would take a week or two to translate my documents and prepare them to be sent to Italy. Once sent, I was told that it shouldn't take that long to get a response. In affect, by sending the documents over, my dad was now considered an Italian citizen because the Philly consulate had approved them.So, two months go by and I haven't heard any word from

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1138051188395299352006-01-23T15:51:00.000-05:002006-01-24T10:59:37.806-05:00

After my trip to the Philly consulate, I set about obtaining all the apostilles for the documents. An apostille is an international legalization that is attached to a document. The secretary of state from the state in which the document comes from issues the apostille. Luckily for me, most of the documents I had collected all came from NJ. I could've sent these documents to NJ and then waited for

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1137447902058364252006-01-16T16:33:00.000-05:002006-01-16T17:15:31.446-05:00

So although I had all the documents that I needed, I was still not able to apply myself until my father became an Italian citizen. I called my dad and explained the situation. He was aware that I had been wanting to apply for citizenship. He had some general questions regarding what it meant to apply for citizenship and if it would jeopardize his US citizenship. I explained that he was actually

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1137258315589153492006-01-14T11:45:00.000-05:002006-01-14T17:40:05.706-05:00

I got to the Consulate early so I wouldn't have to wait too long. When I got there though, I was amazed that there were people already waiting. However, I quickly found out that they were not there for citizenship, but to apply for visas. I went to the office of the gentleman that handled the citizenship applications and explained who I was and why I was there. I handed the folder I had with all

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1136864539066490802006-01-09T22:40:00.000-05:002006-01-12T22:28:06.383-05:00

Although I used vitalchek for most of my document collection, some of them I was not able to collect myself because of the State I was trying to get them from or because the document I was trying to get was for someone that was still living. For example, my mother was born in NY and the vital stats office there is quite strict. She had to apply herself. However, my parent's marriage certificate

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1136247173282172952006-01-02T19:04:00.000-05:002006-01-05T16:47:09.710-05:00

At the time I received the petition for naturalization, I didn't have any other documents. To apply for Italian citizenship, the requirements are to have certified copies of all birth, marriage and death certificates starting from the person whom I'm applying through and then going all the way down the line to me. The only document I needed to get from Italy was my great grandfather's birth

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1135909519651593792005-12-29T21:23:00.000-05:002005-12-30T13:00:53.916-05:00

My Aunt had told me that she thought her father had naturalized sometime in the 1940s. So I emailed the Northeast regional division of the National Archives which is located in New York City. In my email I requested a search for the petition for naturalization. I included the name, birthdate (I received this from my Aunt), location of naturalization (My aunt thought Newark, NJ). I also included

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1135137154409850062005-12-20T22:29:00.000-05:002005-12-22T11:41:42.220-05:00

The first thing I had to do was get some more specific information on my great grandfather. I needed to find out when exactly he came over to the US and then when he naturalized, if he naturalized. I knew that my grandfather was born in the US in 1925, so my great grandfather must have come before that. Given that my family settled in the New Jersey area, on a hunch I decided to check the records

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1134511495048895342005-12-13T17:04:00.000-05:002005-12-20T10:45:16.473-05:00

When I first started mentioning to people that I was thinking about applying for Italian citizenship, the first question by many of them was "are you allowed to have dual citizenship as an American?" There was also alot of concern about what would happen to my US citizenship.A quick search on google gave me a number of sites that explained the US stance on dual citizenship. In a nutshell, since

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1134493745569611522005-12-13T12:08:00.000-05:002005-12-13T16:06:27.780-05:00

One weekend Erin (my fiance) and I were talking about living abroad. We had traveled to Italy in the Fall of 2003 for vacation and it was awesome. Again, we realized that the best chance of getting oversees was if one of us could work freely in the EU. I decided to look again online. This time I came across a website called myitaliancitizenship.com. I followed their instructions to see if I

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1134411111456023412005-12-12T12:54:00.000-05:002005-12-12T13:39:34.846-05:00

I have always been interested in travel. I moved a lot (over 10 times) as a child, so I think it became ingrained in me. As an adult, every three years or so I would get the itch to pick up and go somewhere different. However, I have never lived abroad and until just a few years ago, I had never been to another country. That changed in 2003 when I had to go to London for work. I was there for

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19723766.post-1134183141215758522005-12-09T21:45:00.000-05:002005-12-11T11:25:23.216-05:00

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer and I do not claim to know the actual laws surrounding getting citizenship to another country outside the US. I am just a guy who has gone through the process and has actually completed it. If you are looking for specific information regarding the laws of dual citizenship, please contact the INS or the Italian Consulate in your area.Ok, enough of that...So why am I

Michael Severinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02901414758098699976noreply@blogger.com0