How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Over 25 million Italians have emigrated between 1861 and 1960 with a migration boom between 1871 and 1915 when over 13,5 million emigrants left the country for European and overseas destinations.
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alm
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How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

We had our appointment at the Philly consulate last fall. The woman we met with told us in February that his paperwork was sent to Italy in January.

We have not heard a thing yet. What has been your experience lately? How long is it taking to get the letter notifying acceptance of application for jury sanguinis citizenship?

I'm wondering how long we should wait before we contact the consulate and ask. I don't want to bug them.

Thanks.
ajl1239
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by ajl1239 »

Chances are you're already good to go -- contact your comune and ask them to mail you a copy of your BC. Make an appointment to get your passport as well -- it should only take them a week or so to mail your BC.
jennabet
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by jennabet »

The best way to have sped up the processing of your jures sanguinis application was to have indicated that you had concrete plans to repatriate to Italy.

When I submitted my documents in the month of May in Mexico, I informed my consulate that I would be leaving Mexico by the end of the year, not renewing my rental lease, not renewing my Mexican visa and repatriating to Italy immediately upon receipt of the passport. I received my passport within five months and then moved to Italy.

Two years ago, I submitted my companion/fiancee's jures sanguinis application and included the following sentence in the cover letter accompanying his documents: "I have imminent plans to repatriate to Italy with my Italian companion/fiancee". That was in August and he received his passport second week of October.

However, it must be Italy. Do not expect the same speedy results if you tell your Italian consulate you are in a hurry to move to Spain, France, UK, for example. You might even show a plane ticket to Rome or a rental contract.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Thank you so much for your replies. I decided to take matters into my own hands and write to the commune as it has been about 7 months since papers were sent. I got a reply back within one hour saying everything is complete and they have let the philly consulate know. So I guess we will be getting the letter soon! :D :D :D

jennabet, I'm intrigued that your fiancee was able to get his citizenship recognized before you were married. Is he Italian? Is he eligible (jure sanguinis) all on his own anyway?

My siblings and I are trying to figure out how to get spouses and significant others passports. I thought I read you had to be married three years.

Thanks again!
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Thank you so much for your replies. I decided to take matters into my own hands and write to the commune as it has been about 7 months since papers were sent. I got a reply back within one hour saying everything is complete and they have let the philly consulate know. So I guess we will be getting the letter soon! :D :D :D

jennabet, I'm intrigued that your fiancee was able to get his citizenship recognized before you were married. Is he Italian? Is he eligible (jure sanguinis) all on his own anyway?

My siblings and I are trying to figure out how to get spouses and significant others their Italian passports. None of them are Italian. I thought I read that in that case you had to be married at least three years.

Thanks again!
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by jennabet »

Alm, first things first. I was recognized by the Philadelphia Consulate in 2001. Actually, I submitted my documents in Mexico but since I was an American citizen and not a Mexican citizen, Mexico referred the case to the Philly Consulate where all my docs originated. Back then, Philly advised me that once the papers were sent to Italy by way of the Minister of the Interior in Rome and then onto the Comune, it was out of their hands and it would be up to me to check in with them as to when I could obtain my passport. At this point, since you already have confirmation from your comune, I would not wait around for a letter from the consulate. If you want your passport, call them and ask when you can apply for it.

Regarding my fiancee. He is Italian in his own right and was recognized jure sanguinis through his grand-father. It was suggested to him that he could also obtain citizenship through marriage but it would take much longer. Friends of mine in Italy who have married non-Italians are finding it takes five years from date of marriage to the issuance of an Italian passport for the foreign spouse. I'm not sure exactly how it works in the Consulates except to say that the jures sanguinis cases take precedence so if the consulates have a heavy backlog of those cases, jure matrimony cases may have to be put on hold.

My sister has a Philly consulate appointment in a few weeks. She must only submit her own personal documents. I will be interested to see how long it takes for them to process her recognition. Overall, the Philly Consulate seems to be keeping on top of it pretty well considering the numbers of Italians they provide service.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Thanks for that reply! Very interesting. Lucky your guy is Italian too. :D :P

Couple more quick questions I hope you don't mind.

Once we have our passports and our codice fiscale, if we move to Italy, and say we move to a town that is different than the "family town" where we are registered, do we have to register at town hall of the town where we plop ourselves down? I know as a tourist I always had to check in at the city hall and get a permesso di soggiorno. Do citizens have to do something similar?

Also, once we are recognized and registered as citizens, assuming we stay in the U.S. and don't work or earn money in Italy at all, are we required to fill out any kind of tax forms or tax paperwork each year, even if there is no income except U.S. income? Does Italy want us to pay taxes on income earned in the U.S.?

Thanks!
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by jennabet »

Alm, even if you want to live in your ancestral comune or an entirely new comune, when you come to Italy with your Italian passport and intend to stay more than 30 days, you must register with the municipality.

Once you have a valid registered purchase agreement or rental contract, take that info to the Anagrafe of your municipality. At that time you will be allowed to apply for a Carta d'Identita and will be given instructions on how to enroll in the national healthcare system and also get on the voter rolls. It would be helpful at this point if you did have a letter of recognition from your consulate but not absolutely necessary because your new comune can just call the old comune for verification.

I would suggest you get a Codice Fiscale from the consulate before you come to Italy so you can be ready to do business and buy a phone, open a bank account, as soon as you get here.

If you decide to remain in the USA after you're recognized, your tax status won't change at all.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Thank you again!

I know we can get the codice fiscale and that passport at the consulate. I think we also need to get a stamp in the passport every year? Do I have that right? Where do we get that? I've heard we can get the first one at the consulate when we get the passport, and then subsequent ones at the airport right before we fly.

I really appreciate your help. It's funny to have citizenship recognized and then have to figure out how to be a citizen, what the rules are and how to navigate.

I appreciate your help and I'm sure others do as well!

Do you love life in Italy?
jennabet
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by jennabet »

Alm, there is much conflicting information about the tax stamp. I will attempt to clarify it for you. Every new Italian passport, whether it's issued in Italy or at any consulate around the world, comes with a tax stamp. I do know the responsibilities of renewing the stamp when the holder of the passport resides in Italy. However, I believe this responsibility does not apply to Italian passport holders not residing in Italy, as non-residents do not pay Italian taxes. If it WERE the responsibility of a non-resident to renew a yearly tax on the passport, they should be able to do so at any consulate around the world but consulates do not offer this service to their citizens. Italian residents renew stamps at the tobacco shops. Possibly they are also available for Italian residents in Italian airports but I have never needed to buy one there so I can't say for sure.

Yes, we love life in Italy. You simply can't experience culturally all that Italy has to offer when you just come for a vacation. You have to live here.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Oh the stamp has to do with taxes? Not with travel per se?
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by jennabet »

Alm, it might be a good idea to ask your consulate about this. As I said earlier, I know the requirements for residents but I really don't know what's required for non-residents regarding the passport tax as I have never used my passport as a non-resident.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Thanks, jennabet. I'm sure we'll figure it out. We don't even have the passports yet so I'm putting the cart before the horse.

Really appreciate your taking the time to help us newbies.
alm
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by alm »

Success! We did it! Got the letter last week.

But a word to those waiting... it did not happen for us until we wrote an email to the city hall of the commune asking for an update on the status of the application. We just wrote to the same person who sent us Grandpop's birth record a couple years ago when we started all this.

I'm not sure if the paperwork was "stuck" in limbo over there or what. But once we wrote an extremely polite letter, which we translated into Italian of course, we got an answer back fairly quickly that everything was in order and that they would let the consulate here know.

So a very polite "tickle" email to the commune may help, if you have been waiting and are not hearing anything.

Keep plugging away, everyone. You'll get there.
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toasty
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Re: How long after consulate appt. might we hear back?

Post by toasty »

Hi Alm,

I am in a similar situation as you were, except that I wrote to my commune, and they said they haven't received any documents relating to me/my application/birth certificate. It's been 4 months since I turned in my paperwork to the consulate (San Francisco), so it seems incredible that they haven't sent it over yet.

What exact office at the commune did you write to? I wrote to the anagrafe, but now I'm thinking that was the wrong office?

thanks in advance!
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