How to know when your citizenship has been approved by Italy

[mikedc]

Greetings -

My documents were sucessfully accepted by the Italian Consulate a couple of months ago. Does anyone know if there is a way to check the status of the application in Italy?

Thank you!

[johnnyonthespot]

Mike,

Which consulate, and what did they tell you when they approved your application?

NYC (in mid-2008, anyway) would send a letter stating that your application was approved, they have registered you in AIRE, and you can come in at anytime to apply for your passport (which I did, 4 months later).

Some other consulates force you wait until a) the consulate gets word from your ancestral comune that they have registered the documents without contest or, b) you apply for and obtain a copy of your "Italian birth record" from your ancestral comune.

If you are in the latter group, then you can contact the Ufficio dello Stato Civile of your ancestral comune and request a status update and/or a copy of your birth record.

[cdevita]

wow--nyc certainly moves more quickly than Los Angeles...

[jbp1966]

Does anyone have any information on how efficiently/quickly the Houston, TX consulate operates? As instructed by the Deputy Commissioner, once my paperwork was in order (collected, translated, apostille stamped), I emailed the Commissioner yesterday requesting an appointment to submit the paperwork.

Thanks.

-jbp

[jbp1966]

Does anyone have any information on how efficiently/quickly the Houston, TX consulate operates? As instructed by the Deputy Commissioner, once my paperwork was in order (collected, translated, apostille stamped), I emailed the Commissioner yesterday requesting an appointment to submit the paperwork.

Thanks.

-jbp

[cdevita]

Not sure in Houston but in LA it was 3 mos to get the appt. Normally, you should make the appt while you are gathering the paperwork to make best use of time--not sure how much in a hurry you are. If they instructed you to wait until all of you paperwork was in order, perhaps they move very quickly--Lucky for you!

[jbp1966]

cdevita, thanks for the info. I've visited the Deputy Commissioner 2 or 3 times since July '09, and was told to request via email an appointment when I had everything. I've heard through a few people the Houston Consulate works quickly and is one of the better consulates to go through. I'm not in a huge hurry to get it completed. I have at least 6 - 9 months of loose ends to tie off here before I could go to Italy.

Good luck to you,

-jp

[DeFilippis78]

So we basically wait for the appointment and then wait some more for the application to be approved? Im assuming in the mean time they contact us if they need additional information right?

Alicia

[cdevita]

yes--you got it!

[mikedc]

johnnyonthespot, thank you for your response to my original post and I apologize for just getting back to you now. To answer your question, I applied Embassy of Italy Consular Section in Washington, DC. Do you have any idea how fast they work?

[teddi]

johnnyonthespot, thank you for your response to my original post and I apologize for just getting back to you now. To answer your question, I applied Embassy of Italy Consular Section in Washington, DC. Do you have any idea how fast they work?

You should get a letter from the DC consular section when they are finished processing your application, and have sent your documents to the comune in Italy for registration. Only DC consular section can answer the question of how long till they get to it- did they give you no estimate when you applied?

[mikedc]

Thank you. I did not get an estimate, but I will get back in touch with the person I am dealing with there. They must move fairly quickly since I got the appointment within days of calling. I'm reading horror stories on here about people waiting months to even get an appointment!

In any case, thanks again for your input.

[scottshay]

Thanks for the info, mikedc. I will also be going through the Embassy (I live in Arlington).

For any other locals (DC, Arlington, Fairfax), I called the Embassy yesterday to get a better heads up on the process and they were quite helpful. I am sure there are only a tiny number of applicants per year here, since it just covers DC and two counties in VA, so I imagine the process goes more quickly. The woman I spoke to said the process takes approx. 6 mos. from application till you get citizenship.

Scott

[mikedc]

6 months sounds great to me! I like that. Scott, check out my personal message to you with further details...

[Roccella]

Does anyone have an email already written in Italian that could be used to check on the status with the Commune? My Italian isn't good enough yet and I would hate to make a mistake.

Something like,"I have applied for recognition of my Italian citizenship and I would be very gratetful if you would please email me when my vital records, and those of my children, have been registered by your Office. At that time, could you also please instruct me as to any costs associated with mailing to me in the US a copy of our Italian birth certificates and my marriage certificate. Thank you for your help."