Do I need my grandmother's birth certificate?

[uniqueusername]

Hi,

I have a quick question about documents.

Although I will be using the Sydney consulate, the Melbourne consulate has more detailed information about their requirements so I'm using information from their website.

I fall into this category:

3) Your father was born in Australia, your paternal grandfather was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your father’s birth, neither you nor your father ever renounced your right to Italian citizenship.

According to the consulate, these are the documents I need.

1) YOUR PATERNAL GRANDFATHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE (from Italy)
2) YOUR PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
3) YOUR GRANDPARENTS’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
4) YOUR GRANDFATHER’S CERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION
5) YOUR FATHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
6) YOUR MOTHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
7) YOUR PARENTS’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE
9) DEATH CERTIFICATE/S RELATING TO ITALIAN BORN ASCENDANTS ONLY.

I have all of the documents except number 2 - my grandmother's birth certificate. But because I'm using the paternal line (grandfather -- father -- me), will it matter if I can't source my grandmother's birth certificate?

If anyone has any advice or has been in the same situation please let me know!

[CowryShells]

This is always a tough question to answer, unless you have instructions from your specific consulate. I would contact the consulate and explain the situation. It might help if you have a certified copy (or an official copy) of the next best document that refers to your grandmother's birth. In our case, we obtained a social security application. That way we could say that we don't have document X, but we DO have document Y, which also provides the information.

Best wishes!

[uniqueusername]

Thanks for the tip.

I do have my grandmother's Italian identity card issued in 1949. This was the document that was used for her ID when she emigrated to Australia, and subsequently applied for naturalisation. All the names, dates and places match up so hopefully that will be enough.

It's a bit of a gamble though because the consulate is ONLY taking appointments (no emails/phone calls) and the next available one is 23rd December. Oh well, I started this in 2008 so what's another 8 months?