1948 Rule - Success with Marco Mellone in 18 months!

[kltalbott]

This forum has been very helpful to me over the past two years and I want to share my successful claim to Italian citizenship. I am grateful to everyone who answered my questions and to those who wrote about their own experience.

First of all, I highly recommend attorney Marco Mellone info@mellonelawfirm.com to anyone who wishes to challenge the 1948 rule. I knew from our first email exchange on November 2, 2017 that I wanted him to represent me. He is professional, responsive, and has excellent English skills. He answered all of my questions within one or two days, sometimes in the same day, with patience and kindness.

Both of my grandparents were born in Italy and immigrated to the United States. My grandfather became a citizen before the birth of my mother who was born before 1948, therefore my request for citizenship was through my grandmother.

Our claim was registered with the Court of Rome on April 11, 2018 and our hearing was on October 16, 2019. According to Italian law, the judgment is issued two months after the hearing. I was amazed the following day, October 17, when Mr. Mellone wrote to tell me that we are now Italian citizens. The judgment was made in one day!

After all final steps are taken by Mr. Mellone and our birth certificates are registered in our commune, we can apply for our passports.

Here is a timeline of my keys dates:

Nov 02, 2017 - first contacted attorney Marco Mellone
Feb 21, 2018 - signed a contract with Mr. Mellone
Apr 09, 2018 - sent my documents to Mr. Mellone
Apr 11, 2018 - claim registered with the Court of Rome
Oct 16, 2019 - hearing before the judge
Oct 17, 2019 - total acceptance !

Daria Valentini eph.learning@gmail.com did all of the translation and apostille services for me. She was wonderful to work with and I believe her professional work contributed to the successful judgment in my case.

[aabruno]

Wow.. that was fast.. I am in a similar situation. What were your approximate costs??

[afecad]

Old posting, but within 18 months is unusual, especially since Covid and recent high volume of Americans pursuing.

I retained ICA back it the fall of 2020, it took at least 6 months to get them retained as they were backlogged, was quoted 2-3 years for a presumed 1948 case. I'd expect the estimated cost to use a lawyer falls between $5 to $10K+ depending on how involved your case is or how much you want them to do vs. the guided option.

Received my GGM's official birth certificate from Isca a few weeks ago (that alone took around 6 months) for ICA to obtain. Biggest delays at this point is the state of PA and local county and document delivery.

[kltalbott]

Will send pm to aabruno.