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.
I recently learned that my Italian American friend living in Palermo got invited to apply for citizenship. She initially applied for a permesso, but then automatically was invited for to apply to citizenship. She said it was because her family was "big in the commune" or had a lot of extended relatives. The Palermo commune did NOT require her to show any proof of blood like and "supposedly" said they had all her documentation.
I have never heard of this before, has anyone else? I even thought to write my grandparents commune to find out if I could do the same, since it was successful for my friend in Sicily.
Please let me know if you have any information about this citizenship invitation via the commune or any success with it!
I am not aware of this being a process of obtaining citizenship through the normal paths. That said, if she has deep family connections, the commune already has all her families records such as parents, grand parents, etc. etc. It is possible for them to recognize her through administrative discretion, essentially fast tracking her application and process. Dont get the wrong idea, your friend would have been in Italy legally, likely living locally, registered with the Anagrafe and has established residency. It sounds like your friend is fully qualified and based on the area she is living, her deep family connections on that town, residency, ability to speak Italian, etc. etc. they simply fast tracked her application. THIS IS NOT A NORMAL PROCESS that most will be able to use. Undocumented, complete administrative discression, etc. Just don't want others on here to get the idea that you can just head over to Italy and they are going to fast track you through the system...that is definitely not how this works.
It sounds like your friend’s situation is definitely an unusual case rather than a standard path to Italian citizenship. From what CaputoBruno mentioned, the commune likely had all her family records on file and used administrative discretion to fast-track her application, which isn’t something most people can rely on. Residency, registration with the Anagrafe, and strong family ties seem to be key factors here.
It’s interesting to hear about other experiences with “official documentation” too, like GlennqLuu’s story—shows how important it is to verify what’s actually on record. I agree that while it’s tempting to hope for a fast-tracked process, this really isn’t the norm. Mille grazie for the insights!
That is exactly right emmascott63! I would also note for everyone else on here that citizenship, even through the normal channels, is taking 3-5yrs even with all the proper paperwork, etc. It is not a fast or easy process. It will test your patience, your sanity and knock off a few years of your life from the sheer stress of it all. Proceed with caution!
During the mass emigration from Italy during the century between 1876 to 1976, the U.S. was the largest single recipient of Italian immigrants in the world. However, their impact was not as great as countries like Argentina and Brazil. That was due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of immigrant...
