Certificate of No Naturalization / Name Changes

[JJ313]

L555_1912 Art. 7 creates an exception to minor children losing citizenship when a parent naturalizes. If the child already possessed the citizenship (by being born in that country) gained by the naturalizing parent that child would not lose Italian citizenship. A child who did not acquire citizenship in the naturalizing country by birth (e.g., emigrated from Italy with parents) would lose Italian citizenship upon the naturalization of the parent.

[priere]

JJ313, would you mind sharing where you got the information about the different treatments of US VS Italian born minors?

Here's a great resource that explains the 'After 1912' Italian born minor children issue in more detail as well as the other laws pertaining to citizenship. I knew this was the case it's just been a while since I've had to think about it.

http://italiancitizenship.freeforums.or ... s-t47.html

[italiangal36]

Thanks Priere- follow-up question. Is this actually enforced by any of the Italian consulates? In other words, if your ancestor was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. as a minor after 1912, does the consulate require you prove his/her parents did not naturalize while they were still a minor?

[jflore]

Regarding gaining your Italian citizenship.... don't believe any sites that tell you who qualifies or what you need, UNLESS it is the consolate website. I went down that road and found out it was a much easier process just by going to the consolate website and looking at the rules and requirements for gaining citizenship by jure sanguinis. I'm in the process now. As for the names, if they are just English translations of the Italian name then you just need to write a short explanation of the discrepancy. If the names do not match, including the order, or even if they changed a middle name only, you will have to get the records corrected. When you look at the website, also look at the application for the citizenship. It will give you much insight into what they are looking for.

[priere]

Thanks Priere- follow-up question. Is this actually enforced by any of the Italian consulates? In other words, if your ancestor was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. as a minor after 1912, does the consulate require you prove his/her parents did not naturalize while they were still a minor?

I honestly don't know as it didn't apply to me but I seem recall at least one person who it did affect. It's been a while though. I would recommend asking on the other site as a few of their regulars would know if it's enforced or not and if so where.

[italiangal36]

Thanks again Priere.

I second jflore's statement. You can get a lot of helpful and useful information from forums and websites but it is ultimately the Italian consulate that makes the final call. Every consulate is a little bit different and looks for different things. Same holds true for assumptions. I had a minor discrepancy in my GGF's birth date on his Italian birth certificate and his naturalization paperwork, neither of which could be amended. At first I assumed this would be a big problem because others had run into problems with similar scenarios with the NY consulate. I was worried at first but then took a step back and emailed the consulate I am going through (San Fran) to find out if it would be an issue. They said it should be fine if I provided some supporting documentation which I had. One thing I learned is, if you run into something and you can't find the answer on the consulte's website, it is best to contact them to find out for sure.

[jflore]

If you look on the consulate website and look at the application, there is a part of the application where you can state and sign that they were not naturalized before the child was born. As I said, the only sure way to know is to look at the consulate website requirements and application form.

[priere]

I completely agree. When I went through the process I asked the consulate every step of the way what I needed. It saved me money as well since I only needed to get three documents translated where if I had followed what was on another consulates site then I would have got every document translated and wasted hundreds of dollars.

In my previous posts I was only speaking about laws that are on the books. People need to be aware of the laws that could potentially affect them so at least they won't be blind sided if a law becomes an issue for their case.