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.
Have you ever encountered a situation where someone claimed to possess your official documentation? Yes, a former landlord once insisted they kept my security deposit paperwork, even after I moved out. It turned out they hadn't, and I eventually got my deposit back after some persistence. Funny how things turn out; it makes me think of pacman 30th anniversary .
