Okay, so I was talking to a smart and lovely woman last night at an election results party. Naturally, the conversation turned to the old if-my-candidate-loses-I’m-leaving-the-country-damn-it discussion. Taking notice my Italian last name, she asked me if my grandparents were Italian-born.
I said, “Yes.”
She said, “Well then, you can press the I’mOuttaHere Button pretty easily and become an Italian citizen, if you want!”
“What do you mean?” I said.
She went on to explain that if any of my grandparents were Italian citizens when they came over to the USA (which would have been in the early 1900s), I could claim/acquire Italian citizenship with relatively little fuss.
I might have the finer details wrong, but that was the gist of here contention. She said the same was true of the grandchildren of Irish immigrants. I have heard of something like this policy for Jews and Israel – that is, Israel will grant citizenship to virtually any Jew wishing to emigrate – but I have never heard of it for Italy or Ireland.
Is she right? Or sort of right? If she is, what is the whole story, spelling out all the qualifications and restrictions?
NOTE: For the record, I have no desire to leave the country or become an Italian citizen. After all, my guy won last night! I’m just curious. You never know how 2016 will turn out!
That depends on your definition of “fuss.” The pertinent information, I believe, is whether your grandfather, or father, ever renounced their right to Italian citizenship. If your grandfather became a naturalized US citizen before your father’s birth, he may have messed up your chances for an EU passport.
This site is trying to sell you its services, but it seems to have a list of all the documents you’ll need to procure. Obviously, if you did intend to pursue this course, you should consult professionals, etc.
Yeah, pretty much. One of my co-workers just did this via her Italian grandmother. Brace yourself, though; it took her more than 2 years, I think, and multiple consulate visits. And by the time she finished the process, she ad a kid. When she went to go pick up her spanking-new Italian passport and asked what it would take to do the same for her baby daughter, she was given an appointment to come back in several months to discuss it. :rolleyes:
I don’t know if the rules have been changed in recent years, but you could easily get an Irish passport/citizenship if you have a parent or a grandparent who is Irish [I presume they meant] born.
All you needed was your birth cert, the birth cert of the Irish parent/grandparent and their marriage cert.
A buddy of mine did this too. Wasn’t that hard in the case of Ireland. His thought was that this could potentially allow him to go work/live anywhere in Europe if he ever felt like it. Don’t know if that’s the case or or not, though.
Yes, an EU passport from one of the nations who was a member of the EU prior to 1 May 2004 (Luxemburg, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, UK, Iceland) allows you to live and work in any other of these countries.
The reason for the date restriction is that most existing members placed restrictions on new members – mostly the East European nations who joined en masse after this date – from having the same right, presumably because they were afraid of mass immigration.
So a Polish passport doesn’t give you the same rights as an Irish or Italian passport, for example.
This is called right of return and exists in a number of countries.
For instance, Germans have been living in Romania since the Middle Ages, even before parts of present day Germany were settled. Yet their descendants are entitled (under certain conditions) to immigrate to Germany.
The descendants of Germans who settled in Russia in the 18th century have been returning to Germany in large numbers since the fall of communism.
I have a colleague whose children acquired Italian citizenship because they were born before she became a Canadian citizen. Canada does not require you to renounce previous citizenships, although they might have then. But her husband is from a family originally German and I don’t think Germany accepts renunciation of citizenship. And once you are a citizen of any EC country you can live and work in any of them.
My mom had 2 Italian born grandparents and toyed with the idea of taking citizenship and reclaiming the family place waaay up in the Apennines (pretty much Salt Cod, West Virginia - stone ruin deep in a holler, people upstairs, livestock down). Anyway, once she asked about taxes and red tape and such, she figured she wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it.
To ride the OP’s coattails, since the circumstances are very similar: my maternal grandmother was born in England (her father was from Ireland, mother from England). She came to the US around 1910 at the age of 5. I can assume she became a naturalized US citizen, though I never thought to ask her and I have no information/documentation that states either way.
[QUOTE=UK Home Office]
This page explains the circumstances in which someone who was born outside the United Kingdom or a qualifying territory may be a British citizen (…)
If you were born outside the United Kingdom before 1 January 1983: (…)
You may have had right of abode if: (…)
when you were born, you had a parent who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies because he/she was born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom (except in certain circumstances), or because one of your grandparents was.
[/quote]
It’s possible I am not parsing this correctly, but it seems to me that because I had a UK-born (and presumably a UK citizen at birth) grandparent , I “may” have the right of abode.
Does anyone have any experience or knowledge either way?
I’ve been told that I can claim Hungarian citizenship even though I was born in the US and have only been to Hungary on infrequent visits. Simply because both my parents were born there.
I’m a Brit living in the USA, and my kids have dual us/uk citizenship via me. However a number of points.
[ul]
[li]They can get UK birth certificates[/li][li]UK embassy says NOT to ever apply for a UK passport for them (although entitled) as that may count as denying their US citizenship[/li][li]They can only pass to their kids in their kids born in UK.[/li][/ul]
You should be able to find that out, but it may take some legwork. I wouldn’t assume - I assumed that about my own (Canadian-born) grandmother, and in the end found out that she may have been in the U.S. illegally from her arrival in 1930 until her death in 2006. Check out the USCIS website, etc. for starters.
I had a friend who did this exact same thing. It took a while to get all the paperwork together and processed. I think he took about 2 years, but he wasn’t in a rush. The one important thing is to know if and when your parent or grandparent renounced their Italian citizenship. If they never did, then you should be okay. If they did renounce, then it becomes a matter of when. If they renounced before having your ancestor, then you wouldn’t be eligible. For example, if your grandfather renounced Italy before having your father, then you’re out of luck. But if he had your father and then renounced, then you can do it.
You’ll need to get together birth, death, marriage and immigration documents to show proper lineage.
My mother and both her parents were born in Italy. My grandfather came here sometime in the nid 1920’s, and Grandma and Mom and her sisters came over in 1931. Mom became a citizen when my grandfather did, but later got citizenship in her own right. I guess it might be nice to know if I can hold dual citizenship, but my mother were she still alive be flummoxed that I would want to – she and her sisters wanted nothing more than to be “true Americans.”
My friend and neighbor has dual citizenship – Ireland and the US. His mother was born in Ireland and became a naturalized US citizen. His wife and children all have dual citizenship. They own a condo in Austria they visit for varying lenghths of time each year. Had they not had that Irish citizenship they likely would not have been allowed to buy property in Austria. They were flying on their Austrian passports I believe because that was less hassle on the European end than flying on their US ones.
But here’s a question – can a citizen have more than one US passport? My husband is under the impression that you can. Some of his coworkers have work reasons to go to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and he thinks one told him that he has two passports and uses one for trips to Israel and the other for trips to Saudi so that customs officials in one country won’t easily know that he has recently visited the other country.
Related question – is it legal to have a US driver license from two different states?
My girlfriend has this, and has used it in the past.
Right of Abodeis not full citizenship. Instead it’s an endorsement on your current passport which allows you to live and work in the UK without restriction. Once you’ve lived there for the requisite time you may apply for full citizenship.
However to qualify you have to have been a citizen of a commonwealth country on 31 December 1982 as well as the requirements you mention. If you were born after 1983 you can’t qualify for right of abode unless you’re a UK citizen anyway.
I always heard that the UK rule applied if you were born before 1982 only if it was your grandfather (and his child and you were legitimate). After 1982 it had to be your parent was born in the UK. You get citizenship automatically, but your spouse/children do not.
Simply apply for a passport if you qualify.
the rules seem complicated: apparently the changes to accomodate equal rights are not retroactive in some cases:
Apparently if your (British) parents register you before you turn 18, you might be able to claim British citizenship beyond first generation? But you don’t get it automatically except if your parents are born there…
Hope the OP doesn’t mind a short hijack (it’s to avoid starting a new thread.) Here’s my issue:
Our maternal grandfather went to the US to study (we’re from the Philippines.) After graduation he immediately returned to his country, married, settled down. This was in the 1920s when the Philippines was a US protectorate.
Segui to 2012. During our mother’s 85th year celebration, our sister gave a short ppt presentation. She flashed documents which she obtained online, all authenticated, showing that our grandfather took the oath of allegiance to the Unites States of America. His identity was cross-checked with his college records and the ship passenger manifest.
So, was our grandfather a US citizen? Or did this become void when the Philippines gained independence in 1946? Our grandfather died in 1975 and he never told anyone about this.
Documents from one country to be presented in another must have an appostille affixed so if you’re ordering US birth certificates to present to the Italians, make sure you do this.