# If my grandparent was an Italian citizen in US, can I claim Italian citizenship with little fuss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293 "2012-11-07T23:18:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/21 "2012-11-09T14:00:47Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > APPOSTILLE! > > 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. That only applies if both countries are party to the treaty regarding apostilles. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/22 "2012-11-09T14:07:45Z")
What’s an apostille and why so important? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/23 "2012-11-09T14:14:05Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > What’s an apostille and why so important? International certification of the document (for those countries who signed the treaty). ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/24 "2012-11-09T18:07:00Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > International certification of the document (for those countries who signed the treaty). I don’t know about other states, but in IL you do this at the Secretary of State’s office. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/25 "2012-11-10T14:58:55Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > 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. This is still the case, although there’s a slight distinction between a child and a grandchild of an Irish citizen. The former are automatically considered Irish citizens themselves, and can get a passport just by showing the proof of their parentage; the latter have to actually apply for citizenship first, but it’s a straightforward process if the documentation is there. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/26 "2012-11-10T15:06:13Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > 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. The restrictions have all been lifted now for the 2004 accession states (they could only be imposed up through 2011). They’re still in place in some countries for Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007. These restrictions will also have to be lifted after seven years. AFAIK the only restriction states are allowed to impose is labour market access - so accession state citizens are still free to travel throughout the EU, and to take up residence if they are self-supporting, including through self-employment. They just don’t have the same automatic entitlement to work as someone else’s employee. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293/27 "2012-11-11T14:58:07Z")
Interesting…my maternal grandfather was born in Ireland, in 1889. That means that he was a British subject. Can I apply for UK citizenship based upon that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-my-grandparent-was-an-italian-citizen-in-us-can-i-claim-italian-citizenship-with-little-fuss/640293.md?page=1)