Mums do travel

Travel with and without teens

  • Home
  • Destination
    • UK
      • London
      • Kent
      • Northern Ireland
      • Wales
      • Elsewhere
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Croatia
      • France
      • Gibraltar
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Italy
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Russia
      • Spain
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • USA
      • Canada
      • Carribean
      • Costa Rica
    • Africa
      • South Africa
      • Tunisia
    • Asia
      • Thailand
      • Bali
      • Singapore
    • Australia
  • Inspiration
    • Things to do in…
    • Things to do in London…
    • Where to stay
    • Language learning
    • Family travel interviews
    • The journey
    • Recipes
  • Published in
  • About
  • Contact
  • Travel shop
Home / Home Featured / The one where I decide to apply for Italian citizenship

The one where I decide to apply for Italian citizenship

December 8, 2017 by Gretta Schifano 20 Comments

Houses in Cinque Terre, Italy. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Houses in Cinque Terre, Italy. Copyright Gretta Schifano

This week I started the process of applying for Italian citizenship and passports for me and for our two children. I’m sharing my experience here in case it’s helpful to you. But please bear in mind that I have no expertise in this area, and I’m not in any way telling you how to do it – Italian bureaucracy is a thing of mystery, after all.

Italian citizenship

My husband’s parents moved to London from Sicily for work in the 1950s. They always planned to move back to Sicily, and when he was born in London they registered his birth with the Italian authorities. So he is both British and Italian. This means, I believe, that our two children, born in England, and I, born in England to English parents, can all become Italian citizens – as long as I can navigate the complex and inevitably frustrating Italian bureaucracy required to achieve that. (Very sensibly, my husband is keeping as far away from the whole process as he possibly can, because he has a lifetime of experience of how tedious Italian officialdom can be.)

Prior to the June 2016 EU referendum, applying for Italian citizenship had never occurred to me. I’ve always loved Italy. I studied Italian at University, I worked there as an English teacher and have spent many happy times there both on holiday and visiting friends and family. But I’d never thought about actually becoming an Italian citizen, or about contacting the Italian authorities to register our marriage, our daughter’s birth or our son’s adoption. Why would I? But since the referendum I’ve known, reluctantly, that it’s something that I had to do.

EU referendum

I voted Remain in the referendum because I thought that was the best and the right thing to do for the future of my family and of our country. (If you’d like to know why, do read my post How should I vote in the EU referendum?) I was devastated and astonished by the result, and by the toxic atmosphere of racism, arrogance, xenophobia and bluster which it has stirred up. Today I still believe that Brexit is a backwards step which is damaging our country, and I’m astonished that most of our politicians are going along with it. I’d still vote to remain in the EU if we had another referendum tomorrow. But as that’s not an option, it seems that the only way for my family to remain in the EU is for us to all become Italian citizens.

I did vaguely start researching the process of applying for Italian citizenship soon after the referendum. I went to the Italian Consulate website to try and work out what we needed to do. Straight away I had some queries, so I sent them via the website contact form. I quickly received an automated response to say that I’d receive a reply within six months. Disheartened, I left things for a while, hoping that maybe Brexit wouldn’t happen. But it really does seem to be happening, one way or another, and so I really do need to get on with the application.

First-hand account of starting the application process for Italian citizenship and EU passports for a British person married to an Italian, and for their adopted and birth children. Click through for details of how they started the process.

Certificates

So, the first stage seems to be to register our marriage, our daughter’s birth and our son’s adoption with the Italian Consulate in London. In order to do that, we need original certificates – photocopies aren’t accepted. The original certificates will not be returned to us by the consulate, so I can’t send them the actual original ones which I have at home. Luckily the UK General Register Office has a very efficient website, and I’ve ordered copies of our certificates from there, at a cost of £9.25 per certificate. It takes up to 15 days for the certificates to be delivered, and then I’ll have to arrange for them to be translated by an approved translator and legalised to show that they are genuine. After that, I think that I’ll be able to register with the consulate and then eventually to apply for Italian passports – I’ll keep you posted!

What happened next?

To find out what happened next, read to these posts:

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 2.

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 3

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 4

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 5

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 6

Applying for Italian citizenship – part 7

Over to you

Have you ever applied for citizenship of another country, or would you like to, and why? Please do share your experiences, as I’d love to hear about them.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Related

Categories: Brexit, Travel advice
Tags: Brexit, EU, Passports

About Gretta Schifano

I'm a freelance journalist and blogger specialising in family travel with teenagers, trips when parents manage to travel without their kids, and 50+ travel. I also write about vegetarian travel, parenting teenagers, adoption, SEN, ADHD and anxiety. My work's been published by the Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet and others. I've lived and worked in Italy and Spain and am now based in rural south-east England with my husband, adoptive and birth kids and our dog. I previously worked as a social action radio producer for the BBC.

Facebook - Twitter - Google+

Subscribe to posts by email?

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Comments

  1. Simon says

    August 17, 2019 at 1:04 pm

    Hi Gretta, going through the process ourselves, my wife is Italian, born in the UK to Italian parents who emigrated here in the 40s. She was registered by her father and so has always had an Italian citizenship, unfortunately we weren’t aware until relatively recently of the importance of AIRE and keeping it up to date. (In fact neither of us knew about it until a couple of years ago). Cut a long story short, its taken well over a year getting AIRE updated, e.g marriage, change of address etc. (As we all know getting appointments is very difficult, especially so at honorary consuls). That is all complete now, but due to delays in getting an appointment to update everything, the new law came in (which we weren’t aware of) requiring a certificate at B1 level for JM (application by marriage) so mine is very much on hold (At least six years if not longer). However we can still sort out our daughters, again (wish someone told us years ago to register her birth) she is over 18 now so will likely have to go through the expensive, bureaucratic route, compounded by the fact she doesn’t live in the UK currently and can’t apply in her current country of residence (applications limited to full residents of that country only) and London is not viable. Ugh, anyway all the paperwork is ready for her now. It really seems that the charge for over 18s who weren’t registered at birth in Italy is nothing but a punishment fine! Going to submit the birth registration anyhow to London but reading your blog, I’m sure its just going to be returned.

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      August 22, 2019 at 8:08 am

      Hi Simon, I hope that you manage to get to all sorted out. Why will yours take at least six years? Is that because of the language exam?

      Reply
      • Simon says

        August 23, 2019 at 9:34 pm

        Yes, with the new law requiring 4 years from application on top of the time required to get to the relevant standard in Italian that is my best guess. But there is talk of this new law being repealed, so watch this space it is…

        Reply
        • Gretta Schifano says

          August 24, 2019 at 1:33 pm

          That would be good! I did hear from a friend in Italy that there may be an easier exam introduced for citizenship applications, so that could help too. Good luck with it all.

          Reply
  2. Gabriella says

    June 11, 2019 at 11:36 am

    Thank you so much for such an detailed report on the process! <3

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      June 11, 2019 at 1:36 pm

      You’re welcome Gabriella!

      Reply
  3. Lena says

    May 29, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    Thanks for this info Gretta. I’m just exploring doing this for our family ( myself, husband and 11 yr old daughter) as we want to be EU citizens after brexit, if at all possible! I don’t know what the process is at all yet but will read your posts to find out more. My mum is Italian and has been in the UK for 61 years! Best wishes in your quest and do let me know if you have any other tips and how you’ve got in

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      May 30, 2018 at 4:35 pm

      We’ve not got much further at the moment, but I need to get on with it! Good luck with it all, and I’ll write more when we’ve made some progress.

      Reply
      • Lena says

        June 1, 2018 at 1:10 am

        Thanks Gretta, I look forward to hearing from you about it! Thanks Lena

        Reply
  4. Anne says

    January 2, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    I am applying for citizenship as well. Waiting for hubby( the Italian)’s registration as AIRE to come through ( we moved back to England two years ago) then start the application process. It’s taken, since May last year, forever and we have not received his registration . Which website are you looking at for the application I gather everything is online from now on??

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      January 2, 2018 at 2:07 pm

      I’ve been looking at the London Italian Consulate website: http://www.conslondra.esteri.it/consolato_londra/en/
      Our UK certificates have now arrived, so I need to start the next stage now.

      Reply
    • Leo Ballerio says

      September 4, 2019 at 11:32 am

      I chased them after 200 days for my AIRE registration, as their quoted lead time is 180 days, or just under 6 months. I sent them the application details and asked when I should expect my registration to come through. Funnily enough, it all then happened very quickly, within 48 hours. I guess if you wait the quoted lead time and then chase, the backlog magically disappears.

      Reply
  5. Jane Welton says

    December 10, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    Good luck Gretta, this is definitely worth all the work. I wish I could do this for me and my family! I want us to keep our rights as EU citizens – I’m not bothered about being British. Brexit is terribly damaging and has unleashed some very unpleasant feelings and reactions. Hopefully your experiences can help others.

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      December 10, 2017 at 5:25 pm

      Thanks Jane, I hope so. I wish that you could do this too 🙁

      Reply
  6. Jenny says

    December 8, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    Good luck Gretta … I did not even contemplate applying for italian citizenship (I was put off by the pages of documents required) even though I live in Italy and married to an Italian – but I did register the children’s births with the British embassy. To be Italian you have to have an Italian parent (there is a proposal to give Italian citizenship to babies born in Italy of foreign parents … but who knows if it will be accepted). All the best!
    Remember even if you get Italian citizenship in Britain you will always be considered British and in Italy always Italian .

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      December 8, 2017 at 6:29 pm

      Thanks Jenny. I’m not sure if any of us will actually manage to get it, but I feel that we have to try!

      Reply
  7. A S,Edinburgh says

    December 8, 2017 at 10:47 am

    That’s super-interesting, thanks for posting. It sounds like one of those things that’s easily put off because of the daunting amount of bureaucracy, but is so worth doing and relief to get done. The citizenship processes of different countries vary so much, as far as I’m aware, that it can be hard to get a sense of how much difficulty to expect. Anyway, I hope it goes smoothly for you.

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      December 8, 2017 at 10:54 am

      Thank you very much. It is daunting, but I hope that by sharing my experience of the process it will help others who are thinking of doing the same thing.

      Reply
  8. Suzy McCullough says

    December 8, 2017 at 9:26 am

    Wow good luck. My boy was born in France but I have no plans to apply for a citizenship or a passport for him as I know what the process can be like. I’m wondering if perhaps they will want your certificates officially translated into Italian? I know we had to get all our documents like that translated into French when we became part of their system many moons ago. I hope the process isn’t too difficult for you

    Reply
    • Gretta Schifano says

      December 8, 2017 at 9:51 am

      Thank you. Yes, we will need to have our documents translated by approved translators, definitely.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Applying for Italian citizenship | Go Thou To Rome says:
    August 22, 2019 at 11:43 am

    […] Mums Do Travel – applying for Italian citizenship through marriage as a UK citizen living in the UK […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Search site

Follow me!

Email: gretta at mumsdotravel dot com
Follow me on FacebookFollow me on Google+Follow me on TwitterFollow me on InstagramFollow me on YouTubeFollow me on PinterestFollow me on Bloglovin

You'd like posts by email?

Booking.com

Most popular posts:

  • How to pack for an 8 kg luggage allowance
    How to pack for an 8 kg luggage allowance
  • Thailand with teenagers: a two-week summer itinerary
    Thailand with teenagers: a two-week summer itinerary
  • Where to find Mary Poppins film locations in London
    Where to find Mary Poppins film locations in London
  • 5-night itinerary for Northern Tunisia
    5-night itinerary for Northern Tunisia
  • What to do when your teenager doesn't want to go on your family holiday
    What to do when your teenager doesn't want to go on your family holiday
  • Itinerary for a three-night Berlin sightseeing trip with a teenager
    Itinerary for a three-night Berlin sightseeing trip with a teenager
  • 5 of the best: UK castles for family stays
    5 of the best: UK castles for family stays
  • 60 free things to do in London with a teenager
    60 free things to do in London with a teenager
  • Top things to do in Sicily with teenagers
    Top things to do in Sicily with teenagers
  • How to go seal watching in Winterton, Norfolk
    How to go seal watching in Winterton, Norfolk

Recent Posts

  • How to apply for Italian citizenship: everything we’ve done so far
  • How to explore London’s top attractions from home
  • Amsterdam virtual museum & gallery tours
  • Introducing Armchair Travels
  • How to explore Florence, Italy, from home

About

  • About
  • Published in
  • Contact

Disclosure

This is a personal blog written and edited by me, Gretta Schifano. Sometimes I’m given products or sent on trips to review, but I always make this clear and give my honest opinion. See my About page for full details.

Copyright © Mums do travel 2019
Header by Suzanne Barton
Website by
Callia Web

Sign up for my free newsletter:
Subscribe to the Mums do travel mailing list... it's FREE!
You'll receive family travel news, offers and competitions. Once you sign up you can download my tips for saving money on family travel.
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
Sign up for my free newsletter: