So, a while back I wrote about how, and why, I’ve decided to try to apply for Italian citizenship for me and our kids (you can read that post here). My husband was born in London to Italian parents and is therefore both Italian and British. Hopefully our birth daughter, our adopted son and I (all of us British) can become Italian too – as long as we can make it across the bureaucratic hurdles which stand in our way.
I’m sharing the progress of my attempt at this challenge because so many people are interested in how it’s all going. But, to be clear, I have no expertise in this area and am in no way telling anyone how to do it.
Certificates
Anyway, last time I wrote about this, I had ordered copies of our marriage, birth and adoption certificates from the UK General Register Office. We need these certificates in order to register with the Italian Consulate in London – photocopies aren’t accepted. The certificates arrived about a week after I ordered them. The next stage in the process is complicated, and I’ve been putting off thinking about it because it’s different for each of us.
Apostille
Each of our certificates needs an apostille so that it can be registered at the Italian Consulate. An apostille is a stamped official certificate to show that a document is genuine. You have to apply to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Legalisation Office if you need to have an official UK document legalised in this way.
However, only certain documents are accepted by the FCO for legalisation. They have a helpful tool on their website where you can check if your documents can be legalised. I checked our documents. Marriage certificate – fine. Birth certificate – of course. Adoption Order – erm? I read through the whole list of acceptable documents for legalisation on the FCO website and there’s nothing in there about adoption. So that means that I can apply online for our marriage certificate and our daughter’s birth certificate to be legalised, but not for the adoption document. There’s no number to call with queries either, so I kind of got a bit stuck with this for a while because I felt bad about moving forward with the application if we can’t all do it together.
But now I’ve accepted that the process is complicated and it’s just going to be different for each of us. I have to keep trying to move it forward however I can. So, today I’ve applied for our marriage certificate and our daughter’s birth certificate to be legalised via the FCO website. It was very easy to do, and the cost is £30 per document plus £5.50 delivery. Once I completed the details and made the payment online I was directed to print out an Application sheet containing our details and to post it with our documents to the FCO Legalisation Office.
Translation
Once I receive our legalised certificates, I need to get them translated into Italian by one of the certified translators listed on the Italian Consulate website. Then (I haven’t looked at this bit in detail yet as it’s probably a long way off) I need to fill in some forms and get a whole bunch of specific documents together with the certificates and translations and send them to the consulate to register our marriage and our daughter’s birth.
Registration of adoption
In order to find out how to register our son’s adoption with the Italian Consulate in London, their website says to email the Notary Department. So I emailed them today asking for advice. I was astonished when a reply came back six minutes later with very detailed and helpful advice about what I need to do in order to register the adoption. In fact, there is so very much that I need to do, and it’s so very complex, that I’ve written about it in a separate post (see below).
The previous part of this story is here: The one where I decide to apply for Italian citizenship
What happened next
To find out what happened next, read these posts:
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.
Apostilles and translations for birth, marriage or death certificates are no longer needed since February 2019, so long as you order a certificate from the GRO that is in Italian. Due to a recent EU regulation (still in force in the UK), apostilles and translations are no longer required until the end of post-Brexit transition in December 2020.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=LEGISSUM:230101_2&from=EN
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=LEGISSUM:230101_2&from=EN
That’s amazing – thank you for sharing that information Giacaomo. Have you used this service, and do you know whether or not the Italian authorities accept documents like this?
Hi Giacomo
Thank for this.
What is a GRO?
Regards
Keith Borien
GRO stands for General Register Office – it’s the official place to get UK birth and marriage certificates etc from.
Thanks for that piece of info. Do you know if this still applies, now that the UK has fully left the EU?
Hi Richard, yes, as far as I know this does still apply, but I submitted all of our applications prior to Brexit, so I don’t know for sure what, if anything, has changed since then.
Thanks Greta.
I will give it a go tomorrow (Wednesday).
I will let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed.
Keith
I hope that it works – I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you too!
Hello Greta
I wonder if you can give me any advice/tips on how I might be able to get an appointment at the Italian Consulate in London on the Prenota website.
I have been literally trying for several months to get one for Italian Citizenship. At 7.00 every Monday and Wednesday I sit in front of my computer waiting for the next available slot to become available on a Tuesday or a Thursday (the days for citizenship appointnments).
I sit there for 10 minutes or more waiting for the days of the calender which are in black to turn green so that I can book an appointment. The reality is that the slots go from black to red without ever going green. For months now I have done the same thing without any joy.
Is it the case that notaries or agencies have a way in which they can book the appoinment in advance of the general public? If so can you recommend one that I could use or speak to.
Any advice would be really appreciated.
Regards
Keith
PS I love your blog. It has made me realise that I’m not the only one who has found it difficult to get through the citizenship process.
Hi Keith, it’s really difficult to get an appointment, I know. My daughter had to do the same thing, and it took a few weeks of trying before she managed to get an appointment. My advice is that you need to be ready at 7, and then refresh your computer screen constantly until a green appointment slot appears. I don’t think that a green slot will appear unless you refresh your screen. Also, how fast is your broadband speed? If it’s slow where you live, could you go somewhere with fast broadband for when you try to get an appointment? This could give you a better chance of getting a slot, as the screen would refresh more quickly. I don’t know about the notaries or agencies as I’ve not used any of them, sorry. Good luck, and do let me know how you get on! Also, thank you for your kind words about the blog, it’s good to know that it’s helpful.
Very interesting article on Italian citizenship. Do you think this would this be the same procedure for me to get Italian citizenship for our kids . ( I am London born but have Italian citizenship married to a German and my kids are British born although we live in Italy)????
Erm, I would have thought that it’s probably different as you live in Italy? If you lived in the UK then I should think it would be the same as it is for us. But I don’t know for sure – this bureaucracy business very difficult!
Gretta,
Thanks for keeping us updated as I am planning to do the same for myself and my 2 daughters and your progress (or lack of it!) is very instructive.
Good luck and can’t wait to hear the next installment.
Thanks Tony – it’s good to hear that my posts are helpful!
Wow that sounds even worse than the Pakistani identity card application which I didn’t think was possible….
Britpakgirl recently posted…West Wittering Beach, West Sussex
Well it’s very tedious – but I do feel like I’m getting somewhere with it, in very small steps!