Italian Citizenship through Ancestry

About 8 years I contacted an advocate in Italy and about 3-4 years later he went to the Italian court and established Italian citizenship for not only myself but also my wife, children and my sister. The time seems excessive but there is a lot of time needed to source original documents, have them apostilled and translated by an official translator and then getting a court date and waiting for the judgement and then waiting a year for the government to appeal or not. My mother was Italian but lost her citizenship when she married a foreigner and I was born in 1948.

The advocate in this case was Avv Luigi Paiano from Bologna and I recommend him highly. The fees he charged were not excessive taking into account that he was acting on behalf of 7 people. I remain very happy with his services.

I have used ****. I have been very pleased with them. I had to go through my grandmother for citizenship. This law firm helped me.  They helped me gather the documents I couldn't find, had them translated and we are in the judicial process now.

@Goga11

Unsuccessful Application: I used Luigi Paiano unsuccessfully to apply for Italian citizenship via my maternal line. My grandmother was born in the US when my great-grandmother was an Italian citizen, but she became an American citizen when my grandmother was still a minor. Luigi advised me that my chances of obtaining Italian citizenship were very good. I was declined in both the lower court and appeals court.

A word of warning: I am not confident that Luigi was upfront with me throughout the process. I started the process in March 2018 and was declined in August 2024. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, in or before 2021 the Italian courts started to reject citizenship applications via the maternal line when the parent became a naturalized citizen while the child was still a minor. This was not communicated to me at that time, nor when my application was first rejected in 2022 at the lower court after when the issue was known. When I confronted Luigi about this, he said nothing is guaranteed and he cannot "forecast" what the court will do.

So a word of warning...it is a time consuming and expensive process. The Italian court is now rejecting at least some applications via the maternal line, advising that minors lose their citizenship by default. Luigi may not tell you this directly, but it appears to be a combination of luck and what judge you get, knowing that the same judge may later change his/her mind. Minors losing citizenship by default should have been communicated to me by Luigi during the process and was not. 6.5 years later and several thousands of dollars later, I found out the hard way.

@Goga11

Unsuccessful Application: I used Luigi Paiano unsuccessfully to apply for Italian citizenship via my maternal line. My grandmother was born in the US when my great-grandmother was an Italian citizen, but she became an American citizen when my grandmother was still a minor. Luigi advised me that my chances of obtaining Italian citizenship were very good. I was declined in both the lower court and appeals court.

A word of warning: I am not confident that Luigi was upfront with me throughout the process. I started the process in March 2018 and was declined in August 2024. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, in or before 2021 the Italian courts started to reject citizenship applications via the maternal line when the parent became a naturalized citizen while the child was still a minor. This was not communicated to me at that time, nor when my application was first rejected in 2022 at the lower court after when the issue was known. When I confronted Luigi about this, he said nothing is guaranteed and he cannot "forecast" what the court will do.

So a word of warning...it is a time consuming and expensive process. The Italian court is now rejecting at least some applications via the maternal line, advising that minors lose their citizenship by default. Luigi may not tell you this directly, but it appears to be a combination of luck and what judge you get, knowing that the same judge may later change his/her mind. Minors losing citizenship by default should have been communicated to me by Luigi during the process and was not. 6.5 years later and several thousands of dollars later, I found out the hard way.