On June 24, 2022, new legislation regarding Citizenship by Descent will become effective (art. 36 law 206/2021). As of that date proceedings for the establishment of Italian citizenship must be submitted to the District Court in the ancestor’s native town.
This new jurisdiction will reduce the number of proceedings submitted to the Court of Rome.
An important question here is how the District Court judges will deal with the issue of a minor whose parent naturalized while the child was still a minor. This has become a serious issue with the Court of Rome.
In addition, there is the possibility that local district judges, not being familiar with Citizenship by Descent, might make different decisions than the ones made by the Court of Rome judges. The latter are familiar with:
- Mistakes in the ancestors’ names (misspellings)
- Mistakes in Naturalization documents
- The meaning of A.K.A. in official documents
- Negative/positive certificates issued by Italian communes
- U.S. states which do not require the names of the bride’s and groom’s parents
- The U.S. tradition of choosing a middle name at Confirmation
- The custom for women to take their husbands’ surnames after marriage
- The need to reconstruct facts from a different perspective when vital records are missing
and so on.
Regardless of this change in the current legislation, MY LAWYER IN ITALY® will continue to help its clients to the best of its abilities. We will work hard for citizens of Italian descent anywhere who simply want to come back to the land of their ancestors and to be recognized as legitimate Italian citizens.
