WAIT TIME IN NYC FOR APPOINTMENT

[sceaminmonkey]

sorry if this is a waste of space but I see now you can make appointments online for NYC. They are within 10 weeks? I just wanted to be sure this is correct and you dont have to wait a year or more for an appointment anymore.

[mler]

My understanding is that NY has become much more efficient of late.

[sceaminmonkey]

oh wow. Ok I understandably could not believe it. does that mean there are more hoops to jump through? have they made it more difficult? to my knowledge I was one of the first people to ever actually get a court to declare somone one and the same. Have they created new challenges ?

[mler]

I'm really not sure since I haven't had a need to contact them for a really long time. All I can tell you is that I have been seeing various posts stating that the once-impossible-to-deal-with NY Consulate has now become much more user friendly.

There's never any certainty with consulates since personnel changes have a great impact on how cases are handled. When I applied (approximately ten years ago), they were amazingly helpful and reasonable. I was accepted with incomplete NARA documents, self-translated documents, minor document discrepancies, and without documents from the non-Italian line. They also processed my application with my son's using his NYC address (I lived in NJ when the Newark consulate was still operational) and actually mailed me notification of my citizenship to my NJ address. Then there was a long period during which NY became one of the more difficult consulates with which to deal.

I think the one thing you can count on is that you really can't count on anything. Make an appointment, go in with as much documentation as you can, and hope for the best.

[sceaminmonkey]

To be honest I am more worried they are doing this because they think the laws might be changing. ITs 300 euro now which to me seems reasonable since its time consuming and we dont pay taxes abroad which amerca even does but, I am worried they are going to recognize all these people and drop them. I have posted things on the laws changing before I am always worried about it

[mler]

You really needn't worry. Once your citizenship has been established, you are no different from any other citizen. It will not be rescinded.

Italy has a long jure sanguinis tradition. If there are any changes down the line (and no changes to jure sanguinis are seriously being proposed today), I can envision a generational limit, but even that seems unlikely. In practice, it becomes increasingly difficult to document eligibility as the number of generations increases so it actually becomes self limiting. Some have proposed a method through which those born in Italy can more easily obtain citizenship jus soli, but this is controversial and, in any case, does not have anything to do with jure sanguinis.

Might things change at some future date? Nothing is set in stone, but countries don't take citizenship away. You are an Italian citizen, and as long as you don't renounce your citizenship at a consulate, you will remain one.

Maybe NY is becoming easier to deal with because they are welcoming people with Italian heritage who want to become citizens. Be positive.

[sceaminmonkey]

I am scared there will be a residence requirment. Like the Netherlands will take it away if you dont live within the kingdom of the netherlands for 10 yrs. is there a good english newspaper that covers italian topics and news?

[mler]

I wish there were something I could say to make you feel better, but realistically, look around you. There are so many expats living all over the world including in the US. The world has become a lot smaller, and dual citizenship has become fairly commonplace. Do you think US or British citizens living in Italy or elsewhere in Europe are worried about losing US citizenship? Do you think Italians living in the US, England, Switzerland (one of my cousins lives in Geneva), or elsewhere in the world worry about losing Italian citizenship?

Residency is one of the means by which you can OBTAIN citizenship in the Netherlands (it is also another method of OBTAINING citizenship in Italy). Neither the Netherlands nor Italy take it away if you move to Germany. (I should add, though, that the Netherlands strongly discourages dual citizenship. In this respect, it is much unlike other countries.)

In an incredibly shrinking economic world, a residency requirement makes no sense.

I can't think of anything else to tell you, except that there are many pressing problems in the world to worry about. Citizenship status of expats is way down the list.