Preparing your Italian Citizenship Document Portfolio

We often receive this question: “Will the Italian Consulate return the original documents to me?” The answer is “they do not”, in fact all Consulates will keep your original documents in your permanent file.

Action steps: you can order two copies of each document, but of course that doubles your cost. Our suggestion is to keep scanned copies of everything: Italian Vital Records, Naturalization Papers, Certified US Vital Records, Apostilles, Translations to Italian as well as the application forms you and your living ascendant will fill out in preparation for your meeting.

REMEMBER: all Vital Records have to be issued in the “long form”. This means the following:

• Italian vital records need to list the parents’ names and all “side notations” (“Estratto per Riassunto”, not “Certificato”)
• US vital records (birth, marriage and death records) should be the photocopy of the original document (death records need to list the cause of death) and have to be certified by the local county clerk (unless issued by the State) in order to be Apostilled.
• Divorce records are a little tricky since each court is different; the Italian Consulate will require not just the divorce decree but also a “Certificate of no-appeal”. Both documents will need to be Apostilled and translated to Italian. Sometimes, the translation is required to be Apostilled.