citizenship

Our friends in Italy received the following email this morning explaining our situation:

Dear Francesca,

We would be happy to have dinner with you on Monday. We all enjoyed our visit with you and your family very much.

I also wanted to let you know about a problem we have. As you know, we’ve been trying for the last month to get my Italian citizenship by blood recognized here at the Comune in Saluzzo. It has been a little difficult, since Teresa, our contact, has only helped Argentines before. Because we are from the United States and the line goes so far back (Tony’s great-great grandfather), it is a more difficult process with a lot of work and hassle for her.

Well, the meeting didn’t go so well today. We are slowly realizing that Teresa just wants us to go away. Fortunately, or rather, as we are beginning to think, unfortunately, she knows when our tourist Permesso runs out. In approximately three weeks. Today, we had put the binder all back together with only the necessary documents, suitably translated, signed, stamped, and marca di bolloed. Thinking it would be helpful, I had also consolidated the five long declarations of non-renunciation of Italian citizenship into one page listing which consulates needed to be contacted regarding which people. I did it because when she saw the original declarations, she seemed overwhelmed by the amount of work it would be, especially considering that she would have to contact the Embassy in Indonesia.… Read more

We had an unexpected blessing today.

Julio finished all the translations and we met at the Tribunale. I had heard horror stories about how much it costs to certify translations. Every official document in Italy must be plastered with little holographic stickers known as “marca di bollo.” And yes, they’re expensive. You can buy them at any tobacco shop. There are two kinds that I know of (who knows, there may be more). The only distinction I understand between them is that one costs 1.5 euros and the other costs 14 euros. Guess which one people usually have to put on their translations.… Read more

We had a stroke of inspiration over the weekend. Teresa was unsatisfied with several documents in our collection. First of all (and seemingly, her most serious worry) were the two illegible documents (the death certificates for Louis and Domenico). Next, she wanted an actual birth or baptism certificate from his parish, not just the certified photocopy we had obtained of the actual birth record from the two-hundred-year-old book. Finally, she wanted actual certificates from the L.D.S. Church Archives of Domenico’s marriage and Louis’ birth, rather than just the official letters we had received.

We went back over our records and realized that the birth record for Henriette from the Waldensian Church in San Germano Chisone was probably the closest we could get to an actual certificate from the parish in Lagnasco.… Read more

The plot thickens further, if possible. If Louis and Blaine were not already deceased, I would like to wring their necks. I hope Domenico has them working overtime right now on making sure we get jure sanguinis.

As informants on Domenico’s and Louis’ death certificates, they really messed things up. Louis put completely erroneous parents for Domenico. Chialto Bodrero and Marie Bodet. And then Blaine said that Louis’ parents, Domenico and Harriet, were born in France and Switzerland, respectively. I don’t know what was going on with Louis. Maybe he’d never met his grandparents and just got confused. But Blaine. Really.… Read more

We’ve just been staying at our hotel here in Saluzzo till the gas gets hooked up in our apartment. This takes a long time in Italy. We can’t apply for citizenship until we have a permanent place to live, but I wanted to learn whether the comune will accept translations done by a friend or if there needs to be a certified translator. We also thought they might give us the letter we need to take to the Questura to get our Permesso di Soggiorno per Attessa di Cittadinanza (permission to stay while applying for citizenship), even though we don’t move in till next week.… Read more