Apply for Dual Citizenship in Italy
Applying for Italian citizenship at a consulate can be a multi-year journey. First, you have to determine your eligibility. Then, you’ll gather a number of documents, some of which might not actually be required by Italian law for a dual citizenship application.
After that, you’ll wait many years for an Italian citizenship appointment. Once the appointment is over, and the consulate has taken your paperwork, you’re looking at, potentially, a 24-month wait.
So, what’s a person to do if they don’t want to wait that long? Apply for dual citizenship in Italy!
If you need to get Italian citizenship as quickly as possible ...
… and you have some degree of flexibility – you can apply for dual citizenship in Italy and cut out the consulate.
By applying in Italy, you can gather only the documents necessary by law. Additionally, you will not have to make any appointments for your citizenship application. And wait times for processing in Italy are much faster than 24 months.
Best of all, you’ll have a professional with you every step of the way. A member of our staff will guide you in everything from seeking accommodations to getting your Italian passport in hand.
Why You Should Apply In Italy With Us
To date, we’re the only Italian dual citizenship service provider whose founder and CEO applied in Italy. This experience means we have firsthand, real-world experience with the process of being an applicant in Italy.
We’ve been in your shoes before, back in 2008. And since then, we’ve helped many people in your position cut the wait and apply directly in Italy.
Our firsthand knowledge of what it means to skip the consulate allows our clients to have successful applications.
What's included?
- Before you arrive, we look up apartments for you. We’ll take pictures and videos so that you know what’s available when you land.
- We visit apartments with you if you prefer to see them in person.
- When you sign your rental agreement, we’ll be there to make sure you understand the contract.
- We help you set up utilities such as electricity, gas, and the internet.
- We go with you to establish residency.
- We translate your documents and swear to their accuracy in the Court of Turin.
- Once you have residency confirmation, we take you to file for citizenship.
- If you are approaching 90 days in Italy, we go with you to obtain a permesso di soggiorno in attesa di cittadinanza (permit to stay while awaiting citizenship). This step keeps you legal to remain in Italy past the 90-day mark.
- After confirmation of citizenship, we take you for your carta d’identità (Italian ID card), passport, and tessera sanitaria (health insurance card).
Time frame for residency
We recommend that you plan to stay in Italy until your citizenship is recognized.
Though it can take far less time to file your application in Italy than at the Italian consulates abroad, we’ve found staying the entire time until you are recognized makes sense for three reasons:
- Applying in Italy is a significant financial commitment at first. It is customary to pay at least 3-4 months’ rent upfront just to get the keys to your apartment. You receive a large portion of this money back when you leave, but you need three months’ notice to break a rental contract in Italy. Budgeting for at least six months means that you can recover some of the initial financial investment over time.
- The longer you stay, the more iron-clad your residency. Technically, you can get residency and file for citizenship in as little as three days. But the longer you stay, the more likely the Italian authorities will view your residency as legitimate. Illegitimate residencies may lead to a revocation of citizenship, and our team definitely doesn’t want you to experience that.
- In our experience, recognitions in Turin are quite fast. Once your residency is confirmed, we have seen recognition of citizenship occur in as little as 2 months. Of course, prior results do not guarantee future performance.
Time frame for recognition
After you apply for citizenship, Turin will take scans of all of your records and then contact each consulate back home.
Turin will ask the consulates if you or your family members have renounced the right to have Italian dual citizenship. This step is known as the attestato di non rinuncia. The time frame for this step varies according to the consular workload. Only the consulate knows the answer to this request, so you’ll have to wait for their response.
Fortunately, consulates tend to respond rather quickly to applicants in Italy. You can expect recognition time frames of 2-8 months, though outliers are not uncommon. You do not need to be in Italy when the recognition happens.
What's NOT included?
Our service fees do not include the following:
- Flights
- Ground Travel in Italy
- Room and Board
- Ancillary Expenses
- Fee for Your Permesso di Soggiorno
- Fee for Your Italian Passport
You can apply for dual citizenship in Italy… if you elect residency first.
Applying in Italy means you’ll live in Italy. You get to enjoy the Bel Paese as only locals know it. Under Italian law, you can apply in Italy only if you reside in Italy.
With current consular wait times exceeding five years just to get an appointment, many people need an option that gains their Italian citizenship faster. So for those who live in another country but want or need their Italian citizenship more quickly, they can elect residency in Italy.
This step allows you to apply for dual citizenship in Italy and take the consulate out of the equation. Residency is not immediate. After you file your residency application, Italy has up to 45 days to confirm it.
Given that you’ll be paying for your own accommodations, including several months’ rent upfront, we recommend a stay of at least six months. This longer stay will make the process financially reasonable and help establish a legitimate Italian residency.
Where We Work
We operate in beautiful Turin (Torino), the capital of the Piedmont region. It is an ideal place to apply for dual citizenship in Italy.
From 1861 to 1865, Turin was the first capital of Italy. As a result, many call Turin Italy’s only “royal” city. It sits in an ideal location on the western bank of the Po River in front of the Susa Valley. Turin has the Western Alps and Superga Hill surrounding it for a magnificent backdrop. From Turin, you can take day trips to a number of cities such as Bologna, Milan, and the charming Aosta Valley.
Turin is famous throughout Italy for its refined architecture and cuisine. It is also the home of FIAT, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and Grom. Stately baroque buildings and old cafes line our city’s boulevards and grand squares such as Piazza Castello and Piazza San Carlo. Nearby is the soaring spire of the Mole Antonelliana, a 19th-century tower housing the interactive National Cinema Museum.
Turin is a wonderful place to visit and an even more wonderful place to live. We can’t wait to welcome you to your new Italian home!
