Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Visit to the Italian Embassy

So we had yet another visit to the Italian Embassy. We have almost all the document needed but there are still some problems with some of the documents. So the registry office in Honduras is not really good and it always has many problems. So we have to correct some birth certificates because strangely in the parents section of both a "J" is included at the beginning of the father's name.Another problem that we still have is that we dont have an actual marriage certificate for my great grandfather. At that time most marriages were not registered in small town in Honduras and if they were to this time the records are all destroyed. So the idea we had was to get some written testimonies which are going to be authenticated by a lawyer. Apparently there might be a living person that knew my great grandfather and hopefully he still remembers him.
We are still trying to get all the information possible. The lady from the embassy just recommended us that any document that could contribute to our case is welcomed. So we go back to work. If you have any ideas about other solutions, please post a comment.

Idea

I dont know if this already exists and if yes, I would want a copy to post it here. But i was not able to find an email list of the comunes in italy. So i will try to work on getting some emails. Also i got a comment about another blog which i found really interesting and that had many useful tips. the blog is Moving2Italy2.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Template Letter for Birth Certificate

This is a template i found in the internet that worked for me:
Ufficio Stato Civile
Comune di  (Comune)_

Egregi Signori,
 
Vi sarei grato se poteste cercare gli atti di nascita, su modulo plurilingüe, relativi ai seguenti nominativi e se poteste inviarmene gli estratti contenenti i nomi dei genitori, in carta semplice e con le eventuali annotazioni marginali.
 
Battista Perino(Name of italian relative) nato intorno al 22/Marzo/1879(Birth Date), figlio di Battista e di Margherita Bellino (If you dont know this info then just remove it)
   
Mi permetto di precisare che dovendo presentare le copie conformi all´originale, mi occorrono certificati con timbro e firma originali.

RingraziandoVi in anticipo per quanto potrete fare, Vi porgo i miei cordiali saluti,
 
 
               Your Name


Indirizzo Richiedente:
Your Mailing Address



 

Second list

Comune di Roma - sindaco@comune.roma.it
Comune di Napoli (NA) - stato.civile@comune.napoli.it , anagrafe@comune.napoli.it
Comune di Torino (TO) - info.anagrafe@comune.torino.it
Comune di Palermo (PA) - servizio.anagrafe@comune.palermo.it
Comune di Genova (GE) - gabsindaco@comune.genova.it
Comune di Bologna (BO) -
  UfficioNasciteCittadinanze@comune.bologna.it  ,
  UfficioDecessi@comune.bologna.it
Comune di Firenze (FI) - sindaco@comune.fi.it
Comune di Bari (BA) - urp@comune.bari.it , informagiovani@comune.bari.it
Comune di Catania (CT) - urp.cataniainforma@comune.catania.it
Comune di Venezia (VE) - sindaco@comune.venezia.it
Comune di Verona (VR) - urp@comune.verona.it
Comune di Messina (ME) - urp@comune.messina.it
Comune di Padova (PD) - urp@comune.padova.it  , sindaco@comune.padova.it
Comune di Tireste (TS) - urp@comune.trieste.it

List of Emails

Some emails i received, if you need the email of one comune leave a comment maybe i can help you.
Comune di Aglie (TO) - aglie@ruparpiemonte.it
Comune di Airasca (TO)- airasca@reteunitaria.piemonte.it
Comune di Ala di Stura  (TO) - info@comunealadistura.it
Comune di Albiano D'Ivrea (TO)- albiano.divrea@ruparpiemonte.it
Comune di Almese (TO) - segreteria@comune.almese.to.it
Comune di Alpignano (TO) - urp@comune.alpignano.to.it
Comune di Andezeno (TO) - andezeno@ruparpiemonte.it
Comune di Angrogna (TO) - angrogna@ruparpiemonte.it

Monday, March 8, 2010

Third Document I received with an extract of the Birth Certificate:

How to get Italian Documents

With this post I will try to give ideas about how to obtain your Italian Documents.
First of all you need a full name,DOB(date of birth), and the comune where the records are located.
These are the three most important information.
My goal is that you can get your documents without wasting too much money. So the first way I recommend is take advantage of the internet and try through email. I found that most comunes have an email address. For example for Trausella- comune.trausella@netsurf.it . I found that sometimes you get a reply and other times they just send the documents without replying to your email. If you cant find the email of your comune try contacting the Province. They may provide you with other information. Most comunes dont charge to sent this documents. I have asked for 3 different documents to Trausella and never been charged for shipping or anything else.
The next thought is sending a fax. It may seem really outdated but it wont hurt you. It is very likely they have a fax and it would be a cheap way to send a letter. Another idea would be to try to contact the comune through phone. To do this you will need someone that speaks italian, so try looking for someone in a university or a language learning center. I am sure you can find someone that would be willing to help you. 


Now if this ideas dont work for you, we will need to spend a little more money:
Now most people request documents through a letter sent through the mail. The letter must be sent in Italian(I will post some templates later). Some people like to include an International Reply Coupon and others include an amount of money to pay for the reply stamp. I have read that many IRC are never used and that money is almost always returned. You can send another letter to the comune but wait some time. You need to have a little of patience.


The last thing I recommend is to order the documents through a company. Most of this services have mix reviews. I have heard good experiences and really bad stories. I had a negative experience since I never got my documents and only got a partial refund. I don't recommend paying for this service because most of the things i described above are the same things they do. So why pay extra for something you can do by yourself for much less money and maybe even get a response faster. Up to today, i have received 3 documents from Italy that i asked by myself and no documents from the ICGS service. So for me this is the last alternative when nothing is working for you.


Hope these info helps you.

Getting Italian Documents (Second part)

So here we go... I really got into reading everything about obtaining italian citizenship. I found that there is a large community of people just like me. Everything single experience posted on the internet, helped me a lot. So i was still waiting for a response from ICGS, but i decided i was going to look for other ways. I started to search for ways i could communicate with the comune in Trausella. I started looking for an email and found one. I downloaded a template letter from the internet and decided to email them. I never got a response, so i started to think of new waves.
I didnt wanted to waste more money and I dont speak italian, so i was looking for cheap ideas. So my next idea was to get send a fax. I found the fax number of the comune and with the same letter i sent the fax through the internet.(yep! you can send a fax through the internet). While doing all this i also emailed the Province of Torino. After like 4 days, I got a response from the Province of Torino. They provided me with the information of the comune and an email. With this new email, i tried again sending the letter. I sent my new email March 2 and got this response:

COMUNE DI TRAUSELLA
PROVINCIA DI TORINO
Trausella, 6.03.2009
Con la presente Le comunico che in data 4.03.2009 ho spedito via posta il certificato richiestomi.
Distinti saluti
Il Funzionario Incaricato



With ICGS up to today i have no positive response. I got a partial refund from them, but I don't expect to get anything else.

Getting Italian Documents (First part)

Probably the hardest document to get are the documents from Italy. From my experience, it was actually simple. Our first approach was to get the documents through the Italian Embassy. Even though the embassy was very helpful, they were not able to get the documents. So I took it on myself to get this document.
We had an advantage that probably many other people doesn't. We had a copy of the original passport of my great grandfather( by the way his name is Battista). So we had all of his information. The problem was that I had no idea how to obtain the birth certificate. I decided to start investigating and at first the only way was to send the letter to the comune with a response stamp. I was a little lazy at first and thought about finding a company that could help me out. I thought i would pay an amount of money and certainly i would get my document. I read about ICGS(Italian Citizenship and Genealogy Services) and ordered from them my birth certificate. Their customer service is really good. They take a little while to answer emails but they seemed really willing to help me. After about a month of no response, I became a little worried. I really started to investigate more and read more forums.

Started blog

I have started this blog to share my experience and my knowledge about obtaining italian citizenship. I am a Honduran and my great grandfather was italian. My great grandfather had my grandmother who had my father.
The whole process of gathering the documents is a long one and you need a lot of patience. I have been reading a lot a forums and blogs. The experiences of many people have helped me and I am planning to help others with this Blog.
My great grandfather was born in Trausella, Torino in 1879. We got knowledge that we were eligible to the italian citizenship approx. 2 years ago. Since then we started obtaining the documents necessary. The Italian Embassy in Honduras has been very helpful and flexible with us. We have made like 3 visits and every time they have new feedback about our documents. Thanks for reading and hope my posts help you