My Country ‘Tis of Me

I’ve been working on getting a dual citizenship for Italy for a couple of months now. Since my parents were born in Italy, I can get Italian citizenship through them. It’s something I thought about a lot as I was growing up because I often felt it could come in handy in some situation. Actually, I probably would have fervently pursued this option more if the November elections had turned out differently.
Growing up, I always wondered where I belonged. I never completely felt American – I had all these weird traditions that none of my friends had. But I never felt Italian either because I didn’t know anything about the history except what my parents had told me, which wasn’t very much. But I loved the language, literature and culture and it often pulled on my heartstrings and I sensed longing for the boot shaped country.

Anyway, the last couple times I’ve been to the Italian consulate...it’s been quite an interesting experience. Actually the first time was fine. The agent explained all the types of documents I would need and he basically said that I just needed to get those and I’d be fine.

But as with everything Italian, there is always another story. And I got the second half of the story this past week. I went with all the documents that I had prepared according to how the first agent had explained. So I thought I was set. How incredibly naive of me? This agent told me that the first agent was wrong. I could not get the citizenship by just petitioning through my mom (who had all her documents in order and who is far more tied to Italy because her family still lives there). I had to have my father’s papers too. In fact, they didn’t even have any record of my father’s naturalization at the consulate in NY or in Italy. I knew that my dad had been having some trouble finding his documents so I hypothetically asked what would happen if we could never locate the originals. The agent told me that my dad would have to petition Homeland Security to get a copy of his naturalization papers. I took note of this but what annoyed me is what he was basically suggesting. That if my dad couldn't find his documents that perhaps he wasn’t here legally. Perhaps I was over analyzing as I am wont to do but...still. What was he implying or was I inferring incorrectly? Hmmmmm?

He proceeded to tell me all the things I needed to do IF my dad’s papers were in order. And IF they weren’t, then I could just forget about it. When I got on the bus to head back home, I was livid. Why did I need to go through all this legwork when my mom had everything in order and the forms say you can petition for citizenship from whichever parent you choose? As I discussed this with my good friend, who had also gone through this process, we concurred that there was always another story to every darn situation with the Italian consulate. I began to wonder if I really wanted to pursue this anymore....so as if I hadn’t had my confusions about nationality before, I now continue to add to this list of doubts.