So you’re eligible for Italian citizenship (or you’re on your way to confirming your eligibility). First off, let’s celebrate that win! The process for obtaining Italian dual citizenship is a massive emotional roller coaster and not for the faint of heart. So celebrating even the small milestones along the way is important. And it’s all worth it in the end. Forza! C’è la fai!
Now it’s time to start thinking about how you plan to apply. If you’ve been researching, you already know the application methods available to you depend entirely on your line of eligibility. Different cases go through administrative application processes while others have to go through judicial processes. And then you have to decide where to apply. Do you apply through your consulate knowing it’s likely to take years? Do you pick up and move to Italy? Where in Italy is best for your case?
These are all great questions to ask. And they all have nuanced answers and benefits based on your case, your priorities, your timeline, and your budget. We’ll put together an in-depth comparison of all these in the future, so in the meantime you can reference the jure sanguinis overview on our Apply-in-Italy page for some insights.
There is one question, however, that we’re going to dive deep into in this series…
Do I hire a service provider or DIY it?
Like always, we’re going to be upfront and honest with you. We’re obviously biased. First, because we offer Italian citizenship assistance services. Second, however, because this work is so meaningful to those who are able to obtain their Italian citizenship, it’s painful to hear stories of it going wrong. And while we’ve been able to “rescue” numerous people whose cases got derailed for one reason or another, we’d much rather set you up for success from the start.
With that said, we’ll be the first to tell you that hiring a service provider isn’t the right choice for everyone. Some people have budget limitations, others love the challenge of figuring it all out on their own, and others have difficulty letting go of the process and trusting a service provider. And we completely understand all of those things. Which is why we don’t hesitate to tell prospective clients if we’re not the right fit for them (spoiler alert: this is one sign of a good service provider).
There are people recognized as new Italian citizens every single day who did it entirely themselves. So we’re not going to tell you it can’t be done. In fact, it can be a very rewarding experience. It also has many risks and pitfalls that many people aren’t aware of until it’s too late. More on that later.
The benefits of DIYing your Italian citizenship
Lower costs
First and foremost, DIY costs less. And for many people, this is reason enough. There are already hard costs for obtaining documents, certifications/apostilles, authorized translations, and passports. If you’re applying in Italy, you also have costs for relocation and establishing residency in the comune where you plan to apply. Adding service provider fees on top of this isn’t feasible for everyone, whereas the DIY route is more financially accessible.
Information availability
There is a wealth of information already out there. If you have the time and the mind for conducting the research needed, you can find an answer to almost any question you have about your case. Many people have gone through this process before, documenting their steps and strategies on blogs, YouTube, and Facebook.
There are also resources like the Dual U.S.-Italian Citizenship group on Facebook with over 60K members who are at varying stages of their citizenship application process. People with a wide variety of cases and scenarios use this group to ask questions and share their experiences. A brief word to the wise… like many online forums, people aren’t always the kindest or most helpful when communicating through a screen, so take some things with a grain of salt.
Hybrid approach & flexibility
Even if you’re doing the application process yourself, some service providers offer support services for things like document retrieval, consulate appointment prep, or genealogical research. This gives you the flexibility to offload some of the things that have a very steep learning curve—like requesting Italian vital records if you don’t speak Italian or know how each comune handles these requests—without having the expense of a provider fully managing your application.
The benefits of Italian citizenship assistance service providers
Hiring a citizenship assistance expert can be a reliable way to see your application through the entire process all the way to your recognition as an Italian citizen. You get to benefit from their extensive expertise, all coming to drive your citizenship application forward.
Knowledge PLUS wisdom
One of the biggest benefits of working with a service provider is not only the massive amount of information they have; it’s that they know exactly how to apply it. They can cut through all the clutter of details and nuance straight to the most important clarifying problem at any given moment. They know what is relevant, when it’s relevant, and to whom it’s relevant. That kind of clarity comes only from processing the nuances of case after case and that alone is worth the price—because it usually saves you a lot of time and money in the long run.
Speed
Don’t misunderstand. There is no magic wand that can speed up or guarantee the various government processing times involved in this process. Anyone who tells you otherwise is at best an unrealistic optimist or at worst has something to hide. Either way, they should be avoided.
What great service providers CAN do is speed up everything in between. By knowing the intricacies of your case, they can guide you on sequencing and prioritizing, not to mention preventing issues from arising during processing.
For example, we conduct not one, but two comprehensive document reviews. Why? The first review happens when a potential client has gathered all the documents for their application, usually before they have apostilles. This review identifies errors or inconsistencies that will derail the citizenship application and provides them with a detailed list of corrections to make. This not only saves them from wasting time and money on an apostille for an unusable document, it also helps prevent processing delays or even rejections. The second review happens after apostilles are obtained to ensure the final accuracy of both document and apostilles together. We had one case where the client obtained an apostille from a different state than where the document was from (don’t ask us how this was even possible). By identifying this error, we were able to prevent a massive processing delay later in the process.
Benefit from other cases
Like any profession, every new situation brings new challenges and new opportunities for learning. And there’s no better way to learn than firsthand. Service providers work with unique cases each and every day, allowing them to be constantly refining their processes and delivering better and better client experiences. This type of in-depth expertise isn’t possible for the average DIYer because they must filter all information through the lens of their individual case.
Hiring a service provider means you get access to the most current and most refined citizenship application process there is to offer.
Less bureaucracy (for you)
The truth is that government bureaucracy and inefficiencies exist in every country. The unfortunate part is they all probably learned it from Italy. Even if it’s your first day researching, you’ve probably already seen fellow citizenship seekers saying things along the lines of, “This worked at consulate X, but my consulate is saying…” or “This comune told me I have to [fill in random unheard of hoop to jump through]…”
While there are guidelines, there is no true one-size-fits-all in this process. While the law may be clear to you, it may be “clear” in a completely different way to the person reviewing your application. Sure, you can potentially pursue legal action if they really want to dig their heels in. But prepare yourself to spend years (8-10 probably) fighting it. And even if you win, you lose. Because you’ve just taken the very people to court who are responsible for processing your application.
While you can’t avoid bureaucracy, a service provider can help you choose the right bureaucracy. Good service providers have a finite list of services they offer and where they offer them. They will also be familiar with the specific requirements and expectations of the countries, regions, and comuni where they operate. This gives you an immediate, priceless advantage that otherwise can only be bought with immense amounts of frustration.
Ease
The list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this one. We all know how busy life is. And while getting your citizenship is likely a high priority for you, it can easily get pushed to the back burner when life gets crazy. A service provider can take on most, if not all, of the heavy lifting to keep the process moving forward.
You don’t have to be the expert
All the other benefits boil down to this. You hire a service provider to be the expert so you don’t have to. Interestingly enough, this can also be a challenge for some people. After countless hours, days, and weeks of research and genealogy and reading and asking (and maybe even a few tears)… it’s REALLY hard to let go and trust someone else to fully understand the nuance of your case.
We completely understand. Which is why we recommend doing thorough due diligence on the frontend. Because for your service provider to get you the best result, you have to trust them to bring the full force of their experience to bear on your case. And thoroughly vetting them at the beginning means it’s not a “blind” trust, it’s earned trust. And if done well, you won’t regret a penny of it.
Before choosing a provider…
Now that we’ve talked through some benefits of service providers, there’s one thing that’s impossible for us to overemphasize…
Not all Italian citizenship assistance service providers are created equal.
Aligned
It’s important to find the provider that is the best fit for your case, your budget, and your expectations. If these things aren’t aligned, you and your provider are going to be frustrated with each other, which is not an ideal relationship for the emotionally taxing process of obtaining your Italian citizenship.
Ethical
Beyond this, it’s also important to partner with a provider who is ethical and trustworthy. Why do we say this? Because while the Italian citizenship assistance industry is legal-adjacent, there is no official governing entity or board that moderates the industry like a bar association does for attorneys. And the unfortunate reality is that there are service providers who obtain citizenship for clients through illegal means such as bribes or through risky shortcuts that won’t pass an audit.
Competent
Lastly, your service provider needs to be competent. While this may seem obvious, you’d be shocked at how many providers are still in business despite not being up to the task. For example, one service provider used our Italian citizenship eligibility quiz to find out if their client was eligible or not. True story. Between Google and ChatGPT, anyone can be a self-proclaimed expert anymore. You want someone in your corner that knows all the nuances of the law and paths a case can take. It’s not worth permanently risking your citizenship no matter how cheap it is.
One of our next articles focuses on red flags when choosing an Italian citizenship provider. If you’re still in the pre-application process, you’ll definitely want to read it.
These reasons are actually why we started this series to begin with. There are good service providers out there, and we are honestly thrilled for people who have great experiences with them. It’s great for the industry. What really upsets us are the stories (even from our own clients) who have been mistreated or scammed by other providers, leaving people to clean up the mess themselves or pay even more money to a new provider to do it. Or worse, they end up no longer eligible for Italian citizenship. Even if you don’t work with us specifically, we don’t want you to end up in that position.
A few important considerations
Regardless of whether you DIY or you hire a service provider, there are a few important things to know that can trip up even the most straightforward of cases.
Constantly changing laws and regulations
More and more people every day are exploring and applying for Italian citizenship. This is putting a heavy strain on branches of the Italian government. If you’ve looked into applying through a consulate at all, you already know this by the years-long wait times to even book an appointment. And that’s before the years-long processing time after the appointment.
Beyond delays, however, this surge of requests is causing the Italian government to evaluate all aspects of claiming citizenship through ancestry. The last few years have been full of proposed legislation to make eligibility requirements more strict.
This goes a step further in that while the law may say one thing, your case is completely at the mercy of the person reviewing your case and how they interpret the law. We have seen cases rejected at one consulate for reasons that are accepted every day at other consulates, making years of waiting and hard work worthless. This is one reason that while we offer supporting services for people applying through consulates, we do not currently (and may never) offer consulate consulting services.
Italian citizenship audits
Also brought on by the influx of applications, there has been an increase of post-recognition audits of citizenship applications by the Italian authorities. In an effort to maintain the integrity of Italian citizenship through ancestry, more and more cases are being subjected to intense review processes.
While people who are legitimately eligible and whose applications have been properly processed have nothing to worry about from these audits, the danger is that you don’t know what you don’t know. We’ll talk more about this in the next article of this series. The important thing to know right now is that the consequences are severe.
Misinformation (even with good intentions)
Like we mentioned before, there’s no shortage of information available to you. While this can be immensely helpful, it can also be extremely detrimental to your case for several reasons.
Not all information is accurate
While this seems obvious, sometimes it can be difficult to decipher what is true and what’s not. People often share their understandings (or even opinions) as facts. Mix in the constant hope of obtaining citizenship and our natural confirmation bias as humans, and you have a risky combination that makes it easy to accept the most favorable answers as fact.
Not all information is current
What was true last year (or even last month) may not be true today. While people’s personal experiences of what worked in their cases can be helpful, it can also be dangerous if more recent legislation or decisions have come into effect that counter this information. Additionally, each consulate and comune can change their requirements and processes without notice. It’s critically important to stay up-to-date.
Not all information is applicable to your case
We can’t emphasize this point enough. Every case is unique. Even two cases that are 99% identical can have massively different implications on the application process or even your eligibility.
Not all information is true everywhere
Similar to what we mentioned a moment ago, what is accepted or rejected can vary from one agency to the next. This is true for consulates and for comuni for those applying in Italy. These factors can be the difference between acceptance and permanent rejection of your case.
Wrapping up
Ultimately, everyone has to choose what’s best for their situations between DIY and hiring a service provider. And that choice is different for each person; there’s no right or wrong. The best strategy is to educate and equip yourself with the best approach to vetting service providers and knowing if and how they can help.
More to come on that in the rest of this series…
