ElementalMom

Today, we head off to the Consulate for our appointment. So to soothe my nerves, I’m writing about the why of this.

Obtaining dual citizenship has two facets. One is practical, the other emotional.

Practically, you’d have to be living under a rock to not realize that over the last 20 years or so, the United States has not been famous for playing nicely with others. Our politics, combined with the Legend of the Ugly American, has led to it being fairly uncomfortable to travel with an American passport in a lot of places. When you dig deeper, you find out that it’s also vastly cheaper to travel in the world if you’re not American. Here’s a short list, taken from an Italian-American forum:

• Australia
  Italian passport holders enjoy visa-free entry to Australia. However, Australia has an electronic registration system called eVisitor for pre-clearance. It’s available on the Internet, and it’s quite easy to use. It’s also free. In contrast, U.S. passport holders have to pay AUS$20 to use the Internet-based Electronic Travel Authority application which is otherwise similar.
• Brazil
  Italian passport holders don’t need a visa to visit Brazil. You can stay for up to 90 days for tourism or for routine business. U.S. passport holders, in contrast, need visas. It takes a long time to get them, you have to pay for them, and typically you have to start using the visa rather quickly after you receive it. It’s a major chore.
• South Korea
  U.S. passport holders can now enter Korea for tourism or for routine business for stays up to 90 days without a visa. However, for Italian passport holders it’s only 60 days. Why? No idea. Nearly all other E.U. passport holders can stay for 90 days.
• Macau
  Feel like gambling? Pack your Italian passport: you can stay for up to 90 days without a visa. It’s 30 days for U.S. passport holders, so please lose your money three times faster.
• Fiji
  Italian? Stay 6 months and enjoy paradise a little longer. American? Stay 120 days. This one doubly doesn’t surprise us; when Jason and I were in Fiji in 2000 when they had the first of a string of coups, the American ambassador to Fiji made comments that were so inflammatory, we hid our passports and pretended to be Australian, just for safety.
• Mongolia: No (tourist) visa necessary for US passport holders for up to 3 months. EU holders need a visa, which is around $30 or $50.
• China: There’s a big difference here in terms of cost. It’s at least $100 for US passport holders, but perhaps only $30 for Italians.
• India: There is an additional fee for US passport holders only, of almost $30 (2750 yen).
• Uzbekistan: US citizens need a Letter of Invitation, whereas Italians do not.

And so on. French Polynesia is the kicker. Last I heard, an American-flagged vessel entering their waters not only can stay a limited time, but must post a $1500 bond for each crew member, in local currency. The bond gets returned when you leave, again in local currency, so you eat the exchange rate both times. An EU-flagged vessel (any flag) can show up, not pay bond, and hang out for I believe it’s six months. Considering we’ll be sailing there, this one administrative hurdle alone pays for the time and the money required to obtain EU citizenship.

Cuba’s another biggie. It’s huge, friends, and takes up a big hunk of the Caribbean. And as Americans, we can’t go there. But Italians? No worries.

So from a purely practical, getting-around-in-the-world-on-a-boat perspective, having dual citizenship is worth it and then some.

But then, there’s the emotional standpoint. This is the letter I’m including with our application packet.

Achieving Italian citizenship is a gift of love we are giving to our children.

For my part, I have no Italian ancestry, but grew up steeped in Italian culture. My grandfather, a lyric tenor, bought me my first Beniamino Gigli record when I was a toddler. I grew up attending rehearsals with Grandpa, learning the roles along with him, bursting with laughter at Gianni Schicchi, bursting with tears at the aria “Che gelida manina” in La Bohème. Being with Grandpa, I was part of the Italian community in Los Angeles, and that’s what my childhood memories are all tangled up with; my extended family of honorary aunts, uncles, and cousins, were all Italian. I was raised with the language in my ears, the food in my belly, and the music in my heart.

For his part, my husband claims the Italian ancestry through which our application is submitted. His great-grandfather never renounced the citizenship of the land he came from. But more than that, he taught his children, and taught them to teach their children, pride in their Italian ancestry. So much so that three generations down the line, we have the joy and the privilege to reach back and reclaim it.

For our family, our three children, formalizing Italian citizenship is the perfect way of melding the culture and ancestry of their heritage. It will allow them to claim, in a real and tangible way, the full benefit of what they are.

When I went to the Secretary of State’s office to acquire the apostilles for our application, the clerk called people up by the nation their apostilles were intended for. When she came to mine, she smiled, brandished the stack of paper over her head, and cheered, “Viva Italia!”

I couldn’t agree more.

As I’ve mentioned before, I wrote that letter because a translator who helps people through this process all the time told me “We are a passionate people. Understanding why you want this will help speed your application along.” Can I just say, I love that? I have gotten so incredibly sick of American bureaucracy who acts as if they, and you, are merely cogs in a bigger, heartless machine, cloaked in choking clouds of moral rectitude (I’m thinking of our bout with Aurora’s Social Security number, here).

So, here we are. This is the why. Today, we go and lay down a two-inch thick stack of documentation before the Consular authority. Think good thoughts for us.

Related posts:

1. Becoming Italian — Part 1, the How
2. Becoming Italian — Paperwork
3. The American Travel Cringe

Tags: becoming Italian