DELAY BY CONSOLATO ITALIANO IN PROCESSING APPLICATION (AND RIGHT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO APPLY TO THE COURTS IN ITALY EVEN THROUGH THE MALE LINE).
Ordinanza del Tribunale di Roma 18 April 2018
FACTS:
The Claimants were the grandchildren of an Italian citizen (BG) born in Italy in 1879, who had emigrated to Brazil, where he died without ever renouncing his Italian citizenship. His descendants made an application for Italian citizenship by descent at the Italian Consulate at Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2016, claiming that via ius sanguinis he passed his citizenship to his son, who passed the citizenship onto his children. There was an unbroken chain of Italian citizenship being passed through the male line.
ISSUES:
In 2018 the Italian Consulate in Porta Alegre were still making decisions on applications from 2008! The Claimant had therefore petitioned the Rome Court in view of the delay.
THE LAW:
- 2 della Legge n.241 del 7 agosto 1990 states that a decision needs to be made within a certain timeframe.
- 3. DPR n. 362/1994 states that a decision needs to be made within 730 days. The Ministero dell’Interno in this period needs to inform the applicants that they have been granted/refused Italian citizenship.
HELD:
- The case was simple in which only the paternal line was needed to be considered and this should have been done within the required timeframe.
- The court ordered that a decision should be made and that the applicants should be granted citizenship
- Court orderered the Ministero dell’Interno to repay the cost of the case i.e. 4000 Euros, plus 259 Euros to be reimbursed to the applicants.
