How to get Birth Certificate for Italian Dual Citizenship
The procedure to request documents valid to apply for Italian Dual Citizenship is very different compared to the research for family history and genealogic purposes in Italy.
First of all, the type of documents you need are different: for family history you would search for records, to apply for dual citizenship in Italy you must submit certificates.
Let’s see how italian birth certificates and birth records are different.
Differences between Birth Record and Birth Certificate in Italy
The main difference is that records were written by the officers when the events occurred (e.g. when a baby was born) .
Certificates are today issued by the officers following the requests they receives by the applicants.
Another difference is the quantity and quality of information available in the documents.
Birth record is drawn up a model following a form used at the time of the registration and it includes the info declared by the father (or the declarer as for example a midwife). (That document “records” the declaration)
A birth certificate (see below) is a modern transcription of the relevant info available in the birth record and is issued by the officer of the town hall where the event occured following a specific request.
The officer reads on the original record the registration made at the time of the event and he copies the main info on a modern document. (In this way he “certificates” that an event occurred in the past). A certificate to be valid is accompanied by the official stamp of the municipality and the signature of the officer.
Certificates to claim Italian Dual Citizenship
So to apply for Italian Dual Citizenship you must ask for certificates about events happened in Italy regarding life of your ancestors.
Every document can be issued ONLY by the town hall where the event occurred and where it was registered.
That’s why the request for a certificate (birth, marriage, death) must be addressed to the Registrar of Vital Statistics (Ufficio di Stato Civile) of the town where the event occurred.
If for example your ancestor was born in Venice and then he moved to Rome very young and lived all his life in Rome, you must contact Venice Town Hall to receive his birth certificate.
No other international, national or regional office can issue these documents.
What an Italian birth certificate looks like
A sample italian birth certificate is shown below. (for privacy reasons we have hidden the personal data of the people listed in the original certificate)
This form is called “international form” so you should ask for a “Certificato in Formato Internazionale” (certificate in international form).
Just to compare the documents and to understand the differences, you can see here what an Italian birth record looks like .
As you can easily see, a record prepared at the time of the event is typically hand written, while a certificate is a simple modern document printed in different languages with the stamp of the town hall.