>You would not be able to acquire citizenship in an EU state without first >meeting the residence requirements. Hi FaqMan, Do you mean that as a general principle, or specifically under the circumstances I described? Because it certainly isn't true in general. As I mentioned before, I *have* acquired citizenship in an EU state (the UK) without ever residing there, and my wife presumably will soon acquire (or, by my reading, already acquired at birth) Italian citizenship without residing in Italy, either. Of course, both cases were acquisition of citizenship by descent. The question I posed concerned acquisition of citizenship by marriage. Nevertheless, Italian citizenship law as I read it seems to say unambiguously that the spouse of an Italian citizen *residing abroad* may acquire Italian citizenship after 3 years. Note that it also states that only 6 months are required if the couple resides in Italy, so it seems clear that there are no "residency requirements" to acquiring citizenship in this matter. My original question still stands, though, namely: does the above provision apply to the spouse of a newly-recognized Italian citizen by descent -- i.e. can I just, zup, acquire Italian citizenship as soon as my wife gets it, given that we've been married more than three years? And is it a good idea to do so? Amis

|| || My original question still stands, though, namely: does the above || provision apply to the spouse of a newly-recognized Italian citizen || by descent -- i.e. can I just, zup, acquire Italian citizenship as || soon as my wife gets it, given that we've been married more than || three years? And is it a good idea to do so? || || Amis I agree with your reading of the website, FWIW - but given that you already have an EU citizenship yourself, and your wife is about to be recognised as having another, I honestly can't see the point in doing it, TBH, unless you want to build up to the full set! paul.

On Sun, 21 May 2006 04:47:56 +0100, "P Pron" <paulatspambegone.pron@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: >|| >|| My original question still stands, though, namely: does the above >|| provision apply to the spouse of a newly-recognized Italian citizen >|| by descent -- i.e. can I just, zup, acquire Italian citizenship as >|| soon as my wife gets it, given that we've been married more than >|| three years? And is it a good idea to do so? >|| >|| Amis > >I agree with your reading of the website, FWIW - but given that you already >have an EU citizenship yourself, and your wife is about to be recognised as >having another, I honestly can't see the point in doing it, TBH, unless you >want to build up to the full set! > The current situation regarding free movement of labour in the EU may not last for ever. Also, an Italian citizen in Italy may have a few more rights than a citizen of another EU state, eg voting. A downside of taking out Italian citizenship is that one would lose the right to British consular protection, which may be an issue if one cannot speak the language.