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I am a US citizen who married an Italian citizen in 2014. We were married in New York and lived together before we decided to move to Europe. He moved back to Italy and I moved to the UK for my career.

I am now trying to apply for my Italian citizenship and am getting slightly confused. The first step prior to applying is to register your marriage to the Italian commune. I cannot seem to register through the New York consulate, as my husband never registered as an AIRE (and now has also moved back to Italy and no longer resides abroad). I also probably cannot register through the UK consulate for similar reasons (as the marriage happened in the US and my husband is not an AIRE in the UK).

When my husband tried to go to his local commune, the lady yelled at him and told him that she cannot register our marriage as I do not live in Italy.

It seems as though we are stuck in an impasse with nowhere to even register our marriage. How and where can we do that?

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  • You say that you "probably" cannot register in the UK consulate, but I think you should at least try. You live there, at least. Neither of you lives in New York, so it's not surprising that the NY consulate wouldn't handle it. Judging from the foreign ministry's page, though, it seems that the commune worker is wrong; he needs to register the marriage where he is registered. Maybe you need to register as residing there, too, even if you don't physically reside there. – phoog May 21 at 14:47
  • Surely there are Italian couples who marry while living in different communes. How do they handle that? On the other hand, this page suggests that to qualify for citizenship under this law there's a requirement (implicit, at least; it doesn't seem to be in the statute) that you live together. Maybe you need to talk to a lawyer. – phoog May 21 at 14:53
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Your claim for Italian Citizenship will be based on your marriage abroad

  • after 3 years abroad, this would have been possible

However as an Italian living abroad your spouse was required to register in the A.I.R.E system

  • where the registration of the marriage would also have be done

So problem 1, is to get the marriage reconised in Italy as a base for your citizenship claim.

Problem 2 (for him) may be that he is liable for Italian national health for the time abroad, since he did not register as living abroad.

Do Italian Citizens living abroad have to pay taxes to Italy? mentions taxes in general, but that may also include the national health (or I may not remember it correctly)

So if the marriage must be registered in Italy (since he is in Italy), problem 2 may turn up.

So this sounds like a case that should be delt with through an Italian lawyer.

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