Per la libertà di movimento, per i diritti di cittadinanza

Italian/Rumanian minors – How can their mother regularly live in Italy?

QuestionI am a Rumanian citizen and my two children are Italian (their father is Italian). I tried to obtain residence papers, but all my try-outs were hopeless. I could apply to have a family cohesion permit since my children are Italian, but they at the moment live in Rumania. The Italian embassy in Bucharest should issue their passports in order to have them come to Italy, but it does not do this because the children’s father is untraceable. A court sentence in Rumania granted me custody of my children. How can I have their passports released?

Answer – The situation is rather complicated because in case the children’s father was somehow traceable there would not be any problem. The real problem stands in the fact that when children need to leave their habitual residence both parents permission is mandatory. Unfortunately their father cannot be found.
We also understand that this man has never taken care of his kids and he therefore would deserve to be reported to authorities because of the missing family assistance duties. Parents are in fact obliged to take care of their children according to their economical possibilities. The lady that’s writing to us also states that in Rumania authorities sentenced that these children are under her own custody.
We wish to underline that it is most probable that Italian juridical authorities issues a sentence on this matter (the father is Italian, he cannot be found and he does not take care of his children) and as a consequence Italian minors court could revoke his paternal authority. This would make father’s permission not necessary in the issuing of the children’s passports. This might be a solution to the Rumanian lady’s problem, though we do understand that it will be very hard to have her come and go from Rumania and Italy.
We should take another possible solution under consideration: this interested citizen is Rumanian and she therefore can move around Schengen area without visas and of course her children are both Italian and Rumanian. If the children have a Rumanian document (allowing expatriation), this lady could come to Italy with her children. Once they are in Italy, she could make use of the right provided for Immigration Consolidated act art. 19. This article states that foreigners without residence papers living with Italian relatives cannot be expelled and they have the right to residence papers issued on basis of family matters. These papers also allow to labour.
In Italy these children could prove to be Italian via showing their legal birth certificate. Their mother as a consequence would be entitled to papers. The first thing she needs to do is to obtain documents that prove that the children’s father is not traceable and therefore his permission cannot be obtained.
In this situation the mother could immediately have residence papers released without the need of leaving Italy because by being mother of Italian citizens she has the right to stay in Italy of course.