Italian naturalisation – Do documents ever expire?

Question - I am Brasilian and my greatgrandfather was Italian. I work in physiotherapy. I hold all necessary documents proving my Italian origins, I translated and legalized all of them at the Italian embassy in San Paulo one year ago. I have some doubts concerning the validity of these documents. I called many times but no one has safe answers. What should I do?

Answer - We do not know whether the quoted documents prove Italian origins or Italian citizenship. We can only answer by looking through laws but we do not know how offices then apply laws.
DPR 445 issued December 28th 2000 (Consolidated act on administrative documentation) art. 41 expressively refers to certificates’ validity: ceritifcates issued by public administration and concerning personal unchangeable data do never expire. Other certifications last six months from issuing date.
Art. 41 paragraph 2 also states that anagraphical and civil state certificates are accepted in spite of the expiry day. Interested citizens must declare that the situation described remains unchanged.
We should believe that the same happens in case of foreign documents legalized by Italian consular representatives. Certification concerning unvariable data such as birth should never expire. The same happens with its legalisation. We anyway suggest that this Brasilian citizen write a note on the bottom of the documents stating under his own responsabilities that the situation remains the same.

[ 14 aprile 2005 ]