IF the Italian tried to detain your husband, I would contact the Canadian consulat immediately. But as others have said, how in the heck would the Italians know the ancestry of your husband? Does he wear a T-shirt that says "my parents were born in Italy"? If that were the case, do you know how many American citizens visiting the homeland would be detained? I think this may be like one of those old laws on the book that make it illegal for women to wear pants downton Abilene, Texas.....

I think it would be quite easy for the Italian officials to figure out ferrier50's husband is Italian. Most likely his name and appearance is pretty obvious. Plus, I'm sure the officials are allowed to ask details about his parents when he is entering the country. Nevertheless, I have known Canadian/Italian men in the same situation to go to Italy and back successfully, so I'm sure there is a way it can be worked out.

Ferrier50, if you are in Vancouver, you can get 1/2 hour of legal advice for $10. This may be available in other Canadian cities also. If you need help finding it in Vancouver (I think you can find it in the yellow pages), I'll look for a link.

You can have an Italian name and look Italian and be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, + + + generation Italian... I have a friend who has an Italian name, looks Italian, has gone to Italy MANY times and has NEVER been asked to stay back!

Of course it's quite possible to be an nth-generation American and have Italian ancestry. I'm just pointing out it's hardly impossible that Italian officials would figure out that a Canadian man is also an Italian citizen.

Note this can also be of great benefit if the child in this situation wants an EU passport. In my case, our children, born in Canada, have citizenship from a particular EU country because their father (my husband) does.

TROLL

The odds that your husband will be stopped are very very slim. That being said, if his parents never renounced their citizenship before he was born he is considered a citizen of Italy as well as Canada. As long as he does not get into trouble (make sure if he is driving that he has his home license as well as an IDP)and doesn't say that his parents are citizens he should be fine.

To read about the IDP, you can see my info on http://www.chianti-assistance.com and then click on Driving in ITaly

P.S: The draft is still around for another 1 or 2 years.

Cristina

This just sounds fishy. I thought that, under the circumstances, your husband would be qualified for Italian citizenship IF he wanted it, but I thought he'd have to take affirmative steps to have his Italian connection evaluated (slowly) in order to be recorded as an Italian citizen. I don't think Italy goes around tracking down the children of emigrants who moved to other countries.

Maybe it would be a different story if an Italian-born citizen had been wanted for military service, and notices for that service had gone unanswered, and that Italian born citizen, resident abroad, then showed up in Italy and got caught. But I still really doubt that Italy is so aggressive in catching residents of foreign countries who might have Italian military obligations. (It just doesn't sound like the Italian way to me.) I really have no factual knowledge about this, though.

The only scrap of fact I can give you that might be a tiny bit remotely relevant is that during World War II, an American soldier (born in the US but raised in Italy) in the Signal Corps of the US Army was not stationed to Italy and part of the reason he was kept out of Italy, despite his language fluency, which might've been useful, was that his father, grandmother, and other relatives lived threre, and he might've been vulnerable to capture by the enemy and threats on his family, etc. But that was wartime, and the US was at war with Italy. I know that there were a few newspapers still in their blue plastic bags that I didn't get a chance to read recently, but the last I heard Canada isn't at war with Italy! :)

tomboy,
I suspect the performance of the "overwhelmed" IT Navy in War II, especially against the mighty Brits, might refute at least a fraction of your opinion.
bardo,
I also suspect there are at least two or three more reasons that young American men of Iranian descent don't visit Iran!
M

The US gov't. doesn't recognize dual citizenships, but it doesn't "not recognize" them either. It has no control if another country wants to consider an American citizen to also be a citizen of that country. Many Americans have dual citizenship. HOWEVER, the USA does care if you renounce your US citizenship to become the citizen of another country.

Here's a nice little website on the subject.

http://www.richw.org/dualcit/#Overview

I believe in WWI Italy was demanding that its citizens in the US return for military service, and those laws might still be on the books, but I have some American relatives in the situation of your husband and they have never been detained.

I'm sure you already have your tickets for Italy, but one way around this problem, if indeed it is a problem--and I doubt it, is to fly into another EU country and then take the train into Italy. Your passport is stamped when you fly in and out of the EU.

Ferrier,

I have personal experience with this issue. I was born in a European country, moved to another European country where my father became a citizen and then moved to a third non european country where my father also became a citizen (dual). I was required to serve military in 3 different countries, one through birth another because of parent (your problem) and a third because of the country I resided in at age 18.

Firstly, if your husbands age is quite a bit above the conscription age then it is less problematic. Yes, there are many European countries that do this - my wife also had the same problem. Best thing to do is go to the Italian Consulate, ask them for a letter indicating that you are a canadian citizen and written assurance that you will be allowed to leave.

Regarding some posters that have mentioned how do they know? You would be surprised - many airlines know this info before you land in their country - remember when you fill out forms (like a US passport application) they ask for parents info, place of birth - bingo!

Having said all that, I doubt you will have a problem unless your husband is under 25

You make an excellent point-Lex-and it underscores what I said earlier. You don't fool around with immigration/visa issues in this day and age-personal information on the passport holder is readily available to the immigration and passport control agents when you come into any EU country. Ferrier needs to seek legal assistance-and get the situation resolved before traveling.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Lex, thanks for telling me your experience re: this similar situation.

The person we spoke to at the consulate told us that it would take months to get our forms processed. When we explained that we were travelling in less than a month, we were told that we should have taken care of this before!

We said that this was something that just came to our attention. How many Italian-Canadian males out there, born in Canada, possess Canadian citizenship, would even remotely consider that they could possibly be considered to be Italian citizens and therefore end up in that country's military?!

So now we're trying to get help in dealing with the consulate.

Thanks again to everyone out there.

If you know someone who has Italian roots (however remote) and planning to visit Italy, please let them know that this could affect them too.

I was subject to a potential draft into the French army in 1961. I paid $46 to free myself of that obligation because I intended to study in France and did not want my studies interrupted by a military tour of duty. I subsequently received contradictory letters from the French government, the first one telling me that I was never subject to the draft and the second one that I had been stricken from the draft list. I fortunately kept all these documents, because a man owning property in France must demonstrate a satisfacotry resolution to his draft status when he tries to carry out anything official with his property, such as selling it or transferring it to a relative. If your husband has any intention of owning property in Italy, he might want to straighten out his potential draft status before going to Italy.