Immigration can be a notoriously difficult area of law to
navigate. Individuals with a duel heritage can frequently find
it far from a smooth path if they decide they would like to adopt
the citizenship of the country of their forefathers.
The lawyers in the Giambrone immigration department were
recently faced with a problematic matter when a client of Italian
extraction wished to adopt Italian citizenship. The client
sought a legal opinion regarding her eligibility to apply for
Italian citizenship using her great-grandfather's
lineage. It was discovered that it was not possible as her
great-grandfather had lost his Italian citizenship when he became a
naturalised citizen of America. This posed a significant
problem as the transmission of the right to citizenship can only
normally descend through the male line (pater familias),
furthermore, the matter was additionally compounded by the fact
that her great-grandparents were married prior to 1 January l948
before the
