How it works

A claim is a chain of documents. It breaks at the weakest link.

Five things have to be true before a government can say yes. Here is each one, what commonly goes wrong, and which part the platform organizes.

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Find the line you did not know you had.

Most people arrive certain about one ancestor. The useful path may begin with another.

A family-tree upload lets the classifier review the supported ancestral paths represented in that file. If you choose countries manually, the eligibility engine checks them sequentially, one country at a time.

Connect FamilySearch

Use the integrated family-history connection when it is available for your account.

Upload a GEDCOM

Bring names, dates, places, and relationships from a compatible family-tree export.

Answer a few questions

No tree is required. Start with the countries and family facts you already know.

Test whether the line survives the law.

An ancestor in the right country is a starting fact, not an eligibility verdict.

Naturalization timing

Citizenship transmission can depend on whether and when an ancestor acquired another nationality.

Maternal and paternal rules

Some routes distinguish the transmitting parent, the child’s birth date, or a judicial path from an administrative one.

Generation limits

A parent’s registration or status may need to exist before the next generation is born.

Rules that change

A current flow must carry its version and source because advice can become stale when the law or program changes.

Find where every record actually lives.

The event location, year, record type, and access rule determine the authority—not the family’s best guess.

Naturalization evidence

USCIS, the National Archives, and the court that created the file hold different parts of the record universe.

No-record evidence

A formal search result or certificate of non-existence can itself be required evidence.

New York jurisdiction

New York City and New York State are separate systems with different forms, access rules, and products.

Foreign civil registries

Each country and local authority controls its own copy types, ordering rules, and treatment sequence.

File in the right order.

The form, witness step, evidence packet, and submission channel have to follow the sequence for the exact program.

Complete the supported application

Application Concierge reuses reviewed case facts and leaves unresolved fields visible.

Review before signing

The applicant checks every generated field and remains responsible for corrections.

Complete witness steps

Where a program requires witnessing, the signer and witness follow that program’s current instructions.

Stage and send

The evidence packet is assembled in the expected order while outstanding records remain visible.

Source discipline

Variable claims appear only with a source and date.

3–5 yearsAppointment waits at major US Italian consulates run three to five years; New York's waiting list has exceeded six thousand people.

Verified July 19, 2026. Italian Citizenship Assistance / community wait-time tracking.

What we do not do

We cannot make a government decide faster. Nobody can.

Heritage Passport is not a law firm. We do not provide legal advice, file on your behalf, or influence a government queue.

Some cases need a specialist. When the facts point to a judicial route, contested record, or legal interpretation, the platform should make that boundary clear rather than pretending software replaces counsel.

You already have the ancestor. Now build the chain.

Free eligibility test Upload your family tree

Free. No account required to see your eligibility result.