Italy

Italian citizenship requires
significant genealogical documentation

UPDATE: Next Major Challenge to Italy’s Citizenship-by-Descent Law
(as of April 2026)

The Italian Constitutional Court’s (Corte Costituzionale) hearing on 11 March 2026 unfortunately largely upheld the core restrictions introduced by the Tajani Decree (codified by Law 74/2025). However, a second important constitutional challenge, the Mantova Referral, remains scheduled for 9 June 2026.

This case raises broader constitutional questions about the decree, including whether the new generational limits and residency requirements violate fundamental rights under the Italian Constitution. A favorable ruling could create meaningful exceptions or even strike down components of the current law.

What this means: If you have an Italian ancestor who naturalized as a US citizen in your family tree, you should initiate the process to obtain that document now. It can take up to 2+ years to obtain these documents for ancestors who naturalized at a non-federal court.
Please book a call if this applies to you.

Arguments raised by the Mantova Referral:

  1. Violation of Equality (Article 3 of the Constitution): It is argued that the new law creates unequal treatment between people based solely on when their Italian ancestor lived or when they were born. This is argued to be discriminatory.
  2. Violation of Personal Rights and Dignity (Article 2): Italian citizenship is considered an “imprescriptible” (permanent) right acquired at birth. The decree is accused of retroactively stripping or severely limiting a right that already existed for many applicants.
  3. Right to Citizenship as a Fundamental Status (Article 22): The argument is that citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) is a core part of a person’s identity and cannot be arbitrarily restricted by new generational caps or residency requirements.
  4. Retroactivity Concerns: The law is being challenged for applying new restrictions to people who were already Italian citizens by birth by operation of law before the decree was declared and codified in 2025.
  5. Potential Conflict with EU Law and International Principles: Some arguments touch on whether the restrictions are compatible with broader European citizenship norms and the right to family unity.


The Bottom Line: Regardless of the direction of the ruling, you will best position yourself for the option of Italian citizenship by descent if you start the document acquisition process for your Italian ancestors’ naturalization documents now. It is a low-cost effort for a potential valuable option depending on the direction of the court.

Italian citizenship-by-descent has seen significant constriction over the recent past. Below is a review of the current eligibility and former eligibility. If you fall between these eligibility guidelines or have questions regarding strategy for future opportunities, please book a call.

Timeline

3 to 5+ Years Total
Projects range depending on the number of generations, archive response times, and consulate vs legal strategies.
1 to 2+ Year Archival Requests
Any project involving historic naturalization records requires significant time.
1 Year Legal Processes
The legal process depends on which court system can be used but averages around 1 year.
1+ Year Administrative Process
After citizenship is awarded, it can 1+ year to register a family lineage at the comune level.

Constraints

Naturalization Records
Historic naturalization records require up to 2 years to obtain because of government processing times.
Name Changes
Name changes create additional documents like affidavits to ensure correct lineage.
Italian Legal System
Any legal or administrative procedure through the Italian legal system moves slowly.
Adoptive Parents
Adoptive parents within family lineage require additional documentation to confirm the right to citizenship.

Costs

$249
Obtain an ancestor’s US or Canadian naturalization record in preparation for potential changes to eligibility.
$4,999
End-to-end package to compile all necessary authenticated documents, application, and consular scheduling for one person.
$999
Additional cost for a sibling or family member on the same application.
$2,000+
Legal filing fees are billed separately depending on the type of counsel required.
Booked calls counts towards these fees.

If the criteria for Italian citizenship by descent seems confusing, that is normal.

Italian policy and politics can be overly accommodating
to multiple political coalitions, creating a confusing process.

By booking a call, we can determine a “next step” for either establishing eligibility or obtaining the
most time-constrained documents should laws change through legal challenges or legislation in the future.

Book a Call

Current Eligibility Criteria

To qualify for Italian citizenship-by-descent under the newly amended Italian Law No. 74/2025, applicants born abroad must meet one of the following conditions related to a parent or grandparent.

Criterion

Exclusive Italian Citizenship
of Parent or Grandparent

Two-Year Residency
in Italy by Parent

Details

  • The parent or grandparent must have held only Italian citizenship (no dual or foreign citizenship) at the time of the applicant’s birth.
  • If the ancestor died before the applicant’s birth, exclusive Italian citizenship at the time of death suffices.
  • This criterion applies to both biological or adoptive parents or grandparents.
  • A biological or adoptive parent must have legally resided in Italy for at least two consecutive years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the applicant’s birth or adoption.
  • This residency must follow the parent’s own acquisition of citizenship, either by descent or by naturalization.

Uninterrupted Chain: The lineage must remain unbroken with no renunciation or naturalization abroad by any ancestor that interrupted the claim to Italian citizenship.

Generational Limit: Eligibility is effectively capped at two generations. Descendants beyond a grandparent (e.g., great-grandchildren) cannot qualify unless the parent or grandparent meets the above criteria. Transmission through the maternal line is fully recognized for children born on or after 1 January 1948.

No Language Requirement for Descent: Unlike residency-based naturalization, which now requires B1-level Italian proficiency after two years of residence for those with Italian ancestry, pure descent claims do not have a language requirement.

Special Provisions for Minors

For children under 18 born to Italian citizens by descent:

  • Citizenship-by-descent is no longer automatic at birth and requires a parental declaration.
  • The parental declaration process involves:
    • Submitting a declaration to the Italian consulate or municipality of residence
    • For children over 1 year old, the declaration must be followed with at least 2 consecutive years of legal residency in Italy.
    • For newborns under 1 year of age, the declaration must be made within the first year of life, without immediate residency.
  • For for Existing Minors: Parents of minors born before 24 May 2025, must make a declaration by 23:59 Rome time on 31 May 2029. If the minor turns 18 before this date, they can declare themselves.
  • Minors acquiring citizenship this way can renounce it at age 18 if they hold another nationality.
  • For minors of parents who naturalize, citizenship requires cohabitation and two years of legal residency in Italy or since birth if under 2.

Grandfathering Clause and Transitional Rules

  • Applications submitted to a consulate, comune, or court before 28 March 2025, or those with a confirmed appointment by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025 are processed under the previous eligibility rules.
  • This is intended to protect ongoing claims but requires complete documentation.

Reacquisition Options

  • Individuals born in Italy who lost citizenship before 16 August 1992 under the old Italian Law No. 555/1912 due to the acquisition of foreign citizenship by naturalization can reacquire it through declaration from 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2027 with no required residency.
Book a Call

Previous Eligibility Criteria

Cumulative
Eligibility Criterion

Rules
(Before Law No. 74/2025 of 28 March 2025)

Chain of Italian Citizenship
Unbroken by Ancestor’s Naturalization

  • An Italian ancestor had to naturalize as a foreign citizen after the birth of their descendant. An ancestor naturalizing as a foreign citizen before the birth of their descendant breaks the transmission of Italian citizenship.
  • An ancestor holding a foreign citizenship from birth at the same time as a claim to Italian citizenship is the basis of Italian citizenship transmission through a time period that did not historically allow dual citizenship.
  • An ancestor must not have voluntarily renounced Italian citizenship before the birth of their descendant.

Automatic at Birth

  • Anyone born to an Italian citizen parent (biological or adoptive) automatically became Italian at birth regardless of birthplace, other nationalities, or formal registration.

No Generational Cap

  • Citizenship transmitted indefinitely through generations with no generational limit as long as the ancestor did not naturalize abroad before the birth of their descendants and was a citizen of Italy anytime after the formation of the modern state of Italy in 17 March 1861.
  • Foreign naturalizations on or after 1 July 1912 triggered automatic loss, but those that occurred before did not.

Dual Citizenship Permitted

  • There were no requirement to renounce foreign citizenship. Ancestors could hold foreign citizenship at the same time maintaining the claim to Italian citizenship during a time period that did not formally allow dual citizenship without breaking the transmission chain.

Maternal Line

  • Full transmission of citizenship could occur through a mother for children born to them on or after 1 January 1948.
  • Italian citizenship was not automatically transmitted under the foundational 1912 law for anyone born to an Italian mother before 1 January 1948, but courts granted citizenship through “1948 cases” lawsuits, as modern legal interprets the gender differences in the 1912 laws as discriminatory.

Minors

  • Children under 18 automatically acquired citizenship when a parent was recognized with no separate application required.

No Residency Required

  • Applicants or ancestors in the family lineage were never required to reside in Italy. There were no “genuine links” (vincoli effettivi) criteria like those in Law 74/2025.

No Language Test

  • No Italian proficiency was required, unlike Italian naturalization.

Multiple Application Venues

  • Most applicants pursued citizenship through an Italian consulate, which includes long wait times and consular discretion.
  • Applicants could pursue a citizenship through an Italian court for both 1948 maternal cases or consulate delays.
  • If moving to Italy, citizenship could be pursued at the Italian municipality (comune) where one resides. This option only works with a commitment to live in Italy for an extended period of time.

Comparison of Eligibility Criteria

The table below presents a comparison of the main eligibility factors for Italian citizenship-by-descent criteria before and after Italian Law No. 74/2025. Prior to the latest eligibility rules, Italy had one of the most generous citizenship-by-descent programs in the world.

Aspect

Pre-Law No. 74/2025

Post-Law No. 74/2025

Generational Limit

Dual Citizenship of Ancestor

None

Allowed

Maximum of 2 generations

Must be exclusively Italian

Residency Needed

No

2 years in Italy by parent

Language Test

No

No (for descent)

Minor Auto-Acquisition

Yes

Declaration + residency

Book a Call