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Pathway

Italian Citizenship by Descent

Italy Citizenship
Pathway overview

At a glance

Italy tightened citizenship-by-descent rules in 2025 for people born abroad who have another nationality. A new application normally needs a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, only Italian citizenship. Alternatively, an Italian parent must have lived in Italy continuously for two years after becoming Italian and before your birth or adoption. Exceptions and older applications need separate checks.

Family line
Close-connection rule after 2025; properly protected pre-cutoff cases use earlier rules
Records needed
Birth, marriage, and other records linking each generation
Important detail
The 2025 restrictions remain in force; EU-law litigation is pending

Summary

Italian citizenship by descent recognizes citizenship passed through a family line, with records needed to show that it moved from parent to child without a break. A relative becoming foreign, giving up Italian citizenship, or falling under a historical restriction can affect that chain. The family must then check the separate restrictions introduced in 2025 for people born abroad who hold another nationality.

For many new cases, the additional connection is a parent or grandparent who held only Italian citizenship, or an Italian parent who completed the required two continuous years in Italy before the applicant’s birth or adoption. Protected older applications and exceptions follow their own rules. Collect the dates of citizenship changes and residence alongside birth and marriage records before assuming a distant ancestor is enough.

Check the reform’s limits, then the citizenship chain
  1. Check whether the new restrictions apply Use birthplace and other nationality to determine whether Article 3-bis applies to your case.
  2. Prove an exception or protected transition case If the restrictions apply Document the exact close connection or qualifying earlier filing; remote ancestry alone is insufficient.
  3. Check every parent-to-child link Check naturalization, renunciation, minor-child loss, parentage and birth, marriage, and other family records across the whole chain.
  4. Choose the administrative or judicial procedure Identify any pre-1948 maternal-line or other issue that changes the responsible route.

A court route does not bypass the reform limits for an unprotected case. Satisfying a close-connection exception does not repair a broken citizenship chain.

Could this pathway work for you?

Eligibility

The close-connection or transition rule is only the first gate. The applicant must still prove an unbroken Italian citizenship chain. Important checks include:

A maternal line in which an Italian woman had the next child before January 1, 1948 generally cannot be recognized administratively. It normally requires a judicial claim in Italy. The 2025 Article 3-bis limits also apply to an unprotected 1948 case; the court route is not a way around the new close-connection rule.

Typical evidence includes Italian and foreign long-form birth, marriage, divorce, and death records for every generation; official naturalization or non-naturalization files; proof of any exclusive Italian citizenship or qualifying Italian residence; apostilles or legalization (official checks confirming a document's origin for use abroad); and Italian translations. Record discrepancies may need formal correction.

More about this route

Earlier law can still govern a case protected by the March 27, 2025 cutoff. Protection covers a complete administrative application with all required documents submitted by 23:59 Rome time that day, an appointment officially communicated by then followed by submission at that appointment, or a judicial application filed by then. A wait-list request or self-booked appointment does not necessarily qualify.

The restrictions remain in force. In July 2026, the Constitutional Court asked the EU Court of Justice to consider their effect on EU citizenship. That referral did not restore the earlier rules.

Policy watch 1 development we’re tracking
A court case could affect the 2025 restriction, but it has not changed the current test
Under judicial review

A court case could affect the 2025 restriction, but it has not changed the current test

Current official stage: Italian Constitutional Court reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union

The EU court's answer may affect how Italy can apply Article 3-bis to some people born abroad before the reform. For now, new cases still need a close-connection exception or protected pre-28 March 2025 filing, along with the ordinary unbroken-descent evidence.

Timing: The Constitutional Court deposited Order 147/2026 on 23 July 2026. No decision date has been announced by the EU court. Article 3-bis remains current law while the reference is pending, and the proceeding has not restored the pre-2025 unlimited descent route.

Last checked
References
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What This Route Allows

Recognition confirms Italian citizenship under the applicable legal basis, often from birth rather than from the date the authority finishes the file. Once the birth, marriage, and other family records are registered, the person can obtain Italian citizen documents and exercise Italian and EU citizenship rights.

What This Route Is Not

An Italian surname, an ancestor born within today's borders, or a family tree alone is not enough. A great-grandparent or more remote ancestor does not by itself satisfy a new post-reform application for a foreign-born person who has another nationality.

This is also not a guaranteed consular process. Pre-1948 maternal claims are judicial, disputed transition cases may require litigation, and ordinary document or chain problems can still defeat a claim protected by the cutoff.

Next Steps

  1. Determine whether Article 3-bis applies based on birthplace and other nationality.
  2. Identify the exact close-connection exception or collect proof of a protected March 27, 2025 filing.
  3. Build a dated citizenship timeline for every generation, including naturalization, residence, and renunciation events.
  4. Order civil and nationality records from the issuing authorities; do not rely on family recollection.
  5. Check legalization, translation, and record-correction requirements for the consulate responsible for the application or comune.
  6. Obtain Italian legal advice for a 1948 case, contested pre-1992 loss, territorial-history issue, or disputed transition filing.

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Discussed in these reports

Other routes in Italy.

Sources