- Italy has restricted citizenship by descent to children and grandchildren of Italian ancestors starting March 2026.
- The Constitutional Court upheld Law No. 74, ending legal challenges against the narrower jure sanguinis requirements.
- Applicants must now prove the ancestor held exclusive Italian citizenship without naturalizing before their child reached adulthood.
(ITALY) Italy has sharply narrowed jure sanguinis citizenship, and the change now reaches deep into family trees. As of March 2026, only applicants with a parent or grandparent who held exclusive Italian citizenship still fit the main descent route, after the reforms in Law No. 74 were upheld by the Constitutional Court on March 12, 2026.
For millions of descendants abroad, that means the old assumption no longer works. A line of Italian ancestry is not enough on its own. The chain now depends on proving a close generational link, clean civil records, and an ancestor who did not take another citizenship before passing the status on.
A narrower path through the family line
Italy’s citizenship by descent rule, known as jure sanguinis, once allowed transmission through an unbroken line back to an ancestor alive after unification on March 17, 1861. That open system drew huge numbers of applicants from Argentina, Brazil, the United States, and other diaspora communities, while consulates struggled with years-long waits.
The turning point came with Decree-Law No. 36 of March 28, 2025, later converted into Law No. 74 on May 23, 2025, and then amended again by Law No. 199 on December 30, 2025. The core rule is now strict: automatic transmission is limited to first- and second-generation descendants, meaning children or grandchildren of an Italian-born ancestor.
The decisive test is the ancestor’s status. The “dante causa,” or direct ancestor, must have held only Italian citizenship and must not have naturalized abroad before the child reached adulthood. If that ancestor became a foreign citizen earlier, the line breaks.
Applications filed by 11:59 p.m. Rome time on March 27, 2025 stay protected under the older rules. That grandfathering clause shields people who filed before the deadline, whether their case was administrative or judicial.
Proof now matters more than lineage
The new process is less about family pride and more about documentary proof. Applicants must show descent from a parent or grandparent, prove that ancestor kept exclusive Italian citizenship, and file a complete record set covering births, marriages, deaths, and any naturalization history.
A foreign certificate showing no naturalization, or a naturalization date after the relevant child reached majority, is central to the case. That detail often decides eligibility for families whose ancestors left Italy decades ago.
There is also a residency-based exception. A parent, whether biological or adoptive, who lived in Italy for two consecutive years after acquiring citizenship and before the child’s birth or adoption can still create a path. Italy describes that as evidence of “effective ties.”
Children born abroad received a separate change under the 2026 Budget Law. Parents now have three years to file a dichiarazione di volontà for citizenship acquisition, instead of 12 months. The filing is fee-free from January 1, 2026, and both parents must appear in person at a consulate.
The court fight that failed
The reforms did not pass quietly. The Turin Tribunal raised constitutional objections, arguing that the rules stripped away rights and unfairly hit distant descendants. The Constitutional Court rejected those challenges on March 12, 2026, and issued a press release backing the law.
That ruling matters because it removed the biggest legal cloud over the reform package. Courts still remain open for disputes, especially around residency proof, line-by-line documentation, and the meaning of exclusive Italian citizenship. But the main restriction now stands.
For applicants, the fee structure has also tightened. Consular filings now cost €600 per adult applicant, and court petitions cost €600 per petitioner. That is not a family flat fee. Each petitioner pays. Minor children on a parent’s application are exempt from the adult filing charge.
Costs, backlogs, and the practical burden
Money now shapes the process almost as much as ancestry. Record searches, apostilles, translations, and shipping add up quickly. Older civil records can cost €300 per record to retrieve, and court-certified translations add more.
Families in the diaspora often face the heaviest burden. A Brazilian or U.S. applicant may need multiple certificates across several countries before a consulate will even review the file. According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the reform is already pushing many applicants to reassess whether a descent claim is worth the time and expense.
Centralization is also changing where applications go. Consulates still handle many cases, but Rome-based electronic submissions are expected to play a larger role. That shift is meant to reduce backlog pressure and standardize review.
For official guidance, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes citizenship information on its official citizenship page. That page is the starting point for consular rules, filing routes, and updates.
What applicants are doing now
Families pursuing citizenship are moving through the process in a different order than before.
- Trace the line first. Start with the Italian-born ancestor and work forward.
- Check naturalization dates. The key question is whether the ancestor became foreign before the child reached adulthood.
- Collect civil records. Birth, marriage, death, and adoption papers must match across the chain.
- Budget for fees and translations. The new regime is expensive, especially for older records.
- File fast if covered by the old rules. Applications submitted before March 28, 2025, remain protected.
That sequence matters because missing one record can stop the case entirely. A clean paper trail now carries more weight than broad family lore.
Why the reform changes the diaspora calculation
Italy’s shift is about more than paperwork. It reflects a political decision to tie citizenship to closer family links and current connection, not to unlimited inheritance through distant ancestry. Supporters say that protects the value of Italian nationality and eases pressure on consulates. Critics say it cuts off people with real cultural ties.
The emotional impact is real. Families who grew up with Italian surnames, language, and traditions now face a harder legal test. Others, especially descendants of early 20th-century emigrants, are finding that a great-grandparent is no longer enough.
For people born in Italy, there is an exception. For people born abroad without any other citizenship, there is another. But for most applicants outside those categories, the era of broad descent claims has ended.
Applicants who still qualify under Law No. 74 now need to move with precision. The rules reward close family links, exact records, and fast action. They also leave little room for error.
