Until March 28, 2025, Italy offered one of the more generous legal regimes for citizenship by ancestry. Prior to that date, under the right circumstances one could obtain Italian citizenship by tracing an unbroken lineage back to ancestors who were born even before the unification of Italy into a nation. There was no explicit generational limit. The right circumstances included possessing certified and legalized documentation of the entire lineage and proving that the line was not broken by a naturalization of an ancestor either before the birth of the next ancestor or by a parent while that ancestor was still under 21 years of age. There were two routes to obtain recognition of Italian citizenship. The first, the consular route, was for lineages with only male ancestors prior to 1948. The second, the judicial route, was for lineages containing ancestors born to a female ancestor prior to 1948.
After March 28, 2025, an emergency decree issued by the Italian government went into effect which imposed a requirement that the last Italian born ancestor be either a parent or a grandparent and that the ancestor hold only Italian citizenship and no other citizenship at his or her death. All existing applications, whether scheduled consular appointments or filed legal cases, were grandfathered under the old laws and remained valid. The two routes remained the same, though the generational limit restricted the applicability of the judicial route to relatively older applicants for new applications.
Both routes require similar documentation, though specific consulates and courts may impose slight variations on what is required. The first item required is the birth record of the last Italian born ancestor's comune of birth. For the last Italian born ancestor, proof that naturalization does not break the lineage is required either by specific proof of a naturalization that did not break the lineage or proof of non-naturalization. Often, immigration records of the last Italian born ancestor are included to better connect records across multiple countries. From there, a marriage license for the last Italian born ancestor and birth certificates and marriage licenses for all subsequent generations are required. All non-Italian documents must be certified with apostille and translated into Italian, though precise requirements for the translation depend on the specific consulate or if it is a court filing.
For the consular route, a citizenship recognition appointment is scheduled using the scheduling website for consular services. Documents and payment of fees are mailed or in-person appointments to deliver documents and pay fees are held at the appointed date, depending on the specific consulate. After the appointment, there is a long wait, often of a year or more, after which comes a recognition email, if approved, and notification that your documents and approval have been sent to the comune of your ancestorās birth to finish transcription and registration into the register of Italian citizens abroad, or AIRE. Upon completion of this last step, one can apply for a passport and an electronic identity card, or CIE.
For a judicial route, documents are collected and services of an Italian lawyer are retained. The Italian lawyer should handle certified and legalized translation of the documents into Italian for the court and will file a lawsuit against the Italian government in the court district corresponding to the location of your ancestorās comune. After often a considerable wait of a year or more, a hearing will be held and, if successful, your lawyer will notify you and send you a copy of the sentence. Following that, there is a 30 to 60 day appeal period, depending on the court district, after which a final sentence is issued and your lawyer will transmit that and your documents to the ancestorās comune for transcription. After transcription is complete, you will receive a copy of your Italian birth extract and, using that and a copy of the sentence, can initiate a change in AIRE registration through your local consulate. Once the AIRE registration is complete, one can then apply for a passport and CIE.
It is important to note the following items. There is no language requirement. There is no criminal history check. Consular fees are minimal at under 1000 euros and legal fees for the judicial route are approximately 5000 euros, give or take a couple thousand. There is no residence requirement. One can complete this process having never set a toe in Italy. Wait times for the process to complete can be up to 2 or 3 years but this is considerably shorter than the typical naturalization period in Italy and is not coupled with minimum residency requirements or other restrictions. An Italian passport not only offers superior visa-free travel but provides EU citizenship and access to the EU. Spouses are eligible for citizenship after a specified period of marriage and a passing result on a language exam under current citizenship by marriage laws, and citizenship will transmit at least one generation to children born abroad even under the new laws.
My process, a judicial route, took approximately 3.5 years and cost around 7000 euros in total. Document collection took about 1 year and cost about 1500 euros including ordering registered copies, the certified translations, shipping, and miscellany. The legal process took 2 years, mostly consisting of waiting, and cost around 5500 euros in court and attorney fees. Transcription and registration required another six months.
After March 28, 2025, an emergency decree issued by the Italian government went into effect which imposed a requirement that the last Italian born ancestor be either a parent or a grandparent and that the ancestor hold only Italian citizenship and no other citizenship at his or her death. All existing applications, whether scheduled consular appointments or filed legal cases, were grandfathered under the old laws and remained valid. The two routes remained the same, though the generational limit restricted the applicability of the judicial route to relatively older applicants for new applications.
Both routes require similar documentation, though specific consulates and courts may impose slight variations on what is required. The first item required is the birth record of the last Italian born ancestor's comune of birth. For the last Italian born ancestor, proof that naturalization does not break the lineage is required either by specific proof of a naturalization that did not break the lineage or proof of non-naturalization. Often, immigration records of the last Italian born ancestor are included to better connect records across multiple countries. From there, a marriage license for the last Italian born ancestor and birth certificates and marriage licenses for all subsequent generations are required. All non-Italian documents must be certified with apostille and translated into Italian, though precise requirements for the translation depend on the specific consulate or if it is a court filing.
For the consular route, a citizenship recognition appointment is scheduled using the scheduling website for consular services. Documents and payment of fees are mailed or in-person appointments to deliver documents and pay fees are held at the appointed date, depending on the specific consulate. After the appointment, there is a long wait, often of a year or more, after which comes a recognition email, if approved, and notification that your documents and approval have been sent to the comune of your ancestorās birth to finish transcription and registration into the register of Italian citizens abroad, or AIRE. Upon completion of this last step, one can apply for a passport and an electronic identity card, or CIE.
For a judicial route, documents are collected and services of an Italian lawyer are retained. The Italian lawyer should handle certified and legalized translation of the documents into Italian for the court and will file a lawsuit against the Italian government in the court district corresponding to the location of your ancestorās comune. After often a considerable wait of a year or more, a hearing will be held and, if successful, your lawyer will notify you and send you a copy of the sentence. Following that, there is a 30 to 60 day appeal period, depending on the court district, after which a final sentence is issued and your lawyer will transmit that and your documents to the ancestorās comune for transcription. After transcription is complete, you will receive a copy of your Italian birth extract and, using that and a copy of the sentence, can initiate a change in AIRE registration through your local consulate. Once the AIRE registration is complete, one can then apply for a passport and CIE.
It is important to note the following items. There is no language requirement. There is no criminal history check. Consular fees are minimal at under 1000 euros and legal fees for the judicial route are approximately 5000 euros, give or take a couple thousand. There is no residence requirement. One can complete this process having never set a toe in Italy. Wait times for the process to complete can be up to 2 or 3 years but this is considerably shorter than the typical naturalization period in Italy and is not coupled with minimum residency requirements or other restrictions. An Italian passport not only offers superior visa-free travel but provides EU citizenship and access to the EU. Spouses are eligible for citizenship after a specified period of marriage and a passing result on a language exam under current citizenship by marriage laws, and citizenship will transmit at least one generation to children born abroad even under the new laws.
My process, a judicial route, took approximately 3.5 years and cost around 7000 euros in total. Document collection took about 1 year and cost about 1500 euros including ordering registered copies, the certified translations, shipping, and miscellany. The legal process took 2 years, mostly consisting of waiting, and cost around 5500 euros in court and attorney fees. Transcription and registration required another six months.
