Competence Areas
Discover your Italian origins
The Italian legal system recognizes ius sanguinis as a principle for the attribution of citizenship.
Italian Law No. 91 of 1992 on citizenship states in Article 1 that “the child of a citizen father or mother is a citizen by birth”.
Therefore, Italian citizenship is automatically transmitted from parent to child by descent regardless of the child’s place of birth.
It is passed down without limit, from generation to generation, provided that neither the applicant nor his or her ancestors have expressly renounced it. This means that even the descendants of second-, third-, and fourth-generation (and beyond) Italian emigrants can obtain Italian citizenship even if they were born and raised abroad, provided they prove direct line descent from their Italian ancestor.
It is not necessary for each of the ancestors to have applied for and obtained Italian citizenship. The person may acquire it even if he or she is the first in the family to undertake the recognition procedure.
E.g., My great-grandfather was Italian, my grandmother and mother never applied for Italian citizenship. Can I apply for it first?
The answer is YES!
The right to iure sanguinis citizenship is founded on the establishment of a pre-existing status and is granted automatically as a result of descent. In fact, the ruling declaring that the applicant is an Italian citizen establishes that he or she has been an Italian citizen since birth, as a result of descent, and not date of issuance of that ruling.
Paternal Line
Regarding one’s Italian origins, however, an important distinction must be made between paternal and maternal lines.
Currently, Law No. 91 of February 5, 1992 grants Italian citizenship to the children of both an Italian mother and father. As a matter of fact, Article 1 reads “the child of a father or mother who are citizens, is a citizen by birth.” So it is enough for either parent to be Italian to automatically transmit Italian citizenship to their children.
During the times of the immigration waves in the past centuries, the matter of citizenship was significantly different since it was regulated by the previous Law No. 555 of 1912, which granted Italian citizenship only to the children of Italian fathers.
Maternal Line
As we have seen with regard to the paternal line, the period of the emigration of Italians in the past centuries was a seriously discriminatory environment towards women, which resulted from the legal notions of those eras.
This was very slowly remedied with a series of regulatory and juridical interventions, first and foremost the introduction of the 1948 Republican Constitution. It contains two fundamental articles: Article 3 “All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law” and Article 29 “Marriage is established on the moral and legal equality of spouses”.
Judical Procedure
This is a special procedure for years instituted exclusively before the Ordinary Court of Rome which, as mentioned, turns out to be the only remedy available in favor of descendants of Italian ancestors belonging to the maternal line residing in Italy or abroad.
In this regard, it should be noted that, as of June 22, 2022, following the introduction of Law-Reform of the Civil Process No. 206 of Nov. 26, 2021, it is now stipulated that “When the petitioner resides abroad, disputes to verify the status of Italian citizenship shall be assigned having regard to the municipality of birth of the father, mother or ancestor who are (or were) Italian citizens.”
Administrative Procedure At Consulates
This is the ordinary procedure for the recognition of Italian citizenship for paternal line descendants only.
The competent authority to rule on the right of the interested party to the recognition of Italian citizenship iure sanguinis varies according to his residence. If the applicant does not reside in Italy, the Italian consulate of reference will be competent on the basis of his residence.
If, on the other hand, he does reside in Italy, the competent authority to assess the application will be the Mayor of the Italian municipality of residence
Application At The Town Hall Of Residence
As it is known, if the interested party resides in Italy, there is the possibility of establishing the procedure for the recognition of the possession of Italian citizenship iure sanguinis at the Municipality of residence with a special application addressed to the Mayor.
Therefore, as it is obvious, even in this case the applicant must first be in possession of the entire documentation attesting to descent from Italian ancestors which, attached to the application, will be submitted to the evaluation of the civil register officer of the municipality of residence.
Consulate Delay
With reference to delays, it is unfortunately well known the condition of many Italian consulates in which there are very long waiting times, sometimes more than ten years, for the applicant’s convocation aimed at verifying the documentation proving descent from Italian ancestors. In particular, the Brazilian consulates, but not only, are suffering greatly due to the enormous amount of paperwork to be processed.
Special Cases
There are also particular, and in some ways problematic, cases of the acquisition of citizenship by iure sanguinis.
Although today it can be said to be definitively outdated we report, for the sake of completeness, the issue related to the so-called great Brazilian naturalization of 1889-1891, according to which Italians present in Brazilian territory on the date of 15.11.1889 would have obtained automatic Brazilian naturalization unless they made an express declaration to retain their Italian citizenship of origin.
Documents
In order to apply for recognition of possession of Italian citizenship iure sanguinis, either administratively or judicially, the following documents are required
