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.
Article 1 of the above law in fact stated that “A child of a citizen-father is a citizen by birth”. The possibility for the Italian mother to transmit citizenship was provided only marginally where the father was unknown, stateless, or unable to transmit his citizenship according to the laws of the state of his nationality. Therefore, under the law of that period, only children of Italian fathers could acquire Italian citizenship.
E.g., if from the union between Fabrizio (an Italian who emigrated to Brazil) and Cecilia (a Brazilian), João and Marìa were born in Brazil, the latter were Brazilian citizens for the local law based on ius soli, but at the same time also Italian citizens, based on the principle of ius sanguinis, according to Italian law (since they were children of Italian father, regardless of the fact that they were born outside Italy).
This situation, as previously mentioned, did not occur for children born from the union of an Italian woman with a foreign man (e.g., Brazilian) since the mother by the laws of the period did not transmit her citizenship to her children.
E.g., if from the union between Filomena (Italian who emigrated to Brazil) and Felipe (Brazilian) Luiz and Fernanda were born (in Italy or abroad), they acquired only Brazilian citizenship.
Furthermore, Filomena, again under the Italian law of the period, lost her Italian citizenship by merely entering into marriage with Felipe acquiring the latter’s (Brazilian) citizenship.
The situation described above, in which it was impossible for Italian women to transmit their citizenship, lasted for many decades and was only remedied in more recent times with a series of regulatory and legal interventions.
For the reasons that we’re going to analyse – regarding the maternal line – Italian women only transmit citizenship after 1 January 1948.
The paternal line is defined as the line of descent in which there is:
- the total absence of female ancestors;
- in the presence of female ancestors, it is necessary for their children to have been born after 1 January 1948, as it is only since that date that women have been able to transmit their citizenship.
On the contrary, in the presence of a female ascendant citizen who has had children at any date prior to 1948, one is then in the situation of the so-called maternal line.
Why is this distinction so relevant?
Because only for paternal descendants it is possible to start the administrative procedure at the Italian Consular Representation abroad or if residing in Italy at the Municipality of residence.
In cases of maternal line, the recognition of Italian citizenship must take place exclusively through the courts.