Do I Qualify for Italian Citizenship?

Your grandmother was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1934. Her father came from Abruzzo in 1921. He became a U.S. citizen in 1938. You have been told you might qualify for Italian citizenship through him. Whether that is true depends on a single date in your family history and, as of 2025, on when you apply.

Italian citizenship passes from parent to child automatically, by law, at the moment of birth. If your ancestor was an Italian citizen when their child was born, that child was born Italian, even if the birth happened in the United States, even if no one knew it at the time. That status then passes to the next generation, and the next. This is jure sanguinis: citizenship by right of blood.¹⁷ The application process does not create a new status. It asks the Italian state to confirm what its own laws say was always true.

Two things can stop a claim. The first is a break in the chain, most commonly because an ancestor naturalized as a U.S. citizen before the next child in the line was born. The second, as of March 2025, is a new law that limits how far back the chain can reach.

The 2025 reform

On March 28, 2025, the Italian government enacted Decree-Law 36/2025, later converted into Law 74/2025 (published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 118, May 23, 2025). This law added Article 3-bis to the existing citizenship statute (Legge 91/1992) and changed who can be recognized as Italian by descent.¹

Article 3-bis states that a person born abroad who holds another citizenship is considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship unless one of the following conditions is met:¹

1. You applied before the deadline. You submitted your application, or received an appointment notification from a consulate or comune, by 23:59 Rome time on March 27, 2025. This covers both administrative applications and judicial cases filed by that date.
2. Your parent or grandparent held exclusively Italian citizenship. A first-degree (parent) or second-degree (grandparent) ancestor in your line held only Italian citizenship at some point.
3. Your parent resided in Italy after becoming Italian. A parent or adoptive parent resided in Italy continuously for at least two years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before your birth or adoption.

For most Americans whose closest Italian ancestor is a great-grandparent or more distant, the path is now closed unless they applied before the March 27, 2025 cutoff. The LA consulate suspended all citizenship-by-descent appointments as of that date, pending ministerial instructions.¹⁵ Other consulates have issued similar notices.

If you applied or had an appointment communicated before March 27, 2025, your case is evaluated under the prior rules described in the rest of this guide. If you did not, you need to meet one of the Article 3-bis conditions.

A quick way to tell which rules apply to you:

• Applied before March 27, 2025? The prior rules apply. The rest of this guide covers them in detail.
• Parent or grandparent is or was an Italian citizen with no other citizenship? You likely still qualify under Article 3-bis.
• Your closest Italian ancestor is a great-grandparent or more distant, you hold another citizenship, and you did not apply before the deadline? Under the current statute, you are considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship.

Whether your case falls under the old framework or the new one, the legal mechanics below apply to the chain-break analysis, the 1948 rule, and the document requirements.

How jure sanguinis works

The current Italian citizenship law is Legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91. Article 1 states the rule:

È cittadino per nascita: a) il figlio di padre o di madre cittadini.

"A person is a citizen by birth: a) the child of a citizen father or mother."¹

This is the modern, gender-neutral version. But most jure sanguinis cases involve ancestors who emigrated in the late 1800s or early 1900s, so the law that actually governed their status was either the Codice Civile del 1865 or Legge 13 giugno 1912, n. 555.

Under the 1865 Civil Code, Article 4 was blunt:

È cittadino il figlio di padre cittadino.

"The child of a citizen father is a citizen."²

The 1912 law repeated this as Article 1, paragraph 1: citizenship transmitted through the father. A mother could transmit citizenship only if the father was unknown or stateless.³ This gender restriction remained in force until 1948, a fact that matters for maternal-line cases, discussed below.

Before the 2025 reform, none of these laws imposed a generational limit. If your great-great-grandfather was Italian when your great-grandfather was born, and your great-grandfather was Italian when your grandfather was born, and so on, the chain reached you. The only question was whether it remained unbroken. Article 3-bis now adds the requirement that the connection be close enough (parent or grandparent), unless you applied before the cutoff or meet another exception. The chain-break analysis, however, works the same way regardless of which framework applies.

When the chain breaks

The most common way the chain breaks is naturalization. Under every Italian citizenship law from 1865 to 1992, voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship meant losing Italian citizenship.

The 1865 Code, Article 11:

La cittadinanza si perde... 2. Da colui che abbia ottenuto la cittadinanza in paese estero.

"Citizenship is lost... by one who has obtained citizenship in a foreign country."²

The 1912 law, Article 8:

Perde la cittadinanza: 1° chi spontaneamente acquista una cittadinanza straniera e stabilisce o ha stabilito all'estero la propria residenza.

"Citizenship is lost by anyone who spontaneously acquires a foreign citizenship and establishes or has established their residence abroad."³

For Italian law, the relevant date is when the ancestor took the Oath of Allegiance at the final hearing. Filing a Declaration of Intention ("first papers") did not change the person's status. They remained an alien until the oath was administered.⁴

This creates the central question in every jure sanguinis case: did your Italian ancestor naturalize before or after the birth of the next person in your line?

• Naturalized after the child's birth: The child was born to an Italian citizen. The child is Italian. The chain continues.
• Naturalized before the child's birth: The child was born to someone who was no longer Italian. The chain breaks.

The date matters down to the day. An ancestor who took the oath on March 15, 1925, and had a child born on March 14, 1925, passes the line. If the child was born on March 16, the line is broken.

Minor children and the Article 7/12 dispute

This is one of the most contested areas in Italian citizenship law, and outcomes are inconsistent across consulates and courts.

Article 12 of the 1912 law states that minor children of a person who loses citizenship also become foreigners, but it includes a reference to Article 7. Article 7 provides that an Italian citizen born in a foreign country that considers them a citizen by birth (a jus soli country like the United States) retains Italian citizenship even though they hold dual nationality.³

The question is what happens when an Italian immigrant has a child born in the U.S. (who is both American by jus soli and Italian by jure sanguinis at birth), and the parent then naturalizes as American while the child is still a minor. Does Article 7 protect the child's independent status, or does Article 12 override it?

In October 2024, the Italian government issued Circular 43347, which takes the position that a parent's naturalization concurrently caused minor children living with them to lose Italian citizenship, including children born in the U.S. under jus soli.¹⁶ The LA consulate now applies this interpretation.¹⁵ This is an administrative position, not a court ruling, and it is not settled law. Application varies by consulate, and Italian courts have not uniformly adopted this reading. If this issue affects your line, the outcome may depend on which consulate or court handles your case.

Dual citizenship after 1992

The 1992 law changed the naturalization rule going forward. Article 11 now provides:

Il cittadino che possiede, acquista o riacquista una cittadinanza straniera conserva quella italiana.

"A citizen who possesses, acquires, or reacquires a foreign citizenship retains Italian citizenship."¹

Since August 16, 1992 (when the law took effect), naturalizing as a foreign citizen no longer causes the loss of Italian citizenship. For the ancestors in most jure sanguinis cases, who naturalized in the early 1900s, the old rules apply. But if an ancestor naturalized after August 16, 1992, the chain is not affected.

U.S. laws that affect the timeline

Two U.S. laws created situations where women's citizenship changed automatically. These can complicate or help a jure sanguinis case.

Expatriation Act of 1907. Any American woman who married a foreign national automatically lost her U.S. citizenship and took her husband's nationality.⁶ An American-born woman who married an Italian man before 1922 may have become Italian through marriage and could have transmitted that citizenship to her children.

Cable Act of 1922 (effective September 22, 1922). This reversed the 1907 rule. Women who married after this date retained their own citizenship regardless of their husband's.⁷ Before the Cable Act, if an Italian man naturalized as American, his wife automatically became American too (derivative naturalization). After the Cable Act, she had to naturalize on her own. If she never did, she may have remained Italian under Italian law.

The 1948 case

Under the 1912 law, only fathers could transmit Italian citizenship (with narrow exceptions). If the Italian-born ancestor in your line is a woman, or if at any point the citizenship passed from a mother to a child born before January 1, 1948, the administrative path is blocked. The standard consular process will not process these cases.

The date matters because of the Italian Constitution. When it took effect on January 1, 1948, Article 3 established:

Tutti i cittadini hanno pari dignità sociale e sono eguali davanti alla legge, senza distinzione di sesso.

"All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex."⁸

And Article 29:

Il matrimonio è ordinato sull'eguaglianza morale e giuridica dei coniugi.

"Marriage is based on the moral and legal equality of spouses."⁹

In 1983, the Constitutional Court ruled in Sentenza n. 30/1983 that the 1912 law's restriction of citizenship transmission to fathers violated both of these principles:

Dichiara l'illegittimità costituzionale dell'art. 1, n. 1, della legge 13 giugno 1912, n. 555, nella parte in cui non prevede che sia cittadino per nascita anche il figlio di madre cittadina.

"Declares unconstitutional Article 1, n. 1, of Law 555 of 13 June 1912, in the part where it does not provide that the child of a citizen mother is also a citizen by birth."¹⁰

Italian consulates and comuni will process maternal-line cases administratively only if the child was born on or after January 1, 1948.⁵ For children born before that date, the only option is the Italian courts. The Corte di Cassazione has confirmed in multiple rulings, including Sentenza n. 4466/2009, that the constitutional equality principles apply retroactively, meaning a woman could transmit citizenship to a child born before 1948.¹⁰ But because the administrative branch does not apply this interpretation on its own, a lawsuit is required.

Since 2022, these lawsuits are filed in the Tribunale with jurisdiction over the ancestor's Italian municipality of birth, rather than being centralized in Rome. Cases filed after the March 27, 2025 deadline are also subject to the Article 3-bis restrictions.

Identifying a 1948 case

You have a 1948 case if all of the following are true:

1. Your line of descent includes at least one instance of a mother transmitting citizenship to a child.
2. That child was born before January 1, 1948.
3. The rest of the line (unbroken chain, no naturalization breaks) is otherwise valid.
4. You meet the applicable eligibility requirements (pre-March 2025 application, or Article 3-bis exception).

If the mother-to-child transmission happened and the child was born on or after January 1, 1948, it is not a 1948 case. It is a standard case that can be processed administratively.

Three paths to recognition

Once you have determined that your line is intact, you need to choose where to apply. There are three options. The underlying law is the same for all of them; what differs is jurisdiction and process.

Consular path

You apply at the Italian consulate with jurisdiction over your U.S. residence. This is the standard path for applicants living outside Italy.

You gather all required documents (see checklist below), have them apostilled and translated, and submit them to your consulate. The consulate verifies each document, requests records from the ancestor's Italian comune, and, if everything checks out, registers you as an Italian citizen in AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero, the Registry of Italians Residing Abroad).⁵

The NY consulate states that compliant applications are processed within 24 months.¹² The fee is 600 euros per application, and it is non-refundable regardless of the outcome.¹⁵ Most U.S. consulates have multi-year waiting lists to book an appointment.

Comune path

You apply directly to an Italian municipality by establishing legal residency in Italy.

You physically move to Italy, register your residence with the local Anagrafe (population registry), and submit your jure sanguinis application to the Sindaco (mayor) of the comune where you are living. The legal basis for this path is Circular K.28.1 of 1991, which provides that applications from residents of an Italian comune go to the mayor rather than the consulate.⁵ Processing through a comune is usually faster than through a consulate.

Judicial path

You file a lawsuit in an Italian court asking a judge to recognize your citizenship.

This path is used for 1948 cases (maternal-line claims where a child was born before 1948) and sometimes by applicants who argue that extreme consular wait times amount to a denial of their right to recognition. You retain an Italian attorney, who files the case in the Tribunale covering the ancestor's Italian municipality of birth. The court reviews the evidence and, if satisfied, issues a sentence recognizing your citizenship. The sentence is then transmitted to the relevant comune for registration in the civil records.

Where your ancestor likely came from

Most Italian Americans trace their ancestry to the wave of mass emigration known as la grande emigrazione, which began in 1876 and peaked in the years before World War I. Between 1876 and 1914, roughly 13.9 million Italians emigrated, the majority headed for the Americas.¹⁸ If your Italian ancestor came to the United States, they most likely left during this period — which means the ancestor at the start of your jure sanguinis chain is almost certainly from this wave.

This era matters because it is when the citizenship chain you need to prove was established. Your ancestor left Italy as an Italian citizen. Whether they subsequently naturalized — and when, relative to each child's birth — is the central question in every case.

Emigration was concentrated in particular regions. The largest sources between 1876 and 1914 were:¹⁸

• Veneto — 1.8 million emigrants
• Campania — 1.5 million
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia — 1.4 million
• Sicilia — 1.3 million
• Lombardia — 1.3 million
• Calabria — 873,000

If you know your family has Italian roots but are not certain which region, these are the most likely candidates for an Italo-American lineage. Each region's page on Paese includes emigration history alongside the comuni records you will need for your application.

Document checklist

Circular K.28.1 of the Ministry of Interior (April 8, 1991) defines the required documentation for jure sanguinis applications.⁵ The NY and LA consulates publish their own checklists based on this circular.^{12 15} Every document in the chain must be produced, translated, and legalized.

Italian records

• Birth certificate of the Italian-born ancestor (estratto dell'atto di nascita), issued by the comune where they were born. Must be dated within six months of the appointment.¹²
• Marriage certificate of the Italian-born ancestor, if married in Italy.

These are requested directly from the Italian comune's Ufficio di Stato Civile (Civil Registry Office). Use the Paese comuni directory to find your ancestor's comune.

U.S. records, for every generation in the chain

For each person in the line from the Italian ancestor to the applicant:

• Birth certificate (long-form/certified copy) from the relevant state vital records office.
• Marriage certificate (long-form/certified copy).
• Death certificate, if applicable and requested by the consulate or comune.

Naturalization evidence

• Certificate of Naturalization of the Italian ancestor, obtained through USCIS or the National Archives (NARA).¹¹ This establishes the date of naturalization.
• If the ancestor did not naturalize: a certificate from the competent foreign authority attesting that they never acquired foreign citizenship. In the U.S., this is typically a Certificate of Non-Existence from USCIS or a letter from NARA.^{5 11}
• If the naturalization certificate does not show the ancestor's date of birth, consulates require a certified copy of the Petition for Naturalization or Oath of Allegiance from NARA, which typically includes this information.¹²

Legalization

All U.S. documents must be legalized for use in Italy under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 (the Apostille Convention). Both Italy and the United States are signatories.¹³

• State-issued documents (birth, marriage, death certificates): Apostille from the Secretary of State of the issuing state.
• Federal documents (naturalization records from USCIS): Apostille from the U.S. Department of State, Office of Authentications.

All documents must be apostilled, notarized, and dated within six months of the appointment date.¹²

Consulates also verify internally that neither the applicant nor any ancestor in the line formally renounced Italian citizenship under Article 7 of the 1912 law. You do not need to obtain a separate non-renunciation certificate yourself.⁵

Translation

All non-Italian documents must be accompanied by an official Italian translation. Requirements vary by consulate. Some accept translations by certified translators; others require translations done by the consulate itself or by a sworn translator in Italy.

Where to obtain records

Italian civil records

The ancestor's Italian-born municipality (comune) holds the original civil records. You can request certificates by writing directly to the comune's Ufficio di Stato Civile. Many comuni accept requests by email; some require postal mail. The Antenati portal (antenati.cultura.gov.it) provides free access to digitized civil records from 52 Italian state archives, covering roughly 1806 through the 1930s. It is useful for identifying exact records before requesting certified copies.

Family documents often list a village or locality name rather than the official comune name. If you cannot match the place to a comune, search for it on Paese to identify which comune holds the records.

U.S. naturalization records

• USCIS Genealogy Program (genealogy.uscis.dhs.gov): For records dated before May 1, 1951.¹¹
• USCIS FOIA: For records dated after May 1, 1951.¹¹
• National Archives (NARA): Regional NARA facilities hold federal court naturalization records and can provide certified copies. NARA is often faster than USCIS for pre-1906 records and for obtaining the underlying petition and oath documents.¹⁴

U.S. vital records

Birth, marriage, and death certificates are issued by state and local vital records offices. Requirements, fees, and processing times vary by state. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics maintains a directory of state vital records offices.

Frequently asked questions

How far back does Italian citizenship go?

Under the pre-2025 rules, there was no generational limit. The chain could reach back to ancestors born in the 1800s, as long as it remained unbroken. Under Law 74/2025, new applications submitted after March 27, 2025 generally require the applicant to have an Italian citizen parent or grandparent, unless another Article 3-bis exception applies. Cases filed before the cutoff are evaluated under the prior rules.

Can I apply if my ancestor never naturalized?

Yes. If your Italian ancestor never became a U.S. citizen, the chain was never broken on that basis. You still need to confirm that no other break exists in the line and that you meet the current eligibility requirements. See the document checklist above for what you will need, including a Certificate of Non-Existence from USCIS or NARA to prove the ancestor did not naturalize.

Is there a language requirement for jure sanguinis?

No. Jure sanguinis recognition does not require the applicant to demonstrate proficiency in Italian. Language requirements apply to other paths to Italian citizenship, such as naturalization by residency, but not to recognition by descent.

How much does the process cost?

The consular application fee is 600 euros per application, non-refundable regardless of outcome.¹⁵ Additional costs include obtaining certified copies of vital records, apostilles, and translations, which vary by state and provider. Judicial cases involve attorney fees on top of document costs.

Sources

1. Legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91, "Nuove norme sulla cittadinanza," as amended by Law 74/2025 (converting Decree-Law 36/2025). Original law: Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 38, 15 February 1992. Article 3-bis added by Decree-Law 36/2025, converted by Law 74/2025 (G.U. n. 118, 23 May 2025). Current consolidated text: Normattiva. Original publication: Gazzetta Ufficiale. Law 74/2025: Gazzetta Ufficiale.
2. Codice Civile del Regno d'Italia, 1865, Book I, Title I, Articles 4-15. In force 2 April 1865 to 30 June 1912. Text: Wikisource.
3. Legge 13 giugno 1912, n. 555, "Sulla cittadinanza italiana." In force 1 July 1912 to 15 August 1992. Full text: Normattiva.
4. Basic Naturalization Act of 1906, 34 Stat. 596. Full text: GovInfo.
5. Circolare n. K.28.1 dell'8 aprile 1991, Ministero dell'Interno, "Riconoscimento del possesso dello status civitatis italiano ai cittadini stranieri di ceppo italiano." Text: Italian Embassy Maputo.
6. Expatriation Act of 1907, 34 Stat. 1228. Text: GovTrack/AWS. Analysis: Congress.gov Constitution Annotated.
7. Cable Act of 1922 (Married Women's Independent Citizenship Act), 42 Stat. 1021, effective 22 September 1922. Context: National Archives, "When Saying 'I Do' Meant Giving Up Your Citizenship".
8. Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana, Article 3. In force 1 January 1948. Text: Senato della Repubblica, Corte Costituzionale PDF.
9. Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana, Article 29. Text: Quirinale.
10. Corte Costituzionale, Sentenza n. 30/1983, decided 28 January 1983, published Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 46, 16 February 1983. Full text: Corte Costituzionale, Giurcost.org.
11. USCIS Genealogy Program: genealogy.uscis.dhs.gov. FOIA requests: uscis.gov/records.
12. Consulate General of Italy, New York, citizenship by descent requirements: consnewyork.esteri.it.
13. Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention). HCCH Apostille Section.
14. National Archives, "Naturalization Records": archives.gov/research/immigration/naturalization. History of the Certificate of Naturalization: archives.gov.
15. Consulate General of Italy, Los Angeles, citizenship by descent: conslosangeles.esteri.it.
16. Circolare n. 43347 del 3 ottobre 2024, Ministero dell'Interno, Dipartimento per le Libertà Civili e l'Immigrazione, "Riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana iure sanguinis - Nuove linee interpretative dettate da recenti decisioni della Corte di Cassazione." PDF. Also referenced by the Consulate General of Italy, New York: New Interpretative Guidelines (November 3, 2024).
17. The phrase jure sanguinis (ablative case) is standard in Italian administrative usage, including Ministry of Interior circulars such as Circular K.28.1. English-language legal texts sometimes use jus sanguinis (nominative case). Both refer to the same principle. This guide follows the Italian administrative convention.
18. ISTAT, Serie Storiche: emigration by region, 1876–2014. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, Rome.