Italian Citizenship by Descent 2026: Who Still Qualifies

Italian citizenship by descent is still possible for Americans in 2026, but for a much smaller group than before. Under Law 74/2025, most US-born applicants qualify only if a parent or grandparent held exclusively Italian citizenship. A great-grandparent is generally no longer enough.

This guide covers who still qualifies after the 2025 reform and the 2026 court rulings, and which US vital records you need. It also explains apostilles, translations, appointment limits and how to apply at your US consulate through Prenot@mi. The main sources are the Italian Foreign Ministry and the Italian consulates in New York, Miami, Detroit and San Francisco.

Key fact	As of November 2026
Law in force	Decree-Law 36/2025 (the "Tajani Decree"), converted into Law 74/2025
Who it applies to	Applications submitted, or appointments confirmed, after 11:59 pm Rome time on 27 March 2025
Who qualifies	Child or grandchild of someone who held exclusively Italian citizenship, or a child of a parent who lived in Italy for 2 continuous years
Great-grandparent line	No longer enough, unless a statutory exception applies
Consulate fee	€600 per adult, $691 at the Detroit consulate's rate valid through December 31, 2026
Fee refundable?	No, whatever the outcome
Where to apply	The Italian consulate covering your place of residence, booked on Prenot@mi
Appointment limits	Annual cap per consulate until 31 December 2028, then adults abroad apply to a central office in Rome from 1 January 2029
Minor children of citizens by birth	Declaration due by 31 May 2029
Dual US and Italian citizenship	Allowed
Court challenges	Referred to the EU Court of Justice in July 2026, but the law stays in force

Who still qualifies for Italian citizenship by descent after the 2025 law?

As of November 2026, you qualify for Italian citizenship by descent through the standard route only if a parent or grandparent held exclusively Italian citizenship. This applies to applications submitted, or appointments confirmed, after 11:59 pm Rome time on 27 March 2025, under Decree-Law 36/2025 (the "Tajani Decree"), converted into Law 74/2025 (Global Citizen Solutions).

The decree took effect on 28 March 2025, and the conversion law has been in force since 24 May 2025. Its core is a new Article 3-bis in Italy's citizenship law (Law 91/92). The Italian Consulate General in New York explains that a person born abroad who holds another citizenship is now treated as never having acquired Italian citizenship automatically, even if they would have qualified under the old rules (Consolato Generale d'Italia a New York). Most US-born Americans fall into that group.

To get past Article 3-bis, you must show one of two things (JSBC):

Your parent or grandparent held exclusively Italian citizenship, either when you were born or when that ancestor died.
Your parent lived in Italy for at least two continuous years after becoming an Italian citizen and before your birth or adoption.

Question	Before the March 2025 cutoff	Applications after the cutoff
How far back can the line go?	No generational limit in practice	Parent or grandparent only, unless an exception applies
Great-grandparent born in Italy	Usually enough	No longer enough on its own
Ancestor who became a US citizen	Could pass citizenship only to children born before the ancestor naturalized	Must have held only Italian citizenship at your birth or at death
Parent who lived in Italy	Not required	An alternative route: 2 continuous years in Italy before your birth

What "exclusively Italian citizenship" means

"Exclusively" means your parent or grandparent was an Italian citizen and held no other citizenship at the moment that counts, which is either your birth or their death. A grandparent who had become a US citizen by that moment fails the test. This is where most American families now fall out, because so many immigrant grandparents naturalized.

Naturalization dates matter in a second way. Under the pre-1992 law (Law 555/1912), an adult Italian who naturalized as a US citizen lost Italian citizenship. If your grandparent naturalized before your parent was born, and before 15 August 1992, your parent generally never received Italian citizenship, even under the old rules.

Worked example: two families from Ohio

Family A. Your grandfather was born in Calabria in 1925 and moved to Cleveland. Your father was born there in 1958. Your grandfather became a US citizen in 1965, and you were born in 1990. He died in 2005. At your birth and at his death he held US citizenship, not exclusively Italian citizenship, so you fail the test through him. The July 2026 "minor issue" ruling (explained below) may protect your father's Italian citizenship, because your father was a US-born child when the naturalization happened. But your father was also a US citizen from birth, so he fails the exclusivity test too, unless he lived in Italy for two continuous years before you were born.

Family B. Your grandmother was born in Sicily in 1930, moved to Ohio in 1955 and never naturalized. She kept only her Italian citizenship until she died in 2012. You were born in 1988. At your birth she held exclusively Italian citizenship, so you can pass the new test. You still have to prove every link with documents. You will need a USCIS no-record letter showing she never naturalized, and a slot at your consulate under its annual cap.

Can my minor children be included?

Yes, if a parent is an Italian citizen by birth. Children of such a parent who were under 18 on 24 May 2025 can acquire citizenship if both parents file a declaration at the consulate by 11:59 pm Rome time on 31 May 2029. The original 31 May 2026 deadline was extended by Law 26 of 28 February 2026 (the Milleproroghe conversion law), and the Italian Foreign Ministry confirms the 31 May 2029 date (some consulate pages may not be updated yet).

If your child has turned 18 since 24 May 2025, they must file the declaration themselves, in person, by the same 31 May 2029 deadline.

For a child born on or after 25 May 2025 to a parent who is an Italian citizen by birth, both parents must file the declaration within three years of the birth (2026 Budget Law), according to the New York consulate's citizenship section. Confirm the forms with your consulate.

Can I still get Italian citizenship through my great-grandparent?

In most cases, no. For applications submitted after the 27 March 2025 cutoff, descent from a great-grandparent is no longer enough unless a statutory exception applies (Impatria).

The main exception is people already in the system. The March 2025 reform did not affect the roughly 60,000 applications already pending in consulates worldwide (CNN via Yahoo News).

I had a consulate appointment before March 28, 2025. Do the old rules apply?

Yes, if the appointment was confirmed in time. Applicants with an appointment confirmed by 11:59 pm Rome time on 27 March 2025 are exempt from the new requirements. The Miami consulate counts as "confirmed" an email confirmation sent through Prenot@mi or from the consular section's official email address (Consolato Generale d'Italia a Miami).

Watch the time zone. On 27 March 2025, Italy was 5 hours ahead of New York, because Europe had not yet moved its clocks forward. So 11:59 pm in Rome was 6:59 pm Eastern time. A confirmation email received at 6:30 pm Eastern on March 27 is inside the cutoff. One received at 8:00 pm Eastern that evening, or on March 28, is not.

Is Italian citizenship by descent "back" after the 2026 court rulings?

No. As of November 2026, the 2025 reform is still in force, and consulates and Italian town halls continue to apply it exactly as before (Capecchi Legal).

12 March 2026: Italy's Constitutional Court announced it was rejecting the Turin court's challenge to the reform (Courthouse News).
30 April 2026: The full Judgment No. 63/2026 was published. It upheld the government's power to impose limits, but it did not abolish citizenship by descent (My Italian Family).
9 June 2026: The Court heard further challenges sent by courts in Mantua and Campobasso.
23 July 2026: In Order No. 147/2026, the Constitutional Court paused its own proceedings and asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) whether Article 3-bis fits with EU citizenship law. The law stays in force while the CJEU decides (Aprigliano Law Firm).

A CJEU ruling could still be a year or more away (Capecchi Legal). Lawyers disagree on how much the referral may help later, and no official source says consulates will approve cases that fail Article 3-bis. If you are a great-grandchild, do not plan around a court win.

What is the "minor issue," and does the July 2026 ruling help me?

The "minor issue" asked whether a child lost Italian citizenship when an Italian parent naturalized abroad while the child was under 18. On 26 July 2026, Italy's Court of Cassation Joint Sections ruled in No. 24045 that a minor who held the foreign citizenship from birth (for example, a US-born child) did not lose Italian citizenship when the parent naturalized (Damiani & Damiani).

This helps US-born families whose line was blocked only by an ancestor's naturalization during a child's minority. It does not remove the parent-or-grandparent limit. You still need to pass Article 3-bis.

What documents are needed for Italian citizenship by descent?

You need long-form birth, marriage and (if any) divorce records for yourself and every person in your line back to the Italian ancestor, plus records on the ancestor's citizenship and naturalization. US records need apostilles, and records about you need Italian translations.

The Detroit and Miami checklists quoted below come from pages that partly cover appointments confirmed before the cutoff. If you are applying now, use your consulate's new-rules page, which also asks for proof of your ancestor's citizenship status at your birth or death (see the New York consulate's citizenship page for the Article 3-bis rules).

The Miami consulate lists these core documents (Consolato Generale d'Italia a Miami):

The Italian ancestor's birth certificate from the Italian comune (town hall) where they were born
Birth certificates of every direct descendant, including you, with official Italian translations
The Italian ancestor's marriage certificate
A certificate from US authorities confirming the ancestor did not acquire foreign citizenship during the descendant's minority

Miami requires originals, apostilled if issued outside the consular district.

Apostilles, long form and translations

The Detroit consulate requires birth, marriage and divorce records for you and your line to carry an apostille from the Secretary of State of the issuing state. Certificates must be long form, and records relating to you must be translated into Italian (Consolato d'Italia a Detroit).

Federal records, such as USCIS naturalization records or a certificate of non-existence of naturalization, are apostilled by the US Department of State Office of Authentications, not by a state. Sources disagree on whether records issued in Italy need an apostille, so follow your own consulate's checklist. The same goes for translators: consulates set their own rules on who may translate, so check yours before you hire anyone.

How do I get naturalization records or a no-record letter from USCIS?

You request them from USCIS, through its Genealogy Program for historical records or through a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. If your ancestor naturalized, you want the file showing the date. If they never did, you want a certificate of non-existence of naturalization, often called a CONE or no-record letter. Then send it to the State Department's Office of Authentications for the apostille. Order this early, because it can be the slowest piece.

Application forms

Forms differ by consulate and filing date. San Francisco, for example, requires its forms (form 1, 2, and 3 or 4 depending on whether your parent is alive) to be signed before a notary public where you live. That page applies only to applicants with a parent-born-in-Italy appointment confirmed by 27 March 2025 (Consolato Generale d'Italia a San Francisco).

How to get Italian citizenship by descent at a US consulate

You apply in person at the Italian consulate whose district covers where you live, after booking on Prenot@mi. The Detroit consulate, for example, requires proof of residence in its district, such as a driver's license or utility bill (Consolato d'Italia a Detroit), so you cannot pick another consulate for a shorter wait.

Test your line on paper first. List each person from you to the Italian ancestor, with dates of birth, marriage, naturalization and death. Check whether a parent or grandparent held only Italian citizenship at your birth or at their death.
Find your consulate. Use the one whose district includes your home, and gather your proof of residence.
Order long-form records. Request full certificates from US state or county offices, the birth record from the ancestor's comune, and naturalization or no-record letters from USCIS.
Get apostilles. State records go to the Secretary of State of the issuing state. Federal records go to the State Department's Office of Authentications.
Translate. Have records about you, and any others your consulate lists, translated into Italian under its rules.
Book on Prenot@mi. The system is free. Never pay anyone who offers to sell you an earlier slot (Italian Consulate in London).
Attend with originals and pay the fee. The Miami office does not pre-screen documents, and it will not answer documents sent without a scheduled appointment (Consolato Generale d'Italia a Miami).

If Prenot@mi shows no slots, check your consulate's news page: under the 2026 caps some offices have limited or paused new descent appointments. Emailing documents in advance will not hold you a place.

Why appointments are scarce, and the 2029 change

Under Law 11/2026, consulates can accept only a limited number of descent applications each year until 31 December 2028. From 1 January 2029, adults living abroad will apply to a central office at the Foreign Ministry in Rome, not to consulates (Italian Foreign Ministry). Some consulates outside the US have suspended new appointments altogether.

In practice, if your line clearly passes Article 3-bis, start ordering records now. A complete file is what lets you use a slot when your consulate releases one.

How much does Italian citizenship by descent cost in 2026?

Italian consulates charge a €600 fee for each adult descent application. The Detroit consulate sets the dollar amount at $691 for the quarter ending December 31, 2026. The fee is non-refundable whatever the outcome, and the dollar amount can change every 3 months (Consolato d'Italia a Detroit). New York also confirms the €600 fee (Consolato Generale d'Italia a New York).

Cost example: You and two adult siblings apply through the same grandmother: 3 × €600 = €1,800. At Detroit's rate of $691 per application, that is 3 × $691 = $2,073. Detroit states that the €600 fee applies to adult applicants (descendants over 18), so check with your consulate how it treats minor children in your file. Record fees, apostilles and translations are extra.

Can I apply in an Italian court instead of a consulate?

Sometimes, but the court route is not a way around the new law. Court filings carry their own fee, so check the current amount with an Italian lawyer before you file. Cases filed after the cutoff must still pass Article 3-bis. The main reason to go to court has been the "1948 case": a line passing through a woman to a child born before 1 January 1948, which consulates did not recognize. That route now matters only if your line also passes Article 3-bis, or if your case was filed before the cutoff.

How long does it take?

There is no reliable official processing time to quote. Law firms cite different legal time limits, and we could not confirm either against official text. Ask your consulate at your appointment.

Can I keep US citizenship with Italian citizenship?

Yes. Italian and American dual citizenship is allowed, so you keep your US passport. Italian citizenship alone does not create Italian tax liabilities, which arise only if you become tax resident in Italy (Legally Italy).

As a US citizen you still owe US tax on worldwide income wherever you live. If you later move to Italy and earn there, estimate your position with our FEIE calculator for Americans abroad. Citizenship and tax rules depend on your facts, so confirm your own case with your consulate or a qualified adviser.

What if you don't qualify for Italian citizenship by descent?

You still have routes to Italy: faster naturalization after living there, an extra-quota work visa for descendants, and limited options for former citizens.

Two-year naturalization. Law 74/2025 cut the residence period for naturalization from three years to two for children and grandchildren of Italian citizens by birth (Legally Italy).
Extra-quota work visa. A decree dated 17 November 2025, published in Italy's Official Gazette in December 2025, lets citizens of seven countries, including the United States, apply for a work visa outside the annual quota if they prove lineal descent from an Italian national. It refers to "descendants of Italian citizens," which suggests no generational limit (VisaHQ). You still need a job, a nulla osta (work clearance) and then an employment visa from your consulate (The Local Italy).
Former Italian citizens. People who lost Italian citizenship can reacquire it only under specific conditions in Article 17 of Law 91/1992, as amended (Consolato Generale d'Italia a New York). The route is open to former citizens who were born in Italy or lived there for two continuous years, and who lost citizenship on or before 15 August 1992. Confirm the filing window with your consulate.

If you have other ancestry, compare Irish citizenship by descent for Americans and German citizenship by descent. For visa paths, see how to move to Europe as an American and our Europe work visa guide.

Common mistakes Americans make

Most problems come from following pre-2025 advice or assuming every consulate's checklist is the same.

Using old checklists. Pages labeled for appointments confirmed before 28 March 2025 may not apply to you.
Assuming a great-grandparent still works. Unless an exception applies, it does not, and the €600 fee will not come back.
Waiting for the CJEU. The July 2026 referral did not suspend the law.
Ignoring naturalization dates. A grandparent who naturalized before your parent's birth, and before 15 August 1992, usually broke the line even under the old rules.
Sending federal records to a state. USCIS records get their apostille from the State Department, not a Secretary of State.
Ordering short-form certificates. Detroit requires long form.
Applying at the wrong consulate. Your district is set by where you live.
Paying for appointments or mailing documents early. Prenot@mi is free, and Miami will not review papers sent without an appointment.
Assuming a child who turned 18 is too late. They can still file personally by 31 May 2029.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get Italian citizenship by descent as an American?

First, confirm that a parent or grandparent held only Italian citizenship at your birth or at their death, or that a parent lived in Italy for two continuous years before your birth. Then gather long-form, apostilled US records and Italian translations, book on Prenot@mi at the consulate for your district, and pay the €600 fee. Consulates cap annual applications until the end of 2028.

Can I apply at a different Italian consulate with shorter wait times?

No. Italian consulates in the United States handle citizenship applications only from residents of their own district, and the Detroit consulate asks for proof such as a driver's license or utility bill. If you live in Michigan, you cannot choose New York because it has open slots. Check your consulate's website to see which states and counties it covers before you book.

Is the 600 euro fee refundable if my application is refused?

No. The Detroit consulate states that the €600 fee for Italian citizenship by descent is non-refundable regardless of the outcome. In US dollars, Detroit charges $691 for the quarter ending December 31, 2026, and the amount can change every three months. Test your eligibility under the parent-or-grandparent rule before you pay anything.

Does my pre-March 2025 appointment keep me under the old rules?

It does if the appointment was confirmed by 11:59 pm Rome time on 27 March 2025, which was 6:59 pm Eastern. The Miami consulate accepts a confirmation email from Prenot@mi or the consular section's official address as proof, so keep that email. Applications already pending before the reform, about 60,000 worldwide, were also not affected by the 2025 changes.

Do I need to speak Italian to apply for citizenship by descent?

No language test is mentioned in the consulate requirements for recognition of Italian citizenship by descent. Naturalization, such as the two-year residence route for children and grandchildren of Italian citizens by birth, has its own Italian language requirement, so check the level with official sources. You will still need Italian translations of your documents.

Do I need to translate my US documents into Italian?

Yes, for most of them. The Detroit consulate requires records relating to the applicant to be translated into Italian, and the Miami consulate requires official Italian translations of the birth certificates of all direct descendants. Consulates also set their own rules on who may translate, so use your own consulate's current checklist before you hire a translator.

References

Filed under Visa & Immigration Citizenship & PR

Muhammad Sahil

Founder and editor of EU Info Hub. Digital marketer with over seven years of freelance experience, now studying economics and business in Europe. He has been through the residence permit process himself. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. Always confirm details with the relevant consulate or authority.