Published July 16, 2026

Italian Citizenship by Descent: The New Rules, Explained (Law 74/2025)

If you researched Italian citizenship by descent before March 2025, most of what you learned is now wrong. Law 74/2025 replaced Italy’s century-old unlimited-generation rule with a strict two-generation limit, and on 12 March 2026 the Italian Constitutional Court upheld it. The old guides, forum threads, and ancestry-service checklists that still dominate search results describe a legal framework that no longer exists for new applicants.

This post explains what changed, who still qualifies in 2026, and what to do if your claim runs through a grandparent or great-grandparent. It is an informational overview, not legal advice.

How the old rule worked

From Law 555/1912 through Law 91/1992, Italian citizenship passed automatically from parent to child at birth, with no generational limit. If your great-great-grandfather left Genoa in 1895 and never naturalized elsewhere before his son was born, you could, at least in principle, be recognized as an Italian citizen by descent (jure sanguinis), four generations later.

The claim only had to satisfy chain conditions: each ancestor in the line had to still hold Italian citizenship when the next generation was born, which mostly meant proving the emigrant ancestor did not naturalize in their new country too early. Millions of people worldwide qualified on paper, consular waiting lists stretched for years, and Italian courts processed a growing share of cases directly.

What Law 74/2025 changed

In March 2025 the Italian government issued an emergency decree limiting citizenship by descent to two generations. The decree was converted, with amendments, into Law 74/2025, in force since 24 May 2025. In broad terms, a new applicant now needs:

• A parent born in Italy who was an Italian citizen at the time of the applicant’s birth, with a residency condition: the parent must have lived in Italy for at least 2 continuous years immediately before the applicant’s birth for the cleanest version of the claim; or
• A grandparent born in Italy who had not lost Italian citizenship (for example by naturalizing elsewhere) before the relevant parent was born. This route survives on paper, but its detailed conditions are the most heavily contested part of the new law, and consulates, comuni, and courts do not yet apply it uniformly.

Descent claims through a great-grandparent or any earlier ancestor are no longer accepted for new applications. That single change removed the majority of cases the old system processed.

The 27 March 2025 cutoff

The new law is not retroactive for applications already in the system. If you (or a parent, or a lawyer acting for your family) filed an Italian citizenship application at a consulate, comune, or Italian court on or before 27 March 2025, 11:59 PM Rome time, that application is assessed under the old unlimited-generation framework.

Two things follow from that:

1. Keep your filing evidence. The receipt, protocol number, or court filing stamp proving the date is now the single most valuable document in your file.
2. A pending application is not a grant. The old rules apply to it, but it still has to be approved on its own merits.

The Constitutional Court ruling of 12 March 2026

The two-generation limit was challenged almost immediately. The core argument was that it stripped rights people already held by birth. On 12 March 2026, the Constitutional Court upheld the limit. Whatever happens in individual cases, the headline consequence is simple: the two-generation framework is settled law for now, and waiting for a reversal is not a strategy.

This is also why so much online material is now misleading. Guides written before 2025 (and many written during the litigation, predicting the law would fall) describe eligibility rules that no longer apply.

Who still qualifies in 2026

Three groups, in descending order of certainty:

1. Anyone who filed on or before 27 March 2025. Old rules, unlimited generations, assessed by whichever authority received the filing.
2. Applicants with a qualifying parent. Parent born in Italy, an Italian citizen when you were born, and resident in Italy for 2 continuous years before your birth. Where the residency history is unclear, the claim enters a gray area that authorities decide case by case.
3. Applicants with a qualifying grandparent. Grandparent born in Italy who never naturalized elsewhere, or only did so after your parent was born. Treat this route as open but disputed: it is the part of Law 74/2025 most likely to need professional case review, and possibly a court.

If your only Italian-born ancestor is a great-grandparent or earlier, no descent route currently applies. The realistic alternatives are residency-based naturalization (generally 10 years of legal residence in Italy, less for some categories), or checking whether a different country’s descent rules fit your family tree. Ireland, for example, still recognizes grandparent claims through its Foreign Births Register.

What it costs and how long it takes

Ranges we see cited in practice as of mid-2026:

• Parent route, filed directly at a consulate or comune: filing fees typically under EUR 300; realistic timeline 1 to 4 years.
• Parent route with legal help: commonly EUR 2,500 to 6,000 in fees.
• Grandparent route: lawyer-led cases commonly EUR 4,000 to 8,000 in legal fees, plus EUR 1,000 to 3,000 for records, apostilles, and translations; 2 to 5 years, longer if the case ends up in court.

Always verify current fees against the consulate or comune handling your case, because they change.

What to do now

1. Establish which route, if any, applies to you. Our free Italy eligibility checker walks the current rules in five questions and tells you which verdict fits, including the cutoff question most people miss.
2. Gather the civil records early. Long-form birth, marriage, and death certificates for each generation, plus naturalization records (or proof of non-naturalization) for the emigrant ancestor. Document procurement is the slowest part of every case.
3. Get professional review for gray areas. The parent-residency condition and the entire grandparent route are legal judgment calls, not boxes you can self-certify. A qualified Italian citizenship lawyer is the right spend there.

Frequently asked questions

Is Law 74/2025 retroactive? Not for applications filed on or before 27 March 2025; those stay under the old framework. For everyone else, the two-generation limit applies regardless of when your ancestor emigrated.

My great-grandparent was born in Italy. Is there really no route? Not by descent, under current law. Residency-based naturalization or another country’s descent rules (check Ireland, or get notified when we add Poland, Germany, and others) are the realistic alternatives.

Did the March 2026 ruling end the legal fight? It settled the core question: the two-generation limit stands. Disputes over how the grandparent route works in detail are still being worked out case by case.

Are 1948-rule cases still a thing? The 1948 rule (maternal-line claims requiring a court case) still matters for applications filed before the cutoff. For new applications it is only relevant within the two-generation limit.

Where do I start? Run the Italy checker. It takes about two minutes, your answers stay in your browser, and it tells you which documents your route needs.

Informational tool, not legal advice. Rules and fees change; verify against primary sources and consult a qualified attorney in Italy before making legal decisions.