Citizenship
The Italian Council of Ministers has approved (28/03/2025) a decree-law and two bills to reform the rules for obtaining Italian citizenship with the "Ius Sanguinis", Latin for "bloodright." This means that a person can be recognized as Italian if (s)he is a descendant of an Italian citizen. The objective of the reform, as stated in a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Farnesina), is "to enhance the effective link between Italy and citizens abroad."
The new law severely limits this right established by the 1992 law because it had generated a series of distortions and abuses over time: people who did not speak a word of Italian but only boasted of have remote "ancestors" who left Italy for South America or Australia acquired a passport (and therefore the right to enter and move around the EU).
The most striking case is the one of soccer player Lionel Messi. He is Italian by virtue of his great-great-grandfather, who left Recanati, in the Italian region Marche, for Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Thanks to the 1992 law, he obtained citizenship and was registered with Barcelona as an EU athlete. In an interview, however, he confessed that he did not know where Recanati was, nor had he ever heard of its most illustrious fellow citizen, Giacomo Leopardi.
From 2014 onwards, there has been a real boom, with the number of "oriundi" Italians rising from 4.6 million to 6.4 million. Within the population of foreign countries historically receiving Italian emigration, the percentage of potential Italian citizens is not fixed but growing. Already, today, 3% of the Argentine population holds an Italian passport (1.2 million recognized Italian citizens out of 46 million inhabitants).
Here is what has changed.
Until now, "Ius Sanguinis" was regulated by a law from 1992 that considered a person automatically an Italian citizen if he could demonstrate to have an Italian ancestor alive at the time of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. So, the law allowed descendants of Italians abroad, even fourth or fifth generation, to obtain an Italian passport. Even if they didn't speak a word of Italian.
The new law addresses this very point and provides that Italian descendants born abroad will automatically be citizens only for the last two generations: only those who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will be Italian citizens from birth.
For their requests of Italian citizenship, people who are resident abroad will no longer turn to the consulates, but there will be a special, centralized office at the Farnesina. Consulates will no longer focus on "manufacturing" new citizens.
The new rules provide that descendants of Italian citizens born abroad will automatically be citizens only for two generations: only those who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will be citizens from birth. Children of Italians will automatically acquire citizenship if they are born in Italy or if, before their birth, one of the citizen parents resided at least two years continuously in Italy.
The birth certificates of descendants born abroad must be registered before they turn 25, otherwise, it will no longer be possible to apply for citizenship due to failure to exercise rights.
Citizenship can be lost due to this law (Italian citizen born abroad, non-resident in Italy and in possession of another citizenship). After the date of entry into force of the new rules, these citizens can lose their citizenship if they do not maintain effective ties with the Italian Republic for a period of at least 25 years.
The law also has measures to support return immigration. Children of citizen parents (provided that he or she is not already a citizen by birth) will acquire citizenship if he or she is born in Italy or if he or she comes to live in Italy for two years, with a simple declaration of intent from the parents. Those who have lost citizenship can reacquire it, but only if they reside in Italy for two years.
Spouses of Italian citizens will be able to continue to obtain naturalization, but only if they reside in Italy.
Requests for citizenship recognition that are documented and submitted by 11.59 pm (Italian time) on 27 March 2025 will still be processed according to the previous rules.
The law is an automatic consequence of the natural demographic dynamics, which increases the probability that almost all newborns have a drop of Italian blood, which would be sufficient to justify the transmission of Italian Citizenship.
