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Italy slams door on people hoping to claim citizenship through great-grandparents (www.cnn.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A great-grandparent or even a great-great grandparent from Italy used to be all it took to guarantee Italian citizenship. A surprise decree has now changed all that, making it much harder for those with Italian ancestry to use blood line as a pathway to become Italian.
On March 28, the Italian government tightened regulations for claiming citizenship by jus sanguinis, or descendent blood line, effective immediately.

Basically you now need an Italian parent or a grandparent who was born in Italy, or an Italian parent who lived in Italy for at least two years before you were born, to be eligible. This is a major change to the citizenship law, and caught everyone by surprise.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Welp that sucks. I was trying for that route and in the middle of researching.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Don't lose hope yet. See https://www.boccadutri.com/italian-citizenship-by-descent-decree-law-36-2025/ for a rundown on the timeline for the expected court challenges to this (along with the legal justifications to challenge this).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Same. Feels bad. At the same time, it will probably be challenged. There's already precedent set.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even if upheld by the constitutional court, there's still a use for the research and docs search.

From https://www.mazzeschi.it/italian-citizenship/italian-citizenship-by-naturalization/

Applications for naturalization can be filed after ten years of legal residence in Italy, which can be reduced to:
- 3 years of legal residence, for those who were born in Italy or who have parents or grandparents that were Italian citizens
Example: Ettore’s grandfather was an Italian citizen. Ettore has now been living in Pisa, Italy for 3 years. Ettore can apply for Italian citizenship at the relevant Town Hall where he has established his residency.

And if your great-great-grandparent was born in Italy, then there's a good chance that your grandparent born abroad was Italian (even if never registered as such). So not as easy as before but having an Italian ancestor is still helpful in regaining ties with the country...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah my case was going to be a 1948/pre1912 through a great great grandmother that didn't voluntarily renounce italian citizenship, so already a toss up from what I've read. 🤷‍♂️

I'll keep an eye on this development anyway, of course. The details of this bill seem hyper aggressive and my first instinct is it wouldn't pass in its current form. But if this is this big of an issue then it seems likely some version of it will pass at some point. And I'm nowhere near having my documentation ready. I expect to need a CONE, to amend my gggm death certificate, at a minimum...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah, especially that they just announced it with both immediate and retroactive effect, so no warning to those who were almost finished with the documents and ready to apply. I feel really bad for those who were just ready to apply on March 31st...

Good luck!