The Italian government introduced Decreto Legge n. 36 on 28th March 2025 in a shock move which makes significant reforms to the law on Italian citizenship by descent (ius sanguinis).
The principle that Italian citizenship is passed to the next generation is upheld, however from now on only persons who have an Italian parent or grandparent born in Italy will have the right to be recognised as Italian citizens. This new legislation came into force immediately. There is no transition period. All applications which were made before 28th March 2025 (for example where descent is claimed from a great-grandparent) will be considered under the old rules.
This legislation has rocked the community of descendants of Italian citizens abroad. It was introduced as a Decreto Legge – a mechanism which allows the government to introduce new rules only in cases of urgency. The factor of urgency would seem to be noteably lacking here. The Decreto Legge is in force as of 28th March 2025, but will become final only after 60 days, during which time it must be approved by Parliament. The legislation will fail if in that time it is not confirmed. There will undoubtedly be huge opposition and potententially legal challenges.
Furthermore, two draft bills were published on the same date. These are not yet in force and may be subject to amendments. One of the proposed rules would introduce an obligation to maintain a concrete link with Italy in order to retain Italian citizenship. This will require an Italian citizen to exercise a civic duty such as voting at least every 25 years. The government has implemented this new rule in response to the recent numbers of applicants with little or no link to Italy, intending to make participation in Italian society a central requisite to obtaining and maintainting Italian citizenship.
We are studying the provisions of this new legislation and will update this article in the next few weeks as the real impact of this sudden change becomes clear.