Can I Get Italian Citizenship Through Great-Grandparents?

Italian citizenship through great-grandparents is no longer available in most cases. A law that took effect in 2025 limits recognition by descent (jure sanguinis) to people who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy. If your closest Italian-born ancestor is a great-grandparent, you fall outside that window unless you fit a narrow exception, filed before the cutoff, or pursue a different path such as residency in Italy.

The 2025 Law That Closed the Great-Grandparent Route

On March 28, 2025, the Italian government approved Decree-Law No. 36/2025, imposing a generational cap on citizenship by descent for the first time. On May 24, 2025, parliament converted that decree into Law 74/2025, making the restriction permanent.¹ In March 2026, Italy’s Constitutional Court rejected legal challenges and upheld the cap.

Before the change, Italy had no generational limit at all. Someone with an unbroken chain reaching back to an ancestor who emigrated in the 1880s could claim recognition.² The new Article 3-bis of Law 91/1992 now treats a person born abroad who holds another citizenship as never having been Italian, unless they fall inside one of the carve-outs below.

For most Americans whose Italian roots trace to a great-grandparent who left Italy in the late 1800s or early 1900s, the automatic recognition path is closed. The intervening generations typically naturalized in the U.S., which means the closest Italian-born ancestor sits at the great-grandparent level and no parent or grandparent qualifies under the new rule.

Exceptions That Can Still Save a Great-Grandparent Claim

The law preserves a handful of situations where recognition is still possible even when the Italian-born ancestor is a great-grandparent. Read these carefully before writing off your case:

You submitted a complete application to an Italian consulate, or had a confirmed appointment, by 11:59 PM Rome time on March 27, 2025. Those cases are processed under the old rules.³
A parent or grandparent in your line held exclusively Italian citizenship at the time of death, with no dual nationality. If so, you can still qualify regardless of which generation actually emigrated.³
An Italian-citizen parent lived continuously in Italy for at least two years after becoming Italian and before you were born or adopted.⁴
One of your grandparents was also born in Italy. In that case you already meet the generational requirement through the grandparent, even though the original emigrant in your family may have been a great-grandparent.

For most great-grandparent applicants in the United States, none of these will fit. The middle generations naturalized as Americans, so no parent or grandparent held only Italian citizenship, none lived in Italy for two years before the applicant’s birth, and no grandparent was born in Italy.

Claims Through a Female Ancestor Before 1948

A separate track exists for descendants whose line runs through a woman who had a child before January 1, 1948, with a non-Italian husband. Before that date, Italian law did not allow women to pass citizenship to their children in those circumstances, so a consulate will refuse to process such applications administratively.⁵

In 2009, Italy’s highest court ruled that restriction unconstitutional and recognized the right of descendants through female lines to claim citizenship even for pre-1948 births. The catch is that recognition must be pursued through a court case filed in Italy with an Italian attorney, not through the consulate.⁵ The judicial phase typically runs several months to over a year once filed, and the full timeline is longer once you factor in document work.

Whether the 1948 judicial route remains available for great-grandparent claims otherwise blocked by Law 74/2025 is unclear. If your situation involves both the 1948 rule and a great-grandparent ancestor, speak with an Italian immigration attorney before spending money on documents.

Residency in Italy as the Alternative Path

If the generational cap blocks you and no exception applies, the remaining route to Italian citizenship is residency. The standard requirement for non-EU citizens is ten years of legal residence in Italy. Descendants of Italian citizens by birth qualify under a reduced requirement of two years of continuous legal residency.

Residency is a real move, not a paperwork exercise done from abroad. You would need to register with the local municipality, obtain an Italian tax code, meet income or financial support requirements, and actually live there for the required period. For someone shut out by the new law but able to relocate, two years is far shorter than the ten that would otherwise apply.

What a Qualifying Application Still Has to Prove

If you do fall inside one of the exceptions, or your application was already in before the cutoff, the underlying rules of jure sanguinis still apply. Italian citizenship passes automatically from parent to child at birth, and the chain from your Italian ancestor down to you must be unbroken.⁶

What Breaks the Chain

The most common chain-breaker is naturalization. If your Italian-born ancestor became a U.S. citizen before the birth of the next person in your line, Italian citizenship stopped passing down at that moment.⁶ An ancestor who naturalized in 1922 with a child born in 1920 did not break it; the child was already born Italian.

Minor children create a less obvious trap. Before March 9, 1975, the age of majority in Italy was 21. If an Italian ancestor naturalized as a foreign citizen while their child was still a minor under Italian law, that child automatically lost Italian citizenship as well. The chain can break even when naturalization occurred after the child’s birth, if the child had not yet turned 21. Formal renunciation of Italian citizenship by anyone in the line also breaks the chain, and applicants must declare that no such renunciation occurred.⁶

Documents You Will Need

Documentation is heavy. You need certified, long-form originals for every person in the direct line from your Italian ancestor down to you:

Birth certificates for everyone in the chain, including you.⁷
Marriage certificates for every married couple in the chain.
Death certificates for any deceased individuals in the line.
Naturalization or non-naturalization records for the Italian ancestor and each subsequent generation, showing the chain was never broken.⁷

Every U.S. document must be apostilled by the Secretary of State in the issuing state and then translated into Italian by a professional translator who certifies accuracy.⁷ Consulates are strict about name consistency across records; minor spelling differences between documents can stall an application, and corrections may require an apostilled and translated court order.⁶

Fees

As of January 1, 2025, the application fee for adult applicants is 600 euros per person, doubled from the previous 300 euros.⁸ Add apostille fees (typically under $25 per document, varying by state), certified vital records, and professional Italian translations of every foreign document. A 1948-rule case adds Italian attorney fees on top.

If Recognition Does Come Through

Italian citizens living outside Italy for more than twelve months must register with the Registry of Italians Abroad (AIRE) within 90 days of the change in status.⁹ Failure to register can bring administrative fines of 200 to 1,000 euros per year of non-registration, and AIRE registration is a prerequisite for voting from abroad and renewing an Italian passport. Italian citizenship on its own does not create Italian tax obligations, because Italy taxes on residency rather than citizenship, and the U.S.–Italy tax treaty addresses double taxation for those with income exposure to both systems.¹⁰

1
Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. Citizenship
2
Investment Migration Insider. Italy Adopts Decree Restricting Citizenship by Descent
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Consolato Generale d’Italia Chicago. Citizenship Jure Sanguinis / by Descent
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Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. How to Apply for Citizenship by Descent (Iure Sanguinis)
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Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. Cittadinanza Iure Sanguinis
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Italian Government. Citizenship by Descent
7
Consolato d’Italia in Los Angeles. Document Checklist and Instructions
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Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. Consular Fee Increase for Citizenship by Descent (Iure Sanguinis) Applications
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Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale. Register of Italians Living Abroad (A.I.R.E.)
10
Internal Revenue Service. United States Income Tax Treaties – A to Z