Becoming an Italian citizen as an American now runs through four possible doors: citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis), citizenship by marriage to an Italian citizen, naturalization by long-term legal residency in Italy, and a court-based claim for certain maternal-line cases. Which door is open to you depends heavily on a law Italy passed in 2025. If your Italian ancestor is a great-grandparent or further back and you did not file before March 28, 2025, the descent route at consulates is almost certainly closed to you, and your realistic options are marriage, residency, or litigation.
The 2025 Rule Change You Have to Understand First
On March 28, 2025, Italy enacted Decree-Law 36/2025, later converted into Law 74/2025. The reform did not abolish citizenship by descent, but it added a proximity requirement that eliminates most Americans whose Italian roots go back more than two generations.1Consolato Generale d’Italia Brisbane. Citizenship by Descent (New Rules)
Under the new rules, a person born outside Italy who also holds another citizenship is “considered never to have acquired” Italian citizenship unless at least one of these is true:
- One of your parents (or adoptive parents) was born in Italy.
- One of your parents lived in Italy for at least two consecutive years immediately before your birth or adoption.
- One of your grandparents on the Italian side was born in Italy.
For most Americans tracing to a great-grandparent who left Italy a century ago, none of these apply. That is the grandparent cap in plain terms.
One grandfathering provision matters: if you submitted a complete application to an Italian consulate or municipality by 11:59 PM Rome time on March 27, 2025, your case is judged under the old, generation-unlimited rules.1Consolato Generale d’Italia Brisbane. Citizenship by Descent (New Rules) Italian legal scholars have raised constitutional objections to the retroactive nature of the restrictions, and court challenges are expected, so the judicial route remains open to people who believe the new law violates their rights. But as of 2026, consulates and municipalities are enforcing the new limits.
Citizenship by Descent When You Still Qualify
If a parent or grandparent was born in Italy, or your parent had that two-year residency in Italy before your birth, the descent pathway works much as it always has. The underlying rules:
- Your Italian ancestor must have been alive on or after March 17, 1861, the date Italy became a nation. Ancestors born before 1861 qualify only if they died after that date.2Consolato Generale d’Italia Londra. Citizenship Iure Sanguinis – Previous Regulatory Framework
- Your Italian ancestor must not have naturalized as a citizen of another country before the birth of the next person in your direct line. If your great-grandfather naturalized in 1920 and his son was born in 1918, the chain holds; if his son was born in 1922, the chain broke.
- Every generation between the original Italian citizen and you must have received citizenship through an unbroken link.
The new proximity rule sits on top of these older requirements, not in place of them.3Consolato Generale d’Italia Chicago. Citizenship Jure Sanguinis / by Descent
Maternal Line Cases Before 1948
A separate obstacle affects claims that pass through a woman who had children before January 1, 1948. Italy’s 1912 citizenship law did not allow women to transmit citizenship on the same terms as men, and consulates still refuse administrative applications where the maternal link predates 1948.4Italian Consulate Services. Citizenship by Descent
The workaround is a lawsuit filed in the Civil Court of Rome. Italy’s 1948 Constitution established gender equality, and Italian courts have repeatedly held that the 1912 restriction violates that principle. A successful petition produces a judicial recognition of citizenship that consulates must honor. These cases typically need an Italian attorney, take one to two years, and cost several thousand dollars in legal fees. The 2025 reform did not close this court route, but how the new proximity requirements interact with 1948 litigation is an open legal question. If your maternal-line claim also runs through a great-grandparent, get an Italian citizenship litigator’s read before spending on documents.
Citizenship by Marriage
If you are married to an Italian citizen, you can apply for citizenship after a waiting period tied to where you live. Couples living in Italy can apply after two years of marriage. Couples living abroad wait three years. Both timelines are cut in half if the couple has minor children or legally adopted children together.5Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. Italian Citizenship by Marriage or Civil Union The marriage must remain intact throughout the application process.
Applicants must show Italian language proficiency at the B1 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Only certificates from a short list of authorized institutions are accepted: the Università per Stranieri di Perugia (CELI), the Università per Stranieri di Siena (CILS), the Società Dante Alighieri (PLIDA), and the Università degli Studi Roma Tre (IT).6Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York. Certifications You are exempt if you hold a diploma or degree from an Italian educational institution recognized by Italy’s Ministry of Education.5Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. Italian Citizenship by Marriage or Civil Union
In March 2025, Italy’s Constitutional Court also ruled that applicants with severe language-learning impairments from medical conditions, disabilities, or advanced age must be exempted when a public health authority certifies they cannot reasonably learn the language.
Citizenship by Residency
Americans who don’t qualify by descent or marriage can naturalize through long-term legal residence in Italy. The standard requirement for non-EU citizens is ten years of continuous legal residence. That drops to four years for EU citizens and to two years for people born in Italy or whose parents or grandparents were Italian citizens by birth. Throughout the period you must maintain legal immigration status without extended absences.
Residency-based naturalization requires the same B1 Italian certificate from a recognized testing institution, with the same medical and age-based exemptions.
Unlike descent, which is recognized as a right when the legal requirements are met, naturalization by residency is discretionary. The Italian Interior Ministry weighs factors like criminal history, tax compliance, and financial self-sufficiency and can deny an application on those grounds.
Gathering the Documents
Documentation is where most applications stall. Every pathway requires certified records spanning generations and two countries. Start well before you plan to apply.
U.S. Vital Records
You need long-form certified copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates for every person in your direct line from the Italian ancestor down to you. Short-form and informational copies get rejected. Each certificate must show the registrar’s official seal and filing date. Fees run roughly $10 to $35 per document, with processing anywhere from a few days to several weeks.
Proof Your Ancestor Did Not Naturalize Too Early
For a descent claim, you must show your Italian ancestor did not become a U.S. citizen before the next person in the line was born. Check naturalization records through the USCIS Genealogy Program: Form G-1041 for an index search (averaging 191 business days) and Form G-1041A for actual record retrieval (averaging 300 business days).7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Request Status If no naturalization record exists, request a Certificate of Non-Existence using USCIS Form G-1566, which formally certifies that no immigration records were found for that person.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1566, Request for Certificate of Non-Existence These timelines are not typos. Many applicants start their USCIS requests before gathering anything else.
Italian Vital Records
Italian birth, marriage, and death records live with the vital statistics office (Ufficio di Stato Civile) in the municipality where the event occurred; there is no central registry.9U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Italy. Obtaining Vital Records Many Italian records can now be downloaded free through Italy’s national registry portal (anagrafenazionale.interno.it) for yourself and family members, which is faster than contacting each comune directly.10Consolato Generale d’Italia a Los Angeles. Vital Records Certificates Issued by the Comune in Italy Free of Charge and Online
Apostilles and Certified Translations
Every non-Italian document must be legalized with an apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961, which authenticates public documents for international use.11Hague Conference on Private International Law. Apostille Section Apostilles are issued by the Secretary of State in the state where the document originated, typically $10 to $40 each. After that, every non-Italian document needs a certified translation into Italian, generally $20 to $150 per page.
A typical descent application involves 10 to 20 documents, each needing a certified copy, an apostille, and a translation. Budget accordingly.
Where to File
You have two main options: your local Italian consulate in the United States, or a municipality in Italy.
Through a Consulate
Consulate appointments are booked through the Prenot@mi system (prenotami.esteri.it), and you must use the consulate with jurisdiction over your state of residence. Waits for jure sanguinis appointments have often stretched to multiple years, with some consulates running three to five years or longer, though availability varies. At the appointment you hand over the complete package. Missing or deficient documents can push your case back to the end of the line.
Directly at an Italian Municipality
Many Americans go to Italy to avoid the consular backlog. You must establish legal residency in the municipality where you plan to file: register with the local anagrafe (population registry), and expect a verification visit to your declared address. Once residency is confirmed, you submit to the comune’s vital statistics office. Processing from that point is generally faster than the consular route, often six to twelve months.
The catch: establishing residency requires a legal basis to be in Italy, such as an elective residency visa for non-workers or a work visa. A 90-day tourist stay does not qualify. Spending more than 183 days in a calendar year in Italy can also trigger Italian tax residency on your worldwide income.
How Long It Takes
From first document request to Italian passport in hand, the whole process commonly runs two to seven years, depending on your pathway, how fast you assemble documents, and the consulate or municipality’s workload. Applications filed inside Italy at a municipality tend to finish fastest. Marriage and residency applications run on a separate Interior Ministry track that can also take well over a year. Respond promptly to any requests for additional documentation; delays on your end can restart clocks or trigger denials.
What It Costs
- Consular application fee for descent: about $697 by check or $723 by debit card at the Washington, D.C. embassy for the first quarter of 2026, adjusted quarterly for exchange rates.12Ambasciata d’Italia a Washington. Consular Fee for Applying for Recognition of Italian Citizenship Iure Sanguinis
- U.S. vital records: $10 to $35 per certified copy.
- Apostilles: $10 to $40 per document.
- Certified translations: $20 to $150 per page.
- USCIS genealogy fees: set by USCIS on each form’s instructions page.
- Italian passport: $135.20 as of early 2026, money order only at most consulates.13Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. How Do I Apply for a Passport?
A do-it-yourself descent application spanning three generations commonly runs $2,000 to $5,000 all in. Hiring a service company or Italian attorney adds another $3,000 to $10,000 or more, especially for 1948 court cases in Rome.
What Holding Both Citizenships Actually Means
Italy has permitted dual citizenship since 1992, and the United States does not require you to renounce it. You can hold both passports, and an Italian passport gives you the right to live, work, and study anywhere in the European Union without a visa.
The tax obligations are where people get caught. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Once you have foreign bank accounts, you face two federal reporting layers even if you owe no additional tax. The FBAR: any U.S. person whose foreign accounts combined exceed $10,000 at any point in the year must file FinCEN Form 114 by April 15.14Internal Revenue Service. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) Separately, FATCA requires reporting specified foreign financial assets on Form 8938 if they exceed $50,000 at year-end for single filers in the U.S., with higher thresholds for joint filers and Americans abroad. Penalties are harsh: a $10,000 failure-to-file penalty for Form 8938, with additional penalties up to $50,000 for continued non-compliance after IRS notification.15Internal Revenue Service. Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S. Taxpayers
Italy taxes residents on worldwide income if they spend more than 183 days in the country in a tax year or maintain their principal social and family ties there. A U.S.-Italy tax treaty exists to prevent double taxation, but working through it needs professional help. If you plan to actually move to Italy, budget for a cross-border tax advisor from day one.
After Approval: Oath, AIRE, and Passport
Marriage and residency applicants take an oath of allegiance to the Italian Republic within six months of being notified of approval. Descent applicants do not take an oath, because Italy treats them as having always been citizens.
Every Italian citizen living abroad must register with the AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero), the registry of Italians living outside Italy. Registration is required within 90 days, and failing to register carries sanctions under Law 213/2023.16Consolato Generale d’Italia Miami. A.I.R.E. – Registry of Italians Residing Abroad AIRE registration is also a prerequisite for most consular services, including passport applications.
Once you’re recognized and registered, book a passport appointment through Prenot@mi. Bring two passport photos, any previous Italian passport (or other valid ID for first-time applicants), and proof of your legal status in the United States.13Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. How Do I Apply for a Passport? Dual citizens should also bring their U.S. passport and, if applicable, U.S. naturalization certificate.
Americans who filed before the 2025 reform and got grandfathered in are in the strongest position. For everyone else, the path forward requires either a close generational connection to Italy, marriage to an Italian citizen, years of legal residence in Italy, or a court case where one is available.