Italian Citizenship by Descent (Jure Sanguinis): 2025 Guide

For millions of descendants of Italian emigrants, jure sanguinis—citizenship by bloodline—has long been a path back to Italy and, with it, the European Union. In 2025 that path narrowed significantly. This hub explains, in plain terms, what changed, who still qualifies, and what an application involves. It is an orientation, not legal advice; the rules are recent, contested, and still evolving, so verify your own situation against official sources.

What changed in 2025

On 28 March 2025 the Italian government issued Decree-Law No. 36/2025 (the “Tajani Decree”), which Parliament converted into Law No. 74/2025, in force from 24 May 2025. For the first time, it imposed a generational limit on automatic citizenship by descent. Where descent was previously unlimited—reaching back to any Italian ancestor alive on or after Italian unification (17 March 1861), provided the chain was unbroken—recognition is now generally limited to people with an Italian-born parent or grandparent.

• Generally still eligible: those born abroad with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy, where the unbroken line can be documented.
• Generally no longer automatically eligible: those whose nearest Italian-born ancestor is a great-grandparent or further back, unless a statutory exception or transitional protection applies.
• Transitional protection: applications formally filed, or consular appointments confirmed, before 11:59 PM Rome time on 27 March 2025 are assessed under the prior (unlimited) rules.

The pieces that make applications complex

Even for those who still qualify, a few issues frequently complicate a claim, and they are the reason many applicants seek professional help:

• The 1948 rule — before 1 January 1948, Italian women could not transmit citizenship to their children. Claims through a maternal line crossing that date have historically required a court petition in Italy rather than a consular application.
• The “minor issue” — questions about whether an ancestor’s naturalisation abroad while a child in the line was still a minor breaks the chain.
• Naturalisation timing — the Italian-born ancestor must not have naturalised as a citizen of another country before the birth of the next person in the line.
• The document chain — consistent birth, marriage and death records for every generation, properly certified, apostilled and translated.

If you no longer qualify by descent

The 2025 reform left an alternative for some: those with an Italian parent or grandparent who fall outside the new automatic-recognition rules may, in certain cases, pursue naturalisation by residence on an accelerated two-year track rather than the standard ten years. Whether this fits depends entirely on your circumstances—another reason to get tailored advice.

The work that makes a claim possible

Whatever path applies, every jure sanguinis claim rests on the same foundation: a complete, consistent, certified chain of vital records proving the line from your Italian-born ancestor to you. That is exactly the work this site is built to support—identifying the ancestor, finding the records in Antenati and the comune archives, and assembling a documentation set that will survive review.