The legal landscape surrounding Italian citizenship by descent has changed significantly in the past month. The recently enacted Italian legal decree (36/2025, dated March 28, 2025, also known as the “Tajani Decree” after the government minister who advocated for the new rules) introduced substantial amendments to the existing legal framework governing the transmission of Italian citizenship by descent.
Under the new provisions, only individuals who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy are eligible to be recognized as Italian citizens. Therefore, if your qualifying Italian ancestor was further back than a grandparent born in Italy, you no longer qualify for Italian citizenship by descent.
Additionally, the decree includes new procedures (still to be specified with a separate law) for citizenship recognition, whereby residents abroad will no longer contact consulates to file their citizenship application, but instead will go to a special centralized office at the Italian foreign ministry. A transitional period of about one year will be allowed for the organization of the office. This decree is a form of emergency bill proposed by the government, entering immediately into force (on March 28, 2025), but it remains provisional and subject to the final approval of the Italian parliament. This means that the parliament has a 60-day window from the date of enactment to approve and convert the decree into a definitive law. During this time, even if the decree is immediately applicable, amendments, modifications or a complete repeal of the decree remain possible.
Who’s safe
Individuals who are already officially recognized as Italian citizens retain their citizenship status. Furthermore, applications filed before March 28, 2025, at Italian consulates, Italian municipalities or through the Italian court system will be processed under the old rules. Additionally, people with a parent or grandparent born in Italy can still reclaim their citizenship.
Who’s impacted
People who rely on their Italian great-grandparents or further back to recover their Italian citizenship, at the moment, no longer qualify. In other words, this decree retroactively sets up a “two generations” limit to the ability of recovering Italian citizenship.
Q: I was born abroad, but my grandparents were born in Italy and never lost their Italian citizenship. If I recover my Italian citizenship, under these new rules, can I then pass the citizenship to my children born abroad?
A: With these new rules, probably not. Even if applicants later regain Italian citizenship, they cannot transmit their Italian citizenship to their children born abroad because the “new” citizens (meaning those who successfully petitioned to obtain their Italian citizenship) were not born in Italy.
Q: Are the new rules constitutional? Is it fair to be deprived of the birthright status to Italian citizenship that was conferred at the time of birth?
A: My legal opinion is that this new decree is very controversial and several aspects could be challenged as unconstitutional. Here’s why. For over a century, Italian citizenship was a status acquired at birth from Italian parents, with no further “registration” or action. Italian citizenship was obtained automatically via an uninterrupted line of Italian blood. Unified Sections of the Supreme Court, on August 24, 2022, in two important decisions n. 25317–25318, clarified that citizenship acquired via iure sanguinis is effective from birth and requires no formal recognition to exist. Anyone born before March 28, 2025, faced no limits in terms of generational descent to prove their Italian citizenship, and were Italian just because he/she was born to Italian parents. On March 28, a new condition related to the two-generation limit was added retroactively. After that date, with a “guillotine effect”, they retroactively and suddenly lost their Italian citizenship, as though they were never born Italian, thereby effecting a “mass denationalization”.
Italian Supreme Court jurisprudence: citizenship is permanent and imprescriptible
The Unified Sections of the Supreme Court (starting from the decision on February 25, 2009, n. 4466) have consistently ruled that citizenship is a permanent and imprescriptible (i.e. something that cannot be lost for inactivity) status and that Italian citizenship is not subject to expiration or revocation due to inaction. Therefore, the retroactive loss of such a constitutional status based on a rule that did not exist at the time of birth is legally inconceivable. The new rules should only determine the status of people born after March 28, 2025, but they should not cancel or negatively affect a status that was acquired since the date of birth.
Additionally, the European Court of Justice in a recent case (ruling on September 5, 2023, case C-689/21) involving a Danish law that determined the loss of its citizenship for lack of connection with the country emphasized that individuals must have the opportunity to present their case before any deprivation of citizenship can occur, which the Tajani Decree fails to ensure. The lack of opportunity to preserve citizenship status creates a “surprise effect”, leaving individuals vulnerable to an arbitrary loss of legal rights. Consequently, the new provision deprives many people of their Italian citizenship without warning or due process.
In other words, even assuming the possibility of adding new conditions to prove a real connection between Italy and its citizens, people who were born under the old rules should have the time to actively “do something” to preserve their Italian citizenship status.
Since the 1970s, Italian constitutional jurisprudence has firmly rejected the idea of automatic loss of citizenship, deeming it incompatible with fundamental rights. Italian law, as interpreted by the Constitutional Court and other higher courts, does not permit the loss of citizenship through automatic mechanisms or external factors. Any change in an individual’s citizenship status must respect their freedom to decide, reaffirming the importance of personal autonomy in matters of nationality.
The new Citizenship by Descent rules enacted with the decree fundamentally shift Italian citizenship law, enforcing a retroactive principle that will determine a mass deprivation of citizenship. The decree raises serious legal concerns. Significant legal challenges are foreseeable, coming from people who understandably claim they are being unconstitutionally deprived of their Italian citizenship.
Why are these new rules now?
The motivation behind these new rules lies in a real and growing concern. Italian institutions, from consulates to municipal offices and courts, are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of citizenship requests. Moreover, data suggests that many individuals recognized as Italian citizens abroad do not relocate to Italy, raising questions about the true benefit of these recognitions for the country. However, the path forward should not be based on restrictions or retroactive penalties, but rather on policies that encourage a meaningful and lasting connection with Italy. For instance, linking the reacquisition of Italian citizenship to establishing physical residency in Italy within a reasonable timeframe could help ensure that only people seriously interested in bringing their life, family and business to Italy can reaffirm their status.
As we await further developments, we invite all readers to stay tuned for more updates. By the end of May, the Italian parliament will be required to confirm, amend or possibly cancel the new decree. Until then, uncertainty remains.
