Italy Closes the Door on Citizenship by Descent

For generations, Italian citizenship by descent was one of the most expansive nationality regimes in the world. Under the 1912 Citizenship Law and its subsequent interpretations, any person could claim Italian citizenship provided they could prove an unbroken line of Italian nationality tracing back to an ancestor who was alive at the time of Italy's unification in 1861. No generational ceiling existed. Great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and beyond were all potentially valid starting points for a claim.

That framework has now been dismantled. In March 2025, the Italian government introduced sweeping emergency legislation that imposed a strict two-generation limit on citizenship by descent. Three months later, Parliament converted that emergency measure into permanent law. And in March 2026, Italy's Constitutional Court declined to overturn it. The door, which once appeared open in perpetuity, is effectively closed for the majority of people who believed it applied to them.

This article examines what changed, who is affected, what legal proceedings remain pending, and what structured alternatives exist for investors and internationally mobile families who had previously incorporated Italian ancestry into their global mobility planning.

What Changed: Decree-Law 36/2025 and Law 74/2025

On March 28, 2025, Italy's Council of Ministers, under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, issued Decree-Law No. 36/2025, formally titled "Disposizioni urgenti in materia di cittadinanza" (Urgent provisions on citizenship matters). Published in Italy's Official Gazette (Gazzetta Ufficiale, Series n. 73) on the same date and taking effect under Article 77 of the Italian Constitution, the decree entered into force immediately, without prior parliamentary approval.

The core change was categorical: recognition of Italian citizenship by descent would henceforth be limited to applicants with a parent or grandparent born in Italy. Claims tracing lineage through great-grandparents or earlier ancestors were eliminated for all applications filed or appointments booked after 11:59 PM Rome time on March 27, 2025.

Following parliamentary review, the decree was converted into permanent legislation. Law No. 74/2025 (Legge n. 74/2025) was published in the Official Gazette (Series n. 118) on May 23, 2025, and entered into force on May 24, 2025. The law introduced additional conditions beyond the generational cap, detailed in the comparison table below.

The law also established a reacquisition window: individuals who lost Italian citizenship under the pre-1992 "minor rule" may reacquire it by filing a declaration between July 1, 2025 and December 31, 2027, provided they were born in Italy or resided in Italy for at least two continuous years. A centralized Rome-based office for adult jure sanguinis applications is planned from 2029; consulates handle cases through 2028.

The March 2026 Constitutional Court Ruling

Following enactment of Law 74/2025, four Italian judges, including those at the Tribunal of Turin, raised constitutional challenges to the legislation, questioning its conformity with fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution and EU law. These referrals triggered hearings before Italy's Constitutional Court, with the first hearing taking place on March 11, 2026.

On March 12, 2026, the Constitutional Court issued a press communiqué stating that the constitutional questions raised by the Tribunal of Turin were "partly unfounded and partly inadmissible." The court supported the government's position that restricting jure sanguinis transmission does not violate Italy's constitutional framework. A full written judgment (sentenza) has not yet been published but is expected in the coming weeks.

The state's legal argument, which the court accepted, held that descendants who had not formally claimed citizenship by the March 27, 2025 cutoff held a "fictitious link" with Italy rather than a vested citizenship right. The court found that the legislature had a legitimate interest in managing consular workloads, preventing misuse of nationality routes, and preserving the integrity of Italian citizenship. Verdicts of the Constitutional Court cannot be appealed within the Italian judicial system.

The communiqué also addressed EU law arguments, indicating the court found no conflict between the generational cap and EU citizenship provisions. This finding will make any challenge before EU courts in Luxembourg significantly more difficult to pursue, although some legal commentators have not ruled out that avenue entirely.

Who Is Most Affected

An estimated 80 million people worldwide claim Italian descent. The largest concentrations are in Brazil (approximately 32 million), Argentina (approximately 25 million), and the United States. Substantial diaspora communities also exist in Canada, Uruguay, Venezuela, the European Union, and across the Middle East and North Africa. Italy's immigration authority has reported that some consulates were managing application backlogs of up to several decades before the reform.

Pending Legal Proceedings

The March 2026 Constitutional Court communiqué does not conclude all legal challenges to Law 74/2025. Two further proceedings are scheduled that may produce additional findings, particularly on specific provisions of the law or on questions that were not raised in the Turin referral.

Tribunal of Mantova referral (June 9, 2026): A separate constitutional challenge to Law 74/2025, filed on different grounds from those argued in Turin, is scheduled for hearing before the Constitutional Court on June 9, 2026. Different arguments may produce different outcomes on specific provisions of the law.

Italy's Supreme Court, Sezioni Unite (April 14, 2026): Italy's highest civil court will hear arguments on the longstanding "minor issue": whether an ancestor's decision to naturalize in another country while their child was still a minor severed the Italian citizenship transmission chain for all subsequent generations. This question predates Law 74/2025 and could independently affect thousands of cases by determining which ancestral chains were legally valid in the first place, regardless of the new generational cap.

A further avenue that legal commentators have identified is the EU courts in Luxembourg, though the Constitutional Court's finding of no conflict with EU citizenship provisions significantly narrows that path. Some advocacy organizations representing diaspora communities have indicated they will continue pursuing available legal channels.

The Broader Lesson for Globally Mobile Investors

The Italian reform is instructive beyond its immediate legal consequences. It illustrates a structural risk that is frequently underweighted in global mobility planning: the assumption that rights based on ancestral lineage are permanent and immune to political revision.

Italy's case demonstrates that this assumption is incorrect. A government can, through emergency legislation, eliminate a mechanism that existed in substantially the same form for over 160 years, with immediate retroactive effect and constitutional validation. The political logic behind this type of reform is broadly consistent across jurisdictions: concerns about consular backlogs, "passport tourism," and the perceived dilution of national identity create domestic pressure to restrict diaspora access to nationality. Italy is not acting in isolation. Other governments have already moved in similar directions, or are actively considering doing so.

For investors and internationally mobile families, the practical lesson is this: a mobility strategy that depends entirely on a single ancestral route in a single country, administered through a foreign consular bureaucracy, carries structural fragility. When the rule changes, the entire strategy is eliminated overnight. The applicant has no alternative, no fallback, and no timeline control.

A more resilient approach builds mobility options across multiple legal bases: residency programs grounded in the applicant's own current activities and choices; citizenship programs with defined, stable investment conditions; and diversified jurisdictional exposure not contingent on any single government's evolving policy toward its diaspora.

Strategic Alternatives for Those Affected

For investors who find the Italian descent pathway closed or uncertain, several structured alternatives can deliver comparable or superior mobility outcomes, with substantially greater predictability and without dependence on ancestral documentation chains that may prove vulnerable to future legal revision.

Residency by Investment in Europe

Several European countries operate investment-linked residency programs that provide the right to live, work, and travel within the Schengen Area, with a defined path to permanent residency and, after a qualifying period, naturalization under transparent statutory conditions. These programs include the Portugal Golden Visa, the Greece Golden Visa, the Hungary Golden Visa, and the Malta Residency and Visa Programme. Unlike ancestry routes, eligibility is based entirely on the applicant's current investment and compliance with applicable law, not on historical family decisions that may be vulnerable to legal reinterpretation.

Citizenship by Investment

Several sovereign programs offer citizenship with broad visa-free access, including to the Schengen Area and the European Union, through a qualifying investment and a thorough due diligence process. These programs operate under defined statutory conditions, with investment thresholds and processing structures set by government regulation. For investors seeking a second citizenship document through a pathway that does not depend on family history, these programs merit structured analysis. NTL acts as a government-authorized agent for Caribbean and Pacific citizenship by investment programs.

Long-Term Residency and Naturalization

In jurisdictions with defined naturalization timelines, a strategically established residency, through business, investment, employment, or professional criteria, can lead to citizenship under conditions that are entirely within the applicant's own control. This approach typically involves a longer timeline than direct citizenship programs, but delivers a path to nationality grounded in the applicant's own presence and contribution rather than ancestral lineage that carries reinterpretation risk.

The appropriate strategy depends on the investor's primary objectives: EU access, global visa-free travel, physical relocation, asset diversification, estate planning, or a combination. NTL's specialized legal team conducts structured eligibility assessments across available programs and can identify the appropriate combination for each client's profile and timeline.

Conclusion

Italy's reform of its citizenship by descent framework represents one of the most consequential changes to European nationality law in decades. The emergency decree of March 2025, its conversion into Law 74/2025, and the Constitutional Court's March 2026 ruling have collectively dismantled a system that many families worldwide had treated as an enduring entitlement. For the vast majority of people who had not filed or confirmed an appointment by March 27, 2025, the Italian ancestry pathway to an EU nationality document is now closed.

What remains is a range of structured, investable alternatives: residency programs, citizenship by investment, and defined naturalization routes that depend on the applicant's own decisions, compliance, and financial profile, rather than on a family history subject to legal reinterpretation. For investors reviewing their global mobility strategy in light of these developments, the starting point is a clear assessment of current eligibility, realistic objectives, and available options across jurisdictions. NTL's specialized team is available to conduct that assessment and identify the appropriate pathways.