How to get Italian citizenship: all the routes

Italian citizenship is governed by Law 91 of 5 February 1992 and its implementing regulations. The law gives weight to descent, admits more than one citizenship, allows birth on Italian soil to count only in residual cases, and attaches importance to the declared will of the person, both in acquiring citizenship and in giving it up.

Since 16 August 1992, the day the law came into force, taking another citizenship no longer causes the loss of the Italian one. Italian citizenship is lost only by a formal renunciation, unless an international agreement provides otherwise. This is why so many people born to Italian parents or grandparents abroad are, in law, still Italian, even if nobody in the family ever asked for a document that says so.

Decree-law 36 of 28 March 2025, converted by Law 74 of 23 May 2025, changed the position of people born abroad who hold another citizenship. For them, the automatic acquisition of citizenship by descent, during minority or by election now depends on one of the conditions set out in the new article 3-bis of the law. Those conditions are explained in the page on citizenship by descent.

Recognition or grant

Italian law does not know a single application for citizenship. Each route below belongs to one of two families, and the difference changes the whole procedure.

Recognition applies when citizenship already exists by law. The authority verifies the facts and confirms a status that was there from birth. There is no discretion, no oath and no language test. This is the case of citizenship by descent, of women who took a foreign citizenship by marriage after 1948, and of the special laws for the former Italian territories.

Grant, or acquisition, applies when citizenship did not exist before. Marriage and residence lead to a decree, issued after an assessment, followed by an oath. Without the oath the status is not acquired. Minor children of Italian citizens and former citizens who wish to reacquire the status follow a third pattern, the declaration, which produces its effect by operation of law once the conditions are met.

The routes

The list follows the structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page on citizenship, so that every case finds its place. Each entry opens a page with the requirements, the documents, the procedure, the fees and the questions people ask most.