Applying in Italy as a resident
A descendant who settles in Italy applies for recognition not to a consulate but to the comune in which he lives, before the mayor as civil status officer, under the same circular of 1991 which governs the consulates. The route avoids the queues of the consulates in the countries of emigration and the limits of the law of 2026, and it is often quicker, at the price of living in Italy for the whole of the examination under rules which the Ministry of the Interior tightened in 2024 against the residences of convenience.
The residence
The competence of the comune rests on the residence, which Italian law defines as the place of habitual abode, and the comune registers in its population register a foreign applicant who proves that he lives there. A visitor exempt from the visa, as a citizen of the United States, of Brazil, of Argentina or of the United Kingdom, enters for ninety days in any period of one hundred and eighty and declares his presence to the Questura within eight days of the entry, unless he lodges in a hotel which declares it for him. The circular of 2007 of the Ministry of the Interior allowed the comuni to register the applicant on the receipt of that declaration. The circular of September 2024 asks them instead for the receipt of the application for the residence permit pending citizenship, provided for by the regulation of 1999, and asks them to verify that the applicant lives at the declared address and remains in the country, with checks repeated during the procedure. An applicant who is found not to live at the address is struck from the register and the application cannot proceed.
The permit pending citizenship
The residence permit pending citizenship covers the applicant for the time of the examination and is requested from the Questura of the province with the proof of the application, or of the intention to apply, and of the accommodation. It allows the stay beyond the ninety days of the visitor and it is renewed until the decision. Its timing is the delicate point of the route: the permit must be requested before the ninety days expire, the comune asks for its receipt before it registers the residence, and the application for recognition is lodged once the residence is registered. The sequence has to be prepared before the departure, with the accommodation, the documents of the file and the dates in hand, because a visitor who reaches the ninetieth day without a permit application is in the country unlawfully and the comune will not register him.
The application at the comune
The file is the same as at a consulate: the certificates of the line, legalised and translated, the proof that the ancestor did not naturalise, the applicant’s own documents, and the proof of residence in the comune. The conditions of article 3-bis apply in the same terms. The comune may ask a contribution of up to six hundred euro, which the Budget Law for 2025 allowed it to fix and which it keeps if the application is refused, and the practice differs from one comune to another. The comune verifies the chain of the documents, asks the comune of the ancestor and the consulates of the countries where the family lived for the confirmations it needs, and transcribes the certificates and registers the citizen when the examination is positive. No statutory term binds the comune, and the time depends on the office, on the countries it must write to and on the completeness of the file. The thirty-six months of the law of 2026 concern the consulates and the central office, not the comuni.
A couple from Porto Alegre, both grandchildren of Italians who never naturalised, rent a flat in a small comune in Veneto from January 2027, declare their presence at the Questura within eight days, apply for the permit pending citizenship in the first weeks with the lease and the file, obtain its receipt, register the residence at the comune, which verifies the address, and lodge the two applications with the contribution the comune has fixed. They live in the comune during the examination and are recognised in the following year, after which the comune registers them and the consulate in Porto Alegre has nothing to do with the file. Had they arrived with an incomplete file, the ninety days would have passed before the permit could be requested.
If you are considering the route through a comune, send us the family line, the documents you hold and the comune you have in mind. We prepare the whole file before you leave, so that the permit, the registration and the application follow one another within the ninety days, and we tell you what the comune will ask for.