Italian citizenship by birth in Italy (ius soli)
Italian law does not attach citizenship to the place of birth. A child born in Italy to foreign parents is a foreigner, and remains one unless a route under articles 4 or 9 is taken later. Birth on Italian soil gives citizenship only in the residual cases of article 1 of Law 91/1992, where no citizenship would otherwise reach the child. People who grew up with British or American rules, under which birth in the country was or is enough, are often surprised by this, and it is the source of many unfounded applications.
The cases of article 1
A child born in Italy is Italian from birth in three situations. When both parents are unknown. When both parents are stateless. When the parents are known and hold a citizenship, but the law of their country does not transmit it to a child born abroad, so that the child would otherwise be stateless. A foundling discovered in Italy whose parents cannot be traced is presumed to be born in Italy and is Italian, unless the possession of another citizenship is proved.
The third case requires proof of the foreign law. The comune, or the Ministry of the Interior through the Prefecture, asks for a certificate from the authorities of the parents’ country stating that the child did not acquire their citizenship at birth. Without that certificate the child is registered as a foreign national.
Born in Italy to foreign parents
A child born in Italy to parents who are neither Italian nor in one of the situations above follows the citizenship of the parents. Italian law offers two later routes, both explained in their own pages. Under article 4, a foreigner born in Italy who has lived there legally and without interruption until the age of eighteen acquires citizenship by a declaration made within one year of majority. Under article 9, a foreigner born in Italy can apply for naturalisation after two years of legal residence, in place of the ten years required of other foreigners.
A British couple working in Milan have a son born there in 2010. The boy is British from birth through his parents. He is not Italian, although he was born in Italy, because British law transmits citizenship to the child of British citizens born abroad. If the family stays and he lives in Italy without interruption until 2028, he can declare his wish to become Italian between his eighteenth and his nineteenth birthday, at the comune. If the family returns to the United Kingdom before then, the birth in Milan gives him nothing, and the two-year route of article 9 is open to him only if he comes back to live in Italy.
Not to be confused with birth to an Italian parent
A child born in Italy to an Italian parent is Italian by descent, under the same article 1, and not by the place of birth. The distinction matters after the 2025 reform: article 3-bis limits the position of people born abroad, and a child born in Italy to an Italian parent is outside its scope. For a family which lived in Italy for a period and had a child there before returning to the United Kingdom, the Italian birth certificate is the proof of the child’s citizenship, and the only step needed is the registration of the family in the AIRE through the consulate.
If you or your child were born in Italy and you are not sure what follows from it, send us the Italian birth certificate and the documents of the parents. The written assessment tells you whether the birth gave citizenship, and if not which route is open.