Italian citizenship for minor children

Not every child of an Italian citizen is Italian from the moment of birth. Law 91/1992 provides for four events which give a minor Italian citizenship after birth: the recognition of the child by an Italian parent, a court judgment establishing the parentage, an adoption by an Italian citizen, and the acquisition of Italian citizenship by the parent the child lives with. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs groups them under one heading, and so do we. Since 28 March 2025 each of them is read together with article 3-bis, which applies to any child born abroad who holds another citizenship.

Recognition or judicial declaration of parentage

Article 2 of the law provides that the recognition of a child, or a court judgment declaring the parentage, during the minority of the child determines the child’s citizenship according to the rules of the law. In plain terms, once the parentage is established the child is treated as the child of an Italian citizen, and citizenship follows by descent as if the parent had been named at birth.

The situation arises more often than one would expect in the United Kingdom. The parents are not married. The British birth certificate names the mother only, or names a man who is not the Italian parent. Years later the Italian father acknowledges the child, or a court establishes paternity. For Italian law the relevant act is the recognition, and the date of the recognition is the date from which the time limits run.

The Consulate General in London accepts a British birth certificate as proof of parentage from unmarried parents only when both parents appear on it as informants. When one parent only is named, the other must recognise the child through a formal declaration of acknowledgment, which the consulate’s notary office receives. A re-registration of the birth at the General Register Office which adds the father produces a new certificate, and a declaration of parentage by a British court produces a judgment. Both are used in Italy, after legalisation and translation, through the transcription procedure of Law 218/1995.

Adoption

A foreign minor adopted by an Italian citizen acquires Italian citizenship under article 3. The effect follows from the Italian measure which gives effect to the adoption. For an adoption pronounced in Italy, this is the judgment of the juvenile court. For an adoption pronounced abroad, it is the order of the juvenile court, the Tribunale per i minorenni, which declares the foreign adoption effective in Italy and orders its transcription in the civil register under Law 184/1983. Until that order exists the consulate cannot register the child as Italian.

A person adopted as an adult does not acquire citizenship by the adoption. The adult adoptee can apply for naturalisation after five years of legal residence in Italy following the adoption, under article 9.

A family in England in which one parent is an Italian citizen by birth and adopts a child through an adoption order of the Family Court should expect the consulate to ask for the recognition order of the Italian juvenile court before anything else. That order is obtained in Italy through a lawyer. We prepare the translations and the legalisation of the British order and of the supporting documents for that step, and we follow the registration once the order is issued.

Children of a parent who becomes Italian

Article 14 provides that the minor children of a person who acquires or reacquires Italian citizenship acquire it too, if they live with that parent. The 2025 reform added a condition. The child acquires citizenship only if, at the moment the parent acquires it, the child has been legally resident in Italy for at least two continuous years, or since birth where the child is younger than two.

The consequence for families in the United Kingdom is direct. A British spouse who becomes Italian by marriage while living in London does not pass citizenship to the children who live with them in London. The same applies to a parent naturalised by residence in Italy whose children remained abroad. Those children have no route to Italian citizenship while they are minors. The declaration of article 4 is not open to them, since it requires a parent who is Italian by birth, and article 14 now requires residence in Italy. Once adults, the ordinary rules on naturalisation by residence apply.

The 2025 conditions

Article 3-bis, introduced by decree-law 36/2025 and converted with amendments by Law 74/2025, provides that a person born abroad who holds another citizenship is considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship, unless one of the conditions it lists applies. The article derogates expressly from articles 1, 2, 3 and 14, so it reaches every situation on this page. The conditions are set out in the page on citizenship by descent: a parent or grandparent who held exclusively Italian citizenship when the child was born, or who had died before the birth holding only Italian citizenship, or a parent who lived in Italy for two continuous years as an Italian citizen before the child’s birth or adoption.

Where neither condition is met, a child born in the United Kingdom to a parent who is Italian by birth is not Italian automatically. The parents can still make the declaration provided by article 4, paragraph 1-bis. For a child whose parentage has just been established, or who has just been adopted, the term of three years runs from the date of the recognition, of the judgment or of the adoption, not from the birth. The declaration is explained in the page on citizenship by operation of law.

Documents and procedure in the United Kingdom

The registration of a birth, with or without a declaration, goes through the consulate of the district where the Italian parent lives: the Consulate General in London for southern England, Wales, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, the Consulate in Manchester for central and northern England and the Isle of Man, the Consulate General in Edinburgh for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Italian parent must be registered in the AIRE at the current address before the file is sent.

The Consulate General in London deals with births by post only. The file is sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery to the Citizenship Office, Births Section, with a second prepaid Special Delivery envelope for the return of the documents. There is no appointment for a registration. The declaration of article 4 is different: the documents are sent in advance by email, the consulate checks them and allocates an appointment, and both parents attend in person.

• Long-form British birth certificate of the child, with both parents named as informants where they are not married, legalised with a paper apostille from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The London consulate does not accept electronic apostilles.
• Official translation of the certificate into Italian, with dates in day, month and year order.
• Passports of both parents, and of the child where one exists.
• Proof of the Italian parent’s citizenship: the recognition issued by a consulate or a comune, or the Italian birth certificate of a parent born in Italy.
• Where the parents are married, the marriage must already be transcribed in Italy, or its transcription must be requested with the birth. A divorce must also be registered.
• For an adoption, the British adoption order and the Italian recognition order, legalised and translated. For a recognition, the deed of acknowledgment or the judgment, legalised and translated.

Names and dates must coincide across the certificates. The forenames written on the British certificate are the ones the comune will transcribe. A parent whose Italian record shows a spelling of the surname different from the British certificate should correct one of the two records before the file is sent, because the consulate suspends the procedure when the two differ.

There is no consular fee for registering a birth. The declaration of article 4 has been free of the 250 euro contribution since 1 January 2026, under the Budget Law for 2026. The consulate processes files in order of receipt, and the time until the comune confirms the transcription varies from a few weeks to several months. A first passport for the child can be requested only after the consulate has transmitted the birth record to the comune.

After the registration

Once the comune has transcribed the birth, the child is registered in the AIRE with the parent and the consulate can issue the child’s passport. A child registered through the declaration of article 4 is Italian from the day after the declaration, not from birth. For a child who is Italian from birth, the transcription confirms a status which already existed.

If you are not sure whether your child is Italian from birth or needs the declaration, send us the birth certificate, the documents of the Italian parent and the dates. The written assessment tells you which procedure applies, which consulate is competent and what the file must contain.