How to obtain an Italian passport
The Italian passport is issued abroad by the consulate of the district of residence, under Law 1185 of 1967, to an Italian citizen whose position in the registers of the State is in order. Most of the difficulty which surrounds it comes from the second half of that sentence. The citizenship must exist and must have been recognised, the birth must be transcribed in an Italian comune, the residence abroad must be recorded in the AIRE, and only then does the application become the formality which it is for everyone else: an appointment, a form, a photograph and a fee, with the passport handed over on the day. This guide follows the order in which the offices themselves proceed.
The one condition
A passport is issued only to a citizen whose birth is transcribed in a comune and whose residence is recorded in the AIRE.
Who is a citizen
Born to an Italian parent, recognised by descent, naturalised, or Italian by declaration: how the status is established before the passport.
The registers
The transcription of the birth and of the marriage, the AIRE, the codice fiscale, and the national population register which the consulates consult.
Applying in the United Kingdom
The appointment, the documents, the fee, the passport issued on the day, the children, the honorary consulates and the urgencies.
When the passport is refused
The four situations behind a refusal and the order in which the record is repaired.
The identity card as an alternative
The electronic card for travel in Europe and for the online services of the State.
The first step
What to send so that the position is verified before you book.
The one condition
A consulate issues a passport to a person who appears in the national population register, the ANPR, as an Italian citizen registered in the AIRE of its district, with the birth, or the decree or judgment which conferred the citizenship, recorded in an Italian comune. The rule admits no exception and no discretion. A person who is Italian by birth but whose British birth certificate was never sent to Italy is not in the register and is not served. A person recognised years ago whose transcription was never completed is in the same position. A person who moved from Manchester to London without updating the AIRE is refused in London until the record follows. The consulates in the United Kingdom have applied the rule without exception since 2016, and the national register, in operation since 2022, has made it visible: the officer at the counter sees the record or does not, and the passport follows the record.
Who is a citizen
The child of an Italian citizen is Italian from birth, under article 1 of Law 91/1992, within the limits which article 3-bis has placed since 28 March 2025 on those born abroad with another citizenship. The status is recognised, not granted, by the consulate or by a comune, after the examination of the certificates of the line, and until it is recognised nothing follows from it. The spouse of a citizen and the foreigner who has lived in Italy for the years the law requires acquire the citizenship by decree, with effect from the oath. The minor child of a recognised citizen acquires it by the declaration of the parents. In every case the passport comes last, and the guide to Italian citizenship sets out the routes and the conditions, while the page on citizenship by descent explains who still qualifies after the reform.
A British citizen who asks for an Italian passport on the strength of an Italian grandparent is therefore asking, in the language of the offices, for the recognition of a citizenship, and the application is a file of certificates, apostilles and translations lodged at an appointment with the consulate, not a passport application. The consulate recognises the citizenship, transcribes the birth and the marriage in the comune of the ancestor, registers the person in the AIRE, and the passport is requested on that basis, in a second appointment, with the ordinary documents.
The registers
Two registers decide every consular service. The civil status registers of the comune hold the birth, the marriage, the civil partnership, the divorce and the death of the citizen, and an event which occurred abroad exists for Italy only once it is transcribed there, through the consulate, with the foreign certificate legalised and translated. The AIRE, kept by the comune and consulted through the national register, holds the residence abroad, and the registration is an obligation for every citizen who lives abroad for more than twelve months, made through the FAST IT portal within ninety days of the move. The codice fiscale, attributed by the Agenzia delle Entrate and requested through the consulate by a person born abroad, is the key under which the registers identify the citizen, and a comune cannot align a record without it. The pages on registering a birth, on marriages and divorces and on the AIRE, the SPID and the codice fiscale describe each of them.
Applying in the United Kingdom
An adult registered in the AIRE of the London district books an appointment through the Prenot@mi portal and attends with the printed form, one photograph to the international standard, the previous passport or, for a first passport, another identity document, and a British debit card, the only means of payment the consulate accepts. The fee follows the consular tariff, adjusted each quarter to the exchange rate. The officer takes the fingerprints and the signature and, barring a technical failure, issues the passport at the end of the appointment. A child under twelve gives no fingerprints and obtains the passport by post, on a form signed by both parents, with the photograph certified, the signature of a parent who is not a citizen of the European Union authenticated, the fee paid by bank transfer and two prepaid envelopes, in about ten weeks. From twelve the child attends with the parents. A resident far from London applies through the honorary consulates in Bedford, Bristol, Cardiff, Peterborough and Watford, and the passport follows from London in about twelve weeks. A proven urgency of health, of family or of work, documented by an institution or an employer, allows an appointment outside the ordinary agenda, with an additional fee, and the passport issued on the day. A citizen in the district of Manchester or of Edinburgh follows the practice of that consulate, which differs in the details. The page on passport renewal and the first passport for children lists the documents, and the page on the emergency travel document covers the visitor who has lost a passport abroad.
A man born in Croydon in 1990 to an Italian father, registered in the AIRE as a child, whose passport expired in 2023. His birth was transcribed in his father’s comune in 1991 and his AIRE record moved with him to the London district. He books through Prenot@mi, attends with the form, the photograph, the expired passport and a debit card, and leaves with the new passport. His sister, born in 1988, was never transcribed: her file begins with the registration of her birth by post, with the long-form certificate, the paper apostille and the translation, continues with the AIRE registration once the comune confirms, and ends with the same appointment, some months later.
When the passport is refused
A refusal to issue or to renew a passport is almost always a missing record, and the four situations behind it are the same in every district. A person born in Britain to Italian parents whose birth was never transcribed, who obtained a passport as a child on the parent’s file. A person recognised by descent years ago whose transcription was never completed. A person cancelled from the registers as untraceable after a move never declared. And a person registered with a discrepancy between the Italian record and the British passport, in a name, a date or a place. Each is repaired in a fixed order, because each office acts only on the previous record: the comune is established, the birth is transcribed, the AIRE registration is made through FAST IT, the codice fiscale is obtained where it is missing, and the passport is requested when the person appears in the national register. The page on refused passports explains each situation and what the file to the comune must contain, and the page on names explains why the Italian passport carries the name of the birth record and not the married or the changed name.
The identity card as an alternative
The electronic identity card, issued by the consulate to citizens registered in its AIRE and, since June 2026, by any Italian comune, serves for travel within the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the countries which accept it by agreement, and gives access to the online services of the Italian State through the CieID application. It does not replace the passport for the United Kingdom, where a citizen without status under the EU Settlement Scheme enters with a passport and the electronic travel authorisation, and it is issued under the same condition as the passport, a record in order. The page on the electronic identity card sets out the appointment, the delivery by post and the validity.
The first step
If you need a passport and are not sure that your citizenship has been recognised or that your record in Italy is in order, send us your previous passport if you held one, your birth certificate, your address and the comune of your family. We verify the position before you book, tell you which of the situations above is yours, and prepare the file for the comune where a record is missing. Where no citizenship has yet been recognised, the written opinion says which route is open and what it requires.
This guide is reviewed with the practice of the Consulate General in London and the rules of Law 1185/1967. The pages it refers to carry the documents, the fees of the State and the examples.