Italian citizenship: questions and answers
These are the questions we are asked most often by families in the United Kingdom, with the answers as the law stands at the date of the last review. Each answer is short, and the page it points to is where the detail is. The answers describe the rules in general terms, and a written assessment of your own line may differ from them.
I have an Italian passport. Am I Italian?
You are Italian if the citizenship behind the passport exists and is recorded in Italy. The passport is a travel document, and the consulates renew it only for a person whose birth is transcribed in a comune and who is registered in the AIRE. A passport issued years ago on a parent’s file, with no transcription of your own birth, does not prove the status, and the renewal is refused until the record is made.
My grandfather was Italian. Can I still be recognised after the reform of 2025?
Only if one of the conditions of article 3-bis applies: an application lodged, an appointment communicated or a court claim filed by 27 March 2025, or a parent or grandparent who held exclusively Italian citizenship at your birth, or a parent who lived in Italy for two years as a citizen before your birth. A grandfather who never became British, and was alive and only Italian when you were born, opens the route. A grandfather who became British before your birth does not, unless he was only Italian when your parent was born and the file runs through that parent.
My great-grandfather was Italian. Is there any route?
Not by descent, unless an application or claim was lodged by 27 March 2025. The routes left are naturalisation after two years of legal residence in Italy, as the grandchild of an Italian citizen by birth, which requires a visa and the B1 certificate, and for the minor children of a parent who is recognised, the declaration of article 4.
My father became British when I was a child. Did I lose Italian citizenship?
If you were born in Britain before 1 January 1983 you were British by birth and Italian through your father, and the United Sections of the Court of Cassation held in July 2026 that you kept the Italian citizenship when he naturalised. If you were born in Italy and became British only through his naturalisation, you lost it with him under the law of 1912, and the route is reacquisition if you were born in Italy, or residence.
My mother was Italian and married my British father in the 1950s. What is my position?
She did not lose Italian citizenship by the marriage, because it took place after 1 January 1948. What matters is whether she became British automatically, which happened for marriages until 31 December 1948, or by her own registration, which the consulate may treat as a voluntary acquisition with the loss of the Italian citizenship on that date. You are Italian through her if she was still Italian when you were born, and the declaration of uninterrupted possession records her position first.
My grandmother married before 1948. Is the line closed?
For the consulates, yes: she lost Italian citizenship by the marriage, and her children born before 1948 are not recognised administratively. The courts have recognised the descendants of such women since 2009, and a claim filed today is subject to the conditions of article 3-bis. We do not act in court, and we say in the assessment whether a line of this kind falls within the conditions a court would apply.
My child was born in London. Is she Italian?
She is Italian from birth if you, or her other parent, or one of her grandparents, held exclusively Italian citizenship when she was born, or if an Italian parent lived in Italy for two years as a citizen before the birth, or if she holds no other citizenship. Otherwise she is not Italian automatically, and you can make the declaration of article 4 within three years of her birth, or until 31 May 2029 if she was a minor on 24 May 2025 and you were recognised before 27 March 2025. The registration of the birth through the consulate is the first step in every case.
Is there a fee for registering my child?
The registration of a birth carries no consular fee. The declaration for a minor child under article 4 has been exempt from the contribution of 250 euro since 1 January 2026. The certificates, the apostilles and the translations are the only costs.
I am married to an Italian. When can I apply?
After two years of marriage if you live in Italy, three if you live abroad, halved if you have children. The marriage must be transcribed in Italy first, you need Italian at level B1, the criminal record certificates and the contribution of 250 euro, and the application is lodged online with the Ministry of the Interior through the consulate of your district. The decision takes up to twenty-four months, extendable to thirty-six, and the citizenship is acquired the day after the oath.
Can I move to Italy and be naturalised in two years?
Yes, if a parent or grandparent of yours was an Italian citizen by birth, or if you were born in Italy. The two years are years of legal residence, registered in the anagrafe with a valid residence permit, and a British citizen needs a visa to obtain the permit. The application requires the B1 certificate and an income above the thresholds the Ministry applies. For everybody else the period is ten years.
I was born in Italy and became British in the 1970s. Can I be Italian again?
Yes, by a declaration at the consulate between 1 July 2025 and 31 December 2027, under the window reopened by the reform, without moving to Italy and without any language test. Your children born before the declaration do not become Italian through it, and their position is examined separately.
Does the referral to the Court of Justice suspend the reform?
No. The Constitutional Court suspended the two cases before it, not the law. Article 3-bis applies in the consulates, in the comuni and in the courts until the Court of Justice decides, and no date for that decision is known.
My application was refused because of the minor issue. What now?
If it was lodged by 27 March 2025, ask for the re-examination which the Ministry of the Interior opened with circular 65050 of 10 August 2026, after the judgment of the United Sections: the refusal was based on a reading the Court has overturned. If nothing was lodged by that date, the line is intact but the file is examined under the conditions of article 3-bis.
How long does recognition take at the London consulate?
There is no fixed term. The appointment is the first wait, and since February 2026 each consulate accepts a limited number of applications a year. After the appointment the consulate checks the file, asks the comune and the Ministry of the Interior for confirmations, and transcribes the birth. From 1 January 2029 the applications of adults will be lodged by post with a central office in Rome, with a decision within thirty-six months.
Do I need a lawyer?
Not for recognition, for the declaration for a child, for an application by marriage or by residence, or for reacquisition: these are administrative procedures, and we prepare and follow them. You need a lawyer in Italy for a claim before a court, which is the case of the maternal lines before 1948 and of the refusals which are not withdrawn, and we do not act in court.
What do you need from me for an assessment?
The family line with the names, the dates and the places as you know them, whatever documents the family holds, Italian or British, and your own circumstances: where you live, whether you are married, whether you have children. From that we tell you in writing whether a route is open, which one, which documents it requires and what they cost.
Will Italian citizenship affect my taxes in Britain?
Citizenship does not decide tax residence, which depends on where you live and on the Convention between Italy and the United Kingdom. An Italian citizen resident in Britain and registered in the AIRE is not taxed in Italy on that account. The AIRE registration is an obligation which follows from the citizenship, and we explain its consequences before you register.
Can I keep my British citizenship?
Yes. Neither Italy nor the United Kingdom requires a person to give up another citizenship, and dual citizenship is the normal position of the families we work with.
If your question is not here, send it to us. The written assessment answers it for your own family, with the documents it would require.