Italy restricts citizenship by descent for claims filed after March 28

Italy once recognized citizenship through an unlimited ancestral line, but claims filed from March 28, 2025, face stricter generational and connection requirements upheld by the Constitutional Court on April 30, 2026.

The March 2025 cutoff divides applicants

Decree-Law 36/2025, converted into Law 74/2025, added Article 3-bis to Italy’s citizenship law. It restricts recognition for people born abroad who hold another nationality, particularly descendants whose families have lived outside Italy for generations.

Claims filed before March 28, 2025, continue under the previous framework, which had no generational cap or residency requirement. Later applicants may need to show that the relevant ancestor held only Italian citizenship or maintained a genuine connection to Italy through residency and other qualifying conditions.

The practical dividing line is the filing date. Post-cutoff applicants can’t rely solely on a distant Italian ancestor and must document how their claim fits one of the narrower routes before pursuing recognition alongside any plans for moving to Italy.

Italy’s Constitutional Court upheld the restrictions

Judgment No. 63/2026 rejected the main constitutional challenges to the revised law. The court accepted that Italy may restrict citizenship recognition for descendants born abroad with another nationality, subject to the law’s exceptions.

That ruling followed Judgment No. 142/2025, which addressed the older system. In that case, the court found unlimited citizenship by descent constitutional but said setting limits was a matter for lawmakers. It confirmed the later restrictions didn’t apply retroactively to proceedings pending before the cutoff.

No EU court case has started

Italy’s Constitutional Court did not refer the reform to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Reports suggesting the dispute has already moved to the EU court are inaccurate.

The April ruling instead left ordinary Italian courts free to request a preliminary decision from the EU court under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. A lower court could take that step if it finds the restrictions may improperly affect EU citizenship or free-movement rights.

For now, no official EU court proceeding challenges Italy’s revised citizenship-by-descent rules. The national restrictions remain in force.