Ancestry vs residency: How are Italy's citizenship rules changing?
Last Tuesday, Italy approved the final version of a new law tightening the rules on applying for Italian citizenship through ancestry.
PM Giorgia Meloni's government took the unusual step of forcing the measure through by an urgent decree - usually reserved for dealing with natural disasters and public health emergencies - on March 28th.
The sudden law change made millions of people of Italian descent ineligible for citizenship overnight, leaving a large number of would-be applicants "angry" and "heartbroken".
The emergency decree was ratified by parliament on Tuesday, May 20th, but underwent some key last-minute amendments right before its final approval.
Meanwhile, a public referendum proposing to relax the requirements for citizenship by residency is due to take place on June 8th and 9th.
It might seem contradictory for Italy to be holding a vote on easing naturalisation rules just a few weeks after tightening restrictions on citizenship by ancestry – but the timing is coincidental.
The upcoming referendum wasn't proposed by Italy's hard-right coalition government - which is calling on voters to boycott the vote - but by left-wing opposition parties after they managed to secure over 600,000 signatures in favour the proposed reform.
The proposal is seen as unlikely to pass, mainly because it requires a voter turnout of over 50 percent to be valid – a threshold that's rarely reached in Italian referendums.
If the quorum is reached, however, the latest polls indicate that the coalition backing the reform may have the numbers to secure a win.
Here's a breakdown of the final and proposed reforms.
Citizenship by descent clampdown
Under the final version of the new law, children born outside of Italy must have a parent or grandparent who 'holds, or held at the time of death, exclusively Italian citizenship' to be eligible for citizenship.
This means that parents and grandparents with dual citizenship cannot pass Italian citizenship on to children or grandchildren born abroad, unless they renounce their other, non-Italian citizenship.
However, there are some exceptions to the "exclusive" requirement.
A parent or adoptive parent who 'has been a resident in Italy for at least two consecutive years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the date of the child's birth or adoption" can pass citizenship to their foreign-born child, even when holding dual nationality.
A second exception is aimed at people who gained citizenship by descent under the old, more lenient rules (i.e., rules that merely required applicants to have an Italian ancestor who was alive on or after March 17th, 1861).
Those who acquired Italian citizenship by descent under the previous rules, including dual nationals, will be able to pass on citizenship to foreign-born children under the age of 18 by submitting a request by May 31st, 2026.
The decree didn't provide any further details as to how this request should be submitted, or to whom.
The new law does make things easier for one group of people: former Italians who had to give up their Italian citizenship after naturalising as a citizen of another country before Italy introduced dual citizenship in 1992.
Under the new rules, people in this position can reacquire their Italian citizenship "provided that they apply between July 1st, 2025, and December 31st, 2027, and pay a contribution to the Italian state of 250 euros, to be paid to the offices of the Italian consulates of the country where they are resident."
The decree did not provide any further details about how this request should be submitted.
Citizenship by residency referendum
On June 8th and 9th, Italians will be asked to vote in a referendum on whether to ease the rules on applying for residency-based Italian citizenship by halving the current wait time of 10 years of legal residency down to five.
The vote requires a turnout of over 50 percent to be valid; if this quorum, or threshold, isn't met, the referendum won't count, regardless of the result.
Deputy PM Matteo Salvini, leader of the hard-right anti-immigrant League party, has called the proposal "dangerous", saying it would "give citizenship away".
But opposition leaders have said that, since Italy's rules on naturalisation are among the toughest in Europe, the reform still wouldn't make the process particularly lax.
Applicants would still be required to demonstrate that they pay taxes, have no criminal record and speak Italian, argued Riccardo Magi, leader of the centre-left +Europa party.
As well as making life easier for many of The Local's readers who have moved to Italy as adults, easing residency requirements would also benefit people born in Italy to non-Italian parents, who can currently only apply for citizenship at the age of 18 on condition of having legally lived there "without interruption".
If they don't apply before turning 19, they must demonstrate three years of legal residency, meeting the same language test and income requirements as all other candidates for naturalisation, then wait up to three years for their application to be approved.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Italy
an hour ago
- Local Italy
A two-minute guide to Italy's citizenship referendum
What exactly is the vote on? Italians are voting on June 8th and 9th in a referendum which asks the question of whether the waiting time to become eligible to apply for Italian citizenship via residency (also known as naturalisation) should be cut from the current ten years down to five. You can find a full explanation of the referendum question here. There are also four other referendum questions relating to workers' rights, plus local elections running at the same time in some areas. And no, you don't have to vote in all of them. Would this make it easier to get citizenship? In a sense, yes, as the proposed change would obviously mean that those who are eligible would face a much shorter wait. However, it wouldn't change any other aspect of the requirements, which include proving income and language proficiency. And it wouldn't increase the number of people eligible to apply. Italy is often seen as having some of the toughest naturalisation rules in Europe. A five-year wait instead of ten would bring its process in line with that of countries including the UK, France and Germany. But didn't Italy just change the law on citizenship a few weeks ago? Yes, on citizenship via ancestry. The government unexpectedly brought in tight restrictions slashing the number of people eligible to apply for citizenship via the ancestry, or descent, route back in March. There was no referendum on that; the rules were abruptly changed with what many people thought was questionable use of an urgent decree. Those rules got final approval from parliament in May (with some amendments) and are now law. It might sound bizarre and contradictory that the country is now asking its citizens to vote on making it easier to apply for citizenship through residency just a few weeks later. It's coincidental timing, but the two proposals came from opposite sides of the chamber. The change to ancestry rules came from the ruling hard - right coalition, and the referendum was proposed by left - wing opposition parties. You can read more about the changes to these two different citizenship routes here. Is this reform likely to pass? Polls have suggested that around half of the Italian electorate would vote Yes in the referendum. But the bigger question is how many will actually vote? In referendums in Italy, voter participation needs to hit 50 percent. But turnout is generally lower than that, and declining. Of 77 referendums held over the past 50 years, only 39 met the voter threshold. And only four of those were in the past 30 years. According to Italian media analysis, this time voter participation is expected to be around 30 percent. If the 50-percent threshold isn't reached, the referendum result will be declared invalid, whatever it is. Who can vote and how will it work? Italian citizens over the age of 18, including Italians living abroad and registered with AIRE, can vote. Polling stations will be open between 7am and 11pm on Sunday, June 8th and between 7am and 3pm on Monday, June 9th. If you're eligible, you can find out more about how voting works here. When will we know the result? As always with elections, this is hard to say but referendum results in the past have often been announced the next day or, at most, a couple of days after polling. This will also depend on voter turnout. If not enough people vote and the 50-percent threshold (see above) isn't met, this is likely to become apparent fairly soon after voting ends. We'll continue to bring you all the latest updates on The Local.
Local Italy
5 hours ago
- Local Italy
Italy's citizenship vote: When will we know the result?
Politics For Members Italians will be asked to decide in a referendum on June 8th and 9th whether the country should ease rules on applying for citizenship via residency. So when will we know how the vote went? For Italians in Italy, it's almost time to go to the polls in the upcoming referendum on citizenship, while those voting from overseas have already cast their ballots by post. The question many people have now is how quickly the votes will be counted and the result announced. Polling stations will open on Sunday, June 8th, at 7am until 11pm and on Monday 9th from 7am to 3pm. There will in fact be five separate referendums voters can choose to take part in on reforms to Italian law: four concerning workers' rights, and one on the citizenship issue. If you're eligible to vote, you can find all the practical information you need about doing so here. Past referendums have seen void results announced within hours in cases where they failed to attract the minimum voter threshold to be declared valid. And it looks likely that the same thing might happen this time. The prospect of being able to take up citizenship through residency after five years instead of ten is a welcome one for many international residents who have made Italy their home and are now waiting to benefit from citizenship rights. Italy's ten-year term is among the longest in Europe, and cutting it to five years would bring it in line with citizenship via residency rules in many neighbouring countries, including France and Spain. But of course, only Italian citizens can vote in Italy's referendums, meaning those who are most affected by the proposal do not have a say. And for the majority of the Italian electorate, polls suggest that this just isn't an issue that sparks much interest, meaning that the long-term trend of low voter turnout at most of the country's past referendums looks unlikely to change. Current predictions are that only 30 percent of the electorate will turn out for the vote, this time meaning the referendum would fall far short of the 50 percent threshold, or quorum, needed for a valid result. And the government itself is openly encouraging supporters not to take part in the vote, as it continues to rail against the proposed reforms. It's not clear whether the intensifying media coverage of an increasingly heated and polarised political debate over the issue will impact voter turnout either way. If turnout is particularly low, it would likely be evident by Monday night that this referendum isn't going to meet the quorum. In that case, the citizenship referendum will be declared invalid and the current rules will remain in force. If either a Yes or No vote does reach the quorum, it's not clear when exactly authorities expect to announce a result, but in the past results have been called as early as the next day. And in the case of a Yes vote, nothing would change immediately for would-be citizens as the existing law would first need to be changed by parliament. Whatever happens next, and whenever the final result is announced, we'll continue to bring you the latest updates on The Local.
Local Italy
a day ago
- Local Italy
Reader question: Do I have to vote in all five of Italy's upcoming referendums?
Question: I want to vote in Italy's upcoming citizenship referendum, but I don't have an opinion on the issues raised in the other referendums. If I want to vote on the citizenship question, do I have to have to vote in these as well? On Sunday, June 8th and Monday, June 9th, Italians will be asked to vote on a proposal to create a quicker path to citizenship through residency by cutting the current 10-year residency requirement down to five years. But there are also four other referendums being held on the same dates which are unrelated to the citizenship question. These concern labour law provisions on unlawful dismissals, severance compensation in small businesses, employment contract conditions and contractors' liability over workplace injuries. You can see them all reproduced here on the interior ministry's website and learn more details about them (in Italian) here. Although these referendums are being held simultaneously, you don't have to vote in all of them. As lawyer Giuseppe Di Palo explains, when you go to the polling station, you can ritirare (pick up) just one ballot, all five, or any number in between. Each ballot is on a different coloured card and is marked with a number from one to five. The citizenship referendum ballot is no. 5, on yellow card. When you arrive at the polling station and identify yourself with your tessera elettorale (electoral card), you can choose to pick up only the ballot papers for the referendums you want to vote in. If you do pick up all five ballots, you don't have to mark all of them; you can leave any of them blank when you deposit them in the ballot box. The key difference is in whether you count towards the voter turnout. All five referendums require a minimum turnout, or quorum, of more than 50 percent of Italian voters for the results to be valid. The quorum is calculated separately for each vote. If you deposit a blank ballot paper, it counts towards reaching the quorum for that referendum; if you don't pick up a ballot, it won't count towards reaching that quorum. Key figures in Italy's ruling coalition, which opposes all five referendums, have publicly called on supporters to abstain from voting on June 8th-9th to prevent all votes from reaching the quorum. If you are registered to vote from abroad by post, you should have received all five ballots to your foreign-registered address in a (plico elettorale) containing instructions on how to return them to the relevant Italian consulate. Guidelines on how to send in your completed ballots might vary slightly between different countries, so it's important to read through all the instructions and follow them carefully. As with voting in person, you should be able to choose whether to return any or all of the ballots, marked or unmarked. For your vote to count, you must ensure that the completed ballots are received by your Italian consulate by 4pm local time on Thursday, June 5th at the latest.
