Italian Citizenship by Descent: 2026 Living Update

Law 74 of 2025 did not create a neat two-generation rule. Article 3-bis of law 91/1992 says that a person born abroad who holds another nationality is considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship unless one of its listed conditions applies. The listed routes include a qualifying administrative application, appointment or court action tied to 27 March 2025; a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, Italian citizenship exclusively; or a parent or adopter who lived in Italy for at least two continuous years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the child's birth or adoption. The actual statutory exception matters more than a family-tree shorthand.

Article 3-bis preserves the previous rules only through three specified procedural routes: a documented administrative application filed by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025; an application filed on the day of an appointment that the competent office had communicated by that same time; or a court claim filed by that same time. These are statutory conditions, not a general grace period. A recognition already completed is a different question from a new recognition claim.

In judgment 63/2026, decided on 11 March and filed on 30 April, the Constitutional Court rejected as unfounded the constitutional and EU-law questions before it and held other questions inadmissible. In separate joined cases, order 147/2026 — filed on 23 July — suspended those proceedings and asked the Court of Justice of the European Union whether Articles 9 TEU and 20 TFEU preclude Italy's rule of original non-acquisition for people born abroad. The Court of Justice register lists the reference as C-816/26, Picuso. That register entry confirms a pending preliminary reference, not an answer on the merits and not a change in the rule today.

The 31 May 2029 transition is not a universal deadline for every child. It covers people who were minors on 24 May 2025 and are children of citizens by birth within the cut-off routes named in Article 3-bis(1)(a), (a-bis) or (b). Separately, Article 4(1-bis)(b) allows a declaration for a child of a citizen by birth within three years of birth, filiation or adoption, rather than one. From 1 January 2026, the specified declarations are exempt from the €250 contribution; that change is not retroactive and does not create refunds for earlier applications.

This is a map of the current published rule, not an answer about an individual family. It cannot determine whether a particular ancestor had exclusive citizenship, whether an old application was complete, whether an appointment satisfies the statutory route, or which documents a particular consulate will accept. Keep the statute, the official consular guidance and the date of any application separate from family memory. If a personal case depends on those facts, use the competent consulate and qualified legal advice before acting. The records themselves still matter: a town, a date and the original acts are useful whether or not a citizenship route remains open.