Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis, “by right of blood”) allows anyone with an Italian ancestor who never renounced their Italian citizenship to claim Italian citizenship themselves, regardless of how many generations have passed. There is no generational limit. If your great-great-grandfather emigrated from Italy in 1890 and the chain of citizenship was never broken, you have the same legal right to Italian citizenship as someone born in Rome yesterday. This is not a visa, not a permit, and not a special program. It is a recognition that, under Italian law, you have been an Italian citizen since birth. You simply need to prove it.
This is the single most common path to Italian citizenship for Americans, and it is the core of what PortaleItaly helps clients navigate every day.
How Jure Sanguinis Works
Italian citizenship law operates on a fundamentally different principle than American law. The United States grants citizenship primarily based on where you are born (jus soli, right of the soil). Italy grants citizenship primarily based on who your parents are (jus sanguinis, right of blood). Under Italian law, if your parent was an Italian citizen at the time of your birth, you are an Italian citizen, period, even if you were born in another country and have never set foot in Italy.
This principle extends backward through generations. Your parent inherited citizenship from their parent, who inherited it from their parent, all the way back to the ancestor who emigrated from Italy. The chain is unbroken as long as no one in the line formally renounced Italian citizenship before the next generation was born.
The Key Requirements
To qualify for recognition of Italian citizenship by descent, you must establish all of the following:
An Italian-born ancestor. You need at least one ancestor who was born in Italy (or in a territory that was part of an Italian state) and who emigrated. This ancestor is your “qualifying ancestor” or avo (literally “ancestor” in Italian).
The ancestor was alive and an Italian citizen after March 17, 1861. This is the date of Italian unification. Before this date, “Italy” did not exist as a nation-state. Your ancestor must have been alive on or born after this date to have been an Italian citizen. If your ancestor was born in 1830 and died in 1855, there is no Italian citizenship to transmit. If they were born in 1830 and were alive in 1861, the chain can begin.
No break in the citizenship chain. Every person in the direct line from your qualifying ancestor to you must not have renounced or lost Italian citizenship before the birth of the next person in the line. The most common way the chain breaks is through naturalization in another country (such as becoming a U.S. citizen) before the next child was born.
The naturalization timing rule. This is the critical detail. If your Italian ancestor became a naturalized U.S. citizen before their child (the next person in your line) was born, the chain is broken at that point. If they naturalized after the child was born, the chain continues through that child. You need to prove the exact dates of both the naturalization and the subsequent child’s birth.
The 1948 rule (maternal line). Before January 1, 1948 (when the Italian Constitution took effect), Italian law only transmitted citizenship through the father. If your line passes through a woman who had a child before January 1, 1948, the standard administrative process will not work. You must pursue recognition through an Italian court. This is known as a “1948 case” and is covered in detail in our 1948 case guide.
Tracing Your Lineage
The first step in any jure sanguinis case is building your complete lineage from the Italian-born ancestor to yourself. You need to identify every person in the direct line: your Italian ancestor, their child, their child’s child, and so on down to you. For each person in the line, you will eventually need civil vital records (birth, marriage, death, and in some cases naturalization documents).
Start with what your family already knows. Talk to older relatives. Look for old documents, letters, photographs, passenger manifests, and naturalization papers. Italian families often have surprisingly detailed oral histories about which town or village the family came from (il paese).
U.S. records that help establish the line: census records (especially 1900 to 1940, which asked about birthplace, year of immigration, and naturalization status), ship passenger manifests (Ellis Island and other ports), naturalization records (petitions and certificates, available through USCIS, NARA, and county courts), birth, marriage, and death certificates from U.S. states, and Social Security applications (SS-5 forms, which often list parents’ birthplaces). These are available through FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, NARA, and state vital records offices. For full details on obtaining U.S. documents, see our US vital records guide.
For the Italian side, you will need vital records from the comune (municipality) where your ancestor was born, married, or died. This is covered in depth in our Italian vital records guide.
The Document Package
Once you have established your lineage, you need to assemble a complete document package. For every person in the chain from your Italian ancestor to you, you typically need:
Birth certificates for every person in the line. Italian-issued certificates from the comune for anyone born in Italy. U.S. long-form birth certificates (with parents’ names) for anyone born in the U.S.
Marriage certificates for every person in the line (to prove name changes and connect generations).
Death certificates for deceased persons in the line.
Your Italian ancestor’s birth certificate from the Italian comune, proving their Italian origin.
Naturalization records or proof of non-naturalization. For your Italian ancestor: either their Certificate of Naturalization (with the exact date) or a USCIS search letter confirming no record of naturalization exists. This is one of the most important documents in the entire case.
Apostilles on all U.S.-issued documents. Every American document submitted to Italy must carry a Hague Apostille from the relevant authority. See our apostille guide for details.
Certified translations of all non-Italian documents into Italian.
Paths to Recognition
Once your document package is complete, there are several paths to have your citizenship formally recognized.
The Judicial Path (Petition Through an Italian Court)
A judicial application is filed in an Italian civil court (Tribunale Civile) with the Ministero dell’Interno (Ministry of the Interior) as the defendant. You are represented by an Italian attorney (avvocato) who prepares and files the case on your behalf. You do not need to appear in person in Italy for the proceedings.
The judicial path is currently the most certain and reliable route to citizenship recognition. Italian courts operate independently and have decades of established case law affirming the right to citizenship by descent. This path is required for all 1948 cases (maternal line before January 1, 1948), and it is increasingly the preferred route for applicants who want a clear, well-established legal process with predictable outcomes. Multiple family members can often be included in a single case, reducing per-person costs significantly.
Timelines vary by court, but cases are typically resolved within 12 to 24 months from filing, not including the 6 to 18 months of document preparation beforehand. PortaleItaly specializes in judicial applications.
Italian Consulate in the US
You can apply through the Italian consulate that has jurisdiction over your place of residence. This is the traditional administrative path and does not require you to move to Italy.
The reality: consulate appointments are extremely difficult to obtain. Wait times at many U.S. consulates range from 2 to 5+ years just to get an appointment. Some consulates (New York, Los Angeles, Miami) have backlogs so severe that appointments are essentially unavailable through normal channels. Once you have an appointment and submit your documents, processing takes an additional 6 to 24 months. Total timeline: often 3 to 7 years from start to finish. Consulates manage appointments through the Prenota.Mi system, which releases limited appointment slots that fill within seconds.
Apply in Italy (Comune Path)
You can establish residency in an Italian comune and apply for citizenship recognition directly through the local anagrafe (civil registry office). Italian law requires the comune to process your application within 180 days (though some take longer). This path is faster than the consulate route but requires you to physically live in Italy during the processing period, including renting or owning housing, registering residency (residenza), and being present for police verification visits. Total timeline: typically 3 to 6 months from residency registration to citizenship recognition.
After Recognition
Once your citizenship is recognized through any path, you are a full Italian (and EU) citizen. The immediate next steps include:
Registering with AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero), which is mandatory for Italian citizens living abroad. Applying for your Italian passport. Obtaining your Italian codice fiscale if you do not already have one (see our codice fiscale guide). Understanding your rights as an EU citizen, including the right to live and work in any of the 27 EU member states without a visa. Understanding your obligations, including potential Italian tax reporting requirements and the implications of dual citizenship.
Why People Use Professional Services
The complexity of the document gathering, the specificity of Italian bureaucratic requirements, the consulate appointment scarcity, and the consequences of errors (a single incorrect document can delay your case by months or years) lead many applicants to work with experienced professionals. Common challenges include: locating vital records from small Italian comuni that may not respond to email, obtaining USCIS searches for ancestors with common names or spelling variations, navigating the apostille process across multiple states, ensuring translations meet Italian legal standards, and managing the logistics of whichever recognition path you choose.
PortaleItaly specializes in judicial applications for Italian citizenship, providing comprehensive support from initial lineage research through document procurement, attorney coordination, and post-recognition steps. Contact us for a free consultation to evaluate your eligibility and discuss the best path forward for your situation.