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Italy’s government has tightened the country’s citizenship laws, amid criticism that people – often with little real connection to the European nation – were delving into their family history to try to claim a passport only to ease their travel around the world.
Fewer people of Italian descent will now be able to obtain citizenship after the government narrowed its eligibility criteria to those with Italian parents or grandparents.
The government says it changed the rules around passports owing to a swell of applications from the descendants of emigrants.
So what were Italy’s old citizenship rules, what has changed and what’s Italy’s rationale?
What was Italy’s citizenship law until now?
Under the old rules, anyone who could prove they had an Italian ancestor alive after March 17, 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was created, could seek citizenship.
But Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said the system was outdated, and that the change in law was designed to crack down on “abusers” who become Italian to overcome travel restrictions.
Italy’s passport ranks third in the world for visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel, according to the Henley Passport Index, making it one of the most coveted and, until now, easiest to acquire.
“Being an Italian citizen is a serious thing. It’s not a game to get a passport that allows you to go shopping in Miami,” Tajani told a news conference in Rome on March 28.
What are the new rules?
The new decree, announced last Friday and which took effect immediately, tightened the criteria to claim eligibility for citizenship through the ‘jus sanguinis’, or descendent bloodline, route.
Now, only individuals with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will automatically qualify for citizenship by descent. The amended law does not affect the 60,000 applications currently pending review.
Additionally, dual nationals risk losing their Italian citizenship if they “don’t engage” by paying taxes, voting or renewing their passports. In turn, people who were granted citizenship but rarely, if ever, came to Italy may not be able to keep it, according to the decree.
Finally, Italian consulates in other countries will no longer process citizenship applications.
Instead, all applications will be processed centrally – online – by the federal government in Italy. In-person interviews will become mandatory, meaning that citizenship applicants must travel to Italy as part of the process.
How many people could this rule change affect?
According to Italy’s foreign ministry, between 60 million and 80 million people worldwide were eligible for citizenship under the old rules. That’s more than Italy’s population of 59 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade.
A growing number of people claiming Italian descent have been seeking and securing Italian citizenship abroad, particularly in South America, where millions of Italians emigrated in the 19th and 20th centuries, often to escape grinding poverty.
Between 2014 and 2024, the number of Italians living abroad rose by 40 percent, from 4.6 million to 6.4 million. That number was boosted by the many new Italian citizens whose newfound nationality was recorded in this data.
In Argentina alone, citizenship recognitions jumped to 30,000 in 2024 from 20,000 in 2023, while Brazil saw a rise to 20,000 from 14,000 in the same period.
Why did Italy change its citizenship rules?
Critics of ancestry-based citizenship say the practice offered nationality to people with no material connection to Italy.
Tajani said that recent reforms were necessary because “citizenship cannot be automatic for those who have an ancestor who emigrated centuries ago, without any cultural or linguistic ties to the country”.
He also pointed out that companies were pocketing large sums by helping people track down their long-forgotten ancestors needed for their passport applications. “We are striking down very hard against those who want to make money from the opportunity of becoming an Italian citizen,” Tajani said.
In recent years, an increase in passport applications has also overwhelmed consulates and municipal offices, which have additionally been inundated with requests for birth, death and marriage certificates. That’s why, under the new rules, only the federal government in Italy and not overseas consulates will process applications.
Another criticism of the old system has been that it was unfair, granting citizenship to people with long-lost ancestry while denying birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants.
Italy currently permits children of lawful immigrants to become citizens only once they have turned 18, and if they have lived in the country since birth.
Do other countries have ancestry-based citizenship?
In Italy, as in much of Europe, immigration law has been largely based on bloodlines, allowing the country to maintain ties with the descendants of millions of Italians who emigrated years ago.
Several European countries continue to allow citizenship by descent with few, if any, generational limits. However, countries have their own requirements regarding proof of lineage.
In Hungary, for instance, citizenship is possible if applicants have Hungarian ancestry and can prove their language proficiency.
In Poland, meanwhile, applicants can obtain a passport by proving their unbroken Polish lineage to an ancestor.
Sephardic Jews with ancestral ties to Portugal, meanwhile, can also apply for passports.
Are other countries tightening citizenship rules?
Rome’s move comes as other countries are rethinking citizenship rules in response to changing attitudes about immigration.
In the United States, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20 to end birthright citizenship, as part of his right-wing nationalist agenda.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the US automatically becomes a citizen, including the children of undocumented migrants or tourists, and students on short-term visas. The policy has been in place for more than a century and is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Republicans have long argued that birthright citizenship is a magnet for illegal immigration, whereby individuals come to the US in order to have a child.
While Trump’s executive order was scheduled to go into effect on February 19, it was blocked by a federal judge on “unconstitutional” grounds.
According to the World Population Review, in 2024, at least 33 countries have birthright citizenship, predominantly in North America and Latin America, including Mexico.
