How to get Italian citizenship in 2026: descent now capped at two generations, plus residency, marriage and the investor route. Costs, timelines and rules.
The question of how to get Italian citizenship changed more in 2025 than in the previous thirty years. A March 2025 emergency decree, later converted into Law 74/2025, closed the open-ended "great-grandfather" route that millions of descendants had relied on. For high-net-worth families weighing an EU base, the rules now reward genuine, recent connection to Italy over distant lineage — and getting the route right matters more than ever.
For 160 years, Italy let descendants claim citizenship through an unbroken bloodline, regardless of how many generations back the Italian ancestor lived. That ended abruptly.
The change was introduced during a meeting of the Italian Government Cabinet on 27 March 2025 in the form of a law decree by urgency, without standard public debate; the press conference by Minister Tajani on 28 March was the first time it was publicly mentioned, taking applicants, law firms and even consular representatives by surprise.
The reform has survived its first major legal test.
In an official communiqué published on 12 March 2026, the Constitutional Court declared the challenges to Decree-Law 36/2025 partly unfounded and partly inadmissible, and the restrictions of Law 74/2025 remain in force.
Further challenges are pending at higher courts, but the practical reality for 2026 applicants is clear: plan around the new rules, not the old ones.
Citizenship is no longer something you inherit from a distant past — it is something you must prove a living connection to.
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"In our casework since the reform, the single most expensive mistake is assuming the old generational rules still apply," notes Muzaffar Saydiganiev, Managing Director at VisaTier and a licensed investment-migration adviser. "We build the route to the document trail you can actually evidence — not the one a family wishes existed."
This remains the fastest and cheapest route — but only if you qualify under the narrowed rules.
Under the new Article 3-bis, automatic recognition through descent now requires that you satisfy at least one of the following: a citizenship application was submitted before 27 March 2025; a parent or grandparent held Italian nationality exclusively at the time of their death; or a parent resided in Italy for two consecutive years after acquiring citizenship and prior to your birth.
Two points catch families out. First, the "exclusively Italian" condition:
the law effectively outlaws dual citizenship for the diaspora, as the qualifying parent or grandparent must have held solely Italian citizenship at the time of their descendant's birth, or at their own death if it came earlier.
Second, applications already in the pipeline are protected.
Applications submitted to the consular office, municipality or court — or appointments officially confirmed before 11:59 PM Rome time on 27 March 2025 — continue to be evaluated under the old rules.
All foreign documents must be submitted as long-form or certified copies, include a Hague Apostille, and be translated into Italian by a sworn translator to be accepted by Italian authorities.
Recognition applications must be submitted in person at the competent consulate or Italian municipality by appointment, the ALI Portal does not apply to recognition by descent, and the non-refundable consular fee is €600 per adult applicant.
For those cut off by the two-generation limit, the reform opened a parallel door.
Citizenship by residency criteria were amended so that if you have a parent or grandparent who is or was an Italian citizen by birth — regardless of whether they later acquired foreign citizenship — you can apply for Italian citizenship after 2 years of residence in Italy.
This is a discretionary naturalisation grant rather than a recognition of a pre-existing right, but for many families it is now the realistic path. If you are weighing an Italian base against other European options, our comparison of the Italy versus Portugal Golden Visa routes sets out the trade-offs in detail.
Standard naturalisation timelines were left unchanged by the 2025 reform.
A June 2025 referendum proposed reducing the naturalisation period for non-EU nationals from ten to five years, but it failed to meet the required quorum, so the existing timeframes remain unchanged.
The spouse of an Italian citizen may apply for naturalisation after two years of legal residence in Italy.
Across all routes,
applicants must demonstrate sufficient income (a minimum of around €8,263.31 a year for a single applicant), no criminal record and B1-level knowledge of Italian.
| Route | Minimum time | Key requirement | Total estimated cost (single applicant) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Descent (jure sanguinis) | 1–3 years processing | Italian parent or grandparent; exclusively Italian at relevant date | €600 consular fee plus €3,000–€8,000 document gathering and legal support |
| Naturalisation with Italian ancestry | 2 years residence | Parent or grandparent Italian by birth; B1 Italian | €2,000–€6,000 plus relocation and living costs |
| Naturalisation (non-EU) | 10 years residence | Continuous legal residence; B1 Italian; income | €2,000–€6,000 plus 10 years of living costs |
| Marriage | 2 years (in Italy) | Marriage maintained; B1 Italian | €1,500–€5,000 |
| Investor Visa to naturalisation | 10 years residence | €250,000+ qualifying investment; tax residence | €250,000+ investment plus advisory and living costs |
Source: Law 74/2025; Italian Ministry of the Interior; consular fee schedules 2026. Costs are indicative and depend on case complexity.
Yes — indirectly, and it is the route most relevant to HNW clients who lack Italian ancestry. The Investor Visa is a residency-by-investment programme, not citizenship by investment.
It offers four entry options ranging from €250,000 in an innovative startup to €2,000,000 in government bonds, with no upfront capital lock until after you arrive and zero physical-stay requirement.
You can become eligible for Italian citizenship if you have resided in Italy for at least 10 years (183 days per year).
One restriction HNW advisers must flag:
since July 2023, the Investor Visa programme is suspended for Russian and Belarusian nationals, including dual nationals holding either passport, in compliance with the relevant EU Recommendation.
A further operational change for all long-stay applicants:
from 11 January 2025, all long-stay visa applicants including Golden Visa investors must provide biometric fingerprints in person at an Italian consulate.
For families comparing structures, our guide to European residency by investment places Italy alongside its remaining EU peers.
This is where Italy competes hardest for global wealth.
Article 1 of the 2026 Budget Law, published in the Official Gazette late on 31 December 2025, raised the annual flat tax for newcomers who opt into the "regime dei nuovi residenti" from €200,000 to €300,000, with the supplemental flat tax for qualifying family members doubling from €25,000 to €50,000 per person.
Crucially, the regime continues to exempt participants from Italian wealth, inheritance and gift taxes on offshore assets and to waive foreign-asset reporting obligations.
Eligibility is restricted:
the regime can last up to 15 years and is available to those who have not been Italian tax residents for at least 9 of the 10 years prior to election.
Separately, retirees have a lighter option.
Individuals receiving foreign pension income who move to a municipality of no more than 20,000 inhabitants in southern regions such as Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise or Puglia can elect a 7% flat tax on all non-Italian-sourced income, provided they were not Italian tax resident in the preceding 5 years.
Among the strongest in the world.
In the April 2026 update of the Henley Passport Index, Italy ranked fourth worldwide alongside eleven other countries, with visa-free access to 185 destinations.
Beyond travel, Italian citizenship confers full EU rights — to live, work and study across all member states. If you are building a portfolio of nationalities rather than a single passport, our analysis of the strategic case for holding more than one citizenship explains how an EU passport complements faster-access programmes elsewhere.
Whether your path is descent, naturalisation with ancestry, or the Investor Visa paired with the flat-tax regime, the right sequence is everything. Our advisers pressure-test your eligibility and document trail against the 2026 rules. Start with our diagnostic for a strategy built around your facts.
Open the portal →This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Italian citizenship and tax rules changed materially in 2025–2026 and remain subject to ongoing litigation and legislative change. Figures reflect publicly available information as at June 2026; verify on official sources such as the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the competent consulate before relying on any specific number or timeline. Victory Meets Trust.
