tH
# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
and competent persons,
and true friends of We the
Italians, to help us addressing this matter.
Carlo and Lauren, could
you please help us understand the official Italian law about how to
obtain the dual citizenship? I understand that
this law changed some
years ago, so there’s
a before and after the
change, am I right?
According to Italian Law
91 of February 5, 1992, Italian citizenship is conferred by bloodline. In other
words, the descendant of
an Italian citizen is already an Italian citizen. The
descendant needs only
have his/her Italian citizenship recognized by the
Italian government. An individual seeking to have
his/her Italian citizenship
recognized needs only
to produce evidence that
everyone in his/her direct
line of ascendants uninterruptedly
maintained
their Italian citizenship.
This being said, there are a
few conditions every aspiring Italian citizen should
be aware of:
• The Italian ancestor must
have been alive after March 17, 1861, the date of
Italy’s unification. Prior to
this date, there existed no
such thing as an “Italian citizen”.
• The Italian ancestor must
not have naturalized (become a citizen of the United States or elsewhere)
before July 1, 1912. Ancestors who naturalized before July 1, 1912 cannot
transmit Italian citizenship
under Italian Law no. 555
of July 13, 1912.
• The Italian ancestor must
not have naturalized prior to the birth of his/her
immediate
descendant
if that descendant is the
applicant or any of the
ascendants in the direct
line through which the applicant would be otherwise eligible.
• If an Italian ancestor in
direct line of the applicant
is a woman, born before
January 1, 1948, she can
only claim Italian citizenship from her father, and
can only pass Italian citizenship to her children
(male or female) if they
were born after January
1, 1948. It should be noted that the Italian Supreme Court has declared
this rule unconstitutional.
Currently, applicants who
are otherwise eligible but
for this law may still have
their citizenship recognized but must present their
application before the Civil Court in Rome.
Let’s do the 5 main questions: who, why, where,
how and when to apply
for an Italian passport?
To answer your question,
we should first clarify something. Your Italian Passport only assists applicants seeking citizenship
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