The request for registration in Italy of a minor born abroad, child of an Italian citizen is, in its own right, an application for recognition of citizenship in favor of the minor.
Italian citizenship is transmitted from parent to child, for a maximum of two generations, with the condition that the Italian parent has never renounced citizenship.
Decree-Law no. 36/2025 of 28 March 2025, converted into law on 24 May 2025 (Law 74/2025), introduced additional requirements on the recognition of citizenship for minors who are children of Italian citizens.
In particular, according to the new provisions, the Italian citizen automatically transmits citizenship to the minor child born abroad and not in possession of other citizenships.
Therefore, the parents can register the birth in Italy, without paying administrative fees and delivering all the necessary documentation to the Embassy, if one of the following conditions are met:
- both parents are Italian by birth and do not hold any other citizenships;
- one of the parents (including adoptive parents) or one of the grandparents possesses – or possessed at the time of death – exclusively Italian citizenship (i.e. does not have and cannot have had any other citizenship other than Italian citizenship) at the time of the child’s birth;
- one of the parents (including adoptive parents), an Italian citizen, has been resident in Italy for at least two continuous years, after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the birth or adoption of the child;
- the minor does not and cannot have any other nationality.
NEW CASES OF ACQUISITION OF CITIZENSHIP ABROAD (MINOR CHILDREN OF CITIZENS WHO DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY TRANSMIT ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP)
In some limited cases, provided for by paragraph 1-bis of Article 4 of Law No. 91/1992 and Article 1-ter of Decree-Law No. 36/2025 as converted into law, minor children born abroad to a citizen parent who does not automatically transmit citizenship (i.e. who do not fall into one of the 4 cases listed above), can acquire Italian citizenship in the following two cases:
- For the benefit of law. In the first case, the following requirements must be met JOINTLY:
- At least one of the parents is an Italian citizen by birth (even if in possession of another citizenship);
- Both parents submit a declaration of willingness to acquire Italian citizenship within one year of the birth of the child. The declaration of intention to acquire citizenship must be formal and take place in person, at the Consular Office; (NOTE that its’ required to present the foreign citizenship certificate of the minor)
- payment of the contribution of 250 euros in favour of the Ministry of the Home Affairs D.L.C.I Citizenship – IBAN code: IT54D0760103200000000809020 – Reason: Acquisition of citizenship following a declaration pursuant to art. 4, c.1-bis, letter b) L. 91/1992 and name and surname of the applicant)
2. By transitional rule. In the latter case, the following conditions must be met in JOINTLY:
- applicants are minors at the date of entry into force of the conversion law of Decree-Law no. 36/2025 (i.e. people who had not yet reached the age of 18 on 24 May 2025);
- applicants are children of a citizen by birth recognized as Italian on the basis of an administrative or judicial application submitted by 23:59 (Rome time) on 27 March 2025 or on the basis of an application submitted by appointment booked by the same date;
- The parents of minors must submit a declaration of willingness to acquire Italian citizenship by May 31, 2026. The declaration of desire to acquire citizenship must be formal and take place in person, at the Consular Office; (NOTE that its’ required to present the foreign citizenship certificate of the minor)
- payment of the contribution of 250 euros in favor of the Ministry of the Home Affairs D.L.C.I Citizenship – IBAN code: IT54D0760103200000000809020 – Reason: Acquisition of citizenship following a declaration pursuant to art. 1 c.1-ter D.L. 36/2025 and name and surname of the applicant).
If the interested party, who was a minor on 24 May 2025, becomes an adult in the meantime, the declaration must be submitted by him personally by the same date.
PLEASE NOTE: The two new hypotheses described above constitute an acquisition of citizenship by “benefit of law”: the minor who benefits from it is not an Italian citizen by birth or iure sanguinis. That is, on the basis of art. 15 of Law no. 91/1992, the minor does not acquire citizenship from the day of birth, but from the day after the declaration of the parents.