Applications for Italian citizenship, made by non-Italian residents, on the grounds of descent (ius sanguinis) pre-1948 from a female relative, will no longer be decided by the Civil Court of Rome.
As of 22nd June 2022, applications need to be lodged in the civil court of the Comune where the last Italian ancestor was born, as of 22nd June 2022. (See Law of 26 November 2021, n. 206)
Article 1, paragraph 37 of Law n. 206 states the following:
‘When the plaintiff resides abroad, disputes regarding the ascertainment of the status of Italian Citizenship are assigned having regard to the municipality of birth of the father, mother or ancestor of Italian citizens’.
As of 22nd June 2022 only pre-1948 cases deriving from Italian ancestors born in Rome will be processed via the Rome Civil Court. This will allow the local Italian Courts to process all the remaining applications, which should hopefully in turn result in quicker hearing listings and quicker service of decisions.
Please be advised that the new law has no effect on applications already submitted or that will be submitted before 22nd June 2022, which will be processed accordingly at the Rome court.
For further information about applications based on pre-1948 maternal line cases, and how previous Italian law relating to the transmission of citizenship was declared to be discriminatory and unconstitutional, click the link below to read our 2019 article:
Claims to Italian citizenship through maternal line
Please contact Aleksandra Broom (a.broom@oliverpartners.it) or Liliana Petrolo (l.petrolo@oliverpartners.it) if you have any questions.
