Italian Citizenship by Descent: Italy Citizenship Ancestry and Legal issues

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Years ago, a trial case challenged the above situations as discriminatory and unjust.

As a result, those applicants who have a case falling in one of the above categories now have very good chances of succeeding in obtaining Italian citizenship by Descent due to the precedent established in 2009 in Italian courts and the many cases that were won afterwards.

Legal precedents state that the principles set forth in the 1948 Italian constitution (including gender equality) should be applied retroactively, including to events that occurred prior to the issuance of the Italian constitution. This is how courts are able to declare that female ancestors can pass Italian citizenship by Descent to their children – provided that they did not autonomously naturalize before the child’s birth – even if the Italian constitution had not been created at that time (and the principle of gender equality had not been yet codified).

Similarly, they decreed that women did not lose Italian citizenship by marrying a non-Italian citizen in spite of the law of the time.

The counterpart in this type of lawsuit is the office of the Ministry of Interior, and the lawsuit must be filed before the Civil Court of Rome (“Tribunale Ordinario di Roma”).

The probability of attaining Italy Citizenship Ancestry via the courts in Italy is extremely high for the following reasons:

– Courts almost always granted Italian citizenship in all the lawsuits that were filed since 2009

– The Italian government is not representing itself in court anymore (no counter claims are filed and the office of the Italian Ministry of Interior is generally no longer represented by the State Attorneys)

– in nearly all the new trials started recently, the judges assigned to the cases were the same ones that granted citizenship in the previous cases.

The timeline from the beginning of the legal proceeding in Italy is normally 1-1.5 years.

Additional family members can join the trial at the same time.

The Petitioner’s presence in Italy is not required at any time.

See all different ways for get the Italian Citizenship here.

You can hire our Lawyer for legal representation in Court in Italy even if your case is a “regular iure sanguinis case” not involving a female ancestor.

In fact, if you have applied for Italian citizenship through your local Italian Consulate and have not received information as to whether your application was approved or denied in the last 730 days, you are entitled to address the Civil Court of Rome to enforce your rights and be granted citizenship by the court directly.

Similarly, it is possible to start a legal proceeding in Italy, before the Civil Court of Rome, and use all your “citizenship documents” in court for the first time (rather than at the consulate) if your local consulate has scheduled your appointment for more than 2 years in the future. In this case the judge will have jurisdiction on your case and your case can be heard by the judge rather than the consulate.
For the above cases the Civil Court of Rome is the entity which must be addressed and not the Administrative Court (also known as TAR). There are several judgments ruling on the above in favor of the Petitioners.

The Administrative Courts in Italy should be addressed only in case of unjustified denial of your citizenship application by the consulate.