Italian British Dual Citizenship in 2026
A British citizen can hold an Italian passport without giving up the British one: both countries allow it, and Italian law says so expressly. What changed in 2025 is not whether you may hold both, but who still qualifies. Since 28 March 2025 a person born abroad who holds another citizenship is deemed never to have acquired Italian citizenship unless one of five conditions applies — and for British families the condition that matters usually turns on one word: whether the Italian ancestor ever became British. This page sets out the rule, the routes, the three consulates that cover the United Kingdom, and what can be done when the consular route does not move.
Consular districts and requirements taken from the consulates’ own pages and from the consular network of the Embassy of Italy in London, read on 15 September 2026 · Law 91/1992 artt. 3-bis, 5, 11 · Law 74/2025 · Law 11/2026
- Find the Italian-born ancestor and the date they became British, if they did. That date decides more than anything else in your file.
- Check your line against article 3-bis, below: five conditions, three about timing and two about your parents and grandparents.
- Find your consulate by your address — London, Manchester or Edinburgh — and your tribunal by your ancestor’s birthplace. They have nothing to do with each other.
Can you hold a British and an Italian passport at the same time?
Yes, and neither country asks you to choose. Article 11 of Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992 provides that an Italian citizen who holds or acquires a foreign citizenship keeps the Italian one. British law, for its part, does not require a British citizen to renounce another nationality. Recognition of Italian citizenship therefore adds a passport; it does not replace one.
Recognition, not naturalisation. This distinction matters more in practice than it sounds. Citizenship by descent is not granted: it is declared. If you qualify, you have been an Italian citizen since birth, and what the consulate or the court does is establish a status that already existed. That is why there is no language test for descent, no residence requirement, and no oath.
What Brexit changed. Nothing in Italian citizenship law, and everything in what the Italian passport is worth to someone living in the United Kingdom. Since 2021 a British passport gives ninety days in any hundred and eighty in the Schengen area, and no right to live, work or study in the European Union. An Italian passport restores all of it — for you, and for children who acquire the citizenship through you.
There is no language requirement for citizenship by descent, and the 2025 reform did not introduce one. The B1 certificate belongs to citizenship by marriage and by naturalisation. It is, with the idea that a grandparent must have been born in Italy, the most common misunderstanding we are written to about.
Article 3-bis, and the five conditions
Decree-Law no. 36 of 28 March 2025, converted with amendments by Law no. 74 of 23 May 2025, inserted article 3-bis into Law 91/1992. It is the first generational limit in the history of Italian citizenship law. A person born abroad who holds another citizenship — which describes almost every British applicant — is deemed never to have acquired Italian citizenship, unless one of these applies.
You applied before the cut-off
An application, with the required documents, was filed at the consulate or with the mayor no later than 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025.
You had an appointment communicated before the cut-off
The application is filed on the date of an appointment that the competent office had communicated to you by that moment. A booking request you submitted, with no date assigned by the consulate, is not the same thing — and the Constitutional Court expressly left that situation open in judgment no. 63/2026.
You filed in court before the cut-off
A judicial application was filed by the same moment. The Sezioni Unite of the Court of Cassation confirmed in judgment no. 24045/2026 that article 3-bis does not apply to court cases filed before that date.
A parent or grandparent holds, or held at death, exclusively Italian citizenship
The law does not require that ascendant to have been born in Italy: that condition was in the original decree and Parliament removed it during conversion. What it requires is that they held no other citizenship — and this is where most British lines fail, because the Italian ancestor usually naturalised as British.
A parent lived in Italy for two continuous years before you were born
A parent or adoptive parent resided in Italy for at least two continuous years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before your birth or adoption. Proved with a historical residence certificate from the Italian municipality.
If none of the five applies, the administrative route is closed under the law as it stands — and the law as it stands is being tested. With order no. 147/2026 the Constitutional Court referred article 3-bis to the Court of Justice of the European Union, and judgment 63/2026 expressly left open the position of people who started the procedure but never received an appointment. The full text of each condition, and what is pending, is on our citizenship by descent page.
Four ways in, and they are not interchangeable
Most British applicants are looking at the first two. The other two exist and are worth knowing about, because families often qualify through a route they had not considered.
By descent (jure sanguinis)
The main route for British families, and the one the 2025 reform changed. Whether your line still qualifies is decided by article 3-bis, below.
Read the page →A 1948 case: the maternal line
If your line passes through a woman whose child was born before 1 January 1948, no consulate can recognise it. Only an Italian court can, and that has been true since the Constitutional Court struck the discrimination down.
Read the page →By marriage to an Italian citizen
Three years of marriage, halved to eighteen months by a child, a B1 certificate in Italian, a €250 fee, and a legal term of twenty-four months extendable to thirty-six. Filed online through the Ministry of the Interior portal and finalised at your consulate.
Read the page →By residence in Italy
Ten years of legal residence for a non-EU national, reduced in certain cases. It is a different procedure from everything else on this page, and it starts with a residence permit, not with a family tree.
Read the page →Three Italian consulates cover the United Kingdom
Not two. The claim that Manchester covers Scotland and Northern Ireland circulates widely in English-language guides, and it was on this page too until we found it and corrected it. Scotland and Northern Ireland are Edinburgh’s. An application filed outside your district is refused, and the €600 fee is not returned.
Consulate General in London
Releases new Prenot@mi slots every Monday and Wednesday at 17:00 local time. The €600 fee is paid in pounds, exclusively by British debit card, on the day. Applicants who are not British citizens need a residence permit or visa with at least three years of validity left.
What this office requires →Consulate in Manchester
States that applications are processed in 24 to 36 months from the date of filing, and warns that Prenot@mi is free and that offers of faster bookings for payment should be treated with suspicion.
What this office requires →Consulate General in Edinburgh
Sets out the post-reform rules clearly but does not publish its booking procedure, method of payment or residence documents. Ask for those three in writing before you spend anything on certificates.
What this office requires →Consulate or court: what actually decides
The consulate is chosen for you; the court is chosen by your ancestor. Since 22 June 2022, a case brought by an applicant living abroad goes to the specialised immigration section of the tribunal for the district where the Italian father, mother or ancestor was born (article 4(5) of Decree-Law no. 13 of 17 February 2017). Not Rome by default, and not the court nearest to you. A family in Edinburgh whose great-grandmother was born near Salerno litigates in Salerno.
You do not travel, and you do not need Italian. The case is filed by a lawyer under a power of attorney signed where you live. Since March 2025 these proceedings are decided on documents alone: article 19-bis of Legislative Decree 150/2011 puts on the applicant the burden of alleging and proving that no cause of non-acquisition or loss applies, and excludes witnesses and oaths. What persuades a court is the file, prepared before it is filed.
Where the consulate cannot help at all. A maternal line before 1 January 1948 is not a difficult consular case: it is not a consular case. No officer has the discretion to recognise it. If that is your line, an appointment you wait years for would end in a refusal.
We keep a public register of 65 tribunal decisions from 15 courts, read in full: 35 on consular delay and 30 on the maternal line. One of them is a refusal, and it is in there for the same reason as the others.
The consular delay register sets out what each court accepted as proof that no appointment could be obtained — dated screenshots, e-mails, or nothing at all where the delay was treated as a notorious fact.
The court rulings register collects the decisions applying the 2025 reform, as they arrive.
Documents, and where they come from
A British file is not an American one with different stamps. The records come from different offices, the apostille comes from a different authority, and one document usually decides the outcome.
The Italian ancestor’s records
The estratto dell’atto di nascita from the Italian municipality of birth, and the marriage record. They come from Italy and their arrival sets the pace of everything else, which is why they are requested first.
Long-form British certificates
Full birth, marriage and death certificates for every link in the chain: General Register Office for England and Wales, National Records of Scotland, or the General Register Office for Northern Ireland. Short-form certificates are refused, because they do not name the parents.
The Home Office naturalisation record
The certificate of naturalisation, or a status letter confirming the date. This single document decides most British files, because article 3-bis(c) asks for an ascendant who held exclusively Italian citizenship.
Apostille and sworn translation
Every British record is apostilled by the FCDO Legalisation Office and then translated into Italian. Apostilled but not translated, or translated but not apostilled, and the file comes back.
Proof of residence, and the fee
A utility bill or Council Tax statement showing an address inside your consulate’s district. The €600 fee is charged per adult applicant and is not refunded whatever the outcome.
How this is being decided in court
Italian Citizenship by Descent: How We Won in Court Under the New Law (2026)
A real case filed after Law 74/2025 and won in court: how the file was built and what the judge decided.
1948 Cases VS Tajani Law of Italian Citizenship by Descent
Are 1948 cases still possible after Law 74/2025? The constitutional reasons why, and what has changed in practice.
More on Italian citizenship and the 2025 reform on our YouTube channel.
What being an Italian citizen actually obliges you to do
People ask us about the disadvantages more often than about the benefits, and the honest answer is that they are obligations rather than disadvantages — but they are real and worth knowing before you start.
AIRE registration. An Italian citizen who resides abroad for more than twelve months must register with the Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero through their consulate. It is a legal obligation, and it is also the practical key to everything else: passport renewals, civil status records and voting all run through it.
Military service does not apply. Compulsory military service has been suspended in Italy since 2005. It is the fear we are asked about most often by parents of teenage sons, and it has no basis.
Tax is where the real misunderstanding lies. Italian citizenship does not make you an Italian taxpayer. Italian tax residence depends on where you actually live and where you are registered for most of the tax year, not on the passport you hold: unlike the United States, Italy does not tax on citizenship alone. If you later move to Italy that changes, and there are regimes for new residents worth understanding before you do.
Travelling. Once you hold both, entering the European Union on the Italian passport is what keeps you outside the ninety-days-in-a-hundred-and-eighty limit. Two passports are only useful if you use the right one at the right border.
The right to live, work, study and retire in any European Union member state, without a visa and without a time limit; access to public healthcare and university systems on the same terms as nationals; and the ability to pass the citizenship on to your own children.
These are the rights a British passport lost in 2021, which is why so many families in the United Kingdom went looking for an Italian grandparent after Brexit.
A timeline worth checking your own family against
Unification. The Italian ancestor must have been alive on or after this date.
Law 555/1912 enters into force and codifies how citizenship passes and is lost.
The Constitution enters into force. Together with the Constitutional Court rulings of 1975 and 1983 it is the basis on which a maternal line is recognised for children born from this date — and for earlier births, only by a court.
Law 91/1992 confirms that acquiring a foreign citizenship does not cost you the Italian one (article 11).
The cut-off. Applications, communicated appointments and court filings made by this moment are decided under the previous rules.
Decree-Law 36/2025 enters into force and inserts article 3-bis into Law 91/1992.
Law no. 74 of 23 May 2025 converts the decree with amendments; article 3-bis reads as it does today.
Under Law 11/2026, adult applications from abroad leave the consulates for a central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome.
Frequently asked questions
Does Italy allow dual citizenship with the United Kingdom?
Yes, and so does the United Kingdom. Article 11 of Law 91/1992 provides that an Italian citizen who holds or acquires a foreign citizenship keeps the Italian one, and British law does not require you to give up another nationality. You would hold two passports and give up neither.
Can I get an Italian passport as a British citizen?
If you are recognised as an Italian citizen, yes: the passport follows recognition. It is issued by your consulate once the Italian municipality has transcribed your records and you are registered with AIRE. The passport is the last step, not the application — there is no such thing as applying for an Italian passport without first establishing that you are a citizen.
Which Italian consulate covers me in the United Kingdom?
Three offices, not two. London covers southern England, Wales, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. Manchester covers northern and central England and the Isle of Man. Edinburgh covers Scotland and Northern Ireland. Guides that give Scotland to Manchester are wrong, and an application filed outside your district is refused with the fee spent.
My grandfather was born in Italy but became British. Does my claim still work?
This is the question that decides most British files, and the answer changed in 2025. Article 3-bis(c) asks for a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at the time of death, exclusively Italian citizenship. A grandfather who naturalised as British did not, so that condition does not cover him. What can still help is an application, appointment or court filing made before 27 March 2025, or a parent who lived in Italy for two continuous years before your birth.
Are there disadvantages to holding both passports?
Obligations rather than disadvantages, and they are modest. You must register with AIRE, the register of Italians resident abroad, within twelve months of taking up residence abroad; it is a legal requirement and it is also what makes consular services and voting work. Compulsory military service has been suspended in Italy since 2005. The one thing people fear most does not happen: Italian citizenship does not make you an Italian taxpayer. Tax residence follows where you actually live and are registered, not the passport you hold.
Do I have to pay Italian tax if I live in the United Kingdom?
Not because of the citizenship. Italian tax residence depends on living in Italy and being registered there for most of the tax year, not on nationality — unlike the United States, Italy does not tax its citizens on the basis of citizenship alone. If you later move to Italy that changes, and there are regimes worth knowing about before you do.
Can I apply for Italian citizenship online from the UK?
It depends on the route. Citizenship by marriage and by residence are applied for online through the Ministry of the Interior portal and then finalised at the consulate. Citizenship by descent is not: it is filed in person at an appointment booked through Prenot@mi, or in court.
How long does it take?
For descent, the law gives a consulate thirty-six months to decide once an application has been filed, and Manchester publishes a 24 to 36 month range. Nobody publishes how long it takes to obtain the appointment at which to file, and we do not either. For marriage, the term is twenty-four months, extendable to thirty-six.
What happens after 2029?
Under Law 11/2026, from 1 January 2029 applications from adults resident abroad are no longer handled by consulates but by a dedicated office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. Until then each consulate may accept, per year, no more adult applications than the procedures it closed the year before, and never fewer than one hundred.
What this page is based on
- Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992, articles 3-bis, 5, 9-bis, 11 and 17, consolidated text.
- Decree-Law no. 36 of 28 March 2025, converted with amendments by Law no. 74 of 23 May 2025.
- Ministry of the Interior circular no. 26185 of 28 May 2025.
- Constitutional Court judgment no. 63/2026 and order no. 147/2026 (referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union).
- Court of Cassation, Sezioni Unite, judgment no. 24045/2026.
- Legislative Decree no. 150 of 1 September 2011, article 19-bis; Decree-Law no. 13 of 17 February 2017, article 4(5).
- Law no. 11 of 19 January 2026 (annual caps, thirty-six-month term, centralisation from 1 January 2029).
- The consular pages of the Consulates General in London and Edinburgh and the Consulate in Manchester, and the consular network published by the Embassy of Italy in London, read on 15 September 2026.
Send us the line, and the date your ancestor became British.
Those two facts decide almost everything. With them, and the dates of birth and marriage down the line, a lawyer will tell you in writing which condition of article 3-bis applies to you, whether the consulate or the court is realistic, and what the file will need. No cost, and no obligation to go further.
- Read by an Italian lawyer
- Answered in writing
- Every message is answered
Or start from the rules: citizenship by descent · 1948 cases · your consulate · what it costs.