Millions of Americans with Italian roots hoping to become citizens of the “Bel Paese” have just received another blow after Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled to uphold recent changes to the country’s citizenship-by-descent rules earlier this week.
With a press release on March 12, the court rejected constitutional challenges to the law that reshaped Italy’s “jure sanguinis” (or citizenship-by-descent) framework last year, imposing new limits on who can claim Italian citizenship through their ancestry.
Until last year, Italy allowed foreign nationals with an Italian ancestor alive after March 17, 1861—when Italy became a unified country—to apply for citizenship.
But after growing criticism of this rule, which many said allowed foreign nationals with little to no direct connection to the country to obtain a convenient passport, the country tightened its eligibility criteria passing an emergency decree on March 28 last year.
This decree, which came into effect in May of the same year, stated that only foreign nationals with Italian parents or grandparents are allowed to seek citizenship. That parent or grandparent must have held solely Italian citizenship at the time of their descendant’s birth or at their own death if it came earlier, effectively excluding those with dual citizenship.
“Being an Italian citizen is a serious thing. It’s not a game to get a passport that allows you to go shopping in Miami,” Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said during a news conference in Rome on March 28, 2025.
What Have Been the Consequences of This Rule Change?
The rule change was passed as Italian authorities complained of being overwhelmed with applications, especially from South American countries—like Brazil and Argentina—which saw the influx of millions of Italians escaping poverty at home in the 19th and 20th centuries.
According to the foreign ministry, 60 million to 80 million people worldwide were eligible for citizenship under the old citizenship-by-descent rules, but were cut off by the changes introduced last year.
The sudden restrictions imposed on Italy’s citizenship-by-descent rules have been a devastating blow for many Americans with ties to the country. Joseph Spinelle, who recently moved to southern Italy from Chicago, told Newsweek last year that families were “getting ripped apart” by the new limitations.
Marco Permunian, legal consultant and founder of Italian Citizenship Assistance, said that the change to the Italian citizenship law “was done in an unjust and unfair manner, affecting countless individuals who have been eligible to apply and had shown interest by taking significant actions to submit their citizenship application.”
Many in Italy agreed with them. The rule changes were challenged by four judges who questioned its constitutionality. According to the first page of Italy’s civil code, published in 1865, a child born to an Italian citizen was an Italian citizen.
What Does This Mean for Would-Be Applicants?
In the first of four hearings held earlier this month, the country’s Constitutional Court indicated that it will support the government’s position against the judges’ claims.
“The Constitutional Court has declared the questions of constitutional legitimacy raised by the Turin court partially unfounded and partially inadmissible,” the court stated on March 12.
Earlier this week, the court officially ruled to reject challenges to the new citizenship-by-descent rules, which remain in place.
For those foreign nationals with Italian roots who filed their applications in time, there still may be a chance to obtain citizenship under the old rules. For anyone else, a path may still exist if they fit in with the new, stricter requirements.
But some opponents to the new rules still harbor hope that things may change in the future. The Constitutional Court’s ruling “doesn’t mean the new law is 100 percent valid and forever,” citizenship lawyer Marco Mellone told CNN earlier this month.
“There is still space for argument for cases brought by Italian judges to the constitutional court. In July 2025, the Constitutional Court issued a judgment saying that descendants had a right to Italian citizenship at birth, from birth. They changed their opinion I suppose. It is very weird.”
The Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest legal authority, would hold a hearing on challenges to the new rules on April 14. Their decision could trump that of the Constitutional Court.
