The principle of jus sanguinis governs Italian citizenship laws. Jus sanguinis literally means “right of blood” and refers to the fact that the child of an Italian citizen is an Italian citizen.

If one of your ancestors immigrated from Italy, there is a chance that you can claim Italian citizenship, assuming you can prove a few conditions. For instance, you need to prove that the citizenship chain that starts with the i migrant ancestor and ends with you was never broken — for example, by one of your ancestors renouncing their Italian citizenship before the next-in-line descendant was born.

The conditions to prove also vary depending on the year certain events took place. 1861, 1912, 1948, and 1992 are important years that affect which documents to collect, how to determine eligibility, and how to file your application.

Burgundy Passport provides an initial assessment of your eligibility free of charge included the initial quote, and a more precise assessment after the first phase of document collection. This gives you certainty early on in the process and avoids unnecessary fees if we determine you are not eligible.

The 1992 law No. 91 generally affirmed the principle of jus sanguinis already stated in Italian citizenship law.

One notable update is that it also allowed dual citizenship. Before 1992, an Italian citizen naturalizing in a foreign country would automatically lose Italian citizenship at the time of naturalization. That is the reason why you are generally ineligible for Italian citizenship if your immigrant ancestor naturalized as an American citizen before their next-in-line descendant was born (note that this does not apply to natural-born American descendants).

If your immigrant Italian ancestor left Italy after 1992, there is no need for you to verify whether they naturalized before or after having the next-in-line descendant, since they did not automatically lose Italian citizenship at the time of naturalization.

The Apostille was established under the Hague Convention of 1961 to authenticate documents for use across countries that are members of the Convention. It is essentially a stamp or seal certifying the legitimacy of documents, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, academic diplomas, and legal papers, making them officially recognized in all signatory nations.

While some countries don’t enforce the use of Apostilles, Italy does. The apostille on a foreign document is always required to ensure the document’s validity in Italy. This is particularly important for official procedures, such as citizenship applications, marriage registrations, and academic enrollments.

Apostilles are generally issued by a state’s Department of State (if a state entity issues the document) or by the United States Department of State (if the federal government issues the document).

Burgundy Passport will take care of applying Apostille to all the documents needed for your Italian citizenship application.

Yes – as long as you can prove that the Italian citizenship link was never broken through the generations, the gender of your ancestors will not matter.

On January 1, 1948, the Italian Constitution went into effect, setting the foundation of the Italian legal system after the Second World War – a pretty big deal! Article 3 of the Constitution states that All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinion, personal and social conditions.

Before the Constitution went into effect, women were generally unable to pass Italian citizenship on to their children. That means that until recently, Italian citizenship applications that included an Italian woman ancestor giving birth to a child before 1948 without a recognized Italian father were generally denied.

In 2009, a ruling by the Corte Suprema di Cassazione – the Italian Supreme Court – stated that the pre-1948 rule discriminated based on gender, violating the principle of equality. It also ruled that Italian women could pass their citizenship to their children retroactively, even if the children were born before January 1, 1948.

The 1948 rule is still relevant because it affects how you can apply for Italian citizenship. If the 1948 rule applies to you, you must petition the Italian court system to grant you citizenship, instead of applying via your local consulate.

Burgundy Passport will support you regardless of the path that applies to your case, partnering with attorneys in Italy who can represent your case even if you are based abroad.

The timeline of your application depends on a few factors, but will generally take a few years from start to finish. This article explains the different scenarios in more detail.

All costs related to the document production are included in the fee that we quote.

Application fees charged by Italian authorities — currently 300 euros — are responsibility of the applicant and never part of the fees that we quote. The same applies to the language test fees for marriage-based applications, typically costing less than $200.

Correction of discrepancies and mismatches that we find in the documents also incur additional fees, which we will share as part of your quote.

You do not need to prove knowledge of the Italian language to acquire citizenship by descent.

You do, however, need to pass an intermediate language test if you are applying for citizenship by marriage. That is called B1 Cittadinanza and is administered by a few entities in the United States. At Burgundy Passport, we help you learn and study for the B1 language test.

In general, the citizenship application process is exclusively based on the documents you provide.

For marriage-based applications, the consulate will typically require you to appear in person to sign the application in front of a consular officer. Additionally, once your application is approved you must appear in person for your oath.

For applications by descent, some consulates will require you to appear in person to deliver the supporting documents, while others will simply ask you to submit the documents by mail on the date of your appointment. No oath is required.

If you are applying for citizenship by descent, your minor children living with you are generally automatically included in your application.

Other family members eligible with the same sets of documents — mostly siblings — need to submit a separate application. You might be able to use one document package for two applications, but that will depend on several factors, including the procedures specific to your local consulate and whether the other applicant lives in the same consular section as yours.

Your spouse will only become eligible to apply for Italian citizenship after you acquire citizenship by descent, assuming all other requirements are met.