The Council of Ministers today adopted the “citizenship package”, a set of legislative measures proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to reform the citizenship regulations. The aim of the measures adopted today is to enhance the actual link between Italy and its citizens abroad. Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani clarified that “the principle of ius sanguinis will not be undermined, and many descendants of emigrants will still be able to obtain Italian citizenship, but there will be precise limits, mainly to prevent abuses or phenomena of the ‘commercialisation’ of Italian passports. Citizenship must be a serious matter”.
Countries with the highest rates of Italian emigration have, in fact, seen a significant increase in citizenship recognitions in recent years. From the end of 2014 to the end of 2024, the number of citizens residing abroad increased from around 4.6 million to 6.4 million, a 40% rise in 10 years. There are over 60,000 ongoing legal proceedings for the determination of citizenship.
For example, Argentina increased from approximately 20,000 recognitions in 2023 to 30,000 the following year. Brazil rose from over 14,000 recognitions in 2022 to 20,000 last year. Venezuela had nearly 8,000 recognitions in 2023. It is estimated that the number of potential Italian descendants worldwide who could request citizenship recognition under the current law is between 60 and 80 million.
The reform will free up resources to make consular services more efficient, allowing them to focus exclusively on those with a genuine need, based on their actual connection to Italy. The current system negatively impacts the efficiency of Italian administrative or judicial offices, which are under pressure from individuals who visit Italy merely to expedite their citizenship recognition process, leading to fraud or improper practices.
To achieve this objective, the reform proceeds in two stages: some provisions will take effect immediately through a decree-law, and subsequently, a comprehensive reform of the substantive requirements and procedures concerning citizenship will be implemented.
The decree-law approved today states that Italian descendants born abroad will automatically be citizens for only two generations: only those with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will be citizens from birth.
In the second phase, with a first draft law (also approved today), further and more detailed changes to the citizenship law will be introduced. This law primarily requires citizens born and residing abroad to maintain real ties with Italy over time, exercising the rights and duties of citizenship at least once every twenty-five years.
The reform is completed with a second draft law that also revises the procedures for citizenship recognition. Residents abroad will no longer contact consulates but will instead go to a special centralised office at the Italian Foreign Ministry. A transitional period of about one year will be allowed for the organisation of the office. The goal is to make the procedures more efficient, with clear economies of scale. Consulates will need to focus on providing services to those who are already citizens, not on “creating” new citizens.
Finally, the provision includes other measures to improve and modernise service delivery: legalisations, civil registries, passports, identity cards valid for travel abroad. Additionally, organisational measures are planned to make the Italian Foreign Ministry’s structure increasingly at the service of citizens and businesses.
