I cannot get a consulate appointment. Can I go to court?

Sometimes, and the door is narrower than the headlines suggest. The Court of Cassation, first civil section, held in judgment 13818/2026 deposited on 12 May 2026 that the interest in pursuing recognition exists not only where an application is refused or delayed, but also where obstacles, difficulties or delays prevent the application from being submitted to the administration at all.

That gives you standing to be heard. It does not give you a claim: the court still applies article 3-bis to your line like any other decision-maker.

What the 2026 ruling says, and what it collides with

The judgment describes citizenship acquired by descent as an absolute subjective right of constitutional rank, existing from the holder's birth, permanent and imprescriptible. That framing matters because it treats recognition as declaring something that already exists rather than granting something new.

The two separate questions in your case

A case can win on the first question and lose on the second. That is the most common shape of disappointment here.

The strategic filing, and its honest price

Some blocked claimants are filing now in order to ask the tribunal to stay the case under article 295 of the code of civil procedure until the EU Court of Justice answers the question referred by Constitutional Court order 147/2026 on 23 July 2026. The idea is to hold a place in the docket rather than to win today.

• The referral does not suspend article 3-bis. It continues to apply while Luxembourg deliberates.
• No tribunal is obliged to grant a stay, and practice is not uniform across courts.
• The court filing fee is €600 for every petitioner, including in a joint family case, and it is paid up front.
• A realistic horizon for the EU judgment is late 2027 or 2028.

So the question to weigh is a money question, not a legal one: is a place in a queue, with an uncertain stay and an uncertain outcome, worth €600 a head plus Italian counsel, held for two years or more?

What we do not know

• Which tribunals are granting stays and at what rate. There is no published national practice.
• How the Cassation and Constitutional Court framings will be reconciled.
• What the EU Court will hold, or precisely when.

• Court of Cassation, first civil section, judgment 13818/2026, deposited 12 May 2026, on the imprescriptible nature of the right and on standing where filing is obstructed.
• Constitutional Court, judgment 63/2026, deposited 30 April 2026.
• Constitutional Court, order 147/2026, deposited 23 July 2026, referral to the EU Court of Justice; referring cases from the Tribunal of Mantua and the Tribunal of Campobasso.
• Article 295 of the Italian code of civil procedure, on necessary stay of proceedings.
• Court filing fee of €600 per petitioner: article 13, paragraph 1-sexies, of Presidential Decree 115/2002, added by Law 207/2024, article 1, paragraph 814, in force from 1 January 2025; Ministry of Justice circular of 16 January 2025.

• Consulate or court, with the real fee structure
• The EU referral and its timetable
• What counts as having filed before the cutoff
• How long the administrative route takes now

One next step, which is not a purchase

Before you spend anything on litigation, answer the second question above about your own line, because it decides whether a court has anything to give you. Our free check runs exactly those tests and will tell you when the answer is no.

If your line does pass a gate and the only obstacle is the booking queue, that is the situation where speaking to an Italian lawyer is worth the money, and we are not one.

No email, and it can end in a no.