The €600 consular fee: who pays it, and is it refundable?
Every adult filing a citizenship-by-descent application at an Italian consulate pays €600, per person and per application, at the moment of filing, and it is not refundable whatever the outcome. It is a fee for examining your file, not a deposit against a result, so a family of four filing together pays €2,400 and gets none of it back if the answer is no.
At United States posts the amount is charged in dollars, currently $699.10, and that rate is fixed only until 30 September 2026.
The euro figure is set by law. The dollar figure is a conversion the consulates re-fix periodically, which is why it carries an expiry date.
What the fee buys, and what it does not
- It buys examination. The office reviews your file against the rules and issues a decision.
- It does not buy completeness checking in advance. A file that fails is still a file that was examined.
- It does not cover the documents. Vital records, apostilles, certified translations and negative naturalisation certificates are all separate, and they are paid to other authorities and providers.
- It does not cover your relatives. Each adult applicant is a separate application with a separate fee.
Where a fee is not charged
- Declarations for minor children. The €250 per child charge introduced in 2025 was abolished from 1 January 2026, and those declarations are now free. Payments already made in 2025 were not refunded.
- Re-examination of a denial that rested on the minor issue. Under Interior Ministry circular prot. 65050 of 10 August 2026, the request is a re-examination of the original application and no new application fee is due.
A court case is not an exemption. It has its own fee of €600 per petitioner. See the route comparison.
Before you pay it, three questions worth answering
1. Which gate in article 3-bis is your file relying on?
If you cannot name one, the file is not ready to be examined.
2. Can you evidence the exclusivity date, not just assert it?
The circular of 28 May 2025 puts the burden on the applicant and says self-declarations are not sufficient. A missing negative certificate is a common and expensive way to lose €600.
3. Does your consulate's current document list match what you have?
Requirements differ by post and there is no published national list. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
What we cannot tell you
What the dollar amount will be after 30 September 2026. It is re-fixed periodically against the euro and the next figure had not been published as of 7 September 2026. Check your own consulate's fee notice on the day you pay.
- Fee of €600 per adult application for recognition by descent, increased from €300 with effect from 1 January 2025 by the 2025 budget law: fee notices published by the Italian consulates in New York, Chicago and Boston.
- Rate of $699.10 stated as applicable until 30 September 2026: Italian Consulate General in Boston, jure sanguinis page.
- Non-refundable regardless of outcome: the same consular notices.
- Abolition of the €250 charge for minors' declarations from 1 January 2026, with no refunds for 2025 payments: 2026 budget law, as reported in Italian civil-status commentary.
- No new fee for re-examination: Interior Ministry circular prot. 65050 of 10 August 2026.
- Burden of proof and insufficiency of self-declarations: Interior Ministry circular of 28 May 2025.
One next step
The fee is the strongest argument there is for checking before filing. Our free check runs the same gates the consulate will, in the same order, and returns a plain answer including a plain no. It takes about two minutes and costs nothing, which is the entire point of putting it before the €600.
Run the free check firstNo email. Nothing you type reaches us.