Does this apply to your family? Answer a few questions and see where your line stands.
Who in your family was born in Italy, and what happened after: that is all the check asks. No email, no account. It runs in your browser and your answers never leave it. It can end with a plain no.
The written answer below explains the rule this page is about. The check above covers your whole line.
Italian citizenship by descent from Canada, after the 2025 law
The Italian rule is the same in Toronto as it is anywhere else: article 3-bis of Law 91/1992 asks whether a parent or grandparent held exclusively Italian citizenship at the moment the rule measures. What is Canadian is where the records come from, and one date in Canadian law: a person born in Canada was a British subject before 1 January 1947 and a Canadian citizen from that day. Nothing about living in Canada changes the Italian test, and nothing about the Italian test tells you which Canadian office holds your papers.
The rule itself is set out on the main page, and the exclusivity test on its own. This page is the Canadian half.
The part that is identical everywhere
Article 3-bis treats a person born abroad who holds another citizenship as never having acquired Italian citizenship, unless one of five things is true.
- An application complete with the necessary documentation was filed with the competent consular office or with the mayor by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025.
- An appointment communicated by that office by the same moment, with the filing made on the appointed day.
- A judicial claim filed by the same moment.
- A parent or grandparent holds, or held at the moment of death, exclusively Italian citizenship.
- A parent lived in Italy for at least two continuous years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the birth.
The Interior Ministry circular of 28 May 2025 fixes when exclusivity is measured: at the applicant's birth, or at the ascendant's death if that came first. The same circular puts the burden on the applicant and states that self-declarations are not sufficient.
Where the Canadian records come from
Civil records: the provinces and territories
Births, marriages and deaths in Canada are registered provincially, so the certificate comes from the vital statistics registry of the province or territory where the event happened. The Consulate General in Toronto asks for these in the form of a Certified Copy of Registration, apostilled and translated into Italian.
Whether the ancestor became Canadian
The Toronto post names two federal channels for the document that speaks to this: a Search of Citizenship Records, and an access to information request. The search is made on Form CIT 0058, and the post's page states that the resulting document does not need to be translated into Italian.
Read the limit printed on the federal form itself: the record letter cannot be used as proof of citizenship. It reports what the search found. For a person other than yourself the request goes in on paper rather than online.
Older records
Library and Archives Canada holds indexes rather than the files, among them the naturalisation lists for 1915 to 1951 and the Montreal Circuit Court citizenship registration records for 1851 to 1945. The names and certificate numbers found there are what you use to order the actual documents, which are held by the federal department.
Apostilles, which Canada only started issuing recently
The Apostille Convention entered into force for Canada on 11 January 2024. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan issue apostilles for documents issued or notarised in their own province. Global Affairs Canada issues them for the remaining provinces, for the territories and for federal documents.
A document certified before that date under the older authentication and legalisation system is not an apostille. Check what is actually attached to the paper in your file.
The Canadian dates, as questions about your own family
The second question is the ordinary one and it is answered by a records search. The first is the one people skip. A person born in Canada held a Canadian status from birth, British subject before 1947 and citizen after it, and the word in the Italian rule is "exclusively". What a Canadian-born ascendant held at birth is a question for the office deciding your file, and we do not answer it for you.
Note also that a Canadian permanent resident is not a Canadian citizen, and the Toronto post treats a permanent residence card as one of the documents that can speak to an ancestor's status.
Filing in Canada, in practice
- Where. The Toronto post accepts applications from descendants of Italian citizens born in Canada who live in its consular jurisdiction, and from people born elsewhere who hold a Canadian permanent residence card in that jurisdiction. Your own post is decided by where you live, not by preference.
- The fee. €600 per adult application, paid in Canadian dollars at the counter. The Canadian amount is set by the post and changes, so read it on the post's own page on the day you pay. It is not refunded whatever the outcome.
- The clock. During the transition each consulate may accept in a year at most the number of applications it completed the year before, with a floor of one hundred. From 1 January 2029 new adult applications from abroad go by post to a single office in Rome, which has a 36-month decision deadline.
What we have not documented for Canada
Said plainly, because it decides how much weight this page can carry.
- Documented and sourced: the Italian rule, its dates, the gates, the timing of the exclusivity test, the fee, the transition cap and the 2029 change. That half is the same for every country and it is complete.
- Named but not tested: the Canadian offices above. They come from the Toronto consulate's own page and from the Canadian government's own pages, read on 9 September 2026. We have not ordered a document from any of them.
- Not published by us: any Canadian fee, any Canadian turnaround, and any statement about what your ancestor's Canadian status was. Read the fee off the issuing office's page on the day you order.
- Open: which documents each post accepts as proof that no other citizenship was held. No national standard is published, and posts differ. Ask your own post in writing and keep the answer.
Our step-by-step records material covers United States offices in detail and Canadian offices only at the level of this page. That is a limit of what we have verified, not a judgement about Canadian files.
- Article 3-bis of Law 91 of 5 February 1992, inserted by Decree-Law 36 of 28 March 2025, converted with amendments by Law 74 of 23 May 2025, in force 24 May 2025. Cutoff: 23:59 Rome time, 27 March 2025. Read the converted text in the Official Gazette, checked 10 September 2026.
- Interior Ministry circular prot. 26185 of 28 May 2025, first operating instructions: timing of the exclusivity test, burden of proof, and the insufficiency of self-declarations. Published on the Interior Ministry's civil liberties and immigration site.
- Consulate General of Italy in Toronto, recognition of Italian citizenship by descent: who may apply, Certified Copy of Registration format, apostille and translation, the Search of Citizenship Records and access to information channels, and payment of the €600 in Canadian dollars. Read 9 September 2026.
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Application for a search of citizenship records, Form CIT 0058, and the guidance stating that the record letter cannot be used as proof of citizenship. Read 9 September 2026.
- Library and Archives Canada and Government of Canada guidance on citizenship and naturalisation records: the Canadian Citizenship Act in force 1 January 1947, British subject status before it, the naturalisation lists 1915 to 1951 and the Montreal Circuit Court records 1851 to 1945. Read 9 September 2026.
- Global Affairs Canada: the Apostille Convention in force for Canada from 11 January 2024, with Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan issuing apostilles for their own documents. Read 9 September 2026.
- Law 11 of 19 January 2026, published in the Official Gazette on 4 February 2026, in force 19 February 2026: transitional intake caps with a floor of one hundred, the 36-month decision deadline, and centralisation in Rome from 1 January 2029.
One next step
Two facts decide a Canadian file before any Canadian office is contacted: who in your family was born in Italy, and what citizenship the next person up held when you were born. The check asks for those in family words and gives you the rule your answers reach.
Run the free check, about two minutesIt runs in your browser, asks for no email, and can end with a plain no.