If my grandfather was born in Italy, can I get Italian citizenship?

Sometimes, and his birth in Italy is not by itself the test. Since 24 May 2025 a grandparent line is read under article 3-bis of Law 91/1992, which asks whether that grandparent held only Italian citizenship on the day you were born, or on the day he died if he died first. Where that is true and the record chain between him and you holds together, the line reaches that gate; where he had taken another citizenship before your birth, it does not.

Below is the rule, then the parts of it that decide most families, then the questions to answer about your own.

What the rule actually says

Article 3-bis was inserted into Law 91/1992 by Decree-Law 36 of 28 March 2025, converted with amendments by Law 74 of 23 May 2025, in force 24 May 2025. It treats a person born abroad who holds another citizenship as never having acquired Italian citizenship, unless one of five conditions is met.

The condition that a grandparent line normally runs on is the one lettered (c): a first-degree or second-degree ascendant holds, or held at the moment of death, exclusively Italian citizenship.

Birthplace is media shorthand for this test rather than the test itself. It is a fast sorting question because a grandfather born in the United States held United States citizenship from the day of his birth, which means he never held Italian citizenship exclusively at any later date. That is a fact about American law, not a rule in the Italian statute.

The moment the rule measures

The Interior Ministry circular of 28 May 2025 sets the timing: exclusivity is tested at the date of the event that triggers acquisition, meaning the applicant's own birth. If the ascendant died before the applicant was born, it is tested at the ascendant's death instead.

The practical consequence is that a naturalisation dated after your birth does not defeat condition (c) on the circular's reading. That edge is young in consular practice, and the dating has to come from a document rather than from a family account. It is set out on the page about the exclusivity test.

Passing that gate is not the end of it

Article 3-bis derogates from the older transmission rules; it did not delete them. Inside a surviving gate the classic breaks still operate, and each has its own page.

• A naturalisation before the next birth. Someone in the line took another citizenship before the next person in the line was born, and so could not transmit to that child.
• A woman transmitting before 1948. Refused at a counter, argued in an Italian court. See the grandmother page and the page on 1948 cases.
• The minor issue. A child whose parent naturalised while the child was a minor. The Joint Sections of the Court of Cassation, in judgment 24045/2026 deposited 26 July 2026, held that a child who was already a foreign citizen from birth did not lose Italian citizenship by the parent's act. See what the minor issue is.

Four grandparents, two parents, one gate to pass

Only one ascendant has to satisfy condition (c), and families usually test only the one they talk about. The grandfather everyone tells stories about may be the weaker candidate than the grandmother who died in 1961 without ever filing naturalisation papers.

There is also a separate gate that has nothing to do with citizenship held. Condition (d) opens where a parent or adopter resided in Italy for at least two continuous years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before your birth or adoption. It is the least known of the five and is covered on its own page.

And if a complete application, a court case, or a confirmed appointment was already in place before 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025, conditions (a), (a-bis) and (b) put the file under the pre-2025 law, where no generational limit applied at all.

What to answer about your own family

If the answer to the second question is a family story rather than a document, the accurate answer is that you do not know yet. The date is findable: how to prove an ancestor never naturalised sets out which office holds it and what a usable certificate has to say.

If he naturalised before your birth, test the other Italy-born grandparents and both parents before you treat the answer as settled, then test condition (d).

• 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 at 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025. Official Gazette record for the converted text. Read the converted text in the Official Gazette, checked 10 September 2026.
• Interior Ministry circular of 28 May 2025 (protocol 26185), on the timing of the exclusivity test, on the burden of proof, and on the insufficiency of self-declarations.
• Law 555 of 13 June 1912, articles 7 and 12, for the older transmission and loss rules that still operate inside the surviving gates.
• Court of Cassation, Joint Sections, judgment 24045/2026, deliberated 14 April 2026, deposited 26 July 2026. Read judgment 24045 of 2026 at the Court of Cassation, checked 10 September 2026.
• Constitutional Court, judgment 63/2026, deposited 30 April 2026, which left the new limits standing on domestic constitutional review. Read judgment 63 of 2026 at the Constitutional Court, checked 10 September 2026.

• The same question about a grandmother, and the pre-1948 line
• How many generations back the rule reaches
• What "exclusively Italian citizenship" means
• The four gates in article 3-bis, side by side
• The documents a grandparent line needs

One next step

The whole question compresses into two dates: the day you were born, and the day your grandfather acquired a second citizenship, if he ever did. The free check walks that comparison for every Italy-born parent and grandparent you have, and it accepts "I do not know" as an answer.

No email, no account, and it can end with a plain no.