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.
Can Americans still get Italian citizenship in 2026?
Some lines still reach a gate in the statute and most do not, and nothing in the 2025 law singles out Americans. The rule that decides it, article 3-bis of Law 91/1992, applies to anyone born abroad who holds another citizenship. It bites hardest on American families for a reason of American law rather than Italian law: a person born in the United States held United States citizenship from the day of their birth, so an American-born ancestor almost never held Italian citizenship exclusively at any later moment.
The routes are open, the fees are published, and the machinery changed twice in 2026. Below is where all three stand.
What has to be true, in one paragraph
Article 3-bis, in force since 24 May 2025, treats a person born abroad who holds another citizenship as never having acquired Italian citizenship unless one of five conditions is met: a complete application filed by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025; an appointment the office had communicated by that moment; a court case filed by that moment; a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, exclusively Italian citizenship; or a parent who resided in Italy for two continuous years after acquiring citizenship and before the applicant's birth.
For an American family the fourth of those is the usual one, and it normally means an Italy-born parent or grandparent who had not naturalised before the applicant's birth. The Interior Ministry circular of 28 May 2025 measures exclusivity at the applicant's birth, or at the ascendant's death where the ascendant died first.
Three things that changed in 2026, all of them relevant to American lines
July 2026: the minor issue was settled in favour of applicants
The Joint Sections of the Court of Cassation, in judgment 24045/2026 deposited 26 July 2026, held that a child who already held the foreign citizenship from birth did not lose Italian citizenship when a parent naturalised during the child's minority. Children born in the United States are dual from birth, so this holding is aimed squarely at American chains. Companion judgment 24184/2026 addressed the other case, where the child acquired the foreign citizenship through the parent.
April 2026: the new limits survived domestic constitutional review
The Constitutional Court's judgment 63/2026, deposited 30 April 2026, left article 3-bis standing, including its retroactive reach.
July 2026: one question went to Luxembourg
By order 147/2026, deliberated 9 June 2026 and deposited 23 July 2026, the Constitutional Court referred to the EU Court of Justice whether EU law permits a national rule that retroactively deems foreign-born dual citizens never to have acquired Italian citizenship. No date has been set for an answer and we do not publish an estimate. See the referral page.
The machinery an American applicant meets
Law 11 of 19 January 2026, published in the Official Gazette on 4 February 2026 and in force 19 February 2026, created a dedicated office within the foreign ministry, set a 36-month decision deadline, and moves new adult applications from abroad to postal filing in Rome from 1 January 2029. During the transition each consulate may accept in a year at most the number of applications it completed the previous year, with a floor of 100.
The consular fee is charged for the examination, not for a result, and is not refunded if the answer is no. The dollar figure is fixed only to 30 September 2026, which is three weeks after this page was checked; verify it at your own post on the day you pay.
What we do not publish, and why
- How many Americans apply, or how many are recognised. No authority publishes it. Figures circulating commercially cite nothing and disagree with each other.
- Per-consulate waiting times. Same reason, and it is the single most requested number in this topic. What is publishable is the statutory machinery above, and the timing page is built on it.
- How each United States post is running its transitional intake cap. The floor of 100 a year is in the statute; the queue mechanics are not published post by post.
- An average cost for Italian counsel. Published asking prices differ by roughly a factor of three. We publish that as a spread and tell you to get a written quote.
What to answer about your own family
Where the answer to the second is yes but the naturalisation came after the applicant's birth, the circular's timing rule is the part to read. Where nobody knows the date, it is findable: how to prove an ancestor never naturalised names the offices, and the checklist says what a usable letter has to cover.
If you are not in the United States, the statute is the same and the record trail is not. See the pages on Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
- 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. 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 and on evidence.
- Constitutional Court, judgment 63/2026, deposited 30 April 2026; order 147/2026, deliberated 9 June 2026, deposited 23 July 2026. Read judgment 63 of 2026 at the Constitutional Court, checked 10 September 2026.
- Court of Cassation, Joint Sections, judgment 24045/2026, deposited 26 July 2026. Companion judgment 24184/2026, deposited 29 July 2026, which we have through a secondary report and not from the court's own publication. Read judgment 24045 of 2026 at the Court of Cassation, checked 10 September 2026.
- Law 11 of 19 January 2026, Official Gazette number 28 of 4 February 2026, in force 19 February 2026: dedicated foreign ministry office, 36-month decision deadline, transitional intake caps with a floor of 100 per post, centralisation in Rome from 1 January 2029.
- Consular fee of €600 per adult application and the rate of $699.10 fixed through 30 September 2026: notices of the Italian consulates in New York and Boston.
- Court filing fee of €600 per petitioner: article 13 paragraph 1-sexies of Presidential Decree 115/2002, added by Law 207 of 2024 article 1 paragraph 814, in force 1 January 2025. Read the Ministry of Justice circular of 16 January 2025, checked 10 September 2026.
One next step
Nationality is not what the statute asks about. It asks who was born where, who took another citizenship, and when. The free check walks those questions for every Italy-born parent and grandparent, before anyone pays a fee of €600 that is not refunded.
Run the free check, about two minutesNo email, no account, and it can end with a plain no.