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.
Do I apply at a consulate or at an Italian comune?
The law names both. Article 3-bis speaks of an application filed with the competent consular office or with the mayor, and the test it applies is identical at either counter. Which one is open to you is not a preference: the comune route belongs to people registered as resident in that comune, and the consular route to people living in that post's district abroad.
This page is about the two counters. Whether to go to a court instead is a different question, and it is on the routes page.
The two counters, side by side
The consulate, if you live abroad
- The post with jurisdiction over your place of residence. Appointments are booked through the Prenot@Mi system, and the application is individual and made in person.
- €600 per adult application, charged for the examination and not refunded whatever the outcome.
- 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 one hundred.
- From 1 January 2029 consulates lose competence for new adult applications from abroad. Those go by postal mail to a single office in Rome, which has a 36-month decision deadline. Files already pending at a consulate stay there.
The comune, if you live in Italy
- The competent authority is the mayor of the comune where you are resident. Italian posts describing this route state that the procedure runs once the applicant is registered in the resident population registry of that comune.
- The documentation follows the Interior Ministry circular K.28.1 of 8 April 1991: the Italian ancestor's birth record, the birth records of every descendant in the line, the marriage records, and a certificate from the competent foreign authority on whether the ancestor acquired that country's citizenship, with Italian translations.
- The 2025 budget law lets a comune charge an administrative contribution of up to €600 per adult applicant. It is a ceiling, not a fixed price, and each comune sets its own by regulation.
- An application to a comune is inadmissible if that contribution is unpaid or wrongly paid. The same law states that the comune contribution does not apply to applications made through consular offices, which pay the consular fee instead.
What does not change when you change counter
- The rule. Article 3-bis applies at both. A comune does not run a softer test, and the exclusivity condition is read at the same moment: the applicant's birth, or the ascendant's earlier death.
- The evidence standard. The burden is on the applicant, and self-declarations are not sufficient on the exclusivity question. That is the circular of 28 May 2025, and it binds both counters.
- The record set. The same chain of birth, marriage and death records, apostilled and translated as required, with the same missing marriage certificate breaking the same file.
- A maternal line before 1948. Refused at both counters, and set aside only by a court. Moving from one counter to the other does not fix it.
The comparison, as questions you answer about yourself
The first question usually answers the whole thing. Very few people choose between these counters. Most people have one of them, and the other is a story they read online.
The step we do not research, said plainly
Registering as resident in a comune means legal residence, and for a descendant who is not an EU citizen legal residence needs a visa first. Which visa routes practically work for someone intending to settle in Italy for this purpose is not something we have researched. Elective residence, work and study routes are the obvious candidates and each has its own conditions.
We would rather name that as a gap than fill it with plausible-sounding text. It is the single biggest practical difference between the two counters, and it is not a paperwork question.
What nobody publishes
- How long a comune takes. There is no national figure and we do not publish one. The 36-month deadline in the 2026 law is written for the new central office, not for a comune.
- What each comune charges. The law sets a ceiling of €600 per adult applicant and leaves the amount to the comune's own regulation. Ask the comune, in writing, before you count on a number.
- What the 2029 change does to filings made in Italy. The centralisation is written for adults applying from abroad. We did not find a statement on what it means for an application made at a comune by a resident, and we are not going to guess.
- 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: the application filed with the competent consular office or with the mayor, and the cutoff of 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025. Read the converted text in the Official Gazette, checked 10 September 2026.
- Interior Ministry circular prot. 26185 of 28 May 2025: timing of the exclusivity test, burden of proof, and the insufficiency of self-declarations.
- Interior Ministry circular K.28.1 of 8 April 1991, on the documentation required for recognition of citizenship by descent, as described by Italian diplomatic posts. Read 9 September 2026.
- Law 207 of 2024, the 2025 budget law, article 1, paragraphs 636 to 639: the comune contribution of up to €600 per adult applicant, its inapplicability to applications made through consular offices, the inadmissibility of an application where the contribution is unpaid or wrongly paid, and the consular right raised from €300 to €600. Read through ANUSCA's published commentary quoting the statutory text, not from the Official Gazette. Read Law 207 of 2024 in the Official Gazette, checked 10 September 2026.
- Consular fee of €600 per adult application, non-refundable: fee notices of the Italian consulates in New York and Boston, with the same statement published by the posts in Sydney, Brisbane, London and Toronto.
- 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 for the new office, and centralisation in Rome from 1 January 2029.
- Maternal lines before 1 January 1948 refused administratively and set aside by the courts: settled practice described in our routes material, checked 7 September 2026.
One next step
Counter choice is the second decision. The first is whether any gate in article 3-bis opens for your line, because both counters read the same rule and charge whether or not it opens. The check walks that rule in order and asks for no email.
Run the free check, about two minutesIt can end with a plain no, before either counter charges you.