ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP CRACKDOWN | Millions of Americans Stripped of Second Passport Rights Under New Citizenship Rule Change in Italy: Here’s All You Need to Know
ROME / WASHINGTON, D.C. — ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP CRACKDOWN USA Breaking news today: The golden age of “unlimited” Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis) has officially come to a staggering end. In a landmark decision that has sent shockwaves through the 17-million-strong Italian-American community, the Italian Constitutional Court on March 12, 2026, upheld the controversial “Tajani Decree” (Law 74/2025), a move that effectively strips millions of their dormant rights to an EU passport.
The ruling is being called the “Great Italian Citizenship Crackdown,” a legislative wall built to stop what the government terms “passport shopping.” For families who spent years gathering 19th-century birth certificates from ancestral villages, the court’s decision is a final, “arrivederci” to their dreams of dual nationality.
The Ruling: Why the Court Upheld the “Tajani Decree”
The crisis reached its boiling point this month when the Constitutional Court in Rome rejected challenges from lower courts in Turin. The judges ruled that the Italian Parliament has “broad discretion” to define who is a citizen, concluding that there is no constitutional right to the unlimited transmission of citizenship across generations without a “genuine connection” to the country.
Key takeaways from the March 2026 ruling:
- The Legislative Wall: Law 74/2025 is compatible with the Italian Constitution.
- Retroactive Reach: The law applies to anyone born abroad who holds another citizenship, essentially stating they never acquired Italian citizenship in the first place if they fall outside the new, narrow limits.
- The End of “Bloodline Forever”: The court emphasized that Italy is moving away from an expansive ancestry model toward one that requires “effective ties” and “recent generations.”
The New “Two-Generation” Rule: Who is Disqualified?
The crackdown centers on a strict generational cutoff that targets the heart of the Italian diaspora. Under the new rules, the “unlimited” chain is broken:
- The Grandparent Limit: Automatic citizenship is now generally restricted to those with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy.
- The Exclusivity Requirement: That ancestor must have held solely Italian citizenship at the time of the descendant’s birth (or their own death, whichever came first). If they naturalized as a U.S. citizen before the next generation was born, the line is considered “severed.”
- The Residency Clause: For those whose ancestors are further back than a grandparent, citizenship is only possible if the parent lived in Italy for two consecutive years before the applicant’s birth.
For most Italian Americans—whose ancestors arrived at Ellis Island between 1890 and 1920—this “two-generation” limit effectively disqualifies them from ever claiming a passport.
The “Minor Issue” and the April 14 Showdown
While the Constitutional Court has upheld the generational cap, one final legal battle remains. On April 14, 2026, Italy’s highest civil court (the Court of Cassation) will hear the infamous “minor-age issue.”
This separate legal hurdle argues that if an Italian ancestor naturalized in the U.S. while their child was still a minor, the child “lost” their Italian citizenship automatically. If the court rules against descendants on this issue, it could independently disqualify thousands of cases that were filed before the March 2025 deadline, creating a second wave of the crackdown.
The Administrative Cleanup: Centralization in Rome
To further tighten the belt, the Italian government is stripping local consulates—like those in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago—of their power to process adult citizenship claims.
- The Rome Hub: Starting in 2029, all adult jure sanguinis applications will be centralized in a single “Citizenship Directorate” in Rome.
- Annual Caps: New laws introduced in early 2026 impose strict annual caps on the number of files each consulate can accept, preventing the “administrative avalanche” that has previously caused 8-year waitlists.
- The Fee Spike: Consular fees for citizenship applications have officially doubled to €600 per adult, regardless of the outcome.
Are You Still Eligible? The 2026 Checklist
If you are an American of Italian descent, your path to a second passport now depends on a very specific set of variables:
| Scenario | Status (as of March 2026) |
|---|---|
| Filed before March 27, 2025 | Protected. Your case is assessed under the old, unlimited rules. |
| Parent/Grandparent born in Italy | Likely Eligible. You fit the new 2-generation window. |
| Great-Grandparent arrived in 1910 | Disqualified. Unless you meet the 2-year residency exception. |
| Ancestor naturalized as a minor | Pending. Await the April 14, 2026, Court of Cassation ruling. |
Conclusion: The “Lasagna” of Bureaucracy
One year after the emergency decree was first signed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the legal landscape for Italian descendants has been permanently reshaped. The “lasagna of bureaucratic layers,” as some families call it, has become too thick for most to navigate.
As Italy pivots toward “Ius Scholae”—focusing on citizenship for immigrants living inside the country—the door for those living outside has been firmly bolted. For millions of Americans, the Italian passport is no longer a birthright; it is a ghost of a legacy that has finally been laid to rest by the courts of Rome.
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