Many people have contacted ProGenealogists about the possibility of becoming an Italian citizen through descent. We have assisted many clients in this endeavor. If you have Italian ancestry, then you may be interested to learn about this option.

I will not take the time here to outline all of the requirements one must meet to claim Italian citizenship through descent, but I will provide some basic details.

The specific terminology for citizenship by descent is jure sanguinis. It’s a Latin term that denotes right by blood. According to Italian law, an Italian citizen may pass their citizenship onto their posterity down to the 4th generation. In other words, you can lay claim to Italian citizenship back to your great-grandparents! Now, there are some stipulations. For example, women could not pass their citizenship on until 1948 and so most people can only claim citizenship through a grandfather or great-grandfather. Also, your ancestors must not have denounced their Italian citizenship before the birth of their children. A person would have denounced their Italian citizenship when becoming a naturalized citizen of another country. So, if a person emigrated from Italy and became a citizen of the U.S. (or another country) before their children were born, their naturalization would have nullified their children’s claim on their Italian citizenship. However, if the ancestor never naturalized or did so after their children were born, then the children were still considered Italian citizens.

Usually the most important piece of information that qualifies a person is the naturalization details of their immigrant ancestor. This can be tricky to pin down, which is where we can help. Also, the process can become very complicated in obtaining certified copies of many vital records, apostille seals and original records from Italy. Again, ProGenealogists is qualified and capable of handling all of this for you!

If you have Italian ancestry and are interested in finding out if you qualify for Italian citizenship, you can learn more about the qualifications on our Italian Citizenship.