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Law 74/2025 caps generational eligibility — here is what changes for US families with Italian ancestry, and what to do before the consular window closes
Do nothing this month and your application may be processed under rules that did not exist when you submitted it. Italy's Law 74/2025, which amends Law 91/1992 — the statute that has governed Italian citizenship since 1992 — came into full effect in 2026 and imposes the most significant restriction on jure sanguinis claims in over three decades. The implementing decree filling in the precise generational cut-off is still awaited. That uncertainty is itself a reason to act now, not later.
Yes, and the change is structural, not procedural. Law 74/2025 adds a generational limit to jure sanguinis — the principle of citizenship by descent — which Italian law previously left open-ended. Under Law 91/1992 as it stood before the amendment, citizenship passed automatically through an unbroken Italian parent-to-child chain regardless of how many generations had elapsed since the original Italian ancestor emigrated. A great-great-grandchild born in Chicago had the same theoretical right as a grandchild born in Rome.
That is now changing. The cap appears to land at the second or third generation from the last Italian national, though the implementing decree required under Law 74/2025 had not been published at the time of writing. If your line runs four or five generations back — common among Italian-Americans whose ancestors left Sicily or Calabria in the 1880s or 1900s — your eligibility is no longer automatic and may be extinguished entirely once the decree is in force.
The practical consequence: every US applicant currently in a consular queue, or thinking of starting one, must map their exact generational position now. Do not assume the file you submitted two years ago is still complete or sufficient.
That is the question Law 74/2025 answers incompletely. What is confirmed is the principle: eligibility is no longer unlimited in generational depth. What the implementing decree must specify is the precise cut-off — whether it is the second generation (grandchildren of the last Italian national) or the third (great-grandchildren). Most Italian legal commentators as of mid-2026 read the provision as capping claims at the second generation from an Italian citizen who was alive and registered as such after a given reference date.
Nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet — no one can transfer more rights than they themselves possess. That maxim from Roman law captures the structural logic here: once the Italian ancestor's citizenship ceased to transmit automatically at a certain generational remove, descendants below that threshold have no right to assert transmission.
Unlike in most common-law countries, where citizenship by descent is typically limited to one generation born abroad (as under US law via the Immigration and Nationality Act, which requires that a US citizen parent have been physically present in the United States for a qualifying period before a child born abroad acquires citizenship automatically), Italy historically placed no comparable generational cap on bloodline transmission. A Sicilian great-great-grandchild could claim the same rights as someone one generation removed. Law 74/2025 ends that exceptionalism and brings Italian citizenship law closer to the approach most OECD states already apply.
delete or recast as a footnote, citizenship rules achieve legitimacy when they balance the continuity of national identity with the reality of integration into the country of actual residence. Italy's reform reflects that tension.
This is where the 2026 Budget Law creates a window that many families have misunderstood. The Budget Law extended the deadline for registering minor children born abroad who already qualify as Italian citizens — through a parent who holds or has confirmed Italian citizenship — to ensure those children are enrolled in AIRE, the official registry of Italians resident abroad (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero). Registration with AIRE is compulsory: a minor who is Italian by law but not registered risks complications with passport applications, consular services and ultimately with passing citizenship to their own children.
The extended deadline runs into 2026, but it applies only to children who already qualify. It does not extend eligibility to children whose parent's own claim has been cut off by the generational cap or is otherwise unresolved. If your application is pending and the generational limit ultimately extinguishes your claim, your child does not benefit from the registration extension. The extension is a procedural grace period, not an amnesty or an expansion of substantive rights.
In practical terms: if you are a confirmed Italian citizen — your citizenship has been recognised by a consulate or an Italian court — and your minor child was born abroad and has not yet been registered on AIRE, act on the deadline immediately. Contact your nearest Italian consulate in the US, gather your child's birth certificate, your recognition documents, and file the AIRE registration before the window closes.
This is the trap that almost no US-facing content addresses. And it is the point where two members of the same family can find themselves in entirely different legal positions.
Before 1 January 1948, Italian law did not allow a woman to transmit citizenship to her children. A female Italian ancestor who naturalised as a US citizen before that date — and many did, because naturalisation was often required before or during marriage — broke the chain under the old civil code rules. Italian courts have spent decades recognising that this was discriminatory, and a line of judicial decisions has carved out a remedy: the so-called "1948 cases" allow descendants of female Italian ancestors to claim citizenship, but only through a judicial claim before the competent Italian court (Tribunale competente), not through the ordinary consular recognition procedure.
Law 74/2025 does not regularise these claims. It does not bring pre-1948 female-line cases into the consular track. It does not suspend the need for litigation. What it may do — and this is the complication Italian legal practitioners are now examining — is interact with the new generational cap in ways that the legislature did not explicitly address. If a pre-1948 female-line claimant is also at or beyond the generational limit, the judicial route may still be available, but the outcome is genuinely uncertain pending further case law.
The Italian Court of Cassation has addressed the pre-1948 female-line question in substance: Italian Court of Cassation, First Civil Division, judgment no. 25310 of 25 October 2022 (Cass. civ., Sez. I, sentenza 25 ottobre 2022 n. 25310) confirmed that descendants through a female line where the female ancestor naturalised before 1 January 1948 retain the right to judicial recognition of citizenship, with the claim heard by the civil courts. That judicial avenue remains open. But it is now operating alongside a reformed statutory framework whose implementing decree has not yet fully settled its interaction with these older claims.
In our files, the most common mistake is a family assuming that because one sibling has already obtained consulate recognition through the paternal line, the sibling claiming through the maternal line — where a great-grandmother naturalised in 1939 — can follow the same route. They cannot. The maternal-line sibling needs a separate judicial claim, separate legal representation, and a considerably longer timeline. We see families lose years by conflating the two tracks.
The consular recognition procedure is the standard path: you gather vital records, submit to the competent Italian consulate in the US, and await a determination. Waiting times at many consulates currently run to several years. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have some of the longest queues for Italian citizenship matters.
The judicial route — filing directly before the competent Italian civil court — bypasses the consulate entirely. Italian courts have held that applicants have standing to seek a declaratory judgment of Italian citizenship regardless of where they reside. This route has historically been faster for strong genealogical cases. Law 74/2025 does not eliminate it. But it costs more upfront: you need Italian counsel, court fees and typically a full genealogical opinion. A rough estimate for a straightforward first-instance judicial recognition is EUR 3,000 to EUR 6,000 in legal and court costs, though figures vary by complexity.
The pre-1948 female-line cases can only use the judicial route. For everyone else, the choice between consulate and court is a strategic one that depends on where in the generational chain you sit, how strong your documentation is, and how much time you can afford to lose.
My Italian great-great-grandfather emigrated in 1901. Does Law 74/2025 cut off my claim?
Possibly. A great-great-grandchild is four generations removed from the emigrant ancestor. Once the implementing decree under Law 74/2025 sets the precise generational limit — currently expected at the second or third generation from the last Italian national — claims at the fourth generation may no longer be available through the consular route. Have your line assessed against the implementing decree as soon as it is published; do not wait for your consulate appointment to find out.
My Italian grandmother naturalised as a US citizen in 1935. Can I still claim through her line?
Because she naturalised before 1 January 1948, this is a pre-1948 female-line case. The consulate will not process it. You need a judicial claim before the competent Italian civil court. Italian Court of Cassation judgment no. 25310 of 2022 confirmed this right exists, but it must be actively pursued through litigation in Italy. The new generational rules do not extinguish this judicial route, though their precise interaction is still developing in case law.
If I register my minor child on AIRE now, does that protect their citizenship regardless of what happens to my own application?
Only if your own citizenship status is already confirmed — by consular recognition or a court judgment — before you register your child. AIRE registration records a citizenship that already exists in law; it does not create or extend it. If your own claim is still pending or has been cut off by the generational limit, registering your child now does not insulate them from the outcome of your case. Clarify your own status first.
HREFLANG BLOCK:
Editorial Team — Panato Law Firm Staff
