What is Jure Sanguinis?
Italian Citizenship by Blood, Explained

What does Jure Sanguinis mean?

Jure Sanguinis is Latin for "by right of blood." It is the legal principle under which Italy extends citizenship to the descendants of Italian citizens who emigrated abroad — without requiring those descendants to have been born in Italy or to have lived there.

In practice, if your parent or grandparent was Italian — and never legally severed their Italian citizenship — you may have inherited that citizenship at birth, whether you knew it or not. Jure Sanguinis is the mechanism for formally recognizing that inherited status.

Italy is not alone in this principle, but its implementation is one of the more meaningful in the world. Italy does not require language tests, residency, or cultural integration to apply. The entire process is based on documented lineage and legal continuity of citizenship.

The 2025 reform — what changed under Law 74/2025

Before the 2025 reform, Italian citizenship by descent could theoretically be claimed through any direct Italian ancestor, regardless of how many generations back. A great-great-grandparent was sufficient, provided the lineage met the legal requirements.

Law 74/2025 (converting Decree-Law No. 36/2025) changed that by adding Article 3-bis to Italy's citizenship law. If you were born abroad and hold another citizenship, you now need at least one of the following:

• A parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, exclusively Italian citizenship (no other nationality), or
• A parent who lived in Italy for two continuous years after becoming a citizen and before your birth, or
• A case already started by the cutoff (below)

Claims relying only on a great-grandparent or earlier ancestor no longer qualify for new applications. The old rules still apply if, by 11:59 PM Rome time on March 27, 2025, you had submitted a complete application, the consulate or municipality had communicated an appointment date to you (and you submit on that date), or a court case had been filed. See our Law 74/2025 guide for details.

Who is eligible for Italian citizenship by descent?

Under the current rules, you are likely eligible if all of the following are true:

• You have a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, exclusively Italian citizenship (or a parent who meets the two-year residence rule), or your case was started by March 27, 2025
• Your Italian ancestor was alive after March 17, 1861 (the founding of unified Italy)
• No one in your direct lineage between you and your Italian ancestor renounced Italian citizenship before their child was born
• Your Italian ancestor did not naturalize as a citizen of another country before their child was born (naturalization while the child was a minor is assessed separately; see our Minor Issue guide)
• If claiming through a female ancestor whose child was born before 1948, the case must go through Italian court (a "1948 case") rather than a consulate

For the chain itself, the key question is: was your Italian ancestor still legally an Italian citizen at the time their child was born? If yes, Italian citizenship was transmitted to that child, and the chain continues down to you.

The three routes to apply for Jure Sanguinis

Once you've established eligibility, there are three main routes to obtain your Italian citizenship:

1. Consulate application

The most common route for North American applicants. You submit your complete case file — birth, marriage, death, and naturalization records for every person in your lineage — to the Italian consulate in your jurisdiction. Consulate processing varies widely by jurisdiction — often several years, and longer at the busiest offices. It does not require you to travel to or live in Italy.

2. Municipality application (relocation to Italy)

If you are willing to relocate to Italy, you can apply directly at the local comune (municipality) where you establish residency. This route is often faster, though processing times vary widely by comune, but requires you to be physically present in Italy throughout the process. This was the route our Head of Customer Services, Spencer Badanai, used when he obtained his own Italian passport.

3. Court route — ATQ and 1948 cases

The court route is used in two situations. First, the ATQ (azione di accertamento dello stato di cittadino italiano, or "Against the Queue") route is a litigation option: where the administrative route cannot provide recognition within a reasonable time, counsel may bring a civil action before the competent Italian court. Availability and risk are assessed case by case. Since June 2022, cases brought by applicants living abroad are heard by the specialized court section for the area where the Italian ancestor was born. Second, the 1948 case route is required when citizenship was transmitted through a female ancestor whose child was born before January 1, 1948. Both types of court cases are typically resolved in 1–3 years.

What breaks the citizenship chain?

The Jure Sanguinis principle only works if citizenship passed continuously from your Italian ancestor down through each generation to you. The chain can be broken by:

• Naturalization before a child's birth — if your ancestor became a U.S. citizen before their child was born, Italian citizenship generally was not transmitted to that child
• Naturalization while a child was a minor (before 1992) — consulates used to treat the child as losing citizenship. Since the Court of Cassation's July 2026 ruling, a child who held another citizenship from birth generally kept Italian citizenship; see our Minor Issue guide
• Voluntary renunciation — if an ancestor formally renounced Italian citizenship, the chain ends there

Naturalization after August 15, 1992 does not break the chain, as Italy permitted dual citizenship from then on. Separately, for new applications, the 2025 rules require the parent or grandparent you rely on to have held exclusively Italian citizenship, which an ancestor who naturalized abroad generally does not meet.

The 1948 case — citizenship through female ancestors

Under the 1912 citizenship law, Italian citizenship passed to children only through the father. A woman could transmit it only in limited cases, and some women also lost citizenship when a foreign husband's nationality was conferred on them by marriage. Italy's Constitutional Court struck down these rules as discriminatory (Judgments 87/1975 and 30/1983), and Italian courts now apply that reasoning to children born before January 1, 1948.

A 1948 case is a court petition filed by an Italian attorney seeking judicial recognition of citizenship through that female ancestor. These cases have strong precedent in Italian courts. They cannot be handled at a consulate. For new applications, the case must also meet Article 3-bis: a parent or grandparent of the applicant must have held exclusively Italian citizenship (or a parent must meet the two-year residence rule). That person is not necessarily the female ancestor at the center of the 1948 argument.

What documents will you need?

Every Jure Sanguinis case requires a complete documentary record of your lineage — from your Italian ancestor down to you. At minimum, this includes birth, marriage, and death certificates for every person in the chain, plus naturalization records (or official certificates confirming no record of naturalization) for your Italian ancestor.

All non-Italian documents must be apostilled, certified, and translated into Italian. Requirements vary by consulate and by court, and specific cases may require additional records. See our complete documents checklist for a detailed breakdown.

Why does Italian citizenship matter?

Italian citizenship is EU citizenship. As an Italian citizen, you gain the right to live, work, and study anywhere in all 27 EU member states, visa-free travel to over 180 countries, access to Italian healthcare and public services, the ability to own property and operate a business in Italy, and the right to pass Italian citizenship on to your own children.

Compared to golden passport programs — which require minimum investments of €150,000–€2,000,000 — Jure Sanguinis remains one of the most accessible routes to EU citizenship available, particularly for families with Italian heritage.