NOTE: from June 22, 2022, all proceedings regarding Dual Citizenship by Descent no longer pass through the Court of Rome but must be submitted to the District Court of the Italian town where the ancestors were born. Hence, any reference to the Court of Rome must be systematically read as to the District Courts of Italy.
This post was updated in January 2020 as a result of decisions handed down by the Rome Court of Appeal, which have consequently made this post outdated. Please read the new post here…
Even before the summer of 2019, it had been rumored that the Court of Rome would change its approach to cases involving citizenship through the maternal line in which the so-called “1948 Rule” applies.
For almost a decade cases involving this rule were nearly guaranteed to have a favorable result. When in July 2019 the Court of Rome ruled against one of these cases, thus not granting citizenship to the plaintiff, a potentially dramatic legal shift had occurred. To give more clarity to the issue, the Court of Rome recently published an ordinance outlining the new approach to 1948 maternal line cases.
Briefly stated, the 1948 Rule, as it has been historically applied, enables children born to an Italian mother prior to 1948 to claim Italian dual citizenship before the Court of Rome. Before the rule came into effect those claiming Italian citizenship jure sanguinis could only do so through the male line of ancestry. Due to its clear-cut nature, the vast majority of the cases have been won. That is why any legal shift in this area is seen as significant.
It should be noted that the new approach only concerns cases in which an Italian ancestor became a naturalized citizen of another country (the United States in the case of said ordinance) and had done so before their child (born in the US as well) reached the age of 21. In such cases, the child also loses their Italian citizenship.
In all other cases, like those in which an Italian parent did not become naturalized elsewhere or did so only when the child was already 21 years old, lineage passes from ancestor to descendant without hindrance. Like most 1948 cases, this scenario would result in the granting of citizenship by the court.
While the Court of Rome did seem to uphold the principle formulated by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in 2011 (i.e. the minor’s loss of citizenship), the door was left ever-so-slightly open for a potential restoration of citizenship. If this happened, it would only involve cases where citizenship was transmitted through a female ancestor and not a male one. In other words, because a case involving the maternal line would fall into the category of “1948 Rule”, it could be heard by the court, thus making it possible to reclaim citizenship.
However, if a minor loses citizenship due to naturalization of the mother (again, paternal line cases are not argued before the court), the conditions requested by the judge for restoration of citizenship are very difficult to achieve. The individual in this case, upon turning 21, must be in Italy, serving in the Italian military, or be living in a country other than one in which they were naturalized. Article 9 of law no. 555 of 1912 lists these conditions to claim Italian citizenship.
This new approach by the Court of Rome will certainly affect all cases of bloodline citizenship, no matter if they are brought before the judge as a consequence of a consulate rejection, a delay over two years in deciding an application, or a 1948 cases. Consequently, this will lead to numerous appeals. In the event that the Rome Court of Appeals agrees with this approach, there will be many cases brought to the Court of Cassation.
This new decision on Italian citizenship by bloodline may affect the way judicial citizenship decisions in Italy are dealt with in the future. In any event, bringing your case before the Court of Rome is still one of the fastest and surest ways to obtain citizenship. Even if this approach is adopted, the majority of cases that go before the court would fall outside of these new provisions.
If you are experiencing serious delays in scheduling, lengthy wait times, or are attempting to apply for Italian citizenship through the maternal line of your family, speak to us today about how to proceed with your case.
Italian citizenship law is never easy to traverse alone. Let My Lawyer In Italy help you on your way to Italian citizenship.