Italian citizenship through administrative or judicial channels? Learn the differences and the steps to obtain recognition legally and securely.
Under Italian law, all descendants of Italians have the right to citizenship swear sanguinis (by descent), which is transmitted from the Italian ancestor to the children – without interruption and without limit of generations.
There are two requirements to obtain Italian citizenship: being able to prove with legalized documents that you are descended from an Italian and showing that the line of transmission has never been interrupted.
If the Italian who immigrated naturalized in Brazil, depending on the time, he may have lost his citizenship and, therefore, did not transmit it to his descendants.
The question that needs to be asked is: given the naturalization obtained by my ancestor, was his son born to an Italian father or to a father who was already Brazilian?
The two main ways to have the right recognized are administrative and judicial.
Understand the differences between the two processes and the step-by-step guide to obtaining Italian citizenship.
Italian citizenship by administrative route
Recognition of Italian citizenship can be obtained through Italian consulates in Brazil or anywhere in the world, provided the applicant proves residency in that jurisdiction.
The only exception is in cases of maternal lineage, for which it is necessary to resort to legal proceedings in Italy.
Due to the long waiting lines at consulates, which last more than a decade, many Brazilians choose to carry out the process in Italy.
An Italian law guarantees the recognition of citizenship for descendants of Italians who establish residence in Italy.
To apply for citizenship, you must choose a comune (municipality) where you will make the application and prove that you reside in the country with a rental contract and a document signed by the owner attesting to the transfer of the property to the renter.
“This is the biggest difficulty. Italians in general are very careful when renting their property. He often requires an advance payment equivalent to the duration of the contract.
If the tenant has children, the difficulty triples”, says Reginaldo Maia, from Blessed Citizenship, a company specializing in services for Italian citizenship.
According to him, in smaller cities, the difficulty increases. “Some applicants want to obtain citizenship in the city of birth of the Italian who transmits citizenship, but many of them are small and the availability of rental properties is almost impossible.”
After declaring your residence, you must wait for a visit from a vigil (municipal inspector) at the address to prove that the house has good living conditions and that the person actually lives there.
By law, the deadline for passing the vigile is 45 days and he cannot tell you when it will pass. With the official's confirmation, the commune can proceed with the citizenship application in the civil registry.
But there is a discussion regarding the length of stay in Italy. Members of the Italian public ministry understand that a minimum residence of 90 days, for example, is fictitious and illegal.
When applying for citizenship in the comune, Brazilians must present all birth and marriage certificates from their Italian ancestors, following the entire line of transmission.
The documents – in full – must be translated, sworn and apostilled. If the documentation is correct, the registrar authorizes the person to receive the residency application.
Before traveling to Italy, you must make sure that all documents are correct and that no rectification is necessary.
Italian citizenship through court
In specific cases, it is not possible to obtain Italian citizenship administratively. The most common is maternal descent.
An old Italian law determined that Italian women did not transmit citizenship to their descendants, only men.
In 1975 and 1983, the Constitutional Court of Italy invalidated this rule for being anti-constitutional, but administrative authorities interpreted that the Court's decision could not be applied to cases that occurred before 1948, the date of entry into force of the Constitution.
Due to this restriction, descendants of an Italian woman born before January 1, 1948, must appeal to the Civil Court of Rome to have their right to citizenship recognized.
The required documents are:
- Birth and marriage certificates of Italian ancestors;
- Death registration (Not mandatory);
- Certificate of negative naturalization of ancestors (the document can be obtained on the website of the Justice ministry);
- Birth and marriage certificates of all descendants in the transmission lineage.
The original documents need to be translated by a certified translator (the websites of Italian consulates in Brazil offer a list of licensed translators) and then apostilled at the consulate before being sent to the lawyer in Italy, who will file the lawsuit.
The client receives a protocol number and follows the process on the Italian Ministry of Justice website.
Legal remedy against queues
The 10- to 15-year delay in processing applications at Italian consulates, coupled with a wave of citizenship cancellations in Italy due to corruption and false residency cases, has increased the demand for legal proceedings at the Civil Court of Rome.
To guarantee the right to the application, according to Italian legislation, the applicant can file a lawsuit at the Civil Court of Rome, using the argument of non-compliance with Italian law by Italian consulates in Brazil. To do this you need to be in line at the consulate.
With the public power of attorney, specific to the process, and the documents to file the lawsuit, the lawyer (registered in Italy) will carry out the entire procedure on behalf of the applicant, who can follow the process online.
“More than six thousand cases have already been filed and the sentences have been favorable”, explains Reginaldo Maia.
Just like in the maternal process, in the action against the queues it is not necessary to travel to Italy. The steps to be followed are to gather all the documentation and hire a Italian lawyer to file the case with the Court.
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