The Italian consulate in São Paulo is dealing with a situation considered serious in the process of obtaining Italian citizenship, by legal benefit, for minors. The demand is so high that the consul Domenico Fornara He publicly admitted that unconventional measures may be necessary to prevent a collapse of the system.
"At the moment, I don't rule out that we will have to adopt some extraordinary measure to cope with all these requests," he stated during a press conference this Monday (26)
The statement reflects the difficulty in assisting thousands of families within the legal timeframe. which ends on May 31, 2026 for minors born before May 25, 2025.
According to Fornara, more than 90% of the minors benefiting from the new law were born before it came into effect. "Some are 16 or 17 years old," he said. He emphasized that most parents did not register their children in previous years, which increased the number of current applications.
The problem worsened because the new rule requires parents to appear in person at the consulate to present documents and sign the declaration. Scheduling an appointment alone is not enough. "How many people can each employee see per day? Ten at most? Eight, nine? Each employee. So imagine, on a day when everything goes well. There's always something unexpected," he said at the press conference.
The current structure cannot keep up with the volume of applications. The consulate has already offered 7 appointments and received 1.100 people. A new survey remains open until January 31st, and the number of families still interested is high. Therefore, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent extra staff to Brazil.
The legislation has already been amended to extend the deadline from one to three years only for minors born after the law came into effect. But those born before remain with the deadline set for May 31, 2026. “We also hope there will be an extension. It's already being discussed. We've seen that…” two deputies "They have already submitted a proposal to extend the benefits for minors born before then as well," the consul informed.
While there is no decision regarding the extension, the risk is growing that thousands of minors will lose their right to citizenship due to delays in the process. The situation is considered critical and is mobilizing efforts by the consulate to avoid an institutional shutdown.
To make matters worse, the mapping system for minor children at the Italian Consulate General in São Paulo has been down since last Thursday (22). The technical failure occurs just days before the deadline for expressing interest in the Prenot@mi system. The deadline set by the consulate itself is January 30th.
The consulate is already working on some alternative.
