Italian Citizenship and Minor Children: What Happens When a Parent Naturalises Abroad

In any Italian citizenship by descent application, the assessment of eligibility focuses primarily on whether the Italian ancestor was still an Italian citizen at the time their child was born. The standard question is: did the ancestor naturalise before or after the birth? If before, the chain is broken. If after, it is preserved.

But what happens in a less commonly examined scenario: the ancestor was still Italian at the time of their child’s birth, but then naturalised as a foreign citizen while that child was still a minor? Does the child — who was already born and had already inherited Italian citizenship — lose it as a consequence of the parent’s subsequent naturalisation?

A 2023 ruling of the Italian Court of Cassation has clarified the answer under the law applicable to the relevant historical period, and the implications for citizenship by descent applicants are significant. This article explains the legal framework, the 2023 ruling and what it means in practice. For a broader overview of the eligibility requirements for citizenship by descent, see our article on Italian citizenship by descent eligibility requirements.

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The General Rule: Citizenship Acquired at Birth

Under Italian citizenship law — both under the current Law No. 91 of 1992 and under the previous Law No. 555 of 1912 that governed the period relevant to most citizenship by descent cases — a child born to an Italian citizen parent acquires Italian citizenship at birth, by operation of law. This right arises automatically at the moment of birth and does not require any act or registration by the parent or the child.

The standard eligibility question is therefore whether the parent was an Italian citizen at the time of the child’s birth. If the answer is yes, the child acquired Italian citizenship at birth and can transmit it to their own descendants — subject to the same analysis at each subsequent generation.

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The Complicating Question: Post-Birth Naturalisation During the Child’s Minority

The situation becomes more complex where the following sequence of events occurs:

1. A child is born to an Italian citizen parent — the child acquires Italian citizenship at birth
2. While the child is still a minor, the parent voluntarily acquires a foreign citizenship through naturalisation
3. The parent thereby loses Italian citizenship

The question is: does the parent’s loss of Italian citizenship during the child’s minority automatically cause the child to also lose Italian citizenship?

Under the general principle of Italian citizenship law — that citizenship acquired at birth is a permanent personal status — one might expect the answer to be no. The child acquired the citizenship at birth and should retain it independently of what the parent does afterwards. But the historical statutory framework, as interpreted by the Italian courts, produces a different result in specific circumstances.

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The Historical Framework: Law No. 555 of 1912

Most Italian citizenship by descent cases involve ancestors who emigrated in the late 19th or early 20th century — a period governed by Law No. 555 of 1912, which remained in force until it was replaced by Law No. 91 of 1992.

Under Law No. 555 of 1912, citizenship was organised around the family unit led by the father. Several provisions of that law are directly relevant to the question of what happened to a minor child when a parent lost citizenship:

• Article 7: a citizen born and resident in a foreign state who was considered its citizen by birth could retain Italian citizenship, but upon reaching the age of majority could renounce it. This provision addressed the situation of dual citizenship by birth
• Article 8: an Italian citizen who had voluntarily acquired a foreign citizenship and established residence abroad lost Italian citizenship
• Article 12: where a widow (exercising parental authority) re-married and thereby changed her citizenship, the citizenship of minor children born in the first marriage remained unchanged. However, this provision addressed only the specific situation of a widowed mother’s remarriage — it did not establish a general rule that minor children’s citizenship was immune to changes in the parent’s citizenship status

The interplay between these provisions — specifically, whether a minor child who had acquired Italian citizenship at birth would lose it if the parent subsequently naturalised under Article 8 — was not definitively addressed by Italian courts for many years.

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The 2023 Court of Cassation Ruling: Ordinance No. 17161 of 15 June 2023

The Italian Court of Cassation addressed this question directly in Ordinance No. 17161 of 15 June 2023. The case involved an applicant (referred to as T.) born in the United States, who sought recognition of Italian citizenship by descent from an Italian ancestor (C.) born in Italy. The ancestor had naturalised as an American citizen in 1924. The applicant’s parent (S.) had been born in America as a minor child of C. — before the naturalisation — and had therefore acquired Italian citizenship at birth.

The critical issue was what happened to S.’s Italian citizenship after C. naturalised in 1924, at a time when S. was still a minor. S. had not applied to reacquire Italian citizenship within one year of reaching the age of majority, as provided by Article 12 of Law No. 555 of 1912 for certain cases. T. argued that S. had retained Italian citizenship acquired at birth and could therefore transmit it to T.

The Court of Cassation held that S. had lost Italian citizenship as a direct consequence of C.’s naturalisation during S.’s minority. The reasoning was that under the legal framework of Law No. 555 of 1912, the citizenship fate of a minor child was linked to that of the parent exercising parental authority. When C. voluntarily acquired American citizenship and thereby lost Italian citizenship under Article 8 of the 1912 law, S. — as a minor child — also lost Italian citizenship as an automatic consequence.

The Court further clarified that Article 7 of Law No. 555 of 1912, which allowed a citizen born in a foreign country to retain Italian citizenship while holding the citizenship of that country by birth, was not applicable to S.’s situation. That provision addressed dual citizenship acquired simultaneously at birth — it did not apply to a case where the minor child had lost Italian citizenship as a consequence of the parent’s subsequent voluntary naturalisation. A person who has lost Italian citizenship cannot retain, renounce or transmit a status they no longer hold.

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What This Ruling Means in Practice

The Cassation’s 2023 ruling has direct implications for citizenship by descent applicants whose family tree includes any of the following:

• An Italian ancestor who naturalised as a foreign citizen while a child in the line was still a minor
• A situation where the Italian ancestor naturalised after the birth of the relevant child, but the question of what happened to that child’s citizenship during the period between birth and adulthood has not been assessed

The key practical implication is this: it is not sufficient to establish only that the Italian ancestor was still Italian at the time the relevant child was born. It is also necessary to verify what happened to that child’s citizenship status during their minority — specifically, whether the parent (or the person exercising parental authority) subsequently lost Italian citizenship while the child was still under age. If so, the child’s Italian citizenship may have been lost along with the parent’s, and the chain of transmission may be broken at that point — even though the child had initially acquired citizenship at birth.

This adds a layer of analysis to the assessment of citizenship by descent cases that is not immediately obvious from the standard eligibility checklist focused only on the date of naturalisation relative to the date of birth. The timeline of events during the child’s minority must also be examined.

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Reacquisition: Is the Chain Irreparably Broken?

The Cassation’s ruling does not mean that citizenship is permanently lost without remedy in these situations. Law No. 555 of 1912 and Law No. 91 of 1992 both provide for reacquisition of Italian citizenship in specific circumstances:

• Under Article 3 of Law No. 555 of 1912, a former Italian citizen who had lost citizenship as a minor child of a naturalised parent could apply to reacquire citizenship by establishing residence in Italy and making a declaration of intent within certain timeframes
• Under Article 9 of Law No. 555 of 1912, other paths to reacquisition were available in specific circumstances
• Under Law No. 91 of 1992 (the current law), Article 13 provides that a former Italian citizen can reacquire citizenship by establishing residence in Italy and making a formal declaration

However, reacquisition must have actually occurred — and been formally completed — for the citizenship to have been restored and therefore capable of being transmitted to subsequent descendants. If neither the person who lost citizenship during minority nor their descendants ever formally reacquired Italian citizenship, the chain remains broken at that point.

The assessment of whether reacquisition occurred, and whether it was completed correctly and within the applicable timeframes, requires a detailed analysis of the specific family history and the applicable legal provisions.

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What This Means for the Standard Documentation Review

The 2023 ruling underscores that a thorough citizenship by descent eligibility assessment must go beyond simply confirming that the Italian ancestor had not naturalised before the child’s birth. It must also examine:

• The dates of birth of each child in the line relative to the date of the parent’s naturalisation
• Whether any child in the line was a minor at the time the parent acquired foreign citizenship
• If so, whether that child subsequently reacquired Italian citizenship through a formal declaration, and when
• Whether any reacquisition was timely and formally completed under the applicable law

This is precisely the type of nuanced analysis that a preliminary legal assessment of a citizenship by descent case is designed to address. For a full explanation of how the recognition process works and what documents are required, see our article on documents required for Italian citizenship by descent.

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Frequently Asked Questions

If my grandparent was born before the ancestor naturalised, are they affected by this ruling?

It depends on the timing. If the ancestor naturalised after the grandparent was born but while the grandparent was still a minor, then under the 2023 Cassation ruling, the grandparent may have lost Italian citizenship along with the ancestor at that point. If the ancestor naturalised after the grandparent had already reached the age of majority (18), the grandparent’s citizenship would not have been affected by the parent’s subsequent naturalisation.

Does this ruling affect cases under the current Law No. 91 of 1992?

The ruling specifically addressed the legal framework of Law No. 555 of 1912, which governed the historical cases typically at issue in citizenship by descent applications. Under the current Law No. 91 of 1992, the rules on citizenship transmission and loss were substantially reformed. The specific provisions on minor children’s citizenship following a parent’s loss are different under the current law and must be assessed separately based on the applicable timeframe.

Can the chain be restored if my ancestor did lose citizenship as a minor?

Potentially, if the ancestor (or a subsequent person in the chain) formally reacquired Italian citizenship through one of the reacquisition procedures available under the applicable law. Whether such reacquisition occurred and was valid must be assessed on the specific facts of each case. A preliminary legal assessment is essential to determine whether the chain was broken and, if so, whether it was subsequently restored.

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Request an Initial Legal Assessment

If you are pursuing Italian citizenship by descent and are uncertain whether the timing of a parent’s naturalisation during a minor child’s period may affect your eligibility, contact our Italian citizenship lawyer to request an initial legal assessment. We will review your specific family tree and advise on the applicable rules and their implications under Italian law.