Citizenship via Marriage

The benefits of dual citizenship include: the ability to work and travel anywhere in the European Union, the rights to services such as healthcare and the right to vote in Italy. 

Under Art. 3 D.P.R. 362/1994, the Italian Consulate has up to 2 years to process your application. Alternatively, you can fast track the process through the Italian courts, which could take several months.  

If you are applying for Italian citizenship through the consulate or via the courts, you don't need to know Italian. However, if you are applying through marriage, then you are required to prove that your proficiency in Italian is at least level B1 (according to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - CEFRL). 

Before 1948, under Italian law, only men could pass on their citizenship to their children. On January 1, 1948 the Italian constitution allowed for women to also pass on their citizenship to their children born after this date. In 2009 the Italian supreme court held that the 1948 rule was discriminatory and allowed for appeals to be made for people whose female descendants were born before January 1, 1948.

If your Italian ancestor was born in Italy and a minor at the time they left Italy, you are unable to use them as proof of eligibility for citizenship by ancestry (jure sanguinis). This is due to the fact that, if your ancestor was still a minor (until 1976 a minor was considered a person under 21) when their parent naturalised, then your ancestor was naturalised as well. This means that your ancestor was unable to pass Italian citizenship by descent to his or her children. Unfortunately, there are no exceptions in this case as a naturalised person renounces their Italian citizenship.