Kiss Your Italian Citizenship Goodbye

Greyson Ferguson
The Startup
Published in
6 min readOct 18, 2024

--

Were you considering Italy’s citizenship by descent? You might have missed the boat.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

If you’re a U.S. citizen looking for a “quick” secondary passport and possible citizenship, there’s no shortage of European countries offering citizenship by descent. In fact, at present, over thirty nations on the continent offer citizenship based on some form of ancestry.

Now, many of these ancestry-based citizenships are difficult to come by, as countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Norway, and Finland only offer it if your parents were citizens. However, there are a handful that do offer citizenship if your great-grandparents were once legal residents of the country.

While Greece, Ireland, and Poland are all part of the three-generations-removed club, Italy has long been one of the most popular nations to provide such an opportunity. Beyond the seductive allure of Italy and all it offers, the large influx of Italian immigrants that moved to the States both pre and post-World War II means millions of current Americans could qualify for a second citizenship.

At least it did.

A recently passed law by the Italian government has thrown a wrench in the plans of anyone looking to apply for an ancestry citizenship. If you were considering an application, it may be time to move on to an…

--

--

The Startup
The Startup

Published in The Startup

Get smarter at building your thing. Follow to join The Startup’s +8 million monthly readers & +772K followers.

Greyson Ferguson
Greyson Ferguson

Written by Greyson Ferguson

You might hate my first story, but maybe you’ll like the next. Ever dream of moving out of the U.S.? I wrote a book that can help: https://t.ly/OcQYG

Responses (8)