1948 Italian Citizenship Case: Law 74/2025 and Who Qualifies

If you are researching a 1948 case for Italian citizenship in 2026, the honest answer is that this path has largely closed. A 1948 case is a lawsuit filed in Italian civil court to claim citizenship through a female Italian ancestor whose child was born before January 1, 1948, because the old law only let fathers pass citizenship down. Italy’s Law 74/2025, upheld by the Constitutional Court in March 2026, restructured citizenship by descent so that anyone born abroad who holds another nationality is treated as never having acquired Italian citizenship, subject to a few narrow exceptions.¹² If you filed your case or secured a consular appointment before March 27, 2025, you proceed under the old rules. If you did not, keep reading before you spend anything.

Why the 1948 Date Exists

Italy’s 1912 Citizenship Law (Law 555) let Italian fathers pass citizenship to their children automatically, but not Italian mothers married to non-Italian men. The Italian Constitution took effect on January 1, 1948, and established gender equality as a fundamental principle. When the Constitutional Court later struck down the discriminatory provisions of the 1912 law, Italian administrative agencies applied the change only going forward: children born to Italian mothers on or after January 1, 1948, could be recognized through consulates; children born before that date could not.

That gap is what forces a lawsuit. If your citizenship line runs through an Italian woman whose child was born before January 1, 1948, no consulate or Italian municipality will process the application. A judge in Italian civil court has to examine the lineage and issue an order recognizing citizenship retroactively.

What Law 74/2025 Changed

In March 2025, Italy issued an emergency decree, later converted into Law 74/2025, that added Article 3-bis to the citizenship statute (Law 91/1992). The provision states that a person born abroad who holds another citizenship “is considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship” unless a specific exception applies.³

In March 2026, Italy’s Constitutional Court upheld the law and rejected a constitutional challenge brought by the Tribunal of Turin.² Three additional constitutional challenges from the courts of Mantua and Campobasso remain pending, so the framework could still shift, but the reform stands for now.

Who Can Still Pursue a 1948 Case

The law recognizes three groups of foreign-born descendants who can still be recognized as Italian citizens by descent:

Applicants whose citizenship application (administrative or judicial) was submitted by 11:59 PM Rome time on March 27, 2025, or who had a confirmed consular appointment scheduled by that date. These cases proceed under the old rules.¹
Applicants whose parent or grandparent held only Italian citizenship (no other nationality) at the time of death or currently.¹
Applicants whose Italian-citizen parent (including an adoptive parent) lived in Italy for at least two consecutive years after acquiring Italian citizenship and before the applicant’s birth or adoption.¹

For most Americans and other foreign-born descendants exploring a 1948 case for the first time, only the first exception is realistic, and only if the filing or appointment actually happened before the deadline. The other two categories describe close generational ties to Italy that a typical multi-generational 1948 claim does not have.

There is also a narrow window for minor children of Italian-born citizens: a declaration may be submitted by 11:59 PM on May 31, 2026. If the child turns 18 during this period, they may submit the declaration themselves by that same deadline.

Check the Naturalization Chain Before Anything Else

One rule can wipe out a claim before documents even come into play: the citizenship chain from your Italian ancestor down to you must be unbroken. If your Italian ancestor naturalized as a citizen of another country before their child in the lineage reached adulthood under Italian law, that child lost Italian citizenship, and so did everyone below.⁴

The age of majority under Italian law was 21 before March 10, 1975, and 18 after that date. So if your Italian great-grandfather naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1920 when his child was 15, the child lost Italian citizenship. If the child was 22 at the time, the chain holds.⁴

Pull your ancestor’s naturalization date first. Compare it to the birth date of their child in your lineage. If the child was a minor at the time of naturalization, the claim is almost certainly dead, and no lawsuit fixes that.

Documents You Will Need

A 1948 case is built on a complete documentary chain from your Italian-born ancestor down to you. Every generation needs birth, marriage, and death certificates where applicable, in their long-form versions with full details.

Vital Records, Apostilles, and Translations

Documents issued outside Italy must be apostilled in their country of origin to authenticate them for Italian courts. After apostille, every non-Italian document needs an official Italian translation, typically certified by an Italian consulate or a court-appointed translator in Italy.

You also need records from your Italian ancestor’s commune of birth: birth certificate, any marriage certificate issued in Italy, and any other records the commune holds. Italian communes often take weeks or months to respond to requests from abroad, so start early.

Proof Your Ancestor Did Not Naturalize (or Did So Late)

Italian courts require affirmative proof that your Italian ancestor either never became a citizen of another country or did so only after the child in your lineage reached adulthood. For a U.S.-based ancestor, that means a Certificate of Non-Existence from USCIS, which confirms that no naturalization record exists in the agency’s database.⁵

To request it, file USCIS Form G-1566 with all known names, aliases, and dates of birth. If the person was born less than 100 years ago, include proof of death. USCIS does not accept personal checks for paper filings; pay by credit card (Form G-1450) or direct bank payment (Form G-1650).⁵ If your ancestor did naturalize, obtain the actual naturalization certificate and verify the date against the child’s age at the time.

The Italian consulate in Philadelphia notes that the non-naturalization declaration must include every name variation and spelling that appears elsewhere in your documentation, along with the correct date of birth. For U.S. searches, the USCIS letter must specify the file number (A-number).⁶

How the Court Case Works

A 1948 case is a civil lawsuit, and you must be represented by an Italian attorney. Historically all these cases were filed in the Tribunal of Rome. Since June 22, 2022, under Law 206/2021, cases for applicants living abroad are filed in the court with jurisdiction over the municipality where the Italian ancestor was born.

Your attorney files the petition and submits the document package. A judge is assigned and a hearing is scheduled; you generally do not need to travel to Italy. The Italian Ministry of Interior was historically the opposing party, though the government has reportedly become less active in contesting cases in recent years.

Before the 2025 law, most cases took one to two years from filing to decision, depending on the court’s backlog. After a favorable ruling, a 60-day appeal period runs, during which the government can challenge the outcome. Once that period passes without appeal, the judgment and your birth certificate are transmitted to the relevant Italian municipality for registration, and you are officially recognized as an Italian citizen.

What It Costs

Expenses fall into three buckets: document procurement, court fees, and attorney fees.

Gathering, apostilling, and translating documents can run from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on how many generations and countries are involved. Apostille fees in the United States vary by state.

The Italian court filing fee (contributo unificato) is €600 per petitioner. Family members filing together through the same ancestor each pay separately; there is no group discount. The fee was raised from €545, which had been charged per case rather than per person.

Attorney fees are the largest line item. Italian lawyers handling 1948 cases typically charge between $10,000 and $15,000 per case, with variation based on complexity and number of plaintiffs. Adding family members as co-plaintiffs on the same case usually reduces the per-person legal fee even though each person still pays their own filing fee. A single applicant should plan for roughly $12,000 to $20,000 in total.

After Recognition: AIRE and Taxes

Winning the case is not the end. Italian citizens living abroad for more than 12 months are legally required to register with AIRE, the Registry of Italians Residing Abroad. Registration must be submitted to the competent Italian consulate within 90 days of recognition.⁷ Failing to register can bring administrative fines. AIRE registration is also what lets you obtain an Italian passport, vote in Italian elections, and use consular services.

On taxes, dual citizens living in the United States generally do not owe Italian income tax. Italian tax residency is triggered by living in Italy more than 183 days per year. If you remain a U.S. resident, you declare to Italian authorities that you do not live in Italy and are exempt from Italian income tax. Property or other assets held in Italy may still carry their own tax liability regardless of where you live. From the U.S. side, Italian citizenship does not create any additional American tax obligations; the United States taxes based on citizenship and residency, both unchanged.

A Realistic Read for 2026

Before Law 74/2025, 1948 cases had a strong track record for petitioners with clean documentation. That path is now largely closed for anyone who did not file or secure a consular appointment before March 27, 2025. The exceptions written into the new law are narrow enough that most first-time applicants will not fit. The pending challenges from the courts of Mantua and Campobasso could reopen possibilities, but planning around a favorable outcome there is speculative.

If you did file in time, your case proceeds under the old rules and your prospects remain good. Tighten the documentation, confirm the naturalization chain, and work with an Italian attorney who has handled 1948 cases in the specific court where yours is filed.

1
Consolato Generale d’Italia Chicago. Citizenship Jure Sanguinis / by Descent
2
IMI Daily. Italy’s Court Ruling Sealed the Citizenship-by-Descent Reform. Who Can Still Qualify?
3
Consolato Generale d’Italia Chicago. Citizenship Jure Sanguinis / by Descent
4
Consolato Generale d’Italia a Los Angeles. Citizenship by Descent
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1566, Request for Certificate of Non-Existence
6
Consolato Generale d’Italia a Filadelfia. Parent Who Possesses Exclusively Italian Citizenship
7
Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale. Register of Italians Living Abroad (A.I.R.E.)