The Italian Interior Ministry has instructed authorities to re-examine applications for Italian citizenship that were denied because the father or mother had been naturalized while the child was still a minor.
The new guidelines are contained in a circular from Viminale, the agency's headquarters, filed on August 10th, 2026, and represents the administrative response to ruling 24045/2026 of the Sezioni Unite of the Court of Cassation.
In the decision, dated July 26, the highest body of the Cassation Chamber established that the child born abroad, Italian jure sanguinis and at the same time a citizen of the country of birth by ius soliHe did not lose his Italian citizenship simply because his parent became a naturalized foreigner while he was a minor.
In practice, the decision overturned the interpretation that had become known as “minor issue”.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed: citizenship is born with the person.
- New legal front opened
- Processes can still be filed.
- Individual assessment before any decision.
Those whose requests were denied may request a review.
The most relevant point of the circular is the treatment given to administrative processes that had already ended with a negative decision.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, those interested do not need to submit a new application. They may request a "simple review" of the original application, provided that the denial was based exclusively on the old interpretation of articles 7 and 12 of Law 555/1912 and the jurisprudence that supported the so-called... minor issue.
The authority responsible for the review will be the one that issued the negative decision, even if the person concerned has subsequently transferred their residence to another Italian city or abroad.
This does not mean automatic recognition of citizenship. The process will be reviewed again in accordance with the new guidelines from the Revocation Office and other rules applicable to the case.
What has changed
In October 2024, the Ministry of the Interior itself had issued circular 43347, instructing municipalities and town halls to implement decisions of the Court of Cassation, including ordinanza 17161/2023.
The interpretation adopted at that time allowed the line of transmission of citizenship to be considered interrupted when an Italian citizen became a naturalized foreigner while the child was still a minor and living with him.
The Sezioni Unite have now reached the opposite conclusion.
For the purposes of revocation, Article 7 of Law 555/1912 is independent of Article 12. Thus, those who were born with Italian citizenship... jure sanguinis and with a second citizenship iure alone He remained Italian even after his father's naturalization.
The consequence was that the transmission of citizenship was not interrupted by this fact.
Although a large proportion of historical cases involve the Italian father, the circular itself emphasizes the equal treatment of fathers and mothers resulting from Italian constitutional jurisprudence.
The rule does not apply to all naturalizations.
The orientation has an important time limit.
The Ministry mandates the application of this understanding to the naturalizations of the cohabiting parent that occurred between July 1, 1912 and August 15, 1992, period of validity of Law 555/1912.
Naturalizations that occurred up to June 30th, 1912 These cases are excluded from this guidance. For these cases, the Viminale states that the rules of the Civil Code of 1865 and the interpretation established by the Court of Cassation in Ordinance 454/2024 remain relevant.
The Constitutional Court's decision changed the landscape. The new citizenship law will now be reviewed by the European Union's courts of justice.
Therefore, the new circular does not eliminate all discussions involving the loss of citizenship due to the naturalization of an ancestor.
Orders placed before March 27th are gaining importance.
Another point could have a direct impact on descendants affected by the Italian citizenship reform approved in 2025.
The circular stipulates that, in the review, the legislation applicable at the time the original application was submitted must be considered.
If the request had been filed. until March 27, 2025If, by that date, the interested party had received notification of an appointment from the competent authority, the limitations introduced by the new article 3-bis of Law 91/1992, created by Decree-Law 36/2025 and subsequently converted into Law 74/2025, will not apply.
This means that people who managed to submit their application within the transitional rules, but received a denial solely because of... minor issueThey can now request that the administration re-examine that same procedure.
The circular concludes by stating that the October 2024 guidelines on this point should be considered superseded in light of the Sezioni Unite decision and requests that administrative actions be adapted to the Supreme Court's new understanding.
See the full circular:
