The Naples Court has recognized the Italian citizenship of two Brazilians, grandson and great-grandson, in a lawsuit filed. in 16 February 2026That is, almost a year after the rules restricting recognition by descent came into effect. The ruling is dated July 7, 2026.
The decision accepted the screens from the consular scheduling system as evidence. Prenot@miAccording to the judge, the applicants attempted to submit the request in January 2025, before the deadline set by the new law, but received no response regarding the scheduling of the appointment. The case was handled by lawyers Valerio Piccolo and Andrew Luiz Montone.
What was at stake
Article 3-bis of Law 91/1992, introduced by Decree-Law 36/2025 and converted into Law 74/2025, considers that those born abroad and holding another citizenship never acquired Italian citizenship, except in certain cases. One of these exceptions protects those who submitted their application to the consulate or municipality by 23:59 pm on March 27, 2025.
The court understood that the timely attempt to submit the request fulfills this requirement. The ruling states that the applicants' conduct "must be considered fully adequate to fulfill the requirement of 'submitting the request'", since "the applicants cannot be held responsible for the impossibility of using the telematic channel imposed by the Administration, nor can such dysfunction translate into a restriction of the subjective right exercised".
Having recognized the timeliness of the application, the judge applied the law in force until March 27, 2025, which, in the words of the decision, “does not impose any generational limit on the recognition of citizenship by jus sanguinis”. One of the applicants, the grandson of the Italian, also fell under the hypothesis of subparagraph c) of article 3-bis, which protects those who have exclusively Italian first- or second-degree ancestors.
The case
The ancestor was born in Cardito, in the province of NaplesOn September 14, 1891, he emigrated to Brazil and never became a naturalized Brazilian citizen, as evidenced by the negative naturalization certificate attached to the case file. The jurisdiction of the Naples Court stems precisely from the municipality of birth of the ancestor.
The Ministry of the Interior was summoned on April 7, 2026, and did not present a defense. The hearing took place on June 16, 2026, in written form. In addition to declaring the applicants Italian citizens, the judgment determined that the competent civil registry official should proceed with the registrations and transcriptions in the records, with notifications to the consular authorities. Costs were offset.
What the lawyers say
According to Valerio Piccolo, the ruling broadens the interpretation of the provision. “The ruling offers an extensive interpretation of Article 3-bis, § 1, item a), of Law No. 91/1992, by equating the requirement of 'application submitted' with the mere attempt to submit an application, made in a timely manner but frustrated by a malfunction of the consular portal,” he states.
The lawyer adds that the interpretation follows the Italian Constitution. “This is an interpretation guided by constitutional principles, as it prevents the exercise of a constitutional right, such as citizenship, from depending on organizational inefficiency attributable exclusively to the Public Administration. The Italian citizen cannot be harmed by a service failure that was not attributable to him,” he says. “In this way, the Court applies the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, according to which the risk arising from failures of the Public Administration cannot be transferred to the citizen who acted in good faith.”
Andrew Montone follows the same line of reasoning. “The ruling of the Tribunale di Napoli confirms something we have been arguing: those who activated their citizenship recognition request before March 27, 2025, cannot be penalized because the Administration's own system failed to process the request in time. The judge was clear: the fault lay with the telematic channel imposed by the Italian administration itself, not with the citizen,” states the lawyer.
He resorts to a classic principle of law to describe the contradiction. "If the Italian state were to claim otherwise, we would be facing..." come against factum proprium"No one can create a rule of the game, benefit from the flaw in that same rule, and then tell the citizen that he arrived late. The administration cannot claim its own dysfunction to deny a right; that would be, in plain English, claiming its own wrongdoing in its favor," he says.
Steve W. Nielsen
11 July 2026 13 at: 22
Have there been any cases involving maternal lineage that were filed after the decree and received a positive ruling (or any ruling in general)?
Antonio Luiz Araújo
16 July 2026 16 at: 31
Good afternoon
I want to work, move in with my family, and study with my children.
My dream