Italian Citizenship
Why I Share My Italian Citizenship Story
Over the years, I’ve been open about sharing my Italian heritage and my journey to claim Italian citizenship. What started as a personal project has sparked conversations within the accounting and tax community and more people than I expected have expressed curiosity about the process.
That inspired me to include Italian citizenship as part of my site, alongside my usual tax and accounting topics. Helping others learn about it, start their own journeys, and explore their Italian roots has been incredibly rewarding. It’s also strengthened the connections I’ve made with others in both the accounting world and the broader Italian community.
Italian citizenship has become one of my most personal and rewarding projects. Like many Italian Americans, I grew up hearing stories about my family’s heritage, but I didn’t realize for years that I might qualify for Italian dual citizenship.
My journey started with tracing my family roots back to the Abruzzo region of Italy, specifically to the town of Canistro, where my great-grandparents were born. Through research, I discovered that I could apply for citizenship by descent — and I’ve been sharing that process along the way.
Along the journey, I’ve connected with others going through the same experience, and I’m passionate about helping people navigate the challenges of researching family records, gathering documentation, and dealing with Italian bureaucracy.
Resources for Italian Citizenship
With recent legal changes, the resources below are especially helpful for staying up-to-date on the lates requirements and challenges.
The first place I tell everyone to start is the Facebook group Dual U.S.-Italian Citizenship. They have a wealth of information gathered over the years from people like us who share our stories, ask questions, and help each other through the process. If you’re not on Facebook, don’t worry, they have a website (https://dualusitalian.com/) with most of the information, however, it’s not as interactive as the Facebook group.
There is also a really good Reddit group that covers similar information. Lately, it’s been the one I go to for really current updates about the changes Italy is making to citizenship requirements. The page is Jure Sanguinis, and the name comes from the path of citizenship that descendants of Italian use to claim their citizenship.
If you have a 1948 Case, meaning you’re claiming citizenship through a female ancestor before 1948, then the Facebook Group Dual Italian Citizenship 1948 Cases Only is really helpful.
Now that 1948 cases are being heard in regional courts, there are some splinter groups forming for the different regions. The one that pertains to me is for L’Aquila and it’s a really great group of individuals that are helping sort through the questions that revolve around the legal scene in L’Aquila.
There are also many service providers to help you, if you want or need someone to assist you in the process.
I’d really recommend you review the lists of providers that are in the Reddit group and the Dual U.S-Italian Citizenship Facebook group before you hire anyone. These lists are vetted by the members and if a service provider isn’t on the list, it could be for a reason.
The Tajani Decree (DL 36/2025) and related issues
In March 2025, the Italian government passed a decree that severely limited the rights of descendants to claim Italian citizenship. The temporary decree was debated in parliment and then converted to formal law on May 24, 2025 (Law 74/2025). You can find a lot of discussions about this online, but if you’re new to this topic, I’d start with the Reddit group Jure Sanguinis.
Here is a blog post that I made right after the decree was released, Big News for Italian Citizenship by Descent.
To say it’s complicated is an understatement and like most tax questions, the initial answer to “Do I qualify for Italian Citizenship” is currently “It Depends.”
In response to the Decree and now the new law, there are a number of lawsuits moving through the Italian court system. Once we start hearing about decisions and get a feeling on the way the courts are going to treat this matter, it should start getting clearer. I don’t want to discourage anyone, but I also don’t want to give anyone false hope at this point.
My suggestion is to learn about the current rules and research the court challenges, and then determine if you want to invest the time and money in going on the adventure of claiming your Italian citizenship.