{"id":5903,"date":"2025-07-02T12:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T10:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/?page_id=5903"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:56:10","slug":"acquisition-of-citizenship-by-benefit-of-law-minor-children-born-abroad","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/servizi-consolari-e-visti\/servizi-per-il-cittadino-straniero\/citizenship-new-web-section\/acquisition-of-citizenship-by-benefit-of-law-minor-children-born-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"2. Acquisition of Citizenship by \u201cBenefit of Law\u201d (Minor Children Born Abroad)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Minor children born abroad<\/strong> to an Italian citizen parent who does not automatically transmit citizenship may acquire Italian citizenship in two cases, according to paragraph 1-bis or article 4 of Law 91\/1992 and to article 1, paragraph 1-ter of the Law-Decree n.36\/2025:<\/p>\n<p>This form of citizenship is not by birth or iure sanguinis, but granted <strong>upon meeting legal conditions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>According to Article 15 of Law no. 91\/1992, citizenship is acquired by the minor only after the specified conditions are fulfilled, not from birth.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Case 1: Article 4, Paragraph 1-bis of Law 91\/1992<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All these conditions must be met <strong>simoultaneously<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>One parent must be an Italian citizen by birth<\/strong> (not by naturalization, marriage, legal benefit, reacquisition, or other means).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Both parents (including the foreign parent), or the legal guardian<\/strong>, must <strong>formally declare their will for the child to acquire citizenship within three years<\/strong> of:\n<ul>\n<li>the child&#8217;s birth,<\/li>\n<li>the date the child is legally recognized by an Italian citizen, or<\/li>\n<li>the date of adoption by an Italian citizen while still a minor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If recognition by two Italian-born parents occurs at different times and not at birth, the three-year deadline starts from the first recognition.<\/p>\n<p>If only the foreign or naturalized parent recognized the child first, the deadline starts from the recognition by the Italian-born parent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The declaration of intent of acquisition must be made in person to a civil status officer. If made by parents on separate occasions, the effective date is that of the second declaration.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If there is only one parent (or the other is deceased), a declaration from the surviving\/legal parent is sufficient.<\/p>\n<p>If the minor establishes legal residence in Italy, the declaration may be made later \u2014 but the child must reside in Italy for two continuous years following the declaration.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Case 2: Article 1, Paragraph 1-ter of Decree-Law 36\/2025<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This case applies when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The individual was a minor on 24 May 2025<\/strong> (effective date of the conversion law);<\/li>\n<li><strong>The parents are Italian by birth and were recognized as such via an application submitted before 27 March 2025 at 11:59 PM (Rome time)<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>The declaration of intent by parents\/legal guardian is submitted to the Consulate <strong><u>by 31 May 2029<\/u><\/strong>. If the child becomes an adult (i.e. turns 18) before then, they must submit the declaration themselves by the same deadline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Declarations must be made in person to consular civil status officers. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Required documents include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>IDs for the applicant and the child<\/li>\n<li>Proof of residence within the consular district<\/li>\n<li>Supporting documentation indicated in the declaration form (i.e. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>birth certificates in original, apostilled by DFAT and translated by a NAATI translator<\/strong><\/span>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Only for AIRE-registered citizens, a <a href=\"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AUTOCERTIFICAZIONE-CITTADINANZA.pdf\">self-certificate<\/a> can replace the parent\u2019s citizenship certificate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>All the declarations for the acquisition of Italian citizenship by benefit of law will be <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">free of charge starting January 1, 2026<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once of age, the individual may renounce the acquired citizenship \u2014 provided it does not result in statelessness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minor children born abroad to an Italian citizen parent who does not automatically transmit citizenship may acquire Italian citizenship in two cases, according to paragraph 1-bis or article 4 of Law 91\/1992 and to article 1, paragraph 1-ter of the Law-Decree n.36\/2025: This form of citizenship is not by birth or iure sanguinis, but granted [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":5888,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5903","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5903"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5903\/revisions\/6530"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consbrisbane.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}