The New Italian Citizenship Law.

How it is applied to old and new applications,

27th November 2009: The Security Law Number 94/2009 which entered into force on 8th August 2009, substantially changed the rules for obtaining Italian citizenship. Here are the main changes.

Citizenship through marriage 

A foreigner or a stateless person who marries an Italian citizen can only obtain Italian citizenship if after marriage, he/she has been a legal resident in Italy for at least two years, or after three years if they are living abroad. This will be reduced by half if the couple has children (natural or adopted). This means that if a foreigner marries an Italian and they are living in Italy, he/she can apply for citizenship after residing legally in the country for one year. If they are living abroad, then he/she can apply for citizenship after one a half years of marriage.

If there is separation or divorce after submitting the application for Italian citizenship at the Prefecture, the application will be rejected. Under the new law, they must be married throughout the process of application for citizenship.

On the day the new law entered into force, a new problem emerged. There were those who had submitted their applications for citizenship and were still waiting for them to be processed.

In order to clarify how the old applications were to be handled, on 6th August 2009 Ministry of Home Affairs issued a circular letter stating that:

 The old citizenship law which allowed a foreign spouse of an Italian citizen to apply for citizenship after six months of legal residence in the country, is to be applied to the applications for citizenship through marriage if they were submitted more than two years ago (before the new law entered into force). The law states that applications for citizenship must be fully processed within two years. After that period, the applicant acquires right to be granted Italian citizenship. 

 The new citizenship law is to be applied to all applications submitted less than two years ago. All the new requirements are therefore to be applied to the applicants.

  
 Document you can’t self-certify,

While applying for Italian citizenship, it is no longer possible to self-certify the family status, residence, and any other requirements. The applicant must enclose all the required documents to support the application. Failure to do so would lead to rejection of the application. This is applicable also to the European Union citizens.

Citizenship through residence 

The Ministry’s circular letter states that if one applied for citizenship through residence in the past but has not yet been summoned for interview (which is necessary to access the applicant’s level of integration), he/she will have to submit all the original documents which were self-certified while submitting the application in the past (residency certificate, family status certificate, income tax returns, etc).

But if the applicant has already been summoned for the interview, before being notified of the order granting him/her Italian citizenship, he/she will have to submit all the original documents which were self-certified while submitting the application in the past.

  200 Euro application fee 

The new law has also has introduced a fee of 200 Euros to be paid for each application for citizenship. This fee is only applicable to applications submitted after the new law came entered into force.

The Italian Government has opened a postal current account to be used in making payments of the citizenship application fees.

Payment is done at the post office. The account name is: “Ministero dell’Interno DLCI – cittadinanza”. The Italian post office has already begun distributing the printed forms to be used in making the payment. The forms can also be obtained from Immigrations Offices at the Prefecture.

 Documents to attach to the application,

Apart from the usual documents such as birth certificate and criminal record certificate (which must be translated into Italian and legalised), the following documents must be attached to the application for citizenship.

 Application for citizenship through marriage

•       Proof of legal residence in Italy (registration with the City Council’s registry office) for the at least two years after marriage.
•      Certificate of criminal records and pending charges.
•    Certificate of family status showing the presence of children (either natural or adopted).

Application for citizenship through residence ,

•    Proof of legal residence in Italy (registration with thCity Council’s registry office)     for the period required by law.
•  Proof of family status.
• Certificate of criminal records and pending charges
• Income Tax Returns for the last three years.