Citizenship through Marriage
The acquisition of Italian citizenship by a foreign spouse or stateless person who has married an Italian citizen since April 27, 1983 is currently regulated by Law No. 91 of February 5, 1992 (Articles 5, 6, 7, and 8) and subsequent amendments.
Requests for Italian citizenship can also be submitted by foreign nationals who have established a civil union with an Italian citizen, registered in the civil status records of an Italian municipality (Legislative Decrees 5, 6, and 7/2017).
The foreign spouse/partner of the civil union may acquire Italian citizenship upon application, provided the requirements established by the current legislation are met.
The foreign spouse of an Italian citizen may apply for Italian citizenship (Article 5 of Law No. 91/92) in the following cases:
- If residing in Italy: two years after marriage;
- If residing abroad: three years after marriage.
These timeframes are halved if the couple has children born or adopted during the marriage.
The applicant must submit the application to the competent diplomatic-consular office based on their residence, exclusively through the dedicated CIVES online application.
The Italian spouse/partner of the civil union must be a resident and regularly registered with the Registry of Italians Residing Abroad (A.I.R.E.) in the relevant consular jurisdiction, and must live at the same address as the citizenship applicant. If this is not the case, both spouses must provide documentation justifying the reason for separate residence (e.g., work, children’s schooling, medical care, etc.).
Submitting the Application
To start the citizenship application, the applicant must upload all the following documents on the CIVES portal of the Ministry of the Interior:
- Citizenship application form (AE Form, automatically completed by the program), listing all residential addresses from the age of fourteen, with no gaps in time. The applicant must be very careful when entering data, as they cannot be modified later. If an error occurs, a new registration must be made with a different email address. In particular, the details listed on the birth certificate (including any annotations) and/or in documents issued abroad by the competent foreign authorities (such as marriage certificates, identity documents, name/surname change rulings, etc.) must be provided. In case of discrepancies, the applicant must supply appropriate supporting documentation.
- Declaration of any cohabitation with minor children from a previous relationship.
- All residences from the age of fourteen must be declared, without leaving any periods unreported.
- Special characters or symbols (e.g., cedilla, acute or grave accents within words, circumflex accents, etc.) should not be included. Only the accent on the last letter may be inserted using an apostrophe if it exists in the original language.
Additional Required Documents:
- Full birth certificate, apostilled, translated, and with an apostille on the translation.
- Identity document (a notarized copy of the passport) and a simple copy (no notarization) of the Italian spouse’s passport.
- Summary extract of the marriage certificate issued by the Italian municipality where the marriage is registered, dated no more than six months before submitting the application. If the marriage took place abroad (e.g., Panama), the Italian spouse must have previously requested the Embassy to register the marriage.
- Proof of payment of the €250.00 fee, preferably by credit card through the PagoPA platform on the CIVES portal. If payment via PagoPA is not possible, it can be made by bank transfer to the Ministry of the Interior’s bank account, specifying the payment reason as: Name, Surname, “Naturalization by marriage”.
- Panama criminal record certificate, apostilled, translated, and with an apostille on the translation, and from any countries where the applicant has lived since the age of 14. Criminal records from countries other than Panama must be apostilled and translated in the country of issue. The certificates must not be older than six months at the time of submitting the application. Anyone who has lived in the USA must submit both federal and state criminal records.
- Certificate of Italian language proficiency at least at level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Accepted certifications are:
- PLIDA from the Dante Alighieri Society
- CertIt from the University of Roma Tre
- CILS from the University for Foreigners of Siena
- CELI from the University for Foreigners of Perugia
- Co.L from the University for Foreigners of Reggio Calabria.
Note: Other certifications from the mentioned entities or other institutions are not eligible and will not be accepted.
Acceptance of the Application
The Consular Office will be automatically notified of the application and will proceed with the necessary checks. The applicant will receive a notification via the Ministry of the Interior portal about the acceptance or rejection of their application.
If the application is rejected, the applicant may resubmit the application, correcting the errors indicated in the rejection notice, and payments already made may be reused if the application is resubmitted within one year.
If accepted, the applicant will be invited electronically to the Diplomatic-Consular Representation for the authentication of the signature on the citizenship application, for the submission of all original documents, including those previously submitted electronically, and for the payment of the required consular fees.
All the above documents will be kept in original form by the Diplomatic-Consular Representation, except for the identity document and the language certificate, for which a certified copy will be made, along with the relevant payments.
The identification code for the application, automatically assigned when the application is accepted by the Embassy and communicated to the applicant, allows the applicant to track the status of the request through the following link: http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/it/servizi-online.
The Embassy cannot perform this verification, which can only be done by the applicant on the portal.
Examination of the Request by the Competent Italian Ministries
From the moment the original documents are submitted at the Embassy, the citizenship request will be examined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior.
Issuance of the Decree and Oath of Allegiance
In the case of a positive outcome, a decree of citizenship attribution will be issued and notified to the applicant via the portal. At the time of notification, further documents will be requested to verify the continuity of the marital bond, dated after the decree, such as:
- Full marriage certificate issued by the competent Italian municipality (not the summary extract) and corresponding foreign document
- Criminal record certificate from the current country of residence, duly legalized and translated.
By the time the decree is adopted, the marriage or civil union must not have been dissolved, nor must there have been a personal separation (separation judgment). However, if the spouse dies after the citizenship application is submitted, the benefit is not lost.
The applicant will be invited to the consular offices within six months of the notification to swear allegiance to the Republic and its laws. The six-month deadline is strict; failure to comply will result in the loss of the right to acquire citizenship.
A fee is required for this process, as indicated in the “Costs” section.
For this reason, it is important for the Italian spouse to always keep the family address updated, notifying any changes through the FAST IT platform.
Legislative References:
- Law No. 123/1983
- Law No. 91/1992 and DPR No. 572/1993 and No. 362/1994
- Law No. 94/2009
- Law No. 76/2016 and Legislative Decrees No. 5, 6, and 7/2017
- Law No. 113/2018 and Law No. 132/2018
- Law No. 130/2020 and Law No. 173/2020