By Maria Teresa Vanacore, Partner, Milan · Liberty · 28 October 2026
Two years. That is the residence period for Italian citizenship through grandparents or parents who were Italian citizens by birth: a foreign national in that position must reside legally in Italy for two years before applying for naturalisation. Until May 2025 the period was three. For most other non-European nationals it is ten.
For families with a path to Italian citizenship through grandparents and the means to invest, this is the quiet opportunity of the 2025 reform. The same reform that narrowed citizenship by descent for those born abroad opened a short, lawful route for those prepared to live in Italy. The Italy Investor Visa is the most predictable way to begin it.
The conditions weigh as much as the opportunity. Two years is the date from which you may apply, and the grant remains a discretionary decision of the Italian State. Whether a family qualifies, when its residence clock starts and how its tax position will read at the ministry can only be answered for that family. Here is what the law says, who it covers, what the ministry examines, and how we approach the planning.
What the law says about Italian citizenship through grandparents and parents
The rule is article 9(1)(a) of legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91, in the wording given by article 1-bis(2) of decreto-legge 28 marzo 2025, n. 36, added on conversion by legge 23 maggio 2025, n. 74, with effect from 24 May 2025.
Citizenship «può essere concessa» to «lo straniero del quale il padre o la madre o uno degli ascendenti in linea retta di secondo grado sono o sono stati cittadini per nascita e che risiede legalmente nel territorio della Repubblica da almeno due anni». In English: the State may grant it to a foreign national whose father, mother or grandparent is or was an Italian citizen by birth, and who has resided legally in Italy for at least two years.
The reform added the words «sono o» (is or was), so a living Italian parent or grandparent plainly qualifies. Foreigners born in Italy, who used to share the old three-year rule, moved to a new letter a-bis, where the period stays at three years.
Why the two-year rule matters for investor families
Before 2025, a family whose Italian link ran through a grandparent born in Italy had two practical options: a descent claim, often slow and increasingly contested, or the general ten-year naturalisation route.
The reform changed the arithmetic. A family that can prove the ancestor’s status by birth, move to Italy and keep two years of continuous registered residence can file for citizenship in roughly the time an investor visa permit takes to run its first term.
Few lawful routes to an EU passport open to non-European nationals are shorter than Italian citizenship through grandparents. This one rewards what investor families are often willing to do: relocate, invest and integrate. Its value depends entirely on the details of the individual case, which is why the rest of this article covers conditions rather than promises.
Who qualifies for Italian citizenship through grandparents, and the limit for great-grandchildren
The decisive words are «per nascita». The parent or grandparent must have been Italian from birth. A grandparent born an Italian citizen who later emigrated, naturalised elsewhere and lost Italian citizenship still counts, because the law expressly covers someone who «was» a citizen by birth. A grandparent who became Italian later in life, through marriage or naturalisation, does not.
The line stops at grandparents. Families looking at Italian citizenship through great-grandparents fall back on the general ten-year rule of letter (f), and for many families in the Americas that is exactly the generation in question.
One more check. Under article 3-bis, also introduced in 2025, a person born abroad who holds another citizenship is considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship, save for five exceptions. Where the Italian ancestor was born outside Italy, their status «by birth» has to be tested against article 3-bis first. The clearest cases are ancestors born in Italy. Article 3-bis itself is the subject of a challenge now pending in Luxembourg.
No two family trees raise the same questions. Eligibility is the first thing we establish, with documents, before anyone books a flight.
Italian citizenship through grandparents: a discretionary concession
Article 9 opens with «può essere concessa», may be granted: the President of the Republic decides by decree, after the opinion of the Council of State, on a proposal from the Minister of the Interior. Two years of residence make the application admissible. They create no entitlement to a favourable decision.
Compare article 4, under which a descendant «diviene cittadino», becomes a citizen, once its conditions are met. There the authority only verifies the requirements. Under article 9 it decides whether to grant.
The research service of the Chamber of Deputies describes the decision as a «valutazione discrezionale di opportunità», tempered by the mandatory opinion of the Council of State. Case law treats it as a judgment on whether the applicant has genuinely integrated, weighing self-sufficiency, tax compliance and any criminal record. A refusal must give reasons, and the applicant can challenge it before the administrative courts.
Under article 9-ter, the administration must conclude the procedure within 24 months of the application, a term it can extend to a maximum of 36. Silence does not amount to a grant. If the ministry runs late, the remedy is an action before the administrative court to compel a decision.
What the ministry examines
Legal residence. A valid residence permit and registration with the municipal population register, the anagrafe (D.P.R. 572/1993, article 1(2)(a)), held together. The two years must be continuous and still running on the day the application is filed. A permit held while living abroad, without registration in an Italian municipality, builds nothing.
Italian at level B1. Proved by a recognised certificate or by an Italian school or university qualification (article 9.1). The exemption for holders of an EU long-term residence permit will not help at the two-year mark.
Income. The Ministry of the Interior applies thresholds of:
- €8,263.31 a year for a single applicant
- €11,362.05 with a dependent spouse
- €516 for each dependent child
The ministry assesses them on the Italian tax returns of the three years before the application, and the applicant must maintain the income until the oath. Its guidance counts only income subject to Italian personal income tax (IRPEF). The ministry disregards income taxed abroad. For investor families, that sentence matters.
Final steps. A clean record, a contribution of €250 (article 9-bis) and, once the decree is issued, the oath of allegiance within six months of notification. Without the oath the decree has no effect (article 10).
Where the Italy Investor Visa fits
Italy offers no citizenship by investment programme. The investor visa buys residence, and for the grandchild of an Italian citizen by birth, two years of that residence open the application for Italian citizenship through grandparents.
Article 9(1)(a) is silent on how the applicant obtains the residence. For a family with the means, the investor visa under article 26-bis of D.Lgs. 286/1998 is the most predictable starting point:
- €250,000 in an innovative start-up
- €500,000 in an Italian company
- €1,000,000 as a donation of public interest
- €2,000,000 in Italian government bonds
A decision arrives within 30 days, the investor makes the investment only after arrival, and the first permit lasts two years, renewable for three. I covered the programme in detail in my guide on this site.
Planning residence and tax for Italian citizenship through grandparents
Two features need care when citizenship is the goal.
A family can keep the investor visa without living in Italy, while citizenship under article 9 requires living there. A family spending a few weeks a year in Italy keeps the visa and accumulates no time. The clock starts when the family actually moves and registers with the anagrafe. Where the family will live, who moves first and when the children are registered shape the timeline from day one.
Then there is the tax plan. Many investor visa holders consider Italy’s flat tax on foreign income for new residents. Because the income test looks only at IRPEF income declared in Italy, a family living on foreign income, or under the flat tax, may show modest Italian taxable income while being comfortably off. Settle how that will be read with the tax adviser before choosing the regime. The ministry reads three years of returns against a two-year residence requirement, so the presentation of the earliest year is something we plan file by file. A tax structure chosen without the citizenship application in view can quietly cost the family the outcome it moved for.
A realistic timeline from arrival to passport
- Investor visa approval in about 30 days, then the visa at the consulate.
- Entry, the permit application within eight days and registration with the anagrafe.
- Two years of continuous legal residence, with the B1 certificate and income evidence prepared along the way.
- The application, then up to 24 months (extendable to 36) for the decree.
- The oath.
A family should think in terms of four to five years from arrival to passport.
Under article 14, as amended in 2025, minor children living with a parent who becomes Italian acquire citizenship with them, provided they have resided legally in Italy for two continuous years, or since birth if younger. Moving together and registering the children from the start keeps them within that rule.
Mistakes that cost families years
- Treating the two-year mark as a guarantee. It is the earliest date to file.
- Assuming a great-grandparent is enough.
- Holding the permit from abroad and counting the years anyway.
- Choosing the tax regime first and asking about citizenship afterwards.
- Leaving the B1 certificate to the final month.
Each can add years, and all are avoidable at the planning stage, where an individual assessment of eligibility, residence and tax belongs.
For descendants of Italians who want to live in Italy, the 2025 reform closed one door and widened another. Article 9(1)(a) rewards real residence and integration and leaves the last word to the State: a fair bargain for families who know its terms from the start and have checked that those terms fit their own case.
If you are exploring Italian citizenship through grandparents or parents and are weighing a move to Italy, book a conversation with our Milan and Lisbon teams. We look at your family’s position as a whole: descent, residence, investment and tax. See also our Italian citizenship practice.
This article provides general information on Italian law as of October 2026 and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Eligibility and outcomes depend on the facts of each case.