Introduction:
The Court of Venice recently granted Italian citizenship by descent to two U.S.-born applicants whose Italian ancestor emigrated to Brazil in the early twentieth century, dying there without ever renouncing his Italian citizenship. The genealogical line was documented through apostilled civil registry records. The Ministry of the Interior did not appear and was declared in default.
Outcome:
The Court declared both applicants Italian citizens jure sanguinis and ordered the Ministry of the Interior to proceed with all required civil registry registrations and consular notifications. Legal costs were offset between the parties.
Challenge:
Two threshold questions shaped the case. First, the Court confirmed that the 2025 reform did not apply, as the petition predated the new legislation. Under the prior regime, applicants need only prove descent from an Italian citizen; the burden of proving any interruption in the transmission line falls on the State. Second, the applicants had not obtained a formal administrative refusal before going to court. The Court held that this requirement cannot be applied rigidly where consular backlogs make timely administrative review structurally impossible. Unreasonable delay, the Court confirmed, is legally equivalent to a denial of the right.
Action:
The Court confirmed uninterrupted paternal-line descent from the Italian ancestor and the absence of any voluntary renunciation of citizenship. It reaffirmed that Italian citizenship is a permanent and imprescriptible right that cannot be extinguished by administrative inaction, and that judicial recognition is available wherever the administrative path is effectively inaccessible. Jurisdiction lay with Venice under the rule, in force since June 2022, that assigns citizenship proceedings to the court in the territory where the Italian ancestor was born.
For the privacy of our clients, all names are fictional, and any identifying details in the judgements have been obscured.