On July 26, 2026, the Italian Court of Cassation, sitting in its most authoritative formation (the United Sections), issued judgment No. 24045/2026, putting an end to the most disruptive controversy in Italian citizenship by descent of recent years: the so-called “minor issue.”
The question was whether a child born abroad lost Italian citizenship when their Italian parent naturalized in a foreign country while the child was still a minor.
Since October 2024, when the Ministry of the Interior instructed consulates and municipalities to answer yes, thousands of applications worldwide have been denied or put on hold on this basis alone.
What the Court Decided
The court drew a clear distinction between two situations:
Children born abroad to an Italian parent in a country applying the ius soli principle (such as the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, or pre-1986 Australia) were dual citizens from birth. They retained Italian citizenship even if their Italian parent later naturalized while they were minors, and could only lose it by renouncing it themselves upon reaching adulthood.
Children who held only Italian citizenship and acquired the foreign citizenship derivatively, as an effect of their parent’s naturalization, did lose Italian citizenship together with the parent.
In short: dual citizens from birth never lost their Italian citizenship. The principle applies whether the naturalizing parent was the father or the mother, and was confirmed a few days later by a second judgment, No. 24184/2026.
The Ministry Has Already Instructed Consulates
On August 10, 2026, the Ministry of the Interior issued a new circular (Prot. No. 65050), superseding its restrictive circular of October 2024 and directing all consulates and municipalities to apply the Court’s interpretation.
At the time of writing, the new circular has not yet been published through the Ministry’s official channels, and consular offices may need some weeks to fully implement it.
Was Your Application Denied? You May Request a Re-Examination
Applicants whose requests were denied exclusively on “minor issue” grounds under the October 2024 circular may now ask for a re-examination of their original application, without going to court. Some points to keep in mind:
The request must be addressed to the same authority that issued the denial, even if you have changed your place of residence in the meantime.
The application will be re-examined under the legal framework applicable at the time it was originally filed.
This last point matters: if your application was filed before March 27, 2025, the restrictions introduced by Italy’s 2025 citizenship reform will not apply to the re-examination.
Important Caveats
As always with Italian citizenship matters, the details decide the case:
The ruling protects only those who held the foreign citizenship from birth by ius soli. Anyone who acquired it in any other way, including derivatively through the parent’s naturalization, remains subject to the old loss rule.
The issue is relevant only to parental naturalizations occurring between July 1, 1912, and August 15, 1992. Since the current citizenship law entered into force in August 1992, naturalizing abroad no longer causes any loss of Italian citizenship.
New applications filed today remain fully subject to the generational limits of Law No. 74/2025: in essence, a parent or grandparent born in Italy (or qualifying parental residence in Italy) is still required. The ruling removes an obstacle within the line of transmission; it does not extend the line.
The Court reserved the case of special international treaty provisions to the contrary, which should be checked for the country of naturalization concerned.
The birth certificate of the person concerned becomes the key document of the file, as it must prove that the foreign citizenship was acquired at birth.
The Bottom Line
For families caught by the minor issue — and there are many, from the Americas to Australia — the longest and most uncertain chapter in recent Italian citizenship practice has closed, and it has closed in their favor.
Applications denied since October 2024 deserve a fresh look, files on hold should now move, and new cases with an Italy-born parent or grandparent can be assessed with a degree of predictability the descent market had entirely lost.
