Referendum in Italy: obtaining citizenship in 5 years
At the beginning of 2025, the Italian media reported that the Italian Constitutional Court approved a referendum on reducing the residency requirement in order to obtain Italian citizenship. According to the new bill, it is planned that foreign citizens can obtain Italian citizenship after 5 years of legal stay in the country. Thus, the referendum will be held in the interval from April to June 2025, and accordingly, the bill may come into force this year. Next year, we expect an increase in requests for Italian passports, as well as residence permits in Italy on various grounds.
The likelihood of the adoption of this bill is very high, as the online petition has collected the necessary 500,000 signatures for consideration by the Constitutional Court, and the Constitutional Court, in turn, supported this initiative.
Recall that in accordance with Law No 91 of 1992, in force in Italy, foreign citizens from countries outside the European Union can currently apply for Italian citizenship only after ten years of residence. This period is significantly longer compared to a number of other European countries where naturalization periods are shorter. For example, in France and Portugal, citizenship can be obtained after five years of residence.
In recent years, there has been an increasing trend towards a decrease in the period of stay in the country to obtain citizenship. So, for example, in Portugal, you can obtain citizenship after 5 years of residence, similarly citizenship can be obtained in Germany. Also, Cyprus has adopted laws that not only accelerate the period for obtaining citizenship, but also programs that can speed up the time for consideration of an application by the migration authorities for citizenship.
Authors: Yaroslavna Zadesenskaya, Levan Pogosov
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