Growing up close to Boston, parts of Italian-American tradition had been threaded by a lot of Liz Fitzgerald’s life.
Every Christmas Eve, her uncle would go to her household’s residence to have fun the Feast of the Seven Fishes, bringing dishes like stuffed shrimp, calamari and clam chowder, whereas her aunts poured batter into steaming irons to make the crispy, waffle-like Italian cookies known as pizelle. Her father’s contribution was at all times a ricotta pie from a neighborhood Italian bakery.
The household traces their Italian roots to her great-grandfather, Angelo, who was born in 1890 close to Naples and arrived within the United States in 1909. He didn’t naturalize as a US citizen till 1945, a number of years after Fitzgerald’s father was born.
When she realized a number of years in the past that she had a path to Italian citizenship thanks to him by jus sanguinis or “blood right,” Fitzgerald, 53, set about gathering the paperwork to submit her case.
She had gathered all the mandatory paperwork and had them translated, apostilled and prepared to submit by late March 2025 when she — and hundreds of different individuals world wide additionally within the strategy of making use of for Italian citizenship — had been blindsided by a sudden change within the regulation.
A surprise decree made efficient instantly on March 28, 2025, by the Italian authorities tightened rules for claiming citizenship by jus sanguinis, limiting it solely to individuals with a mother or father or grandparent born in Italy.
And whereas the brand new regulation, generally known as the Tajani Decree (transformed to Law 74/2025 ), didn’t have an effect on the functions of roughly 60,000 people who had been pending on the time at consulates and in Italian courts, it successfully closed the trail for these like Fitzgerald.
But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for individuals who nonetheless hope to acquire Italian citizenship regardless of not qualifying beneath the brand new rules: A listening to in Italy’s Constitutional Court is ready for March 11, 2026, to decide the regulation’s constitutionality.
“Many Americans and others of Italian descent are in a holding pattern right now, because the Constitutional Court could still reverse or soften key parts of the decree when it hears the case in March,” stated Pierangelo D’Errico, a supervisor within the London workplace of immigration agency Fragomen.
“Until the Court rules, applicants are facing real uncertainty, both about whether they qualify and about how long applications may take to be processed,” he stated in an e mail to NCS.
Kristina Scanlan, a doctor presently doing her residency in Pennsylvania, was additionally within the strategy of gathering paperwork to apply for Italian citizenship by her great-great-grandmother when the Tajani Decree was introduced final yr. While the whole lot was kind of prepared to go, she stated, the case had not but been filed when the brand new rules dropped.
“Devastated, in a word,” is how Scanlan described her response to listening to the information that she and her mom, sister, uncle and two cousins, who had been on the identical software, had been not certified. She and her husband, who additionally certified for Italian citizenship beneath the previous guidelines, had already mentioned the advantages of their future youngsters probably having Italian passports, and Scanlan had thought of at some point working in Italy as a doctor, too.
After discussing issues with their lawyer, she and her household determined to transfer ahead with their software, which was filed in Italy in June 2025 and is presently awaiting a court docket date.
“Once I heard this ruling come through I knew that there would be some filings in court, so I’ve always held up hope that something might come of it. And that it might be declared unconstitutional,” Scanlan stated.
Arturo Grasso, whose agency My Lawyer in Italy is presently representing roughly 300 purchasers affected by the change, says his recommendation to purchasers is to “fight for their rights.”
“While the government introduced this rule and secured parliamentary confirmation through a voto di fiducia (vote of confidence), lawmakers can make mistakes,” he stated through e mail to NCS.
“This is precisely why Italy has a Constitutional Court composed of 15 experts who scrutinize laws whenever a judge identifies a serious breach of constitutional principles,” Grasso stated.
When the court docket hears arguments difficult elements of the decree — notably provisions that retroactively minimize off eligibility for descendants of Italians who naturalized overseas — the court docket might “uphold the law as written or strike down parts of it,” stated D’Errico, whose agency additionally has many purchasers impacted.
And whereas a choice on the regulation’s constitutionality is just not seemingly to be made earlier than the center or finish of April, it’s doable it may very well be additional delayed, he stated.
As a consequence, stated D’Errico, “many prospective applicants, particularly in the US, are taking a wait-and-see approach ahead of the Court’s decision, given the possibility that eligibility rules could change again.”
Grasso stated roughly half of his purchasers affected by the brand new regulation have already filed court docket challenges in opposition to it “on the grounds that it deprives descendants of citizenship they rightfully acquired at birth.”
“There is significant legal consensus that this constitutes a retroactive deprivation of citizenship. This violates the fundamental legal principle that laws affecting basic rights, such as citizenship, property, and liberty should not be applied retroactively,” Grasso stated.
That’s what twin American and Italian citizen Kris Rini is hoping is set for his spouse and her household, who utilized for Italian citizenship post-decree, even if not all of them qualify beneath the brand new regulation.
Rini, who lives in Long Island, utilized for himself and his son earlier than the decree was introduced final yr. Both had been granted Italian citizenship in September 2025. He took the lead on serving to his spouse’s household with their software, he stated, since he’d been by the method already.
He and his spouse hope to finally purchase a home in Italy and spend no less than a part of the yr there, Rini stated. For the final seven months, he’s been taking Italian classes, listening to podcasts and watching reveals to get a greater grasp on the language.
For all of them, he stated, the connection to their Italian heritage is an enormous driver.
“I remember my first time going to Italy, I kind of got off the plane, and I couldn’t explain why, but I just kind of felt like I was home, like kind of where I belonged,” Rini stated.
Fitzgerald, who hopes she should still be acknowledged after the Constitutional Court listening to, has been finding out Italian for three years and might relate to feeling a hyperlink to the motherland.
Last summer time, she and 13 members of the family from Boston, together with 10 who are descendants of her great-grandfather, Angelo, hung out collectively in Florence. Then Fitzgerald and her daughter traveled south to Mirabella Eclano, a small city exterior of Naples the place Angelo was from.
She and her daughter had gotten tattoos, written in Fitzgerald’s father’s handwriting, of the zip code the place Angelo, his grandfather, had lived.
“We plan to add a second tattoo, the date we become citizens, underneath the zip code, also in his writing. Realizing I don’t know when the actual end date of this whole process will be, I had my dad write out all of the numbers from 1-10 in case he is no longer around,” she stated in an e mail.
And Fitzgerald is retaining the religion that it’ll occur.
“I feel like I’m Italian and I want this and I’ve come so far,” she stated. “I’m going to do this and hope for the best.”
Florida-based journey author Terry Ward lives in Tampa and is awaiting a choice on her Italian citizenship.