How many years you really need, what counts as legal residence, and the two-year route now open to many people excluded by the 2025 reform.
Italian citizenship by residency is a concession, not a right. Where citizenship by descent is recognised, naturalisation under article 9 of Law 91/1992 is granted by presidential decree, on the proposal of the Interior Minister and after the Council of State has given its opinion. Completing the qualifying period does not entitle you to citizenship. It entitles you to apply.
This explains why two applicants with identical residence histories can receive different answers, why the file is assessed as a whole rather than against a checklist, and why anyone approaching Italian citizenship through residency on the assumption that "ten years plus documents equals a passport" has misunderstood the instrument.
There is no single answer. Article 9 sets different periods depending on who you are, and the standard ten years for non-EU nationals is only one of them, and for many readers of this site not the relevant one. The 2025 reform that closed the descent route to many people also shortened the naturalisation route for some of them: two years for those with an Italian-born parent or grandparent.
Legal residence is registration with the anagrafe of the resident population, after lawful entry and continued stay with a valid permit. Both limbs are necessary: holding a permit is not residence, and being physically present is not residence. What counts is the registration.
The residence must also be continuous until the oath, not just until the application. More files fail here than on any other requirement. A cancellation from the register, a period recorded as untraceable, or a move abroad never formally reversed breaks continuity, and the count starts again from zero. Reconstructing a history that looks broken on paper but was continuous in fact is a large part of the work, and far better done before filing than after a refusal.
Income is the second gate: adequate and stable means, regular tax compliance, and the capacity to meet your duties of economic and social solidarity. Unlike the marriage route, where no income requirement exists, this is a hard filter, assessed over the three years before the application and required to stay stable until the oath.
Language is the third: since December 2018, certified Italian at level B1 from an accredited body, or a qualifying Italian educational qualification. And article 6 sets the criminal bars, removed only by rehabilitation. Beyond those, the administration weighs your record as part of its overall assessment: a conviction outside article 6 is not automatically fatal, and not automatically irrelevant either.
You file online on the Interior Ministry portal with SPID or CIE; there is no paper alternative. The fee is €250 plus a €16 stamp, not refunded. Foreign documents (full birth certificate, criminal records from your country of origin and any other country of residence) must be apostilled or legalised and translated.
The time limit is 24 months, extendable to 36, for applications since 20 December 2020 (48 months for earlier ones). Before refusing, the administration must send a notice of the grounds, and the observations you file then are often the last practical chance to save the file. A refused application can be filed again after five years. If granted, you swear the oath within six months; citizenship takes effect the next day. Minor children living with you become Italian only if they have been legally resident in Italy for two continuous years (or since birth): a 2025 condition, easily overlooked.
A referendum on 8 and 9 June 2025 asked whether to halve the period for non-EU adults from ten years to five. Turnout did not reach the required threshold, so the referendum was void and the ten-year rule stands. Reform proposals continue to be debated in Parliament, but nothing has been enacted. For planning purposes, the ten-year rule is stable, and the shorter periods are where almost all the practical opportunity lies.
For many people, yes, because of the two-year period. Article 3-bis, introduced in 2025, closed the descent route to many people born abroad with another citizenship. But someone whose parent or grandparent was an Italian citizen by birth can naturalise after two years of legal residence: the shortest period in the scheme, shorter even than the four years for EU nationals.
The limit is the second degree. If your nearest Italian ancestor is a great grandparent, the two-year period does not apply, and you are on ten years (or four with EU citizenship). And there is a step before all this: you cannot start accruing legal residence until you are lawfully in Italy with a permit that allows registration. For a non-EU national that means a visa first, and the choice of visa decides when the clock starts.
A clean ten-year history with stable income, a B1 certificate and no criminal record is an administrative exercise. Advice changes the result where discretion has room to operate.
We work from primary sources: Law 91/1992 and its regulations, the income parameters as actually applied, and published prefectural practice, where the differences between provinces become visible. Avv. Marco Mesina, a member of the Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano), coordinates the administrative procedure and, where necessary, court action, including answers to notices of intended refusal and challenges to delay. And because naturalisation presupposes years of residence, the tax position is not a footnote: where and when you register settles your Italian tax residence and any regime you may qualify for, a decision best taken at the start of the ten years, not at the end.
No. Article 9 confers a discretionary power. Completing the qualifying period entitles you to apply and to have the application properly considered, not to be granted citizenship.
No. The period runs from registration with the anagrafe following lawful entry and stay. Presence without registration does not count, however long it lasted.
A cancellation from the register or a recorded period of untraceability breaks the continuity and the count restarts. Whether a particular gap has that effect is a question of fact worth examining before filing rather than after a refusal.
The thresholds in current use are 8,263.31 euro for a household of one, 11,362.05 euro with a dependent spouse, and a further 516.46 euro for each dependent child, assessed over the three years preceding the application and required to remain stable until the oath.
Two years of legal residence in Italy, which is the shortest naturalisation period available. It requires a parent or grandparent who was an Italian citizen by birth; a great grandparent does not qualify.
No. The question on reducing the period from ten years to five did not reach the required turnout, so the referendum was void and the existing rule remains in force.
Twenty-four months from filing, extendable to thirty-six, for applications made from 20 December 2020. Earlier applications remain subject to a forty-eight month term. The oath must then be sworn within six months of notification of the decree.
Avv. Marco Mesina
Founder, Move to Dolce Vita · Avvocato, Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano)
Marco is an Italian tax lawyer who advises individuals and families relocating to Italy on tax regimes, residency, citizenship, real estate and succession planning. Before founding Move to Dolce Vita he worked at Watson Farley & Williams, Withers and Deloitte in Milan.