Every month for nearly three years, Jerry Lombardo and his wife had set aside part of their paychecks toward their dream of moving to Italy to start a business.
A fresh start, Lombardo hoped, would be on the horizon as soon as the Italian government granted him citizenship by “jure sanguinis” — right of blood.
But on March 28, Italy dramatically curtailed who could obtain citizenship through jure sanguinis, citing concerns that people with tenuous ties to the country have been taking advantage of the process to reap the benefits of an Italian passport. Lombardo, an Italian American, is one of many among the Italian diaspora whose applications are now in limbo.
“It’s frustrating to say the least, because you’re told your whole entire life that you’re Italian,” Lombardo said. “Up until last week, you are told that you have the right to citizenship. This entire jure sanguinis thing, it’s not me petitioning to get my citizenship. It is the government acknowledging that, yeah, you are an Italian by birth.”
Previously, the law permitted those who could prove they had ancestors born in Italy after March 17, 1861 — when the Kingdom of Italy was founded — to apply for citizenship. Now, eligibility is restricted to individuals who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy — a hit to applicants who apply through their great-grandparents, such as Lombardo.
The application process, which typically involves genealogy research and hiring legal assistance, is a tedious undertaking, but one that members of the Italian diaspora say helps validate their heritage and provides them an opportunity to possibly set down roots in their home country.
In recent years, though, Italian politicians and Italian nationals have taken issue with the law. They argue that consulates are burdened with jure sanguinis applications, leaving offices with scarce resources to address other needs. Moreover, critics argue that the law has allowed people to easily obtain Italian citizenship despite not having an interest in contributing to the country.
From 2014 to 2024, the number of Italian citizens living abroad rose from around 4.6 million to 6.4 million, according to Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The ministry estimates that if jure sanguinis continues without generational limits, 60 million to 80 million people would be eligible to apply for citizenship.
The controversy over how to handle jure sanguinis is magnified by Italy’s ongoing migrant crisis. Children born in Italy to immigrants are not automatically granted citizenship and have to wait until they are 18 to apply, a process that can be drawn out and has an impact on their education, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Flavio Spadavecchia, an Italian national, said that he understood people’s frustrations with the changes but added that the country was due for change.
“It would be kind of shameful for us to keep having this law forever, because it is basically admitting to people who are born in Italy, and who do not receive citizenship at birth, we’re saying, ‘This person who is from New Jersey and his great-grandparents were from Sicily, he has more of a claim to citizenship than you,’” Spadavecchia said. “I just don’t like that as an Italian national. I don’t want other countries to have that impression.”
Most jure sanguinis applications have come from South American countries in recent years, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said in a news conference last week.
“Being an Italian citizen is a serious thing,” Tajani said. “It’s not a game to get a passport in your pocket to go shopping in Miami.”
In Argentina, citizenship was granted to 20,000 people in 2023 and to 30,000 people in 2024. Among those who received citizenship last year was Argentine President Javier Milei, who has Italian grandparents and is an ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Milei’s case garnered criticism from liberal Italian lawmaker Riccardo Magi, who posted in a video shared to X that for “millions of Italians without citizenship who were born in Italy, who grew up in our country, who studied here, who work here, who pay taxes in our country — unlike President Milei — having Italian citizenship will remain an ordeal.”
In Brazil, citizenship was granted to 20,000 people in 2024, compared with 14,000 people in 2022.
Andressa Anjos, a software engineer from southern Brazil, has worked toward becoming an Italian citizen for nearly a decade. Since she applied in September 2023, her case has been reassigned to three judges.
Anjos said she understands that some applicants misuse jure sanguinis, but she had hopes of relocating to Italy to help modernize its technology. Anjos believes the Italian government could have implemented different guardrails to protect jure sanguinis from abuses, such as language or residency requirements, instead of retroactively impacting those who had already applied.
“To do this from one day to another is so abrupt,” Anjos said. “It’s disrespectful to the people who are going through the process.”
After dedicating years to getting Italian citizenship, Anjos said she doesn’t know what to do next if the changes are not reversed.
“For me, it’s been eight years, but for other people, it’s been much longer than that,” Anjos said. “To visit the U.S., it’s easier to get a visa. We apply, and maybe in six months, we can get a travel visa and go to Miami and do shopping there. It doesn’t make any sense.”
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