Italian citizenship for Brits: residence, marriage and the 2025 descent shake-up

An Italian passport is the closest thing to undoing Brexit for yourself: full EU rights, no 90/180-day counting and no permit renewals. And Italy lets you keep your British passport too.

The short version

• Italy accepts dual nationality, so you don't have to give up British citizenship [1].
• By residence, non-EU citizens, Brits included, need 10 years of legal, continuous residence in Italy [2].
• By marriage, it's two years' legal residence in Italy after the wedding, or three years of marriage if you live abroad, halved if you have children [2].
• Both routes need Italian at B1 level, a EUR 250 fee (about £210) and patience: the decision can take 24 to 36 months [3][4].
• Since 2025, citizenship by descent is limited to people with a parent or grandparent who held only Italian citizenship, or a parent who lived in Italy for two years before their birth [5].

Why bother?

If you live in Rome on a permesso, you're a third-country national: you renew permits, count Schengen days when you travel and can lose your status if you leave for too long. An Italian passport ends all that. You can vote in Italian elections and live and work anywhere in the EU. Because Italy recognises dual citizenship with the UK, your British passport, your votes for life and your right to come home are untouched [1].

One practical point: once you're a dual national, the FCDO says you must enter and leave Italy on your Italian (EU) passport [1].

Route 1: citizenship by residence

This is the long road for most Brits who moved after Brexit.

The years must be legal and continuous, which in practice means registered at the anagrafe with a valid permesso throughout. Gaps in your residence registration can reset the clock, so keep your paperwork tidy from day one. If you hold Irish citizenship as well as British, the four-year EU route may be quicker, though you'd still need a B1 certificate [2].

The income test

You must show enough income over the three years before you apply, and keep it up until you take the oath [4]. The figures commonly applied are EUR 8,263.31 a year (about £6,900) for a single applicant, EUR 11,362.05 (about £9,500) with a dependent spouse, plus about EUR 516 (about £430) for each dependent child [4]. Income from family members on the same household record (stato di famiglia) can count [4].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = EUR 1.2002).

Route 2: citizenship by marriage

If you're married to, or in a civil partnership with, an Italian, the wait is far shorter [2]:

• Living in Italy: two years of legal, uninterrupted residence in Italy after the marriage.
• Living abroad: three years of marriage.
• With children born or adopted by the couple, these halve: one year in Italy, or 18 months abroad.

You need a full marriage or civil partnership certificate from the Italian comune where it's registered [3], and the prefettura's guide says to register the marriage with your comune of residence before applying [7]. If your spouse became Italian by naturalisation, the clock runs from their naturalisation, not your wedding [3].

Couples in the UK apply through the Consulate General in London [3]. If you live in Rome, you apply online to the Ministry of the Interior and the prefettura handles your file [2][7].

The B1 language test

Both the residence and marriage routes need Italian at level B1 of the Common European Framework [3]. Only certificates from recognised bodies count: PLIDA (Società Dante Alighieri), CILS (Università per Stranieri di Siena), CELI (Università per Stranieri di Perugia), Certit (Università Roma Tre) and CE.Co.L (Università per Stranieri di Reggio Calabria) [3]. An Italian school or university qualification taught mainly in Italian also counts, as does an EU long-term residence permit issued in Italy [3].

B1 means you can deal with everyday life: the questura, your landlord, a chat at the bar about the footie. Most people need serious lessons to get there, and Roma Tre is right here in the city.

How to apply

1. Get your documents together. A full birth certificate and a criminal record certificate, both issued within six months, apostilled and translated into Italian [3]. For Brits, that's an ACRO "Police certificate for immigration purposes" [3].
2. Include every country you've lived in for more than six months since the age of 14 [3].
3. Pass your B1 exam and keep the certificate.
4. Pay the EUR 250 fee to the Ministry of the Interior, plus a EUR 16 revenue stamp (about £13) if you apply in Italy [3][7].
5. Apply online through the Ministry of the Interior's portal. Residents in Italy log in with SPID, Italy's digital identity [2].
6. Wait. The law gives the ministry 24 months, extendable to 36 [3][4].
7. Take the oath within six months of being notified of the decree. You become Italian the day after [3].

Route 3: descent, and the 2025 changes

For decades Italy offered citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis) with no generation limit, which was why so many Brits with an Italian great-grandparent went hunting for old birth certificates. That changed with a decree-law of 28 March 2025 (no. 36), converted into law by Law no. 74 of 23 May 2025 [5][6].

Now, someone born abroad with another citizenship isn't automatically Italian through an Italian parent. They qualify only if at least one of these applies [5]:

• The parent lived in Italy: the Italian parent lived continuously in Italy for at least two years after becoming Italian and before the child was born.
• Sole Italian citizenship: a parent or grandparent holds, or held at death, only Italian citizenship.

Self-declarations that an ancestor had no other nationality aren't accepted [5]. The London consulate charges EUR 600 (about £500) for an adult descent application, paid in pounds on the day and not refunded if you don't qualify [5]. Separate rules cover minor children, so check the consulate's pages if you're applying for a child [5].

The rules in this area have moved fast, so check the London consulate's page for the latest before paying for genealogy research. If your Italian link is further back, the three-year residence route for descendants in the table above may still be worth a look.

Don't forget the UK end

Becoming Italian doesn't change your UK tax position: the UK taxes by residence, not passport. Keep your British passport renewed (see renewing a British passport from abroad), and if you have children in Rome, check whether they're British by descent; our guide to registering a child born abroad explains the rules.

Thinking about the B1 exam or the prefettura queue? Our community group for Brits in Italy is full of people swotting up on their congiuntivo.

Sources

1. GOV.UK (FCDO): Living in Italy (last updated 28 October 2026)
2. Prefettura (Ministero dell'Interno): FAQ cittadinanza (January 2024)
3. Consolato Generale d'Italia Londra: Citizenship by marriage or civil partnership (checked 7 November 2026)
4. Infoimmigrazione: Cittadinanza italiana per residenza (updated 4 July 2026)
5. Consolato Generale d'Italia Londra: Citizenship iure sanguinis – new regulatory framework (checked 7 November 2026)
6. Senato della Repubblica: conversion bill for decree-law 36/2025, A.S. 1432 (PDF) (14 May 2025)
7. Prefettura (Ministero dell'Interno): Guida alla cittadinanza italiana (PDF) (March 2024)

Keep reading

• Moving to Rome as a Brit: visa and residence routes
• Codice fiscale, residenza and the permesso di soggiorno
• Brits in the EU after Brexit: residence rights and the 90/180-day rule
• Registering a child born abroad and British citizenship by descent