Citizenship by Residence (Naturalizzazione)

Residence Duration

The residence requirement varies based on your status and nationality. You must maintain continuous legal residence, meaning you are registered with your municipality's registry office (anagrafe) without interruption and hold a valid residence permit (permesso di soggiorno) throughout the entire period.

Standard requirements:

• 10 years of continuous legal residence for non-EU foreign nationals
• 4 years for EU citizens

Reduced periods:

• 2 years if your parent or grandparent is or was an Italian citizen by birth (introduced by Law 74/2025 in May 2025)
• 3 years if you were born in Italy and have resided there legally without interruption until age 18
• 3 years if you are a direct ascendant (parent or grandparent) of an Italian citizen
• 5 years if you are stateless or a political refugee
• 5 years if you were adopted as an adult by an Italian citizen
• 5 years of service abroad if employed by the Italian state

What breaks continuity: Periods abroad or administrative removal from the registry cancel the continuity requirement, and a new residence period must begin from the date of re-registration. Brief absences (up to 6 months consecutively or 10 months cumulatively) may not break continuity, though this varies by prefecture.

Income Requirement

You must demonstrate adequate income for the past three years. The required amounts depend on your household composition:

• €8,263.31 per year for a single applicant without dependents
• €11,362.05 per year for an applicant with an economically dependent spouse
• €516.46 additional per dependent child

Income can come from employment, self-employment, pensions, or family members living in the same household (spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws). Income is verified through tax returns (Certificazione Unica, Modello 730, or Modello Unico) from the three years preceding application.

Exemption: The income requirement does not apply if you hold an EU long-term resident permit or have signed an integration agreement (accordo di integrazione).

Italian Language Proficiency

You must demonstrate knowledge of Italian at a minimum of B1 level (intermediate) on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This requirement was introduced by the 2018 Security Decree (Law 132/2018).

Exemptions: The language requirement is waived if you have signed an integration agreement or hold an EU long-term resident permit.

How to certify: Language proficiency can be certified by recognized bodies including the University for Foreigners of Perugia, University for Foreigners of Siena, University of Roma Tre, Dante Alighieri Society, and University for Foreigners Dante Alighieri of Reggio Calabria. Alternatively, you can provide a diploma from a public or private educational institution recognized by the Ministry of Education (MIUR) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI).

Important note: A Constitutional Court ruling (Sentence 25/2025, deposited March 7, 2025) declared the language requirement illegitimate as applied to elderly and disabled persons, though implementation of this ruling is still being clarified.

Criminal Record and Security

You must have a clean criminal record and cannot have been convicted of serious crimes or pose a security risk to the Italian state. The Ministry of the Interior evaluates the seriousness of any offense and your social dangerousness on a case-by-case basis. Under Law 132/2018, citizenship acquired through residence can be revoked in case of final conviction for terrorism or subversion offenses.