Italy’s 2025 rule change shows how quickly citizenship-by-descent opportunities can disappear. Ireland’s Foreign Birth Registration is open now, but no program is guaranteed forever. If you qualify through an Irish-born grandparent, we encourage you to act while the door is still open.
In 2025, Italy revised its citizenship-by-descent rules, excluding many people who had been eligible under the old law but had not yet completed the process. What had been open-ended generational eligibility was largely reduced to claims through an Italian parent or grandparent.
No one knows exactly how many people lost access to that route to citizenship with the new law. The Italian diaspora is large, and is spread across the United States, Latin America, and many other parts of the world. It is hard to escape the conclusion that, for countless would-be applicants, the door was slammed shut.
They were metaphorically left out in the cold, with the pathway to an incredibly valuable opportunity vanishing in the blink of an eye. When it comes to pursuing citizenship-by-descent, procrastination can be a regrettable mistake.
At this time, there is no public indication that Ireland plans to change any eligibility rules regarding the Foreign Birth Registration process. However, no citizenship-by-descent program is guaranteed forever.
Laws can change. Governments come and go. Political climates shift. Italy’s 2025 citizenship-by-descent reform proved how quickly opportunities can disappear. If you qualify, the safest time to apply is while the door is wide open.
If your application is approved and current processing timelines hold, you may achieve in under a year what many immigrants to the European Union spend years working toward: the right to live, work, and study across all EU member countries.
If you qualify, you hold something rare:
A gift from your ancestors. A privilege. An opportunity most Americans will never have.
