Seeking Italian Citizenship

According to new figures from the statistics offices at Eurostat, Italy granted citizenship to over 200,000 people in 2016 placing it as the number 1 provider of citizenships of all the countries in the European Union.

The new citizens (all 201,600 of them) account for 1/5th of the new EU citizens. This shift represents a 13% increase from 2015 with the majority of new citizens originally hailing from Albania, Morocco, and Romania. The only countries contending with these numbers are Spain and the UK, each with around 150,000, followed by France with 119,200 and Germany with 112,800.

While EU citizens can live in Italy permanently without a visa, non-Europeans need to apply for the official residency permit or carta di soggiorno. Those who want full nationality, however, must either have Italian parents or grandparents, marry an Italian, or prove as many as ten years' legal residency in Italy. Currently children born to non-native parents must wait until they're at least 18 to apply. EU citizens can live in Italy permanently without a visa, but non-Europeans need to apply for a residency permit.

Thinking of applying for Italian citizenship? Our culturally-immersive classes and native instructors can provide you with all of the linguistic and cultural knowledge you could ever need to fit in with native Italians! Click below to learn more.