For the millions of people of Italian descent worldwide, March 12, 2026 is a historic watershed. On that day, the Italian Constitutional Court issued its final ruling, in the form of "partly unfounded, partly inadmissible," effectively affirming the constitutionality of Law 74/2025. As of this writing, the Constitutional Court has issued only a press release; the full judgment (sentenza) has not yet been published. This ruling not only draws a close to months of legal dispute but also marks the formal rewriting of Italy's 160-year tradition of indefinite retroactive citizenship by descent (Jure Sanguinis). By estimates, Brazil alone has around 31 million people of Italian descent, Argentina around 20 million (of whom several hundred thousand are actively applying for or hold citizenship), and the United States around 17 million—a considerable proportion of potential applicants in these communities will lose eligibility for citizenship under the new law.
Today, as passports and geopolitics (Passport × Geopolitics) intertwine, the logic of identity planning is undergoing a profound restructuring. European countries are tightening access to their citizenship across the board, and Italy's landmark shift is undoubtedly the most representative event in this wave of "identity deflation"—together with the comprehensive tightening of Caribbean CBI policy in 2026, it forms the two wings of what we call the "The Great Identity Reshuffle". Although the vast majority of Chinese people have no Italian ancestry, the underlying shift in European immigration policy logic reflected in this ruling is an essential lesson that no high-net-worth individual currently undertaking, or planning to undertake, a global allocation of assets and identity can afford to miss.
Background of the Ruling: From Unlimited Retroactivity to Generational Limits
To understand the weight of this ruling, we first need to revisit the unique history of Italian citizenship by descent. Since Italian unification in 1861, nationality law based on the principle of descent (Jure Sanguinis) has been central to its citizenship identity. In the past, as long as you could prove that your ancestors were Italian citizens after 1861, and that no one in the chain of transmission had actively renounced Italian nationality, you had the right to automatically claim Italian citizenship. This "unlimited retroactive" lenient policy created one of the most generous citizenship-by-descent pathways in the world.
However, as globalization deepened, and especially as large numbers of people in South and North America (such as Brazil, Argentina, and the United States) began to use this policy to pour into the EU, Italy's administrative system came under enormous pressure, and domestic discontent toward "ghost citizens" who "take the passport but fulfill no obligations" grew increasingly heated. In 2025, the right-wing government forcefully pushed through Law 74/2025, introducing for the first time strict "generational limits" and "cultural ties" requirements for citizenship by descent.
The concrete face of the institutional pressure is far more severe than imagined. Take the consulate in Buenos Aires: by industry estimates, the backlog of cases once exceeded 100,000, and the average wait at consulates such as Rome ran beyond five years. The 19th-century legislative logic of "unifying the nation and summoning the diaspora" had long since become obsolete in the face of 21st-century scales of population movement. It is precisely this vast gap between administrative reality and legislative intent that provided the soil for the political push behind Law 74/2025.
As soon as the bill was introduced, it immediately met strong resistance from multiple overseas Italian associations and human-rights organizations, and was ultimately challenged before the Italian Constitutional Court. Opponents claimed the law violated the constitutionally guaranteed right to equality and stripped away existing vested interests. But in its final ruling of March 12, 2026, the Constitutional Court rejected these challenges. In its judgment, the court made clear that the legislature has the authority to adjust nationality law in accordance with national interests and population policy, and that a generational limit does not violate the spirit of the constitution; on the contrary, it serves to ensure a "genuine and present link" between the citizen and the state, which is a legitimate exercise of national sovereignty.
Law 74/2025 in Depth: The End of the Era of Automatic Citizenship
The essence of Law 74/2025 is that it presses the "stop button" on what was previously unlimited lineage transmission. The Constitutional Court's ruling not only affirmed the law's constitutionality but also rejected opponents' attempts to overturn it by invoking EU law.
Full implementation of the generational limit. Under the new law, the right to apply for Italian nationality through the principle of descent (Jure Sanguinis) is strictly limited to the grandparent generation. This means that if your great-grandfather was Italian, but neither your grandparents nor your parents were ever registered as Italian citizens, you will no longer be eligible to directly apply for citizenship by descent. This change directly shuts out millions of previously eligible applicants in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.
The EU-citizenship-clause challenge was rejected. During the litigation, the plaintiffs raised a heavyweight argument: that stripping these people of Italian nationality is tantamount to stripping them of EU citizenship, which violates the EU's fundamental principle of free movement of persons. However, the Italian Constitutional Court did not accept the claim that EU citizenship could be used as a basis to overturn the law, ruling that restricting citizenship by descent falls entirely within the sovereign purview of member states and does not violate EU law. It should be noted that, while this ruling has reference value, it does not constitute a binding precedent for other member states. Should other countries tighten naturalization policy in the future, they will still need to justify it independently within their own constitutional and EU-law frameworks.
Strengthened Language and Cultural Ties Requirements. Beyond generational limits, Law 74/2025 also added cultural integration requirements for eligible applicants, including proof of language ability and a substantive connection with Italy. The specific conditions of application depend on the application path and the official implementing rules, and the thresholds faced by different categories of applicant vary. This marks Italy's formal shift from "blood alone" to a comprehensive "descent plus integration" model of consideration.
The Global Trend: An Across-the-Board Tightening of Citizenship by Descent
Italy's pivot is by no means an isolated case; it is merely a microcosm of developed countries worldwide—especially European countries—tightening citizenship by descent across the board. Against the broader backdrop of rising anti-immigrant sentiment and resurgent nativist protectionism, the era of "easily obtaining a passport on the dividend of one's ancestors" is drawing to a close.
Ireland: Generational transmission has long been restricted. Ireland once had an extremely lenient Foreign Births Register (FBR) system, but in recent reforms it has strictly defined generational boundaries. If your grandparents were born in Ireland, you can apply; but if the applicant's parents were not registered as Irish citizens through the FBR before the applicant's birth, then the applicant cannot claim Irish nationality. This mirrors the logic of Italy's new law exactly.
The UK: no such shortcut exists. The UK has always maintained a high degree of vigilance on citizenship by descent. Apart from a handful of special historical legacy cases (such as certain former colonies), restrictions on UK citizenship by descent have always been strict, the historical legacy situations are complex, and there are intricate limits regarding parents' place of birth and marital status—there is simply nothing like the unlimited retroactive possibility that Italy once allowed.
Germany and Hungary: scrutiny is becoming increasingly stringent. Germany and Hungary were once relatively lenient in handling historical legacy naturalization by descent (such as Article 116 of Germany's Basic Law for those stripped of citizenship during WWII and their descendants, or Hungary's simplified naturalization procedure). But in recent years, having uncovered widespread abuse and fraud cases, both countries have substantially raised their vetting standards, adding strict language tests and loyalty assessments, and actual approval rates have plummeted.
A common three-tier direction is emerging. Surveying the policy evolution of the countries above, one can distill a clear structural trend line: first, no longer accepting nationality recognition without a real-world link—pure descent no longer constitutes a sufficient condition; second, language ability, actual residence, and tax records are being systematically incorporated into the review framework; third, nationality is returning from a "family asset that can be inherited indefinitely" to the essence of a "public-law identity"—a legal relationship granted by the state and carrying obligations, rather than an individual's private property.
Some will say, "This is just a special case for Italy." Quite the opposite. Italy is significant precisely because it was once the most lenient exemplar of citizenship by descent. When the most generous country pivots, it signals that the mainstream direction is moving from formal-qualification recognition toward substantive-link requirements.
Others believe, "This denies historical legitimacy." A more accurate understanding is: descent has been downgraded from a sufficient condition for citizenship to a necessary but insufficient one. The historical bond is still recognized, but it is no longer enough on its own to support a nationality claim. This is consistent with the logic of the 2026 CBI market's "compliance transformation": whether by descent or by investment, identity acquisition is comprehensively returning to substantive review.
Who Can Still Catch the Last Train? Practical Paths and Real-World Considerations
Although the door is narrowing, the Constitutional Court's ruling has not completely sealed off every path. For those who may still qualify, the top priority now is to clarify their own situation and act in time.
Seize the final transition window. Although the new law has been confirmed constitutional, there are still brief transition periods in implementing some of the detailed rules (typically for cases already formally queued and registered at consulates before the bill took effect). If you submitted complete materials to your local Italian consulate in the past few years, your case may still be adjudicated under the old law. But please note that consulate processing is extremely slow, often taking three to five years.
Litigation within Italy. Due to severe backlogs at overseas consulates, some applicants choose to engage lawyers based in Italy to file "against the queue" lawsuits directly in Italian courts. With the law having tightened, the efficiency with which domestic judges handle legitimate claims under the old law has shifted somewhat, but timelines vary significantly case by case and should not be treated as a certain solution.
1948 Maternal Lineage Litigation Path. If you meet the "1948 provision" (referring to the historical issue left by the restrictions that Italy's pre-1948 nationality law placed on lineage transmission through women) (that is, where maternal lineage transmission was interrupted before 1948), because this engages the fundamental constitutional principle of gender equality, the current professional consensus is that the 1948 maternal lineage litigation channel operates through an independent judicial path and is not directly affected by Law 74/2025. However, given the overall trend toward tightening policy, applicants with this kind of special maternal lineage are advised to initiate the process as early as possible, and applicants with this kind of special maternal lineage should consult a professional lawyer as early as possible to assess feasibility.
Implications for the Chinese: Understanding the Underlying Logic of the European Identity Market
For the vast majority of high-net-worth Chinese individuals, this article may appear to have nothing to do with them—after all, very few Chinese people have Italian ancestors. Yet in our view, this event carries extremely important strategic implications for the identity planning of China's high-net-worth population.
"It doesn't affect Chinese people" is the most common misjudgment. The direct impact is indeed limited, but the indirect impact is enormous. The essence of Italy's tightening of its descent law is Europe's systemic backlash against the "policy arbitrage" model. All schemes that rely on regulatory loopholes or policy windows to obtain identity—whether Golden Visas, investment immigration, or other shortcuts—face synchronously rising risk.
The European identity market is moving from "lenient in, lenient out" to "strict in, strict out." Over the past decade, Europe has been the most identity-planning-friendly region in the world. Whether Greece's and Portugal's Golden Visas or various relatively lenient naturalization acts, all offered great convenience to non-EU citizens. But the tightening of Italy's descent law, on top of earlier events such as Portugal shutting down property-purchase immigration and Greece's popular regions (Athens, Thessaloniki, etc.) seeing thresholds spike to €800,000, other regions at €400,000, and remote regions still at €250,000, all point to an irreversible trend: Europe is no longer willing to cheaply surrender its residency rights, and even less willing to readily hand out its citizenship. Future European identity will inevitably be deeply bound to actual economic investment, genuine intent to reside, and cultural integration.
Anchor certainty as early as possible. Today, when policy can overturn at any moment, "waiting and watching" is the greatest cost. The opponents of Italian citizenship by descent held out hope until the last moment that the Supreme Court would overturn the bill, only to end up empty-handed. For Chinese investors, whether you choose Greece's Golden Visa, Malta's direct naturalization, or Spain's non-lucrative residency, once you've made a decision you must lock in the current policy as fast as possible. Don't plan this year's assets with next year's policy. The 2026 global identity market is undergoing a systemic repricing, and hesitation itself is the most expensive choice.
Separate the design of nationality, permanent residency, and tax identity. Since the difficulty of directly obtaining a major European power's passport is rising exponentially, the strategy of high-net-worth individuals should shift from "pursuing a single top-tier passport" to "building a diversified identity portfolio." The key is to understand that nationality, permanent residency, and tax identity are three independent dimensions that should not be conflated. An EU passport does not necessarily bring tax advantages; on the contrary, it may trigger additional reporting obligations under the CRS automatic-exchange mechanism. An ideal architecture should be designed according to individual needs—for example: a tax-neutral Caribbean passport as the irrevocable foundational identity + long-term residency in southern Europe (travel convenience) + an offshore trust (asset isolation), achieving multi-layered protection of the identity architecture without touching the stringent naturalization thresholds—this is exactly the concrete application of the planning logic that "identity architecture takes precedence over a travel tool."
The institutional transformation of the identity market: we observe that the global identity planning market is moving from a retail, speculative model into an era of institutionalization and portfolio construction. In the past, individual investors relied on information asymmetry and policy windows to arbitrage single solutions; in the future, the room for such operations will be continually compressed. Specialized compliant architecture design, cross-jurisdictional portfolio allocation, and the forward-looking handling of policy changes will become the core competitive edge in identity planning. Reliance on a single policy is no longer sustainable; only systematic thinking can cope with an increasingly complex global regulatory environment.
Conclusion
This gavel of the Italian Constitutional Court has sounded the alarm for the golden age of Europe's traditional citizenship by descent. A 160-year historical tradition has given way before national interest and real-world demographic pressures. This is not only a major blow to millions of Italian descendants in South and North America, but also a clear signal sent to the global identity-planning market: the space for low-cost, no-threshold identity arbitrage is being systematically compressed.
As the door to Italian citizenship by descent narrows, for investors who still wish to establish an identity foothold in Europe, the Greece Golden Visa is one of the most competitively priced EU investment residence programs available—below is the distribution of Greece's main investment regions:
Today, amid deglobalization and frequent geopolitical conflicts, a powerful passport is not only a travel pass but an irreplaceable foundational identity—its value lies not in the number of visa-free countries, but in its risk resistance as an independent identity architecture. The doors are narrowing one by one, but the windows still exist. For far-sighted Chinese investors, reading the logic behind policy tightening, discarding wishful thinking, and completing global identity allocation as early as possible through professional, compliant pathways is the right answer to this era full of uncertainty.
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