If you lost your Italian citizenship by naturalizing Canadian on or before August 15, 1992, and did not avail yourself of the opportunity to reacquire it while abroad between 1992 and 1997, you may still reacquire Italian citizenship by establishing residence in any Italian municipality and signing a statement of reacquisition at the local City Hall.
The entire procedure takes place in the municipality in which you establish residence.
Before leaving it is recommended that you verify whether or not the Consulate has already notified your Italian municipality of birth or last place of residence of your Canadian naturalization. If this has not yet been carried out, you must submit to the Consulate your certificate of Canadian citizenship (“long form”, not the “wallet size” card), together with your birth certificate, expired Italian passport (if available) and valid Canadian passport. Download form.
Please note that until the Italian municipality is notified of your Canadian status it will not be unable to proceed with your request to reacquire your Italian citizenship.
| N.B.: If you wish for your minor children to acquire Italian citizenship as well, they must be present and reside with you in Italy during the process of reacquisition. |
Procedures to be followed once in Italy
Within 8 days from arrival, you must register with the Municipal offices and apply for the enrolment into the “Anagrafe della Popolazione Residente” (registry of the resident population).
The Municipality may ask you to apply for a “Permesso di soggiorno per attesa riacquisto cittadinanza” (residence permit to reacquire the Italian Citizenship) through the local Post Office.
You must then visit again the Municipal offices and:
- Sign a statement for reacquisition of citizenship.
- Pay the 300,00 € fee due to the Italian Ministry of Interior (Minsitero dell’Interno – Divisione Cittadinanza).Please refer to your Municipality for any further information.
What happens next?
- Subsequent to the application the Municipality will register the foreigner applicant in the Anagrafe della Popolazione Residente before the mandatory verification.
- Within 45 days from the application the Municipality will proceed with checking the applicant’s domicile through one of its employees.
- Once the verification has been carried out, the Mayor will issue the declaration of citizenship.
- From that moment the applicant has re-acquired the citizenship.
| Important: Before returning to Canada it is advisable to get from the Municipality a certificate of citizenship which specifies the date when the citizenship was re-acquired. This certificate should then be sent to the Consulate together with the AIRE registration application. |
Useful links:
https://www.poste.it/altri-servizi/servizi-cittadino/guida-permesso-soggiorno.shtml