Italy Closed Descent in 2025, Backwards, and Left Four Ways Through
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Honduras on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
98 exceptions recorded across 37 countries · none match Honduras to Italy · Residency through ancestry
For a century Italian citizenship passed down the generations without limit, and for the four countries in this corpus with the largest Italian emigration that was the single most used route to a European passport. Article 3-bis ended it. A person born abroad who holds another citizenship is now considered never to have acquired Italian citizenship at all - the article says so in terms, and it says it of people born before it came into force. Four conditions save a claim: recognition already granted on an application filed with a consulate or a mayor by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025, or on an appointment communicated by that moment; a claim already established in court on an action filed by the same deadline; a parent or grandparent who holds, or held at death, Italian citizenship and no other; or a parent who lived in Italy for two continuous years after acquiring citizenship and before the child was born. Outside those, the residence route remains: two years of legal residence in Italy for someone with an Italian parent or grandparent by birth.
At a glance
- Descent without limit
- Ended
Article 3-bis of Legge 91/1992, which applies to people born abroad before it came into force.
- The cut-off
- 23:59 Rome time, 27 March 2025
Applications to a consulate or a mayor, and court actions, filed by that moment are judged on the law as it stood.
- Exclusively Italian ascendant
- A parent or grandparent holding, or holding at death, no other citizenship
- Parent resident in Italy
- Two continuous years after acquiring citizenship, before your birth
- If none of those reaches you
- Two years of legal residence in Italy, then naturalisation
Article 9(1)(a) of the same Act, for someone with an Italian parent or grandparent by birth.
- Great-grandparents
- Outside every limb - the Act reaches the second degree
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Honduras
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«In deroga agli articoli 1, 2, 3, 14 e 20 della presente legge, all' articolo 5 della legge 21 aprile 1983, n. 123 , agli articoli 1 , 2 , 7 , 10 , 12 e 19 della legge 13 giugno 1912, n. 555 , nonche' agli articoli 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 e 9 del codice civile approvato con regio decreto 25 giugno 1865, n. 2358 , e' considerato non avere mai acquistato la cittadinanza italiana chi e' nato all'estero anche prima della data di entrata in vigore del presente articolo ed e' in possesso di altra cittadinanza, salvo che ricorra una delle seguenti condizioni: a) lo stato di cittadino dell'interessato e' riconosciuto, nel rispetto della normativa applicabile al 27 marzo 2025, a seguito di domanda, corredata della necessaria documentazione, presentata all'ufficio consolare o al sindaco competenti non oltre le 23:59, ora di Roma, della medesima data; a-bis) ((lo stato di cittadino dell'interessato e' riconosciuto, nel rispetto della normativa applicabile al 27 marzo 2025, a seguito di domanda, corredata della necessaria documentazione, presentata all'ufficio consolare o al sindaco competenti nel giorno indicato da appuntamento comunicato all'interessato dall'ufficio competente entro le 23:59, ora di Roma, della medesima data del 27 marzo 2025)) ; b) lo stato di cittadino dell'interessato e' accertato giudizialmente, nel rispetto della normativa applicabile al 27 marzo 2025, a seguito di domanda giudiziale presentata non oltre le 23:59, ora di Roma, della medesima data; c) ((un ascendente di primo o di secondo grado possiede, o possedeva al momento della morte, esclusivamente la cittadinanza italiana)) ; d) ((un genitore o adottante e' stato residente in Italia per almeno due anni continuativi successivamente all'acquisto della cittadinanza italiana e prima della data di nascita o di adozione del figlio»The whole of the new rule. "Considered never to have acquired" is the operative phrase and it is retroactive by its own words; the saving conditions follow it as letters (a) to (d).
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Italian state's portal for legislation in force. It shows each article as currently amended, with an explicit testo in vigore dal date, and links the amending instruments.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It gives the text and not its interpretation. Article 3-bis reads clearly and has still generated years of litigation over what it means, which is why the Constitutional Court is watched alongside it. A consolidated text can also lag a very recent amendment.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«E' cittadino per nascita: a) il figlio di padre o di madre cittadini; b) chi e' nato nel territorio della Repubblica se entrambi i genitori sono ignoti o apolidi, ovvero se il figlio non segue la cittadinanza dei genitori secondo la legge dello Stato al quale questi appartengono.»The rule article 3-bis derogates from. It is still the law for anyone the new article does not reach.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Italian state's portal for legislation in force. It shows each article as currently amended, with an explicit testo in vigore dal date, and links the amending instruments.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It gives the text and not its interpretation. Article 3-bis reads clearly and has still generated years of litigation over what it means, which is why the Constitutional Court is watched alongside it. A consolidated text can also lag a very recent amendment.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«allo straniero del quale il padre o la madre o uno degli ascendenti in linea retta di secondo grado ((sono o)) sono stati cittadini per nascita ((e che risiede legalmente nel territorio della Repubblica da almeno due anni)) , comunque fatto salvo quanto previsto dall'articolo 4, comma 1, lettera c);»The residence route for a descendant: two years of legal residence in Italy, against ten for a foreigner with no Italian ancestry.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Italian state's portal for legislation in force. It shows each article as currently amended, with an explicit testo in vigore dal date, and links the amending instruments.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It gives the text and not its interpretation. Article 3-bis reads clearly and has still generated years of litigation over what it means, which is why the Constitutional Court is watched alongside it. A consolidated text can also lag a very recent amendment.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This is the sharpest change in the corpus and it reaches more readers than anything else recorded here: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela hold the largest Italian-descended populations outside Italy.
The record states the four saving conditions as the article states them. Whether a particular claim filed before the deadline survives is a question about that claim, not about the text.
- consolidatesLegge 91/1992, articolo 3-bis
Normattiva, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
About this source
The Italian state's portal for legislation in force. It shows each article as currently amended, with an explicit testo in vigore dal date, and links the amending instruments.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It gives the text and not its interpretation. Article 3-bis reads clearly and has still generated years of litigation over what it means, which is why the Constitutional Court is watched alongside it. A consolidated text can also lag a very recent amendment.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source