Tribunale di Venezia Recognizes Italian Citizenship by Descent
Tribunale di Venezia favorably rules on iure sanguinis Italian citizenship claim for Brazilian family; case lasted 31 months and cited Lei 74/2025.
The Tribunale di Venezia recognized the right to Italian citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis) for a Brazilian family, in a ruling that confirms the validity of lawsuits filed before the new citizenship transmission rules took effect. Judgment no. 16958/2026, published on July 29, 2026, concluded a case that began in 2024 and lasted approximately 31 months.
What the Tribunale di Venezia Decided
In judgment no. 16958/2026, the Tribunale di Venezia ruled favorably on the request for Italian citizenship recognition filed by the main claimant and by relatives who joined the case as intervenients, all descendants of an Italian ancestor born in the province of Padua. According to the text of the decision published by Diritto Pratico, the ancestor emigrated from Italy without ever naturalizing in another country nor formally renouncing Italian citizenship — an essential condition for transmitting citizenship by blood to descendants.
The case, registered under number r.g. 1291/2024, involved the participation of the Italian Interior Ministry, the defendant in actions of this type, which was declared in default for failing to appear in court. The Public Prosecutor's Office, for its part, did not oppose recognition of the right. The absence of contestation by the public authority, though frequent in this type of dispute, does not replace the substantive analysis conducted by the judge, who had to examine the genealogical and civil documentation presented before confirming the line of descent.
Why the Case Was Judged in Venice
One of the relevant technical points of the judgment is the territorial jurisdiction of the Tribunale di Venezia itself to hear the case. Since June 22, 2022, the rule changed regarding where families residing abroad must file Italian citizenship recognition lawsuits: jurisdiction that was previously concentrated in the Tribunale di Roma became that of the court corresponding to the birthplace of the Italian ancestor.
Since the claimant's grandfather was born in the province of Padua, the action was correctly assigned to the Tribunale di Venezia, which handles cases of this nature in the Veneto region. This territorial jurisdiction rule applies to all cases opened after the 2022 legislative change and continues to guide where Brazilian families must file their actions, according to the province of origin of the Italian ancestor. More details about the territorial distribution of cases can be found in How the Italian citizenship court process works.
The Impact of Decreto Tajani and Lei 74/2025
The judgment of the Tribunale di Venezia expressly cites Article 3-bis of Lei 91/1992, a provision introduced by Decreto Tajani and Lei 74/2025, which reformed the rules for recognizing Italian citizenship for descendants born outside Italy. The new rule restricted automatic recognition of citizenship through judicial proceedings in the previous terms to children and grandchildren of Italian citizens born in Italy, excluding, as a rule, great-grandchildren and more distant generations, with specific exceptions provided in the legal text itself.
The central point for the favorable outcome of the case decided in Venice is the filing date: the action was filed in 2024, therefore before the March 27, 2025 cutoff date, which the decree itself established as the threshold for applying the new restrictions. For this reason, the case fell within the exception that preserves judicial requests filed before the reform, allowing it to be analyzed under the previous rules, which are more favorable to descendants.
Judgment no. 16958/2026 reinforces that actions filed before the March 27, 2025 cutoff remain subject to the rules in effect at the time of filing, as provided in the text of Decree-Law 36/2025, converted into Lei 74/2025.
What This Means in Practice for Brazilian Families
The case decided by the Tribunale di Venezia has immediate practical value for thousands of Brazilian families with pending cases in Italian courts. Those who already had judicial action filed before March 27, 2025 remain protected by the rules preceding Decreto Tajani, without suffering the effects of the new restrictions on more distant generations.
The ruling also reinforces the practical importance of verifying precisely the filing date of each request, since it is this temporal marker — and not the birth date of the claimant or the date of the sentence — that determines which legislation will apply to the case. Another relevant aspect of the judgment is the procedural format adopted: in addition to the main claimant, other relatives joined the same case as intervenients, a mechanism that allows gathering multiple descendants of the same Italian ancestor in a single lawsuit, reducing costs and optimizing processing time for the entire family. Before gathering the necessary documentation, many families resort to searching for certificates in Italy to confirm essential information about the Italian ancestor.
Processing Time and Expectations
Between the filing of the case in 2024 and the publication of the judgment on July 29, 2026, approximately 31 months elapsed. This interval falls within the range observed in Italian citizenship recognition cases in Italian courts, though timeframes vary depending on the court, the volume of pending cases, and the complexity of the documentation presented.
The default of the Interior Ministry — that is, its failure to formally participate in the case — is a recurrent situation in this type of action, but does not imply automatic recognition of the claimed right. The judge still needs to examine the certificates, the documentary chain of births, marriages and deaths, as well as any naturalization acts by the ancestor, before issuing a judgment. In the case analyzed by the Tribunale di Venezia, proof that the grandfather never naturalized nor renounced Italian citizenship was decisive for the favorable outcome, according to the text of the decision published by Diritto Pratico.
The judgment of the Tribunale di Venezia adds to other recent decisions from Italian courts that analyze the effects of Decreto Tajani on pending cases, a topic that Raízes Italianas continues to follow with Italian courts. For those planning to move after recognition, the portal also offers content about Life in Italy aimed at Brazilian descendants.
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