Italian Courts Resume with Delays in Final Judgment Certificates

Italian courts have resumed normal work pace in September after the August recess, but those awaiting the final judgment certificate (certificato di passaggio in giudicato) to conclude Italian citizenship cases through judicial channels are facing a persistent bottleneck, especially at the Venice Court. The information comes from Italianismo.

Resumption After August Recess

In Italy, procedural deadlines are suspended every year between August 1 and 31, a period known as sospensione feriale dei termini. The measure does not mean courts close their doors — urgent hearings and administrative proceedings continue — but the normal flow of case processing, publication of judgments, and issuance of certificates only returns to full speed in September.

For those tracking Italian citizenship cases in court, this waiting rhythm is familiar: every year, August represents a forced pause that pushes decisions and documents into the following month. The difference, according to Italianismo, is that in 2026 this September resumption finds a system already under pressure before the recess itself.

Pressure from PNRR Targets

The current scenario is directly tied to targets set by the PNRR (Plano Nacional de Recuperação e Resiliência — National Recovery and Resilience Plan), the European Union's investment program that requires Italy to undertake structural judicial reforms in exchange for released funds. One of the national targets aimed to reduce average civil case processing time by 40% by June 30, 2026.

To meet this goal, courts concentrated efforts on judging as many backlogged cases as possible, which effectively accelerated judgment production. The side effect, according to Italianismo, was an accumulation of work in the post-judgment phase: issuing final judgment certificates, documents that attest a judgment cannot be further contested and are essential for the person recognized as an Italian citizen to actually register the decision and obtain Italian documents.

In other words, judging faster didn't solve the problem — it merely shifted the bottleneck to the next stage of the process.

Venice Concentrates the Bottleneck

No Italian court feels this effect as intensely as the Venice Court. The city concentrates over 40% of all litigation related to Italian citizenship through judicial channels in the country, according to data cited by Italianismo, resulting from the high concentration of lawsuits filed by descendants of Italians in recent years.

The secretariat of the court's specialized citizenship division acknowledged the increased workload, but without proportional staff reinforcement to handle the demand. In practice, the same workforce responsible for issuing final judgment certificates now handles a greater number of judgments awaiting this final step, which naturally extends response timelines.

The phenomenon illustrates a recurring challenge in Italian judicial reform: accelerating judgment without investing in administrative support infrastructure tends only to transfer the queue from one process point to another.

What This Means for Descendants

For Brazilians and other descendants seeking Italian Citizenship through judicial channels, the practical effect is concrete: even with a favorable judgment already published, waiting for the final judgment certificate can stretch for months. According to Italianismo, there are reports of applicants with favorable decisions since January 2026 who, even with September's arrival, still await document issuance in Venice.

An aggravating factor is the lack of transparency about the actual queue size. There is no public statistic released by the court about how many certificates are pending or what the current average waiting time is, which makes any reliable timeline prediction impossible for those who already have a favorable judgment and depend solely on this final bureaucratic step to regularize their situation.

This scenario reinforces the importance of closely monitoring each process stage, including the post-judgment phase, often overlooked by those who imagine that a favorable judgment already resolves everything. Services for Italian certificate searches and follow-up with court secretariats have become increasingly relevant precisely because of this type of delay.

Those planning to start or already in the middle of a judicial citizenship process should consider this bottleneck when planning trips to Italy, passport applications, or other procedures that depend on formal recognition completion. More details about current judicial channel rules can be found in the Italian citizenship section of Raízes Italianas, while updates on Italian justice and public administration are available in Italy News. For those already living or planning to move to the country, the Life in Italy section gathers practical information about daily Italian life.

The Venice case demonstrates that, even facing ambitious acceleration targets imposed by the PNRR, Italian judicial bureaucracy continues presenting bottleneck points that directly affect descendants who already cleared the hardest stage — the judgment — but remain awaiting the document that makes this victory definitive.

Want to know if you're eligible for Italian citizenship? Talk to a specialized advisory.

Source: Italianismo