How the new rules can affect your Italian citizenship application. Applying for the Italian citizenship by marriage currently requires more attention, planning and correct information. Stricter changes to the law have been introduced since late last year, but Italian official websites are still outdated and omit important details of the naturalisation process.
• Italian Citizenship by Marriage: The Changes
The minimum B1 proficiency level in the Italian language requirement
The knowledge of the Italian language is certainly the most controversial aspect, leading to many doubts. That sort of requirement did not exist until recent changes. It was enough for the foreigner to pronounce a single sentence written on a piece of paper during his oath to the Republic.
Now, on the contrary, the aspiring Italian citizen must prove his language proficiency, at least B1 level, comprising the 4 skills (understanding, reading, speaking and writing), to be able to request the Italian citizenship by marriage.
According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (QCER), at this intermediate level the student understands the main subjects and deals with daily situations in Italy, expresses through speech and writing, gives his own opinion and discuss it with limitations, is capable of describing experiences, events, dreams, desires, ambitions, etc.
In practical terms, those who have surpassed the B1 level are able to, for example, conjugate main Italian verbs in the present, future, past perfect and imperfect tenses of the indicative mood, besides other topics within the grammar.
The current government has adopted a policy of accepting only certificates issued exclusively by certain accredited institutions. Outside of Italy only a few have the necessary authorisation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assess and certify someone’s linguistic ability. So far, from what has been decided, the certificates issued by normal private language courses worldwide will not be considered a proof of ability.
The examinations around the world will follow one pattern established by only 4 Italian educational institutions: Università per Stranieri di Siena, Perugia, degli Studi Roma Tre and Società Dante Alighieri. Because there are only a few of these accredited institutions, in addition of paying their fee to be tested, many will also have to travel to attend the nearest one.
But when should you submit the language certificate?
Even though the legislation is silent on that specific matter, the Italian Ministry of the Interior has established that the proper moment is when submitting in the initial electronic application. Therefore, even if couples have exceeded the law’s minimum time lapse after their wedding date, without the B1 language certificate issued by an accredited language school the naturalisation process cannot be initiated.
• The extinction of citizenship application’s conditioned acceptance
In the past, applications pleading the Italian citizenship by marriage could be sent with few improprieties such as: typos, missing files due to upload errors, illegible scanned documents, etc. In those cases the initial request was accepted by the public authorities but they would invite the foreign spouse to correct the mistake in order to proceed into analysing it.
However, last March the Minister of Interior issued an internal rule ordering the immediate refusal of any application submitted containing any sort of mistake or missing files, regarding the Italian citizenship by marriage process. Clearly the 250 Euros fee will not be refunded in any circumstance.
Hence the importance of filling out the electronic form correctly and submitting it with all the required documents in its proper form (legalised, translated and with the apostille for those issued outside of the EU), in addition to the certificate of ability in the Italian language.
All this to avoid any unpleasant surprise that will keep the foreign spouse of any Italian citizen in the same situation from which he/she wants to get rid of, that is the obligation to periodically renew the visa when living in Italy, or to have the non-EU passport checked in the Customs, aside the loss of time, money and, above all, patience.
• The conclusion’s delay on the process for the Italian citizenship by marriage
Another innovation with broad repercussion concerns the maximum duration to process and decide the request for naturalisation that was limited to 2 years in the old legislation and now will be done in 4 years. This lengthy period starts only after sending the application and it comprises all the steps within the Ministry of Interior, leaving out of it the succeeding phases after the Italian citizenship concession Decree.
A marriage that eventually ends prematurely leads to the foreign party’s loss of its right to become an Italian citizen, obviously. This signifies that up until the concession of the Italian citizenship, the marital relationship shall endure at least 5 to 7 years (depending on the country they live in and if they have any children).
As you can see, with the new harsher rules in force brought by the Italian Decree-law 113 of 10/4/2018, converted into the Law 132 of 12/1/2018, aside the internal regulation issued in 3/22/2018 by the Ministry of Interior, an effective planning, attention to details, patience and knowledge of the language became more significant now for those willing to apply, especially because the whole process is available exclusively in Italian.
As it is not convenient to take risks venturing into such a complex type of administrative process, in one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world, expert help is needed. For this reason, I would like to invite you to visit our Legal Services page where we offer personalised support regarding this matter.
Leonardo da Veiga Cabral
Italian-brazilian lawyer with over 20 years’ of professional experience.
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