The unbearable load at Italian embassies around the world and the thousands of cases stuck in the courts have led the Italian government to take an unprecedented step. An official decision by the Council of Ministers, approved yesterday (September 16, 2026), established a broad structural reform that changes the rules of the game for foreign nationals living outside Italy who are seeking the coveted Italian passport.
Under the new government directive, local embassies and consulates will no longer handle the examination, processing, and decision-making for citizenship applications. In their place, a single central government mechanism will manage the entire system digitally and in a unified way.
It is important to emphasize that the missions around the world will continue to serve as an official conduit on the ground for receiving documents or for identification purposes, but they will no longer be the entity that decides on the case or determines the pace of the examination. The Italian government will handle the documents directly.
The new authority, which will be called the "Service for Citizenship of Foreign Residents" (Servizio per la cittadinanza dei residenti all'estero) and is intended for applicants for citizenship located outside the borders of Italy, will be the sole and only address for the examination, approval and legal management of citizenship applications for citizens of foreign countries residing outside the borders of Italy, adults aged 18 and over.
Minors under the age of 18 are not included in this reform, and their treatment will remain under the normal procedure at local embassies. The new body is expected to begin full operation on January 1, 2029.
Today, applicants for Italian citizenship by family or marriage worldwide, including thousands of Israelis, face a dead end. Staff shortages at local embassies have created huge queues and years of delays, forcing many applicants to spend large sums on lawyers and sue the state in Italian civil courts just to have their case opened.
The new reform is designed to solve precisely these failures in two key steps:
Centralized digital system: Instead of relying on limited embassy staff to check documents, a single management center within the Italian government will handle all cases for foreign nationals living outside Italy, aged 18 and over. After submitting documents through official channels, all documents such as birth and marriage certificates will be checked in a unified digital system to allow for a more uniform and faster review.
Solving the legal burden: The new body will be given exclusive authority to manage citizenship disputes and legal proceedings. This means less backlog in local courts in Italy, which are currently overwhelmed by tens of thousands of lawsuits from citizenship seekers from around the world.
Although this is important news in the long term, it is important to note that the government has set 2029 as the target year for the full operation of the central service. Until then, the Italian Foreign Ministry will make structural adjustments, personnel changes, and establish the necessary digital infrastructure. During this interim period, applications will continue to be processed under the existing restrictions