Did you protect an Italian citizenship filing before 28 March 2025?

Compare the three protected filing categories tied to 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025 and see which evidence matters.

What was the protected filing cutoff?

The key time was 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025.

A case may preserve the old-law test if it fits one of three categories in Article 3-bis:

1. an administrative application submitted with the required documents to the correct office,
2. an appointment communicated by the cutoff, followed by filing on that appointment date, or
3. a court application filed by the cutoff.

These categories are not interchangeable. Article 3-bis Law 74/2025 coordinated text

What counts as a complete administrative filing?

Article 3-bis refers to an application presented with the necessary documentation to the competent consulate or mayor by the cutoff.

This raises practical questions:

• Which office was legally competent?
• What documents were included?
• When did the office receive them?
• Did the office issue a receipt or protocol number?
• Was the submission authorized by that office?

Starting a document search or contacting an office is not the same as presenting the required application.

Keep the complete packet, delivery proof, payment evidence, receipt, protocol number, and every message from the office.

What counts as a protected appointment?

The appointment must have been communicated by the competent office by the cutoff. The applicant then files on the appointment date stated by that communication.

Keep:

• the original appointment email or portal message,
• the date and time it was sent,
• the appointment date,
• the account and booking reference,
• any cancellation or rescheduling notice, and
• proof of the later filing.

A request for an appointment is not the same as an appointment communicated by the office.

What if you tried to book but never received an appointment by the cutoff? That issue remains legally sensitive. Judgment 63/2026 did not settle every case involving an inaccessible booking system or a process started without a communicated appointment. Order 147/2026 also records ongoing litigation around this area.

What counts as a protected court filing?

The court application must have been filed by the cutoff.

You should preserve:

• the original pleading,
• the court filing receipt,
• the filing date and time,
• the court and case number,
• the people named as claimants, and
• the current status or final decision.

Do not assume that a filing by one relative automatically protects an unnamed child, sibling, or cousin.

Does protection mean the case succeeds?

No.

Protection may preserve the law that applies to the recognition test. It does not:

• prove that the ancestor was Italian,
• repair a citizenship loss,
• establish missing filiation,
• fix an incomplete civil chain,
• add an unnamed relative to the case, or
• guarantee a favorable decision.

The authority or court still examines the substantive family history and evidence.

What if the filing was made after the cutoff?

A later filing does not restore the old rules.

A foreign-born applicant who holds another citizenship must instead check the current Article 3-bis exceptions. The main alternatives concern:

• a parent or grandparent who possesses, or possessed at death, exclusively Italian citizenship, or
• a parent or adopter who completed the required two years of continuous residence in Italy.

Read the parent and grandparent exceptions guide before deciding that a late filing ends every possible route.

What should you collect now?

Build one folder with:

1. the complete filing or pleading,
2. the appointment communication, if used,
3. every timestamp and receipt,
4. the list of named applicants,
5. requests for missing documents,
6. any refusal or court decision, and
7. the civil and citizenship chain supporting the underlying case.

The main point: the cutoff may decide which law applies, but it does not decide whether the family chain works.