Italian Citizenship Law Update: Stricter Rules for Descendants Abroad

The new rules will impact individuals applying or planning to apply for Italian citizenship through their Italian ancestry (known as "ius sanguinis"), as well as professionals (like translators) who assist with these applications.

The decree-law approved today stipulates that Italian descendants born abroad will automatically be citizens for only two generations: those with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will be citizens from birth. In the second phase, a bill also approved today introduces further and more substantial changes to the citizenship law. Notably, citizens born and residing abroad must maintain real ties with our country over time, exercising their citizenship rights and duties at least once every twenty-five years.

The reform is completed by a second bill that revises the procedures for recognizing citizenship. Going forward, residents abroad will no longer apply through consulates but will instead use a special centralized office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A transition period of about one year is planned for organizing this office. The goal is to streamline procedures, achieving clear economies of scale. Consulates will focus on serving existing citizens rather than processing new citizenship applications. Additionally, the provision includes measures to enhance and modernize service delivery: legalizations, civil registry services, passports, and travel identity cards. Organizational measures are also planned to ensure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs increasingly serves citizens and businesses.

From a press release published on March 28, 2025 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Try Perplexity Pro free for one month

I have a couple of discount codes to try Perplexity AI free for one month. I’ll give them to the first two persons who’ll ask for them by sending me an email from this blog (see on the right) or in Linkedin.

Perplexity AI, Your Translation Research, Terminology and Review Assistant

I’ve just added to the “Other Presentations” page of this blog the presentation I recently gave on Perplexity AI at the AI in Translation Summit. 

What is Perplexity AI, and how can it help us?

A Perplexity query

Perplexity AI is an innovative search tool combining web searching with language models for concise, contextual answers.

Unlike traditional search engines, it gives conversational answers with citations, and, unlike AI tools like ChatGPT, it offers real-time web searching, with several advantages for translators, such as access to current information on specialized topics, helping us understand the context of our projects. It also helps in terminology research for domain-specific terms.

Perplexity can verify short translated segments by cross-referencing our translations against its search results, to identify potential errors, and the paid version has enhanced privacy features, allowing secure upload of confidential documents.

Perplexity helps gather contextual information and find references for our translations.
 
It provides us with detailed overviews of complex topics.
 
For example, if we are translating a legal document about international child custody laws, we can ask Perplexity for a summary with a query like "Summarize the differences between child custody laws in Italy and the US", and the system compiles a concise summary from various sources. 

Perplexity incorporates contextual information in its responses; this means that we can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper without repeating the background. For example, we might inquire what weight is given to children's wishes in custody decisions.
 
Perplexity provides citations, which allow us to verify the sources it finds for us; but remember that we should always cross-check crucial information. The best use for this system is as a starting point to guide our research, not as the sole source of information.
 
By leveraging Perplexity's real-time search and summarization functions, we can find better information on complex subjects, speeding up our background research. 

While Perplexity is a powerful tool, it's important to remember that, like all AI models, it may occasionally produce errors and hallucinations: it’s a helpful assistant, not a replacement for our expertise.