The major citizenship ruling affecting Australians like Ophelia

When Ophelia Bryant first travelled to Italy in 1986, she says she felt something she could not quite explain.

"It just felt like I came home," she told SBS News.

Her parents had been born in Italy, as had all four of her grandparents. They immigrated to Australia in 1955, where Bryant was born three years later.

Italy has remained a constant in her life, with Bryant returning more than a dozen times to visit relatives and reconnect with her family roots.

But when she began looking into whether she could formally claim Italian citizenship, she discovered her family history came with a legal complication.

Her parents became Australian citizens in 1961, when Bryant was a child, and later formally renounced their Italian citizenship.

Under a restrictive interpretation of Italy's citizenship laws, known as the 'minor issue', that could break the line of citizenship transmission.

"I thought the door was closed because of that minor rule," Bryant said.

Now, a landmark decision by Italy's highest court has changed that legal interpretation — and Bryant is "optimistic because that door may finally be open".

A rule that divided Italian citizenship cases

The so-called minor issue arose from conflicting interpretations of Italy's 1912 citizenship law.

One provision established that children born overseas to an Italian citizen could acquire Italian citizenship from birth.

Another was interpreted as meaning that when an Italian parent became a citizen of another country, their minor children could lose their Italian citizenship along with them.

That interpretation gained ground through Italian court decisions from 2023 onwards, leading to the rejection of citizenship-by-descent applications.

But in July, Italy's Supreme Court's United Sections, the court's highest panel for resolving conflicting legal interpretations, ruled that citizenship acquired at birth was not automatically lost when an Italian parent subsequently naturalised in another country.

Brisbane-based Italian lawyer Fabrizio Fiorino, who advises clients on Italian citizenship applications, said the decision effectively restores the previous interpretation of the law.

"It was not a change in a provision, but it was a change in the interpretation of rules," he said.

He told SBS News the ruling means people who were Italian citizens from birth cannot simply be considered to have lost that citizenship because their parents later became foreign citizens while they were minors.

For thousands of people whose citizenship applications were rejected on that basis, the decision could provide a pathway back.

A second chance for those already rejected

Italy's interior ministry has since issued a letter instructing authorities to follow the Supreme Court's interpretation.

It also provides a mechanism for people whose applications were rejected because of the minor issue to request their original applications be reconsidered, rather than starting the process again.

Fiorino says he has already seen the consequences of this play out.

One of his clients was recently denied citizenship after the consulate rejected her application because of the minor issue while the Supreme Court case was still pending.

He is now preparing a request for her application to be reviewed under the new interpretation.

"I think in a few weeks they will know the outcome," he said.

But there is an important catch.

The new pathway does not mean everyone affected by the minor issue automatically becomes an Italian citizen.

What does it mean for Ophelia?

Bryant's situation is more complicated because she never actually lodged an application.

Having spent more than two years trying to secure an appointment with the Italian consulate in Melbourne, she told SBS News that she repeatedly found that no appointments were available.

She also said she came to believe she was ineligible under the minor issue and therefore never formally submitted a claim.

That means she cannot simply ask the consulate to reopen a rejected application.

Fiorino said people in her position will need to apply under the current rules and have their individual circumstances assessed.

"The minor issue aspects may not affect, in this situation, her position, because it's been sorted out from the [Italian] Supreme Court," he said.

But other criteria introduced under Italy's separate 2025 citizenship reforms may still apply.

For Bryant, that distinction is frustrating.

"I think the way the law is going, I think Italy would recognise the claim," she said.

"But it is a question of how you get the claim in."

Administrative barriers

The legal victory could also create a new administrative challenge.

Fiorino said consulates are likely to face a significant increase in requests for reviews, while demand for new citizenship applications is already high.

From 2027, Italy's new system will also change how citizenship applications are processed, with applications ultimately being handled through a central office in Italy, he said.

For Bryant, the prospect of another bureaucratic hurdle is daunting.

"If you can't get an appointment at the embassy, how can you even get the ball rolling?," she said.

She has already collected certified copies of Italian family birth records, travelled repeatedly to Italy and researched her family history.

She will return again in September and is considering seeking further legal advice while she is there.

'I'm actually joining the circle'

After years of uncertainty, the ruling has renewed Bryant's hope that she may still be recognised as an Italian citizen.

When she first heard the minor issue had been overturned, she said she was "blown away".

For Bryant, Italian citizenship is not about rejecting Australia, a country she said gave her family the opportunity for a fresh start.

Instead, she said formal recognition of her Italian citizenship would connect her with the history they left behind, and the heritage she has maintained throughout her life.

"It would sort of validate that I am in fact Italian," she said.

And after years of believing the legal door was closed, she is prepared to try again.

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