BritInParis

They can’t take it away but they can refuse to allow you to become a citizen of their country unless you give it up voluntarily.

philat98

modicasa

Its not his choice . it would have to the be UK govt that said you would have to give up British citizenship if you took Italian.

BritInParis

Provisions do exist for you to do that. It’s also an entitlement rather than at discretion, which would be if you gave up your citizenship for any other reason. You can only do it once though and presumably you would lose your Italian citizenship.

You can choose to renounce your British citizenship providing it will not leave you stateless.

modicasa

Ive just logged onto the site and my pratica has been signed and confirmed - looks like I squeaked through before Salvini decided to change everything.

philat98

If Italy decides to not permit dual citizenship I don't see how that helps?

BritInParis

Depends on exactly how the law is drafted and whether it would apply retroactively, if it even came to pass at all. Salvini suggesting something and it actually becoming law aren’t the same thing I would wager.

philat98

Lets hope you are correct. Unfortunately according to opinion polls his support has greatly increased.

BritInParis

I suspect the unforeseen consequences of trying to implement such a law would mean it was quietly dropped.

GeorgeYoung

I imagine a lot this guff being proposed by Salvini will sound very familiar to any person who's tried to acquire citizenship in the UK in recent years - language tests, an utterly ludicrious "British history & culture" test and a ceremony involving pledging allegiance to the Queen. All done to appease certain voter bases and discourage people from bothering, as far as I can see.

Out of interest, if you were to apply for Italian citizenship after the (current) 5-year residence qualification period with everything in regola, do you have to remain resident in Italy during the time it takes to approve your application & issue the necessary documentation? Or could you leave Italy and still gain the citizenship?

37100

If you are applying on the basis of residency, you need to maintain residency in Italy until you take the oath. If applying via marriage, it doesn't matter where you are resident, but you have to transfer your application to the relevant consulate.

BritInParis

Or perhaps being able to speak the national language, knowing something about its history and culture and being loyal to its constitution is the bare minimum we should expect of anyone wishing to become a citizen of another country?

GeorgeYoung

I can take your point about the language but if you look at the British citizenship test it is utterly ludicrous and contains a lot of stuff which is completely irrelevant to anyone's life and which the vast majority of people born and raised in the UK would be unable to answer.

BritInParis

Quite possibly but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know it. You have no choice about which nationality you are born into, you don’t have to take an interest if you don’t want to, but you do if you choose to naturalise and so you should.

GeorgeYoung

Taking an interest is fine but the content of the UK citizenship test handbook seems a very arbitrary basis for granting citizenship. Even if you agree with the principle of having a test, the UK one is bizarre way of going about it as it seems highly unlikely to teach anyone anything vaguely useful.