01
Path · Most common
Citizenship through your Italian grandparent.
The generation gap, the second consulate appointment, and everything that sits between them.
6 min · Eligibility
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SERVICES & PRICES
LANGUAGE
Pratica is an independent UK administrative service.
info@pratica.uk
PRATICA · CITIZENSHIP & PASSPORT · UK
Italian citizenship and passport work, handled for clients in the United Kingdom.
LAW
Art. 3-bis, from 24 May 2025
FOUNDED
2026
CONSULATES
London · Manchester · Edinburgh
Not a law firm. Not an immigration agency.
THE TWO PATHS
The first is narrow: an appointment, at your consulate, in your time. The second is complete: from the first document to recognition.
PASSPORT · APPOINTMENT
For you ifyou are an Italian citizen in the United Kingdom who needs a consulate appointment.
You tell us which consulate. We monitor until your appointment is confirmed.
You walk away with
A confirmed Prenot@Mi appointment, registered in your name.
£74
one-off
CITIZENSHIP · RECOGNITION
For you ifyou are a UK resident claiming Italian citizenship by descent.
Walk into the consulate with everything ready. Nothing missing, nothing to redo.
You walk away with
Citizenship recognised, AIRE registered, passport scheduled.
£838
one-off
WHO WE ARE
Pratica opened in 2026. It is not an old business under a new name, and there is no point pretending otherwise: the site you are reading is less than a year old.
The timing is not accidental. Art. 3-bis came into force on 24 May 2025, and since that day most of what is online about citizenship by descent applies a test that no longer exists. Guides written before the reform. Summaries written by people who read those guides. Forum answers repeating the summaries. A reader has no way of telling which layer they are looking at.
So every rule on this site carries the article it comes from, with the date it took effect and the source. Not for elegance: because it is the one thing you can check without taking our word for it. When a source moves, the page moves with it.
Pratica · Independent service · United Kingdom
WHAT YOU CARRY NOW
Before we tell you what we do, we tell you what we see. These are the same things, case after case.
Months watching a system that announces nothing. You open it, close it, open it again. One morning someone else took the slot, and you have no idea when it appeared. You start over.
You paid two hundred pounds. The consulate rejects it: name spelt two ways, apostille applied before rather than after, a seal they do not recognise. The money does not come back. The case restarts.
You took leave, travelled, waited in the hall. The official leafs through the file. A piece is missing. The next slot is eight months away. You stand up and say nothing.
You built a great-grandparent file for two years. In May 2025 the law changed: only two generations count. Is your case alive? Is it closed? You read the forums and still do not know.
A parent has a flight in October and a passport about to expire. It is April. Prenotami shows 2028. Every morning they ask if you have any news.
You wrote to the consulate. No reply for three weeks. You wrote again. Nothing. Was your tone off? Did they see it? Is there a number to call? There is not.
WHAT WE CARRY
Every point on the list above has a counterpart below. These are not promises, they are the concrete shape of this work.
01
You do not watch any more. The appointment arrives in your inbox, confirmed, with date, hour and consulate. The how is ours.
02
Sworn translators, apostille in the correct order, names reconciled across three languages. No file bounces back. No fee thrown away.
03
The official leafs, checks, closes. Nothing missing. No rebooking. The day ends where it was meant to end.
04
You do not have to read the forums, the circulars, the rulings. If something in your case moves, we write to you, in plain language.
05
No ticket number replies. A person reads your case, knows where you are, and has already seen this question a hundred times.
Guides · Library
Short reads on the law, the documents, and the consulates. Written for readers who want to understand before they ask.
01
Path · Most common
The generation gap, the second consulate appointment, and everything that sits between them.
6 min · Eligibility
Read →
02
Reference · Checklist
The five evidentiary categories the consulate is actually reading, and the order they must arrive in.
7 min · Documents
Read →
03
Jurisdiction · UK
London, Manchester, Edinburgh. Verified addresses, territorial jurisdictions, and what each officer is actually verifying.
6 min · Reference
Read →
THE GROUND
€600
Government fee, jure sanguinis
12-24
Months, UK consulate processing
3
Consulates in the UK
2
Degrees of ascent, Art. 3-bis(c)
WHERE THE MONTHS GO
Citizenship, from first document to passport, lives in three distinct tempos. Knowing where you are, and who decides at each point, removes the worst part of waiting: not knowing.
01PREPARATION
Documents, apostilles, translations.
2-6 months
Held by · Our work
02APPOINTMENT WAIT
Consulate calendar opens a slot.
1-12 months
Held by · Consulate calendar
03COMUNE PROCESSING
Italian municipality registers recognition.
6-24 months
Held by · Commune in Italy
HOW IT MOVES
01
We read your situation before we accept it. If no route is open, we say so, no fee.
02
A personal portal with your documents, messages, status. No lost sheets, no forgotten WhatsApp.
03
Certificates requested in the right order, translations done by sworn translators, apostilles coordinated. Nothing bounces at intake.
04
Monitoring until the appointment is confirmed, or handling the email route for Edinburgh. You arrive informed.
05
Codice fiscale, AIRE registration, first passport application if you want it. We do not leave you on the consulate steps.
THE FOUR FRONTS
A citizenship case crosses four kinds of work at once. Most of what goes wrong happens where two of them meet, not within any single one.
THE ARCHIVE
Records older than the internet.
Communal registers, historical indices, letters dispersed by a century of change. Knowing which door to knock on is half the work.
THE AUTHENTICATION
Official signatures, in the right relation.
Apostilles and legalisations live in a specific relation to translations. Out of relation, the document is invalid and the fee is lost.
THE TRANSLATION
Sworn, not just competent.
Only a registered translator produces a document the consulate accepts at the counter. Which translator, and on which register, is the part most self-run cases get wrong.
THE SUBMISSION
The shape each consulate accepts.
London's file is not Manchester's file, and neither is Edinburgh's. A generic bundle goes to the back of the queue without comment.
INSIDE YOUR PORTAL
No email buried in folders, no PDF at the bottom of a chat. One place, clear, searchable, yours.
Uploaded by you, downloadable by you, read by us. Every version dated. No confusing duplicates.
Translations, forms, apostilles, covering letters. All ready, all downloadable, all yours.
A written exchange with the person handling your case, saved for good. What is said stays. It is not lost in a phone chat.
Where we are, what we are waiting for, what is next. Updated when it changes, not when someone asks.
Once recognition lands, the road is not over. The portal carries you to the passport in hand.
United Kingdom consulates
CONSULATE · 01
CONSULATE · 02
CONSULATE · 03
Consular updates
Legge 11/2026 lets AIRE citizens apply for the CIE at an Italian comune rather than through the consulate.
Constitutional Court Sentenza 63/2026 published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale. Art. 3-bis stands. Decided 11 March 2026, deposited 30 April 2026, ECLI:IT:COST:2026:63.
A Sezioni Unite hearing on the minor-child question (Art. 7 against Art. 12 of Law 555/1912) was reported. The judgment usually cited for it, Cass. 13818/2026, is in fact a First Section ordinance on a different point. The minor question remains unresolved.
Art. 3-bis comes into force. It is not a generation limit: it is a filter with five alternative conditions, and the one that decides most British cases asks whether the ancestor held exclusively Italian citizenship.
The contributo for recognition rises from €300 to €600 per adult applicant (Legge 207/2024); minors at the date of filing stay exempt. The contributo unificato for the court route rises from €43 to €600 per claimant.
Questions
No. This is an administrative document preparation service. We are not regulated by the SRA or OISC. Cases requiring court proceedings (including the 1948 maternal line) require a solicitor.
The Italian state contributo for a citizenship-by-descent application. Doubled from €300 on 1 January 2025 (Legge 207/2024). It is per adult applicant: a child still a minor on the day their own application is filed is exempt, and it is the filing date that counts, not the date the office works it. Paid to the consulate. Separate from our service fee.
Art. 3-bis of Law 91/1992 does not set a limit alone: it sets five alternative conditions. The one most people rely on, letter (c), reaches the second degree (parent or grandparent) and requires that ancestor to possess, or to have possessed at death, exclusively Italian citizenship. Letter (d) opens a separate route where a parent lived in Italy for two continuous years after acquiring citizenship and before your birth. Letters (a), (a-bis) and (b) cover anyone who had already filed by 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025.
UK consulates process jure sanguinis applications in 12 to 24 months from submission. Our service covers preparation, not processing.
Yes. One price: £74 for London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
The FCDO apostille must precede translation. Italian certificates should be requested via ANPR first. Incorrect sequencing doubles costs and timelines.
ONE LAST THING
Pratica is new, and we say so. What you can check right now is all here: every rule with its article, every date with its source. The rest (the calm, the care, the replies that are actually read) you will see by working with us.
BEGIN THE ROUTE →