‘We did everything they wanted’: The American families caught in Italy’s citizenship crackdown
Italian Citizenship: A Dream Derailed for American Families
The Matwick family’s struggle as Italy’s policy shifts upend ancestral ties
In August 2024, Kellen Matwick, his wife Jacqueline, and their two children boarded a one-way flight to Italy, celebrating their new beginning. Matwick, whose great-grandparents hailed from central Italy and settled in Pennsylvania, is part of the expansive Italian diaspora. However, his hopes were crushed when Italy revised its citizenship by descent rules a year earlier, on March 28, 2025. This change was solidified this month as the constitutional court signaled its rejection of the first legal challenge to the policy. The government had justified the reform by citing the growing number of individuals claiming Italian heritage without residing in the country. For Matwick, the abrupt shift not only stalled his future but also disrupted his daily life. He had relocated to Italy to reclaim his citizenship, only to find the rules altered before his paperwork was finalized. With no transitional period for those already in the process, he now faces uncertainty, unable to secure employment, travel freely, or access healthcare as he awaits resolution.
Italy’s new policy has left thousands of diaspora members in a precarious position. The Matwicks, who had previously lived in New York City, moved to Arizona with their children in 2022. After weighing options, they chose Italy over Spain, where Matwick could obtain a digital nomad visa. While both couples spoke Spanish fluently, they opted for Italy, believing citizenship by descent offered greater stability. Instead of applying through a U.S. consulate—a process that typically takes years—they decided to move to Italy and complete the paperwork upon arrival, a method historically accepted for Italo-descendants. This approach allowed them to integrate their children into Italian culture while they were still young. “It was a way to start our life sooner,” said Jacqueline. “It didn’t feel risky—this process has been around for decades.”
The path to citizenship involves multiple bureaucratic hurdles. Upon arrival, families must secure a long-term rental, register with local authorities—a step requiring 45 days—and obtain a residency permit from the police. Only after these steps can they submit their documents for formal recognition, a status once automatically granted at birth. The entire procedure can stretch from a few months to years, depending on administrative efficiency. To expedite the process, some choose smaller, rural communities, but the Matwicks dismissed this as a system manipulation. “We said, ‘Let’s do it the right way,’” Kellen recalled. “We treated it like a genuine move, picked the city we wanted, and followed every step. Now I feel foolish—because we did everything correctly, we were punished.”
After two years of gathering proof of Matwick’s lineage, the family arrived in Turin in August 2024. The next day, they emailed local authorities to announce their presence and intent to claim citizenship. “No one responded,” Jacqueline noted, explaining that most businesses close for the month. A follow-up message three weeks later prompted the request to visit in mid-October. By October 3, the government issued a circular that disqualified thousands of Americans from eligibility, leaving them stranded in Italy with unclear legal status and no means to earn a living. Their dream of reconnecting with their ancestral roots has now become a source of frustration and displacement.
“We said, ‘Let’s do it the right way’… Now I feel so stupid — because we did it the right way, we got penalized.” — Kellen Matwick
