Permesso to EU citizenship in Italy 2026

The path from your first arrival in Italy to EU citizenship is not a single document, but a long ladder of statuses: the temporary permesso di soggiorno, which is renewed year after year, then the permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo (that very 5-year permanent residence, the former carta di soggiorno), and, finally, cittadinanza italiana - as a rule, after 10 years of residence, and by marriage noticeably faster. Each step has its own requirements for income, language, and continuity of residence, and these requirements gradually tighten. Below we'll go through the whole ladder in order: what's needed at each threshold, how the steps connect to each other, and where people most often stumble. This is not legal advice - the norms on residence permits, permanent residence, and citizenship in Italy change regularly, so always verify each timeline and threshold on current official resources before applying.

The whole ladder: which steps and in what order

According to the community, for citizens of non-EU countries (including Russian citizens) the typical sequence looks like this. These are not separate, unconnected doors, but precisely steps: onto each next one you usually climb from the previous.

1. D visa - a long-term entry visa for a specific motive (work, lavoro autonomo, study, family reunification, chosen place of residence, and so on). By itself it is not yet a residence status, but a basis to enter and arrange things already inside the country.
2. Permesso di soggiorno (temporary residence permit) - a residence permit that is arranged in Italy after arrival and renewed regularly. In parallel, you arrange residenza (residence registration) in the comune.
3. Permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo (permanent residence) - a long-term status that you reach after about 5 years of continuous residence permit. This is the former carta di soggiorno; colloquially it's called "lungo periodo" or simply permanent residence.
4. Cittadinanza (citizenship) - the finale of the ladder, according to the community for non-EU citizens usually after 10 years of residence (by marriage - significantly sooner).

It's important to understand two things right away. First, the steps are measured by different counts (more on this in a separate section below): the five years for permanent residence and the ten years for citizenship are counted not from the same date. Second, permanent residence is a convenient but not mandatory step: you can reach citizenship without it too, if you simply keep renewing the ordinary residence permit up to ten years.

I'm going through this path myself, like many: I recently renewed my permesso, next year I'll already have lungo periodo, and five years after that I'll reach the citizenship application. Think of it precisely as a ladder: first the temporary cards, then the long-term one, then the passport. You can't skip steps, but you also can't artificially rush them - each has its own tenure requirement in years.

A high-level map of these same paths to citizenship can be viewed in the overview Italian citizenship: an overview of the paths, while here we go up the ladder step by step.

Step 1: the temporary permesso and its renewals

The first working step is the ordinary permesso di soggiorno. It is arranged already in Italy after entry on the D visa, as a rule through the postal KIT (kit postale), and then renewed - the first time usually for 1-2 years, then sometimes for 2-3 years, but the specific term is decided by the questura.

The main thing at this step is not the card itself, but the fact that it's precisely the card that starts the counters for all the following steps. So three things are critical here:

• Continuity of the residence permit - a renewal submitted on time, without long gaps between the old and the new card. Submitting the KIT for renewal is advised by the community in advance: from June 2026 (D.Lgs 83/2026) the benchmark is 90 days before the card expires (previously 60); check the current rules on interno.gov.it. While you hold the ricevuta of submission, the status is maintained even if the questura schedules the appointment after the expiration date. The timelines and pitfalls of renewal are covered in detail in the article Renewing the permesso: timelines, absence, and the risk of rejection, and step-by-step KIT instructions are in permesso renewal.
• Residenza (residence registration) in the comune - it is precisely from this, and not from the visa date, that, according to the community, the count for citizenship will run. So you arrange the residence registration as early as possible.
• Accordo di integrazione - the integration agreement signed at the first permesso: within a couple of years you need to earn credits, confirm A2 language, and basic knowledge of civic life. More in the article Accordo di Integrazione: how to earn 30 credits.

The most important thing I understood with the first cards: protect continuity from the very start. I sent the renewal in advance, the appointment was given after the old card had already expired, but since the KIT went off on time and the ricevuta is in hand - the years keep accruing. But if I'd dragged it out and left the card expired, I'd have reset both the road to permanent residence and to citizenship for myself.

It's convenient to estimate when to start gathering and submitting for your city in the timeline - it has collected benchmarks for the stages from the KIT to the plastic card.

Step 2: permanent residence (permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo)

The next step is the long-term status, in Italian permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo, colloquially "lungo periodo" or permanent residence. This is the former carta di soggiorno. According to the community, the right to it arises after about 5 years of continuous legal residence under a residence permit. A separate important detail per the community: the status itself is permanent, and only the plastic card is renewed (per the community every 5 years for adults) - that is, the "permanent" status is not lost when the card expires, but you have to keep an eye on renewing it; verify the current details on portaleimmigrazione.it.

What is usually required to apply for permanent residence (benchmarks per the community, verify the current details):

• About 5 years of continuous residence permit.
• Confirmed income for the past years and taxes paid on it in Italy. According to the community, it's precisely the Italian declared income with taxes that is the key condition; passive income abroad without taxes in Italy is far from always counted for permanent residence. The lower income benchmark is usually tied to the annual social allowance (assegno sociale: the 2026 benchmark is about 7,101 euro per year, i.e. 546.24 x 13, indexed every year - verify on inps.it and in Assegno sociale for foreigners), and if you have dependents, the required amount is raised - roughly another few thousand euro per year is added for each.
• A clean criminal record certificate - a certificate from the criminal record registry and on court proceedings is attached to the application per the community.
• Language at the A2 level - it's sometimes taken right at the questura or at a school. This is lower than the B1 for citizenship. Where to get to A2 for free is in the article How to learn Italian to A2: CPIA courses.
• A suitable motive: according to the community, not every basis leads to five-year permanent residence - for example, a residence permit by distant kinship may not be counted toward lungo periodo, although the road to citizenship through 10 years of residence remains.
• Compliance with the absence rule - there's a separate section on it below.

According to the community, you can apply for permanent residence through a CAF or patronato; the arrangement is paid (a benchmark of around 150 euro for the card is cited), and the fee is not refunded in case of rejection - which makes it all the more important to make sure in advance that you qualify on income, language, motive, and absence.

It is important to separate the status from the card: lungo periodo itself is permanent, but the plastic has a term, and it has to be renewed - for adults, by my observation, every five years. That is, having lived five years under a residence permit and shown income declared in Italy with taxes, a person reaches permanent residence for good, but still has to watch the card's expiry. This is experience, not the letter of the law - verify on portaleimmigrazione.it.

It was explained to us directly: to get permanent residence from a residence permit, it's not enough to just live five years - you have to declare income in Italy specifically and pay taxes on it. As long as the income is minimal and we pay taxes not here, for the system we're uninteresting as candidates for lungo periodo. So alongside the years, a tax history accumulates too.

Income and language: how the permanent residence bar differs from citizenship

It's convenient to keep the comparison of the two upper steps in mind right away:

• Language: for permanent residence - A2, for citizenship - B1. These are different exams and different thresholds.
• Years: for permanent residence - about 5 years, for citizenship - about 10 years (by naturalization).
• Income: at both steps they look at stable declared income for the past years; for citizenship a benchmark on the lower bar of around 8500 euro per person per year is often cited. How a self-employed person on the forfettario confirms income is described in the section Forfettario and taxes, and the calculator helps estimate your situation:

A useful bonus of the permanent residence step: those who already have Italian lungo periodo (or a long-term residence permit from any other EU country) usually, according to the community, don't need to reconfirm the language separately when applying for citizenship - B1 in this case is often not retaken. That is, the completed A2 step for permanent residence also closes the language question on the next one.

The absence rule: where the path to permanent residence breaks off

The most painful trap at exactly the permanent residence step is a long absence from Italy. According to the community, for the permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo they cite two benchmarks:

• no more than 6 consecutive months abroad;
• no more than 10 months in total over the entire five-year period before applying.

Long absences are a common cause of rejection at exactly this threshold: if a person spent most of the years outside Italy, by the time of applying for lungo periodo this surfaces, and the questura itself checks via its databases whether the residence permit was interrupted and how much in total you were absent. The exact norms on absence are linked in discussions to a presidential decree (DPR), but you can't rely on a retelling without checking against the primary source - verify the current details on normattiva.it.

The most common reason a person is refused the five-year status is precisely exceeding the absence limit. In total you can't be away more than ten months over five years, and the details also depend on the questura and the region. Exceptions for valid reasons happen, but that's not something to count on - it's far more reliable to simply not accumulate long breaks for all five years.

I saw a story in the chats of a person who was refused the five-year residence permit precisely because of too long an absence. After that he was concerned only with one thing: whether he could now at least keep renewing the ordinary card. He can - you accumulate the same five years anew, this time carefully with the departure timelines, and apply again. But it's most frustrating to lose what you've accumulated out of the blue.

It's worth separately not confusing this rule with the tax "183 days." The 183-day marker relates to tax residency (plus the center of vital interests), not to permanent residence; for the long-term card they count precisely the continuity and the sum of absence, not the days of presence per year. These rules are covered side by side in the article Renewing the permesso: timelines, absence, and the risk of rejection.

From what moment the years are counted: residenza versus the first permesso

This is what's confused most often, so we keep it separate. The counts for the two upper steps differ:

• The five years for permanent residence are, according to the community, more often counted from the issuance of the first permesso (and sometimes the date of first entry on the D visa is also cited). The date of residenza registration is usually not the starting point for permanent residence. Because of this, an anxious question often comes up in chats: doesn't that year you waited for the first card "get lost." According to the community, for permanent residence it's precisely having a valid residence permit for five years that matters, so the period of waiting for the first card, as a rule, doesn't count toward the five years - factor this into your timeline.
• The ten years for citizenship by naturalization, on the contrary, are counted from residenza registration in the comune - not from the visa and not from the first permesso.

Because of this discrepancy an important practical takeaway arises: you arrange the residence registration as early as possible and protect its continuity - for the sake of citizenship, whereas the five-year tenure for permanent residence itself is tied to the card. On residenza for permanent residence specifically, by the way, opinions in the community diverge: some assert that continuous residence registration matters for lungo periodo, others - that continuous residence permits are enough for the questura, and a certificato storico di residenza wasn't even requested from them. This is exactly the zone where you shouldn't transfer someone else's case onto yourself: verify the requirements of your questura and the current norms on portaleimmigrazione.it.

A small but important clarification that was highlighted for me at the time: for permanent residence the key thing is precisely five continuous years of residence permit, and the questura checks the residence registration history itself and didn't even request a residenza certificate from me when applying for lungo periodo. You can apply exactly five years from the first entry on the D visa or from the date of the first residence permit - then the system looks at whether the cards were interrupted and whether you were absent in total for more than ten months.

I disentangle these two counts in almost every conversation. For citizenship the clock runs from residenza, so you have to register your residence right away and not break it. But the five years for lungo periodo are counted from the card, not from the residence registration - and that's exactly why a person is sometimes already ready for permanent residence, but citizenship is still far off. These are different counters, and you can't add them into one.

Step 3: citizenship (cittadinanza)

The top step is cittadinanza italiana. According to the community, for citizens of non-EU countries usually about 10 years of continuous legal residence are required (for EU citizens - around 4 years, for recognized refugees - about 5). At this threshold the bar is even higher than for permanent residence:

• language B1 (A2 was enough for permanent residence), confirmed by a certificate of a recognized system
  • CILS, PLIDA, or CELI; for those who have Italian permanent residence, a long-term residence permit from another EU country, or an Italian diploma (even terza media), a certificate is often not required separately;
• stable declared income for the past years (usually they look at three years of declarations);
• continuous residency without long gaps in residence registration - even a short technical gap can shift the right to apply.

A detailed breakdown of each citizenship requirement by residence is in the article Italian citizenship: naturalization, marriage, B1 language, timelines. The application itself goes online through the Ministry of the Interior portal, and upon a positive decision an oath (giuramento) is scheduled through the prefettura at your place of residence; citizenship takes effect after the oath. A decision on naturalization, according to the community, usually takes around 24-36 months, and the whole path from application to passport is described as roughly a year and a half to four years.

We were refused permanent residence, and at first I panicked that everything was lost. It turned out - no: you keep renewing the ordinary residence permit, accumulate the same years, and you still reach citizenship by the ten-year mark. Permanent residence is about convenience and about A2 language instead of B1, not about a mandatory condition before the passport.

Faster by marriage

The shortest path to citizenship is not the residence permit ladder, but marriage to an Italian citizen: the right to apply arises already after 1-3 years from the date of marriage (the term depends on whether you live in Italy and whether there are common children). B1 language is still needed, and the continuity of the marriage and shared life is checked strictly. This path with all its nuances is covered in the article Citizenship by marriage and continuous residency.

I'm married to an Italian woman and didn't go through the ten-year ladder - by marriage the waiting period is completely different. I still confirmed the language with a separate certificate, didn't go to courses, studied on my own and just passed B1. So marriage is really a different speed compared to ordinary naturalization.

About the "5 years instead of 10" reform

A question regularly comes up in chats: is it true that citizenship will soon be granted in 5 years rather than 10. According to the community: in 2024-2025 such a proposal (to reduce the naturalization period from 10 to 5 years, an amendment to the 1992 citizenship law) was indeed put to a referendum. The majority of those who voted spoke in favor, but turnout didn't reach the quorum, so the proposal didn't pass. As of today the previous ten-year benchmark applies - but this is exactly the point worth periodically reviewing, so verify the current details on interno.gov.it before making plans for a reduced term.

And a separate caveat about "workarounds": no separate "European Union passport" exists - there is citizenship of a specific country, which you reach through language and years of residence, not buy.

If you're offered an EU passport bypassing language and real residence - that's an attempt to deceive. No "European Union citizenship" exists as a separate service: there is Italian (or another country's) citizenship, and it's reached by that very ladder - temporary cards, long-term status, a language exam, confirmed taxes. Shorter paths exist (marriage being one), but they too are not "a passport at the border."

Dual citizenship: whether to renounce the previous one

Italy in the general case allows dual citizenship - renouncing the previous (including Russian) passport is, according to the community, not required, and keeping the second passport usually even speeds up the procedure, because renunciation would add bureaucracy. But the final answer also depends on the laws of your country of origin - verify the current details on interno.gov.it and in your own legislation.

A short cheat sheet for the ladder

Benchmarks per the community (all thresholds are time-sensitive, verify the current details):

• D visa - entry for a motive, not yet a residence status.
• Permesso (temporary residence permit) - arranged in Italy, renewed; here all the counters start, A2 is needed per the accordo di integrazione, continuity of the residence permit and early residenza are critical.
• Permanent residence (lungo periodo) - about 5 years of residence permit, income with taxes in Italy, A2, absence no more than 6 consecutive months and 10 months in total over 5 years; the count is more often from the first permesso; the status is permanent, only the card is renewed; the step is not mandatory.
• Citizenship - about 10 years (by marriage 1-3 years), B1 language, income for 3 years, continuous residenza; the count of the ten years is from the residence registration; oath through the prefettura.

Enter the year of your first permesso - the tool shows the approximate years when PR and citizenship open up under these rules:

Related articles

• Italian citizenship: an overview of the paths - a high-level map of all the paths and steps.
• Italian citizenship: naturalization, marriage, B1 language, timelines - a deep breakdown of the top step and the citizenship requirements.
• Citizenship by marriage and continuous residency - the fastest path, timelines of 1-3 years.
• Renewing the permesso: timelines, absence, and the risk of rejection - continuity of the residence permit and the long-absence rule, shared with permanent residence.
• Accordo di Integrazione: how to earn 30 credits - A2 language and credits on the first step.
• How to learn Italian to A2: CPIA courses - the free path to the language for a residence permit and permanent residence.
• Tools: timeline, income and tax calculator.

Official sources

• interno.gov.it - the Ministry of the Interior: citizenship by residency and by marriage, requirements, online application, and the oath.
• portaleimmigrazione.it - the immigration portal: applying for a residence permit and for the permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo, the status of the process.
• esteri.it - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: D visas and consular matters.
• the prefettura at your place of residence - checks and the giuramento oath for citizenship.
• normattiva.it - the official text of legislation (norms on residence and absence).

Frequently asked questions

What sequence of statuses leads from arrival to EU citizenship?

According to the community, for citizens of non-EU countries the path is usually as follows: D visa (entry) - permesso di soggiorno (a temporary residence permit that is renewed) - permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo (the 5-year permanent residence, ex carta di soggiorno) - cittadinanza (citizenship, as a rule after 10 years of residence). Each step has its own requirements for income, language, and continuity of residence. Verify the exact order on interno.gov.it and portaleimmigrazione.it - this is not legal advice.

After how many years can you apply for permanent residence (lungo periodo)?

According to the community, the right to a permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo arises after about 5 years of continuous legal residence under a residence permit with confirmed income and paid taxes. The five-year tenure is more often counted from the first permesso, an A2 level of language is needed, and you cannot be absent from Italy in total for more than a certain period. Check the current conditions on portaleimmigrazione.it - this is not legal advice.

Is it mandatory to get permanent residence before citizenship?

According to the community, no: permanent residence is a convenient but not mandatory step. If lungo periodo is refused, you can keep renewing an ordinary residence permit and accumulate the same years, and you apply for citizenship by naturalization, as a rule, after 10 years of residence regardless of having permanent residence. Verify the procedure on interno.gov.it - this is not legal advice.

How do the requirements for permanent residence differ from those for citizenship?

According to the community, for permanent residence (lungo periodo) an A2 language level and about 5 years of residence are usually enough, while for citizenship by naturalization they cite a B1 level and about 10 years. For those who already have Italian permanent residence or a long-term residence permit from another EU country, the language for citizenship often isn't reconfirmed separately. Verify the exact thresholds on interno.gov.it - this is not legal advice.

How long can you be absent from Italy without losing the right to permanent residence?

According to the community, for the permesso UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo they cite benchmarks: no more than 6 consecutive months abroad and no more than 10 months in total over the entire five-year period before applying. Long absences are a common cause of rejection at exactly this threshold. Verify the exact norms and exceptions on normattiva.it and interno.gov.it - this is not legal advice.

From what moment are the years for permanent residence and for citizenship counted - is it the same count?

According to the community, no, the counts differ. The five-year tenure for permanent residence is more often counted from the issuance of the first permesso (or from entry on the D visa), while the ten-year one for citizenship by naturalization is counted from registration of residenza in the comune. So you register your residence as early as possible and protect its continuity. Verify the current details on interno.gov.it - this is not legal advice.

Related materials - Italian citizenship

• Italian citizenship: paths and timelines
• Italian citizenship by marriage: B1, terms
• Italy's 5-year citizenship referendum 2025
• Permanent residency in Italy: permesso UE

Next stepPR & citizenship timelineEnter your first-permesso year: see the years for PR (lungo periodo, 5 yr) and citizenship by residence or marriage.

Documents for this topic

• CILS B1 cittadinanza Preparation Manual (Casus Libri)
• Module 2 (Mod. 209) - data form on work activity and income for permesso di soggiorno
• Official form Mod. 209 - application for permesso di soggiorno (Kit Permesso)