A child's Russian passport in Italy

Russian citizenship and a passport for a child at the Russian consulate in Italy: apostilled extract and translation, booking, 5 or 10 years, timelines.

Author: permesso.love editorial team- updated September 11, 2026- 7 min read- how we verify

In short

For a Russian family, a child born in Italy means a separate consular quest: first register the child's Russian citizenship, then get them their own passport. Without the passport the child cannot travel to Russia, and the family cannot complete most Russian procedures. The bottlenecks are the appointment queue, which fills up months ahead, and the requirements for the Italian documents: the birth extract, the apostille and the translation. Below is the whole route step by step with community timelines. The article is part of the series on paperwork after giving birth and builds on the general overview of the Russian consulate in Italy. This is a guide, not legal advice.

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In brief: community data

Citizenship first, passport second: a child of Russian citizens acquires citizenship by birth, but the fact has to be registered at the consulate; in a mixed family it is arranged on the Russian parent's application.
Italian documents: an extract from the atto di nascita with an apostille (put on by the prefettura) and a translation, the parents' passports, the marriage certificate; per the community bring a spare copy - the original is often kept.
5 or 10 years: for newborns the community almost unanimously advises the 5-year passport (no biometrics, produced in about a month); the 10-year biometric one requires photographing at the consulate and takes up to six months.
Booking is the main bottleneck: electronic-queue slots get taken weeks and months ahead; some families use paid booking via visa centers or travel to a less loaded consulate.
Without their own passport, trips to Russia are blocked: a child can no longer be added to a parent's passport, so do not postpone the citizenship and the passport.

Step 1. The Italian documents: extract, apostille, translation

The consulate needs official confirmation of the birth from the Italian registers. It is prepared like this:

An extract from the civil record. After the dichiarazione di nascita, order an extract from the atto di nascita at the comune - how the registration works and which extracts exist is covered in the article on registering a newborn. Take a spare copy: consular procedures often keep the original.
The apostille. The extract is apostilled at the prefettura of the province where the document was issued. The mechanics and addresses are in the article on document legalization.
A Russian translation. The translation must match the consulate's requirements: as a rule the consulate certifies the accuracy of the translation at the appointment. Clarify the format in advance - per community experience a wrong translation means a second visit.

The marriage certificate will be needed too

For the child's citizenship the consulate looks at the parents' documents, including the marriage certificate. If it is Russian - no problem; if the marriage is Italian, the Russian procedures will need its legalized version. Keep the whole family document set in order ahead of time.

Step 2. Russian citizenship for the child

The logic depends on the family setup:

Both parents are Russian citizens. The child acquires citizenship by birth wherever they are born. The consulate checks the documents and records the citizenship - per community experience this is done in one appointment, with the mark placed on the translation or the extract.
A mixed family. If the other parent is a citizen of Italy or another country, citizenship for a child born abroad is arranged on the Russian parent's application, with the other parent's participation or consent - per the consulate's rules.

Per community experience a clear step-by-step instruction is not always given at the appointment: people assembled the set from other parents' accounts and filed on the second attempt. Hence - a written request to the consulate before the visit and a careful read of the website. The official framework is on mid.ru and the consulate pages.

The registered citizenship matters beyond the passport. A number of Russian procedures and support measures are tied to it: for example, per community discussions, for the maternity capital it matters whether the child had Russian citizenship by birth. The rules of such programs change and depend on your situation - check the conditions on official Russian resources before counting on them. At the same appointment many families also put the child on the consular register - it makes later requests easier.

We arranged citizenship for our daughter, born in Italy in a mixed marriage. The main advice is to clarify the document list in writing with your own consulate beforehand: at the appointment they answered in generalities, and half the nuances we learned from other parents.

community member, rephrasedpersonal opinion

Step 3. The passport: 5 or 10 years

After the citizenship you file for the passport. The fork is the document type:

	5-year	10-year biometric
Biometrics	Not needed	Photographing at the consulate
Infant's presence	Per the consulate's rules	Mandatory
Production time per the community	About a month	Up to six months
Who the community recommends it for	Newborns and toddlers	Older children

For newborns the community almost unanimously advises the 5-year one: taking biometrics from an infant is hard, and waiting half a year without a passport means half a year without travel. Photos of infants are taken lying on a white background - check the photo requirements with the consulate. All the figures above are community observations, not official timelines.

For our newborn we were advised to go only for the five-year passport - biometrics with infants is complicated. The visa center gave us an appointment about two weeks out, and the passport itself was ready in roughly a month. Friends waited many times longer for the ten-year one.

community member, rephrasedpersonal opinion

Booking and logistics

The appointment is the main bottleneck of the whole procedure:

The electronic queue. The basic path is booking via the consulate's website; slots appear in limited batches and go fast. How the community catches the windows is described in the article on the Russian consulate.
Visa centers. Visa centers attached to the consulates offer paid booking and document intake - per community experience this is noticeably faster, but for a fee; check the tariffs on their official pages.
Another city. The consulates in Italy are unevenly loaded: families sometimes book where the queue is shorter, even if the trip is longer.

In urgent situations - say, the child has to fly and there is no passport - the consulates, per community experience, can accommodate and issue the 5-year passport faster: explain the situation in writing and at the appointment. And remember that the child's Italian status must be in order for the return - that is the topic of the article on the permesso for a child, and the departure nuances are in the article on trips from Italy.

This is not legal advice

Consular rules, document sets and timelines change, and practice differs between Rome, Milan and Genoa. Everything above is community experience plus general rules. Check your consulate's website and mid.ru before booking and filing.

Giving birth in Italy: the paperwork - the parent article: the whole paperwork program after the birth.
Registering a newborn - the comune extracts, the apostille, the codice fiscale.
Permesso for a child - the child's Italian status.
The Russian consulate in Italy - booking, queues, notarial acts and registration.
Document legalization - apostilles and translations both ways.
A second Russian passport - the passport storylines for adults.

Official sources

mid.ru - the Russian MFA: consular matters, citizenship, passports.
The websites of the Russian consulates in Italy (Rome, Milan, Genoa) - booking, document sets, tariffs.
esteri.it - the Italian MFA: apostilles and legalization of Italian documents.
interno.gov.it - the prefettura: apostilles on stato civile documents.
normattiva.it - the Italian rules on civil status records.

Frequently asked questions

A child was born in Italy - are they a Russian citizen automatically?

If both parents are Russian citizens, the child acquires citizenship by birth regardless of the country of birth, but the fact has to be registered: the consulate checks the documents and adds the mark. In mixed families, where the other parent is a foreigner, citizenship for a child born abroad is arranged on the Russian parent's application. Check the rules on your consulate's website - this is not legal advice.

Which documents are needed for a newborn's Russian citizenship?

The core of the set per community experience: an extract from the Italian birth record with an apostille and a Russian translation, the parents' passports, the marriage certificate. In mixed families the other parent's documents and their participation are added per the consulate's rules. Check the exact list on your consulate's website before booking - this is not legal advice.

Which passport should a child get - 5 or 10 years?

For small children the community advises the 5-year one: the 10-year biometric one requires photographing at the consulate, which is tricky with an infant, and per community experience takes much longer to produce. The 5-year one is faster and needs no biometrics. The choice is yours - check the requirements and timelines with the consulate, this is not legal advice.

How long does a child's passport take at a consulate in Italy?

Per community experience a 5-year child's passport is produced in about a month, the 10-year biometric one - up to six months. Add the time to get an appointment: free slots get taken weeks and months ahead, and citizenship has to be arranged first. These are community observations, not official timelines - check with your consulate.

How do you book a consulate appointment for a child's passport?

Through the consulate's electronic queue; slots are scarce and go fast. Per community experience some families use the paid booking via the visa centers attached to the consulates - the queue is shorter but it costs money. Sometimes families travel to a less loaded consulate in another city. Check the booking procedure on the consulate's website - this is not legal advice.

Can a child travel to Russia without their own passport?

No: adding a child to a parent's passport for travel is no longer possible, the child needs their own document. While there is no passport, trips to Russia are effectively blocked - so do not postpone the citizenship and the passport. Discuss urgent scenarios with the consulate directly - this is not legal advice.

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