Avv. Fabio Loscerbo: According to the Brescia Administrative Court, late registration of a foreign marriage need not defeat a citizenship application https://ift.tt/vdOhYUH According to the Brescia Administrative Court, late registration of a foreign marriage need not defeat a citizenship application The Italian citizenship procedure can be deeply affected by the documentary treatment of a marriage celebrated abroad. In judgment no. 1242 of 21 September 2026, the Regional Administrative Court for Lombardy, Brescia division, Section I, addressed whether failure to transcribe a valid foreign marriage into the Italian civil-status registers before submitting the application necessarily justifies rejection. The facts and the judgment The applicant had married abroad many years earlier. After her husband acquired Italian citizenship, she applied for citizenship through marriage under Article 5 of Law 91/1992. The prefecture objected that the marriage had not been transcribed. She arranged transcription during the administrative procedure and sent the certificate with observations, but the application was still declared inadmissible. The court upheld her challenge and annulled the prefecture's decision. It explained that transcription makes an already valid marriage officially ascertainable and opposable to the administration; it does not create that marriage. Where the underlying marriage existed when the application was submitted, later transcription before the administrative decision can cure the formal omission. The prefecture was ordered to decide the application again within sixty days of notification or communication of the judgment. What applicants should do Anyone relying on a marriage celebrated abroad should check the civil-status records before applying, obtain the foreign marriage certificate in the form required by Italian law and arrange transcription without unnecessary delay. If the authority serves a notice of intended refusal under Article 10-bis of Law 241/1990, the applicant should respond with proof of the underlying marriage and any completed transcription. This judgment does not dispense with the remaining statutory citizenship conditions, including the continuity of the marriage and applicable residence, language and security requirements. Nor does annulment itself confer citizenship. It prevents an administrative formality from being mistaken for the legal existence of a pre-existing family relationship. Decision: TAR Lombardia, Brescia, Sez. I, 21 September 2026, no. 1242, full judgment. Avv. Fabio Loscerbo Lawyer admitted to plead before the Italian Court of Cassation Registered in the Italian Chamber of Deputies' register of interest representatives in immigration matters Lobbyist registered in the European Union Transparency Register, number 280782895721-36, for migration and asylum ORCID: 0009-0004-7030-0428 Article prepared with AI tools under the author's direction, review and editorial responsibility. https://ift.tt/TexE7Wy