The honest answer is: it depends. And anyone who gives you a flat fee before understanding your situation is either overcharging you or not paying enough attention to your case.
Pricing for Italian citizenship services is one of the most confusing parts of this whole process. You will find everything from online courses for a few hundred euros to law firms charging five figures for work a consultant can also handle competently, in the cases that do not actually require legal representation. Knowing what you actually need, and what you should reasonably pay for it, is the first step to not getting taken advantage of.
Here is how I think about it, and how I price my own service.
Why There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Price
Every citizenship case is different. Your family history, the pathway you are eligible for, the condition of your documents, and whether your situation requires any legal intervention all determine how much work is actually involved. Charging everyone the same flat fee means some people are overpaying for a simple case and others are getting underpaid service on a complex one.
My pricing reflects what your case actually requires. The factors that tend to push a case toward the higher end are documents that are unclear, invalid, or difficult to retrieve, cases where an ancestor needs to be formally recognized by an Italian court, and 1948 situations where a female line of descent requires legal action to be acknowledged. The more of these elements present, the more time, expertise, and legal support your case demands. For a full breakdown of whether a law firm, a consultant, or the DIY route makes sense for your situation, that guide covers it in detail.
This process is more bureaucratic than legal. A lawyer's interpretation of the law does not change how the comune has already decided to apply it.
What My Service Costs
I offer three levels of support depending on how much you want to take on yourself and how complex your case is.
DIY Support Package
$780 – $980Messaging, video and audio calls, a full roadmap of your journey, document review (up to 5 documents), and a professional opinion on how to proceed. $780 if a parent is your Italian-born ancestor, $980 if it's a grandparent. For the self-starter who wants the playbook and a knowledgeable person in their corner.
Full In-Person Support
$1,500 – $2,000Everything in the DIY package plus in-person assistance in Naples. I walk through every office with you, help acquire and submit documents, and support you from start to final submission. For straightforward cases.
Complex Case Support
$2,500 – $8,000For cases requiring additional legal research, court filings, or formal recognition of ancestry. Pricing reflects the specific legal services and additional actions required for your situation.
All in-person support covers citizenship through jure sanguinis, marriage, and residency pathways. The Pre-Eligibility Check will help determine where your case falls, and the free 10-minute call that comes with your results covers what you can expect to pay before you commit to anything.
Costs to Budget for Beyond My Fee
My service fee is not the only cost involved. Here is what you should expect to budget for separately.
Where the Money Actually Goes
Two things drive the cost of a citizenship case, and they are worth separating. The first is the documents themselves: records, apostilles, sworn translations, and the application fee. Those are fixed costs that every applicant pays regardless of who they work with, and they are the same whether you handle the process yourself or hire someone.
The second is the work of running the case: figuring out which records you need, getting them from the right authority in the right form, catching the discrepancies that cause rejections, and dealing with the comune or consulate. That is the part you are paying a service for, and it is where the range in pricing comes from.
Where a case raises an actual legal question, such as a court proceeding, a contested break in the line, or a change in the law that affects your eligibility, that goes to a qualified Italian lawyer, and legal fees are quoted separately and disclosed upfront. ItalianToBe works with an experienced Italian attorney for exactly those situations rather than trying to work around them.
One thing to understand before you start
This process is not always straightforward and, in some cases, it is not guaranteed. Italy's bureaucratic system operates differently from most, and expectations need to be set accordingly. What a good service does is help you understand your situation quickly, move efficiently, and avoid the costly detours that come from not knowing the road ahead.
Where to Start: The Pre-Eligibility Check
Know your situation before you spend a euro.
The Pre-Eligibility Check looks at your family history and eligibility, and shows how complex your case appears to be. Once you have your results, a free 10-minute call is included, where we go over what it found, how prepared you are with documents, and whether our attorney will need to be involved.
No pressure. No commitment. Just clarity.
What You Are Actually Paying For
When you work with me, you are paying for support and guidance through a process that is genuinely difficult to navigate alone. I will lead the way. Your path will be explained step by step, and we will work as a team to move swiftly through each stage toward the final submission of your citizenship request.
What you are really paying for is my knowledge of the process, my experience having gone through it myself, and the relationships I have built with the key players along the way. That combination is what shortens timelines, reduces stress, and keeps things moving even when the system tries to slow you down.
Find out what your case will need.
Start with the Pre-Eligibility Check to see your pathway and where your case falls. A free 10-minute call is included once you have your results, so we can talk through cost with your specifics in front of us.
Take My Pre-Eligibility Check →