# Italian National vs. Italian Citizen?



## BuddyandElsa (Jul 8, 2014)

Hello!
Does anyone know if there is a distinction between being an Italian Citizen and being an Italian National?

THANK YOU in advance for any light anyone can shed on this!


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## accbgb (Sep 23, 2009)

BuddyandElsa said:


> Hello!
> Does anyone know if there is a distinction between being an Italian Citizen and being an Italian National?
> 
> THANK YOU in advance for any light anyone can shed on this!


Google "US national" and check out the first several links which describe the difference between a US citizen and a US national.

The IRS, for example, has this to say:



> U.S. National
> An individual who owes his sole allegiance to the United States, including all U.S. citizens, and including some individuals who are not U.S. citizens. For tax purposes the term "U.S. national" refers to individuals who were born in American Samoa or were born in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands who have made the election to be treated as U.S. nationals and not as U.S. citizens.
> 
> U.S. Citizen
> ...


Feel free to extrapolate.


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## Oliver21 (Jul 9, 2014)

I think both are the same.


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

There's only one form, one type of Italian citizenship/nationality.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As far as I can tell, the distinction between "citizen" and "national" is a linguistic one, and depends entirely on the context of the usage. Generally speaking, "citizen" is a more legalistic word, whereas "national" is more cultural - however in the context of a law or regulation, either term means whatever the law or regulation defines it to be. as in the IRS example accbgb gives above.
Cheers,
Bev


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## BuddyandElsa (Jul 8, 2014)

Thank you to everyone for sharing their thinking on this question!
It really does help!!


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## Arturo.c (Aug 15, 2010)

The Constitution of the Republic of Italy mentions in its Article 51 that _"Italians who do not belong to the Republic"_ should be considered equal to Italian citizens when applying to become public employees.

However, no law was ever discussed in the Italian parliament to codify the status of these persons. It is believed that such a definition (which echoes a previous statement in the _"Statuto Albertino"_) was presumably meant to include all former Italian citizens who were born in the Italian colonial territories (Libya, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Dodecanese islands and the Italian concession in Tianjin, China) and the inhabitants of the territories formerly part of Italy and lost to other countries at the end of World War II, such as the regions of Istria and Dalmatia (ceded to Yugoslavia and now part of Slovenia and Croatia) and the villages of Briga and Tenda (ceded to France).


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## marcuzzo (Oct 20, 2014)

From my understanding an Italian citizen resides in Italy, and Italian national, is an Italian, when he/she is overseas. Maybe too simplistic?


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

There's no such distinction made. The consulate window says "cittadini" (citizens).

I'm not aware of any daylight whatsoever between "Italian citizen" and "Italian national." The terms are perfectly interchangeable. As Arturo suggests there might have been some long ago preliminary legal framework for a potential distinction (and not necessarily with the terms "citizen" and "national"). But nothing ever came of it. Italian citizenship/nationality status is unitary and binary.

There is municipal-level honorary citizenship. Elton John is an honorary citizen of a city in Italy (can't remember which one offhand), for example. That's equivalent to what U.S. cities would call the "Key to the City."


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