# Welcome If you have an ancestor from Italy, **you may be an Italian citizen**! Italian citizenship is granted *jure sanguinis*, by descent. This means that your Italian ancestor's American children were probably not only American but also Italian citizens. Their children were, in turn, also Italian citizens, all the way down to you. If you can document your relation to your Italian-born ancestor (basically, a chain of birth and marriage certificates), you can apply for an Italian passport. Of course, there are some complexities to the process. * Certain rules in the *jure sanguinis* law make it a little tricky to figure out if you are eligible to apply. * If you are eligible, there is a list of documents that you will need to gather, some from Italy. * The way you apply will depend on your situation and choice (e.g. at a local consulate, at a city hall in Italy, or through the Italian Supreme Court). That's why we built an [interactive web application](https://italianbydescent.com) that guides you through the process. If you are eligible, we will give you a simple, personalized checklist of necessary documents, as well as clear instructions for how to gather them and how to apply for your passport. This process is complicated, but thousands of people have successfully received recognition of their Italian citizenship by descent, and now have the right to live and work anywhere in the EU. This part of the web site is our knowledge base, a guide to everything that has to do with applying for Italian citizenship *jure sanguinis*. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://learn.italianbydescent.com/master.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.