Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Legalization allows a foreign person to enforce in Italy a document issued by the foreign country of origin or stable residence.

It consists of affixing a stamp on the original of the document to be legalized, which officially certifies:

• the legal qualification of the public official who signed the act
• the authenticity of his signature.

In the legalization it is necessary to indicate the name and surname of the person whose signature must be legalized. The legalizing public official must indicate the date and place of legalization, his name and surname, his qualification and affix his full signature and the office stamp.

Signatures on deeds and documents drawn up in a foreign country, to be enforced in Italy, must be legalized by the Italian diplomatic or consular representations of that country (art.33, paragraph 2, Presidential Decree n.445/2000).

If, however, an Italian deed must be used in a foreign country, legalization - if requested - must be done by the Public Prosecutor at the Court in whose jurisdiction the notary who receives or authenticates the deed is based. The signature of the Public Prosecutor, in turn, is legalized by the foreign Consulate in Italy in which he resides.

If the deed is issued by the Municipality, the legalization must be issued by the Prefect competent for the territory.

Civil status documents, registry documents and public documents drawn up in one State which must be produced in the territory of another State are subject to legalisation.

By "foreign document" we mean the document drawn up and completed abroad by foreign authorities, even if in Italian. From this point of view, the act drawn up by Italian Consulates and Embassies abroad is not "foreign", even if the parties are foreign.

The obligation of legalization ceases in some cases established by laws or international agreements (art.33, last paragraph, Presidential Decree n.445/2000).

Particularly significant in this regard is the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, ratified by Italy with law no. 20 of 1966 December 1253, relating to the abolition of the legalization of foreign public documents. The list of countries that signed the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 is also available by clicking here (link the signatory countries).

The States adhering to the Hague Convention replace the legalization of documents that fall within its scope of application and which must be produced on its territory, with the affixing of the apostille. The latter consists of an annotation, strictly compliant with the model attached to the Convention, which must be placed on the original of the foreign certificate by the foreign Authority indicated as competent by the law ratifying the Convention.

The apostille, like legalization, has the function of certifying the veracity of the signature and the legal qualification of the foreign public official who issued the document, as well as the authenticity of the seal or stamp affixed to the document.

Documents drawn up by diplomatic and consular representatives of the following countries are exempt from legalization: Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain (and Isle of Man), Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Norway , Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey (London Convention of 7 June 1968).

Since 28 March 2003, documents issued by Poland are also exempt from legalization, in particular documents concerning the civil status, capacity or family situation of natural persons, nationality, domicile or residence. (art.2 of the Athens Convention of 15 September 1977). The other states adhering to the Convention are: Luxembourg, France, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Austria.

Any form of legalization or any other equivalent formality has been abolished between Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland and Italy, even in the case in which the documents must be exhibited at the consular representations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland and Italy operating in the territory of a State that has ratified the Convention (Brussels Convention of 25 May 1987, ratified by Italy with law 24 April 1990, n.106).

To be enforceable in Italy, deeds and documents issued by foreign authorities legalized by Italian diplomatic-consular representations abroad must also be translated into Italian (except those drawn up on multilingual models provided for by international conventions).

Translations must bear the stamp "for compliant translation". In countries where the legal figure of the official translator exists, compliance can be certified by the translator himself, whose signature is then legalized by the consular office. In countries where this figure is not provided for by local law, it will be necessary to obtain a certification of conformity issued by the consular office.

To proceed with legalization. the applicant must present himself at the consular office with the document (in original) to be legalized. In order to obtain the certificate of conformity of the translation, you must present yourself at the consular office with the original document in a foreign language and the translation.

Sworn certification is the procedure that gives value, between private individuals or between private individuals and the Public Administration, to the extrajudicial appraisal and the translation, by means of an oath before the Chancellor (art. 5 RD N° 1366 of 9/10/1922 simplification of chancellery and secretarial services - Ministerial Decree 4/1/54 (Cat. 22) - translations of foreign languages ​​- RD 20/9/34 n° 2011 art. 32 Categories of experts and interpreters at the chamber of commerce).

The appraisal and the translation must be sworn by the person who carried them out. The expert or translator goes to Court with a valid identity document and with the paper report or translation to be sworn.

It is not necessary for the expert or translator to be registered in a specific professional register (which, moreover, does not exist for translators). In order to guarantee the impartiality and truthfulness of the translation, the translator must be a third party unrelated to the document he translated.

There is no territorial jurisdiction and the oath can be taken in any court throughout the national territory.

• Prefecture | Legalization Office