Apostille for Italian citizenship

A public document produced in one country proves nothing in another until the authority of the issuing country certifies the signature and the capacity of the person who signed it. Between the States party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, and the United Kingdom and Italy are both among them, that certification is the apostille, a stamp or a sheet attached to the document by a designated authority. Everything else is legalisation, the older procedure through the consulates, which survives for documents from countries outside the Convention.

The apostille on British documents

In the United Kingdom the apostille is issued by the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It can be placed on a document issued by a court with a wet ink seal, on a public register document such as a birth, marriage, civil partnership or death certificate, on a document signed by an official of a government department, on a medical certificate signed by a registered doctor, and on any document certified by a notary or a solicitor, such as a copy of a passport, a power of attorney or a qualification. The Office verifies the signature against its records, and a document whose signature it cannot verify is returned.

The standard service is by post, at a fee of 45 pounds per document, in up to twenty-five working days plus postage. Registered businesses have a next-day service and, with prior approval, a same-day service. An electronic apostille exists, at 35 pounds and within two working days, for documents uploaded as PDF and signed electronically by a British notary or solicitor, and it is not available for the certificates of the General Register Office, for the police certificates of ACRO and for disclosure certificates. The Italian consulates in Britain accept the apostille on paper only, so for a citizenship file the electronic apostille is of no use even where it is available.

Every British document in a file for Italy carries its own apostille: each certificate, each Home Office letter, each police certificate, each court order. The apostille is not translated. The apostille placed on a certified copy covers the certification by the notary or solicitor, not the underlying document, which is why the consulates and the comuni ask for original certificates, apostilled as such, and not for apostilled copies.

The apostille on Italian documents

In Italy two authorities issue the apostille. The Prefecture, for the administrative documents and the civil status certificates issued by the comuni, by the regions and by the ministries, and for the signatures of the mayors and the registrars. The Procura della Repubblica at the court, for the judicial and notarial documents, including the sworn translations, since the oath is received by a court officer. An Italian birth certificate for use in Britain, where an apostille is required, is apostilled by the Prefecture of the province of the comune. A sworn translation made in Rome for use in Britain is apostilled by the Procura of Rome.

British authorities rarely ask for an apostille on Italian documents, and accept most of them with a certified translation. The exceptions are the courts, some registrars, the Land Registry in certain transactions and the authorities of third countries reached through Britain. We check with the receiving office before adding a formality which the office does not require.

Consular legalisation

A document from a country which is not party to the Hague Convention is legalised, before it can be used in Italy, by the Italian embassy or consulate in that country, after the legalisation of the foreign ministry of the issuing State. A British family whose ancestor emigrated first to a country outside the Convention, or whose documents of birth or marriage were issued there, obtains the legalisation through the Italian mission in that country, and the translation is made and legalised there too, because the Italian consulates in Britain do not certify translations of documents issued elsewhere. Documents issued in the Republic of Ireland, in the United States, in Australia and in the countries of the Commonwealth which joined the Convention carry the apostille of their own authority.

What needs no apostille

Documents issued by the Italian consulates and transmitted by them to Italy carry no apostille. Documents exchanged between the Italian and the British administrations directly, such as the confirmations the Home Office sends in reply to an official request, are accepted on the strength of the official channel. The European Regulation of 2016 which abolished the apostille between member States for civil status documents no longer applies to British documents, and a British certificate without the apostille is refused by every Italian office. The Convention of London of 1968, which exempts the documents of diplomatic and consular officers, covers the acts of the British consulates in Italy and of the Italian consulates in Britain.

We obtain the apostilles in Britain and in Italy for our clients’ documents, in the form the receiving office accepts, and we check each document before it is sent to the Legalisation Office, because a certificate with an unverifiable signature or a solicitor’s copy where an original is required comes back unlegalised and costs the family the fee and the weeks.