Italian consulate notarial services

An Italian consulate exercises notarial functions for Italian citizens abroad: it receives powers of attorney, authenticates signatures, draws up sworn declarations and receives wills, under the consular law of 2011 and the consular tariff rather than the fees of a notary. It does not advise on the content of the acts, and it does not act for foreign citizens, who turn to a British notary and to the apostille. This page explains which act serves which purpose, what the consulate requires for each, and which declarations replace a certificate altogether.

Powers of attorney

The general power of attorney, which covers all the present and future affairs of the principal until death or revocation, and the special power of attorney, limited to one act or one proceeding, are received at the Consulate General in London by appointment requested by email to the notarial office, with the data of the principal and of the attorney, the codice fiscale of both and the marital status of the principal. The principal attends in person, and the spouse attends as well where the couple lives under the community of property, because the act then binds both. For a special power of attorney the consulate asks for a draft prepared by the Italian notary or lawyer who will use it, in an editable file, so that the wording matches the act to be concluded in Italy. The original of a special power is handed over on the day, the certified copies of a general one likewise, to be sent to the attorney by courier, since the consulate certifies paper copies only. The fee follows the consular tariff: from 1 October 2026 a general power of attorney costs 77.20 pounds and a special one 51.50, with 13.80 pounds for each certified copy, payable by British debit card and adjusted each quarter.

A foreign citizen, and an Italian who cannot attend, obtains the same power of attorney from a British notary public, has the notary’s signature apostilled by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and has the document translated for use in Italy. The consulate itself points to this route, and for a power of attorney to be used before an Italian notary it is often the quicker one. The apostille on a notarial act costs 45 pounds in the standard service, with up to twenty-five working days, and 35 pounds in the electronic service, within two working days, which is available for documents signed electronically by a notary or a solicitor and not for civil status certificates.

The atto notorio and the declarations which replace it

The atto notorio is a public act in which a person declares, before the consular officer and two witnesses, facts within his knowledge: the heirs of a deceased person, the absence of other children, a state of fact which no certificate records. The consulate receives it only from Italian citizens, by appointment, with two witnesses who are adult Italian citizens without an interest in the act, each with an Italian passport or identity card and the proof of the codice fiscale. Its most frequent uses are the succession and the marriage, and in many cases it has been replaced by the substitute declaration, which costs nothing and requires no witness.

The substitute declaration of the atto notorio, under article 47 of the consolidated text on administrative documentation, is a declaration on plain paper of facts, states or qualities within the direct knowledge of the person who signs, which the Italian public administration and the providers of public services must accept in place of the act itself, and which may also certify the conformity of a copy of a document issued or held by a public body. The self-certification under article 46 of the same text replaces the certificates themselves, for the date and place of birth, the residence, the citizenship, the marital and family status, the existence in life, the qualifications, the income, the tax code, the absence of criminal convictions and the other matters the article lists, including every fact within the declarant’s direct knowledge recorded in the registers of civil status. Neither declaration needs an authenticated signature when it is addressed to a public administration: a copy of the identity document is attached and the consulate does not authenticate it. The authentication, under article 24 of the tariff, is required only where the declaration is addressed to a private body, or where it serves to collect a benefit on behalf of another person, as the delegation to collect a pension.

Two limits matter abroad. The declarations may be signed by Italian citizens and by citizens of the European Union, and by a citizen of a third country lawfully resident in Italy only for facts which an Italian public body can verify. And they cover Italian facts: a fact certified by a foreign authority, a British birth or marriage, cannot be self-certified before an Italian office, and is proved with the foreign certificate, legalised and translated, as article 3 of the consolidated text requires. For the same reason, since 2012 the Italian public bodies no longer issue certificates for use before other Italian public bodies, and the consular certificates of civil status, of family status and of registration in the AIRE bear the note that they serve only before private bodies and foreign authorities.

Succession and the other acts

The acceptance or the renunciation of an inheritance is signed before the consulate, which witnesses the signature of the Italian heir, and is then registered by the heir with the registry of voluntary jurisdiction of the Italian court of the place where the succession opened, within ten years of the death. The heir produces an Italian identity document, the codice fiscale and the Italian death certificate, which presupposes the transcription of the death. A minor heir requires the prior authorisation of the guardianship judge, a function which, for the minors of the district, the consul himself exercises. The consulate also receives the acknowledgement of a child born out of wedlock, the consent of a parent to the travel of a child under fourteen, the declaration of separation of property between spouses, the advance directives on medical treatment, and it certifies the conformity of a photocopy to an original produced before it, which for a document issued by a public body is often replaced by the substitute declaration. The London consulate does not list wills among its services, although the consular law allows a consulate to receive them: an Italian in England who wishes to dispose of property in Italy turns to a notary in Italy or to an English solicitor, with the translation and the legalisation which the Italian succession then requires.

Legalisation, translation and the declaration of value

A document issued in a country which is not a party to the Hague convention of 1961 is legalised, before it is used in Italy, by the Italian consulate of the country which issued it, which also certifies the translation into Italian. The London consulate legalises signatures under the tariff for documents within its competence, and refers to the Italian mission in the issuing country the documents, even in English, which come from elsewhere. It does not translate, and it does not certify translations except in two cases: the civil status acts of Italians transcribed through it, for which the translation is accepted without any formality, and the declaration of value of a British qualification, which it issues by post for qualifications obtained in England and Wales, as a description of the value of the qualification within the British system and not as a recognition, for which the comparability statements of the Italian information centre on academic mobility are accepted by the universities. The recognition of qualifications has its own site, to which this one refers.

If you need a document for an act in Italy and are not sure whether the consulate, a notary or a simple declaration is the right instrument, send us the request you have received from Italy. We tell you which act serves, who must sign it and before whom, and we prepare the text and the translation.