Italian Certificates

Often, in order to apply for Italian citizenship or to complete other administrative procedures or to be able to sign an employment contract abroad, it is necessary to obtain acts or certificates from the civil registry or from the court in the Italian communes.

These certificates cannot be obtained from Italian consulates abroad but only directly from the competent communes.

The Italian civil registry issues two types of certificates, an extract or a full version. Both documents are valid for many administrative procedures, but it is best to seek advice before requesting a document in order to know clearly which type of certificate is required for the procedure in question.

The Law Firm Trámite Italia deals with the following certificates :

Birth Certificate: which includes and certifies the information relating to the birth certificate transcribed in the civil status register.

Literal certificate of birth certificate: a certificate that is a photocopy of the birth certificate transcribed in the register of civil status.

Baptism Certificate: certifies the information transcribed in the religious records relating to the rite of baptism. To be valid for citizenship it must be legalised by the Curia.

Marriage Certificate: contains and certifies the information regarding the rite of marriage transcribed in the civil status register.

Literal marriage certificate: this is a certificate of a photocopy of the marriage certificate transcribed in the registry of civil status.

Death Certificate: certifies the information relating to the act of death transcribed in the civil status register.

Certificate of marital status : contains and certifies information concerning the marital status of a person.

Certificate Contestual: or cumulative, summarises anagraphic and marital status information in a single certificate.

Family Status Certificate: this is a document that contains the details of the persons living at the same address.

Historical Certificate: this can be a certificate of residence or family status and refers to a historical date.

Certificate of Residence: contains and certifies information regarding a person's residence as transcribed in the civil status register

Certificate of Citizenship: certifies a person's Italian citizenship.

Criminal Record Certificate: contains information on judicial and administrative proceedings concerning a natural person. The Civil Certificate contains possible civil judgments, such as interdictions, disqualifications, bankruptcy declarations, accessory penalties limiting civil capacity. The Criminal Certificate contains criminal judgments. It is possible to request a complete certificate, only civil or only criminal.

Italian and multilingual acts

In addition to obtaining certificates/acts, the Trámite Italia law firm can also take care of obtaining multilingual certificates. This type of certificate is exempt from legalisation and translation.

Legalisation and Hague Apostille

For certificates that are not issued in plurilingual or multilingual, the Trámite Italia office works with a number of partner translators who provide legalised translations and apostille the certificates in accordance with the Hague Convention so that they can be presented to the competent authorities.

Investigation of acts

Trámite Italia is responsible for researching and finding records and certificates of living or deceased family descendants. This type of search for ancestors can be very time-consuming for inexperienced people. For this reason we always advise our clients to leave the work to specialised firms in the search for family certificates.

Often these searches become even more complicated when people were born before 1866 as birth registers were kept by parishes.

Delivery of acts and certificates

The Trámite Italia office is in charge of obtaining these certificates by directly managing the procedure on behalf of the interested party, maintaining direct contact with the various communes in Italy, large or small. The certificates are delivered to our clients personally or sent by express courier anywhere in the world.

How long does it take to get the certificates?

The delivery time of the Italian certificates or certificates such as criminal records depends very much on the reason for the administrative procedure for which the Italian certificate is needed. It can take from 1 week to several months depending on the commune responsible for issuing the certificate. For example, the municipality of Rome is usually slower in issuing certificates. The delivery time of the certificates also depends on whether the certificate needs to be translated and legalised.

What is the cost of obtaining the certificates?

The price of obtaining the Italian certificates depends very much on the commune with which you have to deal. There are large communes such as Rome, Naples and Florence for example for which the cost of the service can be more expensive due to the fact that they are communes full of pending procedures.