Sworn translations into Italian of documents issued in Canada

Canadian documents brought to an Italian counter

Canada holds one of the largest Italian communities outside Italy, gathered around Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and the return journey of those families produces a steady flow of certificates. Beside them come the papers of Canadians who move to Italy for work or for study, and of couples formed between the two countries.

This office produces the sworn translation of English documents issued in Canada, sworn before the competent officer and consigned ready to be filed with the Italian office that will handle the procedure.

The service covers the acts of the Canadian administrations and those drawn up in Italy by the representations of Canada: the vital statistics agencies of the provinces, the courts, the universities and colleges, the federal police, the transport authorities and the consular offices.

One point should be made at the outset. Canada is bilingual, and part of its acts are drawn up in French: what is described here concerns the certificates written in English, which are the ones this office translates.

The sworn official translations delivered from here are received by every administration of the Republic, throughout Italy and without limits of province.

Where documents from Canada are accepted in Italy

A translation sworn by an official translator has full legal validity before all the Italian administrations, with no difference between one region and another. The folders prepared here are habitually filed with:

• the prefecture of the province of residence, for citizenship applications and for the procedures of the territorial government offices;
• the police headquarters, for residence documents, renewals and family procedures;
• the municipal registry office and the civil status office, for transcriptions, residence registration and marriage banns;
• the Civil Motor Vehicle Office, for the conversion of driving licences issued abroad and for imported vehicles;
• the courts and the offices of the public prosecutor, for civil proceedings, for family cases and for legalisations;
• the Italian universities, the schools and the professional bodies, for enrolment, for exchange programmes and for the recognition of qualifications;
• the local health authorities, for registration with the national health service and for welfare files.

The consular acts are covered as well, namely the documents issued on Italian soil by foreign representations: affidavits, attestations and declarations drawn up in English before the Embassy of Canada in Rome and the Canadian consular offices are sworn in the same way as the acts arriving from abroad.

Outside Italy the folders are received in the same way by the Italian embassies and by the Italian consulates in the European countries listed in the menu: Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The provinces and their civil registers

Civil status in Canada is a provincial matter. Each province and each territory keeps its own registers through a vital statistics agency, issues its own certificates and prints them on its own form: an act from Ontario does not look like one from Alberta or from Nova Scotia, though both record the same kind of event.

Here too the distinction between the short and the long form of the certificate matters. The Italian registrar needs the version that names the parents, the place and the date of the event, since the abbreviated card, convenient as it is for daily use in Canada, does not carry enough particulars to open a transcription.

Marriages are registered by the province where the ceremony took place, and the certificate is requested from that province even if the couple has since moved. Divorces, on the other hand, are pronounced by the courts, which issue the certificate that closes the proceedings and allows a new marriage.

Older certificates, drawn from registers kept before the agencies were reorganised, use formulas and abbreviations no longer in use. They are translated with the terminology of their period, because it is the content recorded on that date that the Italian archives will take up.

The Canadian documents translated into Italian

These are the acts most often entrusted to us. The order follows the frequency of the requests, beginning with the certificates of the provincial registers.

• Birth certificate: the certificates issued by the vital statistics agency of the province serve for transcription in the Italian registry office, for residence registration, for marriage and for citizenship applications.
• Marriage certificate: marriage certificates registered by the province of celebration allow transcription in the Italian civil status registers, reunification with a spouse and the updating of family records.
• Divorce certificate and divorce decree: the certificates and judgments of the Canadian courts permit the updating of marital status, a new marriage and the settlement of questions on custody and maintenance.
• Criminal record certificate and pending charges: the criminal record checks carried out by the federal police, the certificates of the local police services and the attestations on pending charges are asked for in citizenship applications and in recruitment procedures. Their value expires after a limited period.
• Passport and identity card: Canadian passports, citizenship certificates and the identity cards issued by the provinces are attached in sworn translation in order to identify the holder of the other acts.
• Driving licence and vehicle registration document: the licence issued by the provincial transport authority and the vehicle registration permit are translated for circulation during the period allowed and for the conversion procedure.
• Diploma and educational certificate: degrees, college diplomas, official transcripts and professional certificates issued by the Canadian institutions are examined by the Italian universities and by the professional bodies.
• Certificate of no impediment to marriage: as the Canadian offices do not issue an attestation of this kind, it is usually replaced by a declaration sworn before a notary, required of anyone intending to marry in an Italian municipality.
• Certificate of family status and residence attestations: they are requested for family reunification, for residence procedures and in citizenship files, and are drawn from several separate Canadian acts.
• Tax code and equivalent fiscal attestations: the letters stating the social insurance number or a tax registration are produced to open a position with the Italian offices or to sign a contract of employment.
• Other identity documents and administrative acts: death certificates, wills and grants of probate, powers of attorney, medical reports and declarations of the Canadian authorities accompany inheritance files, residence procedures and applications to the health service.

Sworn translations of Canadian acts in every Italian city

The whole national territory is served from a single office, and no journey is required of anyone: the papers are sent electronically and the completed folder reaches the address indicated when the quotation was asked for.

Readers who prefer to start from the place where the file will be handed in will find the pages devoted to sworn translations in Milan, to official translations in Rome, to sworn translations in Turin, to certified translations in Naples, to sworn translations in Florence and to official translations in Bologna.

The service is addressed to Canadian citizens who settle in Italy, to the descendants of Italian emigrants who apply for recognition of their citizenship, to students enrolling at an Italian university and to the relatives who follow a procedure on behalf of someone still living overseas. Correspondence may be conducted in English at every stage, while the folder that leaves the office is drawn up in Italian for the counter that will read it.

Many procedures are opened while the person concerned is still in Canada and completed after arrival in Italy. The sworn folder holds good at both stages, and it does not have to be remade when the office that receives it changes.

Certification of the acts, quotation and delivery

Canadian public acts intended for Italy are certified before they travel. Depending on the authority concerned and on the date of the act, the certificate leaves with an apostille affixed by the federal authority or by the provincial authority designated for that purpose, or with the older authentication followed by the legalisation of the Italian consular office. The office that will receive the file is the safest source on the form expected at that moment.

What does not change is the sequence. The certification concerns the Canadian original and is obtained in Canada; the sworn translation into Italian is attached afterwards to the act so certified. Each document is treated separately, so a citizenship chain covering several generations needs a certification for each certificate.

The quotation is free of charge and is calculated on the actual text of the acts. It gives a final figure, inclusive of duties and revenue stamps, of the sworn statement and of delivery, and it names the date of consignment. A scan or a photograph sent by email or by messaging is enough, together with the office of destination. Several acts sent at once cost less than a series of separate jobs and keep the same wording from one certificate to the next.

Acts issued in the other English-speaking countries follow the same route: documents from the United States, documents from the United Kingdom, documents from Ireland, documents from Pakistan, documents from Hong Kong and documents from Malaysia.

Each folder is drawn up by an official translator entered on the Register of Experts of the Chamber of Commerce. certified translation services in Italy proceed exclusively towards Italian: the opposite direction, from Italian into English, does not form part of the service. Italian-speaking readers will find the same subject at traduzione documenti da Canada.