Sworn, certified and legalised translation of English documents

Anyone who presents a document written in English at an Italian counter discovers almost always the same thing: the act on its own is not enough. What the office expects is a sworn translation from English into Italian, that is, a translation for which the translator answers before a public officer, taking personal responsibility for the correspondence between the two texts.

Sworn translation and certified translation are one procedure called by two names. A record of the oath is attached to the Italian text, and from that moment the file carries weight before the administrations. It is the formula that public offices require in the great majority of procedures, and the one in which this office works.

Legalisation is a further step and does not concern every procedure. When the receiving office asks for it, the sworn file passes through the Office of the Public Prosecutor for the signature of the competent authority. The quotation always states whether the oath alone is sufficient or whether this second passage is expected too, so that no formality is multiplied without need.

The apostille is a different matter again, because it belongs to the source act rather than to its translation. It is affixed in the State that issued the document, by the authority which that country designates, and cannot be applied in Italy: when a procedure calls for it, the papers must already carry that stamp on arrival.

One useful clarification: there is no single model valid everywhere. A municipal registry office, a university and the vehicle service may expect different formulas for the same certificate. This is why it is worth indicating from the outset the office for which the file is intended.

Who the service is for: the English-speaking world

English is an official or working language in dozens of States, and each one issues acts with its own layout, seals and wording. That variety is the reason why this combination calls for more attention than it might seem to deserve, and why the source system matters as much as the language.

The service is used by citizens of the United Kingdom and Ireland, of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; by those who arrive from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa; from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Each of these communities brings recurring procedures that this office knows well.

The differences are not only linguistic. In some countries the civil register is organised nationally, in others state by state or district by district, so that two certificates of the same kind, issued in different countries, may look nothing alike. To this are added the notes entered beside the main record to register corrections, acknowledgements and divorces: those are precisely the lines that the Italian officer reads in order to establish the current position of the person concerned.

Anyone reconstructing a family line for the recognition of Italian citizenship often works with acts of distant generations, in older handwriting and with surnames transcribed as they sounded to the clerk of the day. Work proceeds in these cases too, provided the paper arrives as a copy released by the register that holds the original.

Where official translations of English documents are valid

A translation sworn by an official translator carries full legal validity before every Italian administration. The files delivered by this office are habitually presented to:

the Prefectures, and the prefecture offices of the territorial government, for Italian citizenship applications;
the Police Headquarters and their local stations, for residence permits, renewals and family reunification;
the Municipalities, with their registry office and civil status office, for the transcription of acts and for entry in the population registers;
the Civil Motor Vehicle Offices, for the conversion of driving licences obtained abroad;
the Courts and the Offices of the Public Prosecutor, for civil proceedings, for legalisations and for family cases;
the universities and the schools, for enrolment and for the recognition of qualifications gained outside Italy;
the local health authorities, for registration with the national health service and for welfare procedures.

The service also covers consular acts, that is, the documents that foreign embassies and consulates issue on Italian soil. The representations of the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Nigeria, the Philippines and the other English-speaking countries draw up certificates and declarations in English: to be filed with an Italian office they require the same sworn certification as acts arriving from abroad.

The same translations keep their value beyond the national borders as well, before the Italian Embassies and the Italian Consulates in the European countries gathered under the heading "Europe" in the menu. Anyone living in Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, the United Kingdom or Switzerland who has to open a procedure with the Italian diplomatic representation of that country receives a file drawn up to the same standard.

The English documents translated into Italian

Below are the acts for which a sworn translation is requested most often. The list follows the order in which papers tend to appear along a typical procedure, from civil status to qualifications and administrative certificates.

Birth certificate: birth certificates are the single most requested act. They are needed for transcription in the registry office, for residence registration, for marriage and for Italian citizenship applications.
Marriage certificate: marriage certificates allow transcription in the Italian civil status registers, reunification with a spouse and the reconstruction of family records for citizenship.
Diploma and educational certificate: diplomas, university degrees and transcripts listing the subjects taken with their marks are asked for by universities and schools, for enrolment and for recognition of the qualification. The two papers nearly always travel as a pair, and a joint quotation costs less than two separate pieces of work.
Divorce certificate and divorce decree: divorce decrees make it possible to update marital status at the registry office, to remarry, and are produced in proceedings on custody and maintenance.
Driving licence and vehicle registration document: licences issued outside the European Union and vehicle registration documents are translated and sworn in order to drive during the period allowed and to begin the conversion procedure.
Passport and identity card: passports and national identity cards accompany nearly every file and are attached in sworn translation in order to identify the holder of the other acts.
Criminal record certificate and pending charges: criminal records and certificates of pending charges recur in citizenship applications and in a good many recruitment procedures. Their validity is limited in time, so it is worth having them translated as soon as they are obtained.
Certificate of no impediment to marriage: an indispensable paper for anyone intending to marry in an Italian municipality and having to prove freedom of status.
Certificate of family status: certificates of family status are requested for family reunification, for residence procedures and in the files that lead to the recognition of citizenship.
Tax code and equivalent fiscal attestations issued abroad, needed in order to open a position with the Italian offices or to sign an employment contract.
Other identity documents and administrative acts: residence certificates, death certificates, powers of attorney and declarations issued by English-speaking authorities accompany residence permits, civil status files and inheritance procedures.

The list is not closed. Employment certificates, professional attestations and medical records arrive with regularity as well. Anyone holding an act that does not appear above may submit it all the same and will receive an answer on feasibility together with the quotation.

Sworn translations province by province across Italy

The service covers the whole national territory and asks nobody to travel: the papers move electronically and the sworn parcel is delivered to the address indicated, in whichever province it may be.

North-west. Lombardy accounts for the largest volume, with sworn translations in Milan and its province, certified translations in Bergamo and official translations in Brescia, where English-speaking communities have been settled for decades. In Piedmont sworn translations in Turin follow the university and the manufacturing districts, while in Liguria certified translations in Genoa answer above all to the port and to the shipping trade.

North-east. In Emilia-Romagna the office handles official translations in Bologna, a university city where recognition of qualifications and enrolment weigh heavily. In Veneto it follows sworn translations in Verona, a logistics hub of the first order, certified translations in Venice and official translations in Padua.

Centre. Lazio remains the principal ground for this combination: sworn translations in Rome gather both the procedures of the resident communities and those that pass through the central offices and the embassies. In Tuscany the work concerns certified translations in Florence, and in Umbria official translations in Perugia, where the foreign student presence is particularly high.

South and islands. In Campania the office follows sworn translations in Naples, in Apulia certified translations in Bari, in Sicily official translations in Palermo. Here the requests often follow the map of Italian emigration towards the English-speaking world a century ago: many descendants return to the municipalities of their great-grandparents to close a citizenship file, carrying certificates issued in New York, Toronto or Melbourne.

How to request a quotation for a translation of English documents

The quotation is free of charge and is calculated on the actual text of the acts. It states a final figure, inclusive of duties and revenue stamps, of the oath and of delivery, and it gives the delivery date. It remains valid for seven days, so that there is time to decide without haste.

To receive it, a scan or a photograph of the documents sent by email or by messaging is enough, together with the name of the office for which the file is intended. At this stage the paper original is not required, and no counter has to be visited at any point in the procedure.

The price is made up of three items: the translation, counted on the words that actually appear in the act; the revenue stamps laid down by the rules according to the number of pages, together with the duties of the oath, which are fixed by law and identical for everyone; and the delivery of the parcel. Several acts entrusted together cost less than the same requests presented one by one, because a single oath covers the file that is sworn.

Every file is prepared by an official translator entered on the Register of Experts of the Chamber of Commerce and is handed over ready for filing: whoever receives it has only to present it at the destination counter, where it is examined as a single bound item.

Work is carried out exclusively on translations from English into Italian. The opposite path, from Italian into English, does not form part of the service, just as apostilles are not affixed here and notarial deeds are not drawn up. Italian-speaking readers find the same subject at traduzioni giurate di inglese.