Documents

1. extract of the birth certificate of the Italian ancestor(s) who emigrated abroad issued by the Italian municipality where he was born (this is an Italian document which therefore does not require official translation/legalization or apostille);
2. birth certificates of all his descendants in the direct line, including that of the person claiming Italian citizenship (require official Italian translation legalization or apostille);
3. marriage certificate of the Italian ancestor who emigrated abroad ( requires official Italian translation/legalization or apostille only if it was issued abroad);
4. marriage certificates of his descendants, in the direct line, including that of the parents of the person claiming Italian citizenship ( requires official Italian translation/legalization or apostille);
5. certificate issued by the competent Authorities of the foreign State of emigration stating that the Italian ancestor at the time emigrated from Italy did not acquire the citizenship of the foreign State of emigration prior to the birth of the ascendant of the person concerned (requires official Italian translation/legalization or apostille);
6. certificate issued by the competent Italian Consular Authority certifying that neither ascendants in the direct line nor the person claiming Italian citizenship have ever renounced it under the terms of Article 7 of Law No. 555 of June 13, 1912 (this is an Italian document that therefore does not require official translation/legalization or apostille);
7. certificate of residence (only in case of application to the municipality of residence).

With reference to doc. no. 1, namely, the birth certificate of the Italian ancestor who emigrated abroad issued by the municipality, it may be the case that he was born and/or emigrated before the Unification of Italy (1861), so clearly he is not registered of the civil status offices established only in 1866. According to ministerial guidance in such cases it is necessary, by the interested party, to produce the certificate of baptism issued by the parish and also authenticated by the competent bishop’s curia by district.

With reference, on the other hand, to doc. no. 6, in the sole cases of proceedings in the Italian municipality of residence, it is not considered necessary since its content, namely, the lack of naturalization of the Italian ancestor at a time prior to the birth of the ascendant of the interested party, is among the findings subject to the verification of the registrar.

Legalization

The above-mentioned documents proving lineal descent from the Italian emigrant ancestor, require a special procedure called “legalization” in order to explain their effects in the Italian legal system (since they were formed abroad by foreign authorities).

From a general point of view, the institution of legalization has the function of attributing validity to the document in order to certify its compliance with foreign legislation and, likewise, the competence of the issuing foreign office. It thus proves the existence of the foreign document at the moment it becomes relevant to the Italian legal system.

Thus this procedure can only be carried out by our diplomatic or consular representations abroad, and this is of great importance since legalization constitutes a conditio sine qua non for the validity of the foreign document in our legal system.

The above statement, however, does not apply if the states concerned are signatories to special international conventions, such as the Hague Convention of October 5, 1951, which provides, instead of legalization, a different procedure called “apostille”.

The States who signed such Convention replace the legalization procedure with that of apostille for the purpose of mutual recognition of documents. The Apostille consists of an annotation, conforming to the model annexed to the Convention, to be affixed to the original of the foreign certificate by the foreign Authority indicated as competent by the law ratifying the Convention.

The countries of long-standing tradition of migration by our compatriots all appear to be signatories to the Hague Conventions, so the apostille procedure is the one to follow.

Translation

In order to be enforceable in Italy, records and documents attesting descent from an Italian ancestor must be translated.

This is regulated by Article 33 paragraph 3 of Presidential Decree 445/200, which stipulates that “The records and documents indicated in the preceding paragraph, drawn up in a foreign language, must be accompanied by a translation into Italian certified as conforming to the foreign text by the competent diplomatic or consular representation, or by an official translator.”

Accordingly, documents drafted in a foreign language, in addition to the apostille procedure, must be translated and accompanied by a certification of conformity with the foreign text by the consular authority or an official translator.