Does this apply to your family? Answer a few questions and see where your line stands.
Who in your family was born in Italy, and what happened after: that is all the check asks. No email, no account. It runs in your browser and your answers never leave it. It can end with a plain no.
The written answer below explains the rule this page is about. The check above covers your whole line.
Do the records need apostilles and certified translations?
Most foreign civil records need both, a specific set of naturalisation documents needs neither, and the office you file with decides which rule applies to which paper. Italy is a party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, so where the issuing country is also a party an apostille is all that is required and nothing goes on top of it. Records issued in Italy need neither an apostille nor a translation.
This page is about the two steps that sit between a certificate arriving and a bundle being filable. The bundle itself is on the checklist page.
What an apostille is, and who issues it
It is a single certificate in a fixed international format, attached by the competent authority of the country that issued the document. It authenticates the signature and the seal on that document for use in another country party to the same convention, and it says nothing about the content. The rule for finding the right authority is one line: the apostille comes from the authority of the jurisdiction whose official signed the document.
United States
State and county documents go to that state's competent authority, the Secretary of State in most states. Federal documents go to the United States Department of State, Office of Authentications, in Washington. The federal fee is reported at 20 dollars per document with 10 to 12 business days from receipt, and that figure is reported by apostille services rather than read off the Department's own page.
United Kingdom, Australia, Canada
In the United Kingdom, the Legalisation Office, which the London consulate names directly. In Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through the Australian Passport Office in each capital city. In Canada, since the convention entered into force there on 11 January 2024, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan for their own documents, and Global Affairs Canada for the rest and for federal ones.
We publish no fee and no turnaround for any of these three. Read them off the office's own page on the day you post the documents.
A country that is not a party
Where the issuing country has not ratified the convention, the document is legalised by the Italian embassy or consulate in that country instead. Where an ancestor emigrated somewhere other than the country you live in now, this is the branch that applies to their records.
The trap that gets documents mailed back
A document signed by a county official, or notarised by a notary, often cannot go straight to the state. The county clerk certifies the official's or the notary's commission first, and only then does the state apostille the county clerk. Nobody warns you on the first attempt: the state simply returns the envelope.
The working habit is to group documents by the authority that will apostille them, and to send one packet per authority, each with its own cover sheet listing the contents and its own prepaid return envelope. A family with a Texas birth certificate, a Pennsylvania marriage certificate and a federal certificate has three packets and three fees, not one pile.
What does not need an apostille or a translation
The clearest published statement is the naturalisation table of the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles, version 18 July 2023. On that list the following need no apostille and no translation.
- The Certificate of Naturalization.
- A certified copy of the Declaration of Intention, the Petition for Naturalization and the Oath of Allegiance, bearing the National Archives red ribbon and gold seal.
- The USCIS and NARA letters of no record, required as originals with the office seal rather than photocopies.
- USCIS or NARA documentation showing alien status, a certified copy of a census page, an Italian passport or a green card.
Two more exemptions worth knowing. Apostilles themselves are not translated, which the San Francisco post states on its translation page. And the Toronto post states that the Canadian document showing whether an ancestor acquired Canadian citizenship does not need translating into Italian.
Read all of that with its caveat: the Los Angeles table is one post's list and it was published before the 2025 reform. Which post accepts what remains an open question, and no national standard is published.
Translations, which are set post by post
- The consulate does not translate. Where certification is required it certifies work done by a professional, and it keeps a list of translators for that purpose.
- The standard is correct and complete. Correct in its legal terms, and complete in the sense that every word is translated, including stamps, margin notes and seal legends.
- The price is the page count. Charged per original page, front and back, at the consular tariff where the consulate certifies.
- Posts differ, and they say so. Boston is commonly cited as requiring certified translations, and the London post requires translation by an official translator, certified by the competent Italian mission or legalised by apostille. There is no national list, and the only reliable source is the page of the post you will file with.
- Filing in Italy is a different mechanism. There the translation is a traduzione giurata, sworn by the translator before a court or equivalent office in Italy. It is not interchangeable with a consular certification.
The question to answer before you spend anything
Every list on this page is quoted with the post that published it and the date we read it, because these lists differ and they move. Reconcile your index against your own post's list before you commission a translation or mail a packet.
One thing we could not verify
Law 11 of 19 January 2026, the law that creates the central office in Rome and moves adult applications from abroad to postal filing from 1 January 2029, is reported to have formalised a double-legalisation requirement for foreign documents in the new system. We were not able to trace that point to the statutory text, and the implementing decrees have not been issued.
Treat it as a lead rather than a rule. Nothing changes about how you legalise documents for a filing made before 2029.
- Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents, to which Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are all parties.
- Apostille authorities by jurisdiction in the United States, the two-step county certification, and the federal apostille reported at 20 dollars per document with 10 to 12 business days: our records material, checked 7 September 2026, with the federal figure reported by apostille services rather than by the Department of State.
- Consolato d'Italia in Los Angeles, Ufficio Cittadinanza, naturalisation and non-existing records table, version 18 July 2023: the documents requiring no apostille and no translation. Read 7 September 2026.
- Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco, translation and legalisation page: the consulate certifies rather than translates, the standard of correct and complete, the per-page consular tariff, and apostilles not requiring translation. Read 7 September 2026.
- Consulate General of Italy in London: British certificates in original and long form from the General Register Office, legalised by the Legalisation Office, and translation by an official translator certified by the Italian mission or legalised by apostille. Read 9 September 2026.
- Consulate General of Italy in Melbourne: Australian civil status certificates with apostille and translation. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: apostilles issued through the Australian Passport Office in capital cities. Read 9 September 2026.
- Consulate General of Italy in Toronto: Canadian certificates in Certified Copy of Registration format, apostilled and translated, and the citizenship-records document not requiring translation. Global Affairs Canada: the Apostille Convention in force for Canada from 11 January 2024, with five provinces issuing their own. Read 9 September 2026.
- Law 11 of 19 January 2026, published in the Official Gazette on 4 February 2026, in force 19 February 2026. The double-legalisation point is carried as reported and was not traced to the statutory text.
One next step
Apostilles and translations are the last step, and they are wasted money on a record set assembled for the wrong gate. The free check names the rule your answers reach, so that the documents you legalise are the ones your file actually needs.
Run the free check, about two minutesIt runs in your browser, asks for no email, and can end with a plain no.