TRANSLATION & LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS
U.S. documents and/or certificates must be legalized with the Apostille (The Hague Convention of 10.5.1961) in order for them to be valid in Italy. The Apostille is issued by the Secretary of State of the State where the document is originated.
Furthermore the documents and/or certificates must be translated into Italian and the translation must be authenticated by a Italian Consular Officer.
To have a translation authenticated at the Italian Consulate General in Chicago, it’s necessary to bring to the Consulate or to mail in the original document and the translation into Italian. If documents are mailed in they should be accompanied by a prepaid self-addressed envelope. Please see the consular fees tab on the home page.
APOSTILLE
In countries that have signed the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961 on the Abolition of the Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, the need for legalization of acts and documents issued by foreign authorities is replaced by another formality: the affixing of the “apostille” (or apostille).
Therefore, a person coming from a country that has acceded to this Convention does not need to go to the Consular Representation and ask for legalization, but can go to the competent domestic authority designated by each state-and indicated for each country in the act of accession to the Convention itself (normally this is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)-to obtain the apostille affixed to the document. Thus perfected, the document is recognized in Italy.
The countries that have ratified the Hague Convention are:
Albania, Andorra, Antigua e Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Barbados, Bielorussia, Belgio, Belize, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Botswana, Brunei-Darussalam, Bulgaria, Capo Verde, Cina (Hong Kong), Cina (Macao), Cipro, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croazia, Corea del Sud, Danimarca, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Federazione Russa, Fiji, Finlandia, Francia, Georgia, Germania, Giappone, Gran Bretagna, Grecia, Grenada, Honduras, India, Irlanda, Islanda, Isole Cook, Isole Marshall, Israele, Italia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizistan, Lesotho, Lettonia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lituania, Lussemburgo, Macedonia, Malawi, Malta, Mauritius, Messico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Namibia, Nuova Zelanda, Niue, Norvegia, Oman, Panama, Paesi Bassi, Perù, Polonia, Portogallo, Repubblica Ceca, Repubblica Domenicana, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome e Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovacchia, Slovenia, Spagna, Sud Africa, Suriname, Svezia, Svizzera, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad e Tobago, Turchia, Ucraine, Ungheria, USA, Vanuatu, Venezuela
The list of competent apostille authorities for each of the above states is available on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law: http://www.hcch.net/