Documents

Documents from the U.S.

You will need to collect vital records from the relevant US states for your ancestor (marriage and death certificates if applicable) and every subsequent person in your line of succession down to yourself. Depending on your consulate, you may need to collect documents related to the non-line spouses of people in your line as well.

Important Reminders for US Documents:

1. You must request the long-form / "book copy" of each type of certificate from the relevant Vital Statistics office in your state (this could also be the Department of Health). This format contains more information than normal copies of the original certificate, including place of birth, parents names, time of birth, etc.
2. You need to request all new copies of each document that you are going to order! The consulate will keep all the original documents that you present to them (with the exception of a naturalization certificate, a copy will suffice) and they will not be returned. Additionally, newer documents are all guaranteed to be able to obtain an Apostille. Older documents have signatures from officials that are no longer on file and cannot receive proper verification to obtain an apostille.

What documents might you need from US offices?

• Birth certificates for everyone in your line
• Marriage certificates/license applications for everyone in your line and their spouses who are the parents of the next generation
• Death certificates for at least some of the people in your line (i.e. those that are dead)
• Naturalization papers for your LIRA and possibly your LIRA's parent (usually, father) or documents showing that your LIRA (or the LIRA's parent) didn't naturalize. Click here for more details on naturalization.
• Birth certificates for the non-line parents of the people in your line 
• Death certificates for the non-line parents of the people in your line 
• Marriage certificate/license application for your own marriage, if you are married
• Birth certificates for any children you may have.
• Your spouse's birth certificate
• Divorce records for any divorces by you or someone else in your line.
• A certificate of no-appeal (CONA) from the Court issuing the final judgment in a divorce.
  • This document may not formally exist at your Court and the clerks might be confused. You simply need a certified letter stating the relevant judgment of divorce has had no appeal filed against the case
• Marriage certificates/license applications for previous/other marriages for you or anyone else in your line
• In rare cases, birth or death records for a spouse of someone in your line, when that spouse was not the parent of the next person in your line
• Court records for any legal name change down by anyone in your line, including you.

Italian Documents. Documenti Italiani.

Obtain documents (generally, vital records) from Italy for your ancestor(s) (or yourself, if applicable) who were born there.

Required: Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates / Extracts - Estratto/i di Nascita, Matrimonio, e Morte

You will need a birth certificate or baptismal certificate for at least one ancestor from Italy (your LIRA), which could be yourself. You may also need a birth certificate for that person's spouse, if he or she was born in Italy and your consulate requires it. You must request an estratto di nascita in formato internazionale. This means, "birth extract in international format" and contains information such as place of birth, parents names, and more. This is not to be confused with a certificato di nascita, which does NOT contain the necessary amount of information the Consulate requires.

One can obtain these certificates by writing to the comune (in Italian, of course) and requesting them; one does not need to demonstrate a need or prove that one is related to a person named on the certificate, but a copy of identification (preferably a passport) and a statement as to why the documents are needed should be included. See below on how to contact your comune.

If you have unsuccessfully attempted to contact the comune or would prefer to have someone else obtain documents for you, there are several reputable individuals who specialize in Italian document retrieval. See our Facebook page for recommendations.

Required: Marriage Certificate (if marriage occurred in Italy), Death Certificate (if returned and died in Italy)

You will require an estratto di matrimonio as well for your LIRA if their marriage occurred in Italy. Occasionally, you may need a death certificate (estratto di morte) from there if your ancestor returned to Italy and died there or if the 1st spouse of your LIRA died in Italy before your LIRA immigrated.

Usually Not Required: Certificates of Citizenship

Some consulates also require that you submit a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of residence. The former states that someone was a citizen of Italy; it is necessary (in the cases where it is requested) because mere birth in Italy is usually not sufficient to confer citizenship - one must have an Italian parent. The certificate of residence may be requested by a consulate because you are to have your documents registered in the last comune in which your LIRA lived, which is not necessarily the comune in which he or she was born. To date the only consulates that have been known to ask for these certificates are Montreal, which demands both, and Miami, which used to ask for a certificate of citizenship but no longer does.

Requesting Vital Records

These birth, marriage, and death records can be obtained from the Stato Civile or Anagrafe office of the comune at which these events occurred. One can obtain these certificates by writing to the comune (in Italian, of course) and requesting them; one does not need to demonstrate a need or prove that one is related to a person named on the certificate. See below on how to contact your comune.

When one requests a vital record from a comune, one usually receives an extract (estratto) of the original record. The extract will be a form filled in by hand or typed by a clerk based on the original record that they have on file. Only basic information is included - e.g., name, name of parents', date of birth - much less information than is found in the original record. At the bottom of the certificate will be a signature and seal of the comune. Some certificates are in "international format," with everything written in several different languages, including English and French. Unlike vital records from outside Italy, Italian records do not have to be in long form.

Birth certificates will often have marriage details of the person in question at the bottom in a notation. If the person had more than one marriage (say, because of the death of the first spouse), only one marriage will be listed, and it could be either one. Despite having this notation on the birth certificate, a separate marriage certificate is usually required by the consulates. Moreover, such a notation can potentially cause problems for you if the person listed is different from the spouse on the marriage certificate that you submit, requiring you to explain the discrepancy and produce further documentation about a previous or later spouse who is not your ancestor and has nothing to do with your claim. But even in the case where such a discrepancy is present, consulates sometimes ignore it, so it wouldn't necessarily cause such difficulties.

In order to request such a certificate, one should contact the comune, by letter, email, fax, or phone. The comuni have generally responded better to fax or snail mail than to email, but it varies by comune. There are templates available for constructing such a letter. Generally you will need to know your ancestor's name, approximate birth date or at least year, and parents' names. If you are unsure of some of this information you can give them your guesses or date ranges, or just leave the information out. However, if your request is not specific enough, they may tell you they can find no records even when the records are there, so it pays to have as much information as possible about your ancestor before requesting a certificate.

It may take weeks or even months to receive a response from a comune, by email or post, or you may not receive a reply at all. If one method of contact fails (after waiting a couple months), it usually is a good idea to try again with a different one. If you know someone, such as relative, in the comune, it often is easier if that person goes to stato civile and orders the certificate in person. The certificates themselves are free, but some comuni require payment for the sending of the certificate, which is generally done by snail mail. This cost is usually no more than a few euros, which you can pay with a few Euros in the mail. It usually is best to wait until receiving a request for payment before sending it, although some members have reported not receiving any response until they included such a payment while others have reported sending money and having it returned to them. Your mileage may vary.

Important Note: Posta Elettronica Certificata (PEC) Email Addresses

Italy has its own special system for emails that are sent in an official capacity called PEC (Posta elettronica certificata) - literally translated as certified electronic mail - that cannot be emailed by a normal email address. Imagine PEC as the equivalent of a certified letter in the US from a legal point of view. You may receive mail for your requests from these PEC addresses, but you may not write to them directly. You can tell an address is usually a PEC address by seeing "pec" in the domain of the address (ex: @palermo.pec.it) or some other format. It is possible to receive a PEC email address, but it requires having an Italian Tax Code (Codice Fiscale) to receive one. It is recommended to email a non-PEC address with your request.

The Comune doesn't have my records?

If the comune does not have a civil record, it is possible that a Catholic church there has an ecclesiastical one. For births, this would be a baptismal record, whereas for marriages it would be a church marriage certificate. These are acceptable to consulates as substitutes for the civil records. In order to substitute a church record for a civil one you need to submit to the consulate a letter from the stato civile stating that they do not have the record in question. When using a church record in place of a civil record the priest’s signature also has to be authenticated by the diocese with their signature and stamp as well.

Some records are also available from state archives (Archivio di Stato). One would contact them as one would a comune. Some comuni were badly damaged during World War II and their records were destroyed. For these one may be forced to rely on archives or church records. If the person for whom you need this certificate is not actually in your line (such as the spouse of your LIRA), a consulate is more likely to be understanding if you can't locate this record from such a comune - in this case just get a letter from the comune explaining why they have no such records.

The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) has records, both civil and ecclesiastical, copied from Italian comuni. Some of these records are online, at http://www.familysearch.org, but they have many more records on microfilm that you can view at one of their Family History Centers. These are the actual original records, which contain a lot more information than the extracts, although they can be hard to read. Generally such LDS records cannot be used for your application, except in rare cases when the certificate in question wasn't really that important to begin with, but they can be used to verify that a comune has a record for an ancestor, to find information that one would need in order to request a certificate, or to determine whether a certificate that one has obtained from a comune has an error.

The Extract I Received from the Comune Has an Error

If you find that a certificate that you have received from Italy may contain an error, or may be for the wrong person, you can contact the comune, point out the error, and request a new one. It is not that common to find that information was mistranscribed when creating the extract. If you have access to LDS records, this can be a good way to verify whether the information in the extract that you've received reflects the original record. It also sometimes happens that information in a marriage record differs from that in a birth record - in this case one can point it out to the comune, and they can perhaps write you a letter acknowledging the discrepancy in their records, which you can then show to the consulate. Be warned, though, that we have never had a member who was able to amend a record in a comune.

My ancestor's birthday in Italian documents mismatches my US (other foreign) documents...

Another type of document that you may need from a comune is a so-called a positivo/negativo letter. This is usually a letter from the comune indicating that nobody else by the same name as your ancestor was born in that comune during the specified year. You may need to span multiple years in the letter depending on the degree of the discrepancy.

Words of caution regarding birth date discrepancies of Italian-born ancestors:

Some of our members have discovered that the person they had identified in Italian records was the wrong person; not the ancestor with the same name that they had been searching for based on US documents. This is probably more common than most realize. A strong clue that this may be the case for you is if your ancestor consistently used a birth date on US documents that is different from that which you found on Italian birth records. It is important that before you pursue corrections to conflicting info on US documents and other preemptive moves, you verify with the comune in Italy that you actually have birth info for the correct person. This isn't always straightforward; it can be helpful to have a researcher/genealogist assist in working with the comune. Here is why:

Italian tradition is that the first male son is named after his paternal grandfather and the first female after her paternal grandmother. Many of our families were quite large in the 1800s to early-1900s, sometimes having 12 children or more! The parents of those children would have had many grandchildren named after them.

Take, for example, Giuseppe Capone, born in 1865. Giuseppe had 10 children starting in 1884, each born 1-2 years apart, 8 of them sons. These 8 sons all had children as well, each eventually having a son, all born between 1900 and 1910. (2 even born the same year!) Each of these 8 first grandsons to Giuseppe all inherited his name. They were a tighly-knit family, all born and living in Salerno. One of these Giuseppe Capone grandsons headed to the US at age 19. But, which one???

This is where the conundrum comes. Unless you have documentation confirming this immigrant Giuseppe Capone's parents and other very specific information to differentiate him from his 7 cousins with exactly the same name, and birth dates all within 10 years of each other, you have little hope of determining which was which. Hopefully the comune will have notes in the records indicating which Giuseppe left the country and which others stayed behind, but a simple request for birth records may not yield this kind of research on their part. In fact, you as the requester probably have no idea these 8 Giuseppe Capone existed. The comune, also being none the wiser, unless they happen to stumble upon the fact that there are several others, may just send you birth info for the one they happen to find first.

It can be quite arduous for the comune to fetter-out the details of a case like this. It can take many hours of research across numerous indexes and handwritten records. This is why it can be helpful to have a researcher assisting. Also, cases like this are not uncommon. In fact, my own family has a tale much like this, in which my GGGGF had numerous children with many grandsons bearing his name. An intrepid family member constructed an elaborate family tree some 30+ years ago, connecting many supposed US and Italian ancestors. This was shared with many of them. Unfortunately, she made one mistake--she had the wrong Giuseppe in one spot along the way! She was using a cousin of my true GGF, born less than 2 years apart from each other. As you can imagine, that one error changed everything dramatically.

The moral of the story is that if you have inexplicable discrepancies in birth dates between US and Italian documents, do more research. A good researcher can save you from complications down the road. Minor birth date discrepancies often pass through consulates unquestioned, but when the paperwork is eventually sent to the comune to register your recognition, if it is through the wrong person, the comune will likely catch it.

Naturalization Documents

Obtain naturalization-related documents for your ancestors who emigrated from Italy.

THE KEY TO QUALIFYING for Italian citizenship Jure Sanguinis is to prove that the ancestor you are applying through did not become a US citizen before the next person in your line of ascendants reached adulthood, or that they never became a US citizen at all.

Proving Someone Naturalized in the United States

1. There are 3 sources of naturalization records in the US: (a) NARA, which has only naturalizations from federal courts, mainly between 1906 and sometimes in the 1950s. (b) USCIS, which is part of Homeland Security, used to be called INS, and was established in 1906. They have records of most naturalizations after 1905 including recent ones. (c) County courts and local archives of records from county courts, scattered throughout the county, which have records from before 1906 and include naturalizations from after then that did not take place in federal court. If you have access to it, you can also use an original certificate of naturalization that was issued to your LIRA who naturalized. Bring the original to show to the consulate along with a photocopy to leave with them for your file.

2. You definitely need either a certificate of naturalization (sometimes called a certificate of citizenship) or an oath of allegiance. These are the only official documents that actually state that someone has naturalized. If you have an original copy, take it and a photocopy with you to your appointment. The consulate will examine the original and only take the photocopy for your file.

3. The oath does not contain enough info to be used by itself, so it always must be accompanied by either a petition for naturalization (sometimes called a petition for citizenship) or a declaration of intent. We've actually only seen one case where someone used a declaration and oath without the petition, a long time ago, so I can't promise that this will work now.

4. The certificate of naturalization is usually acceptable by itself, but not always. This is because it often lacks identifying information such as an exact date of birth (instead of just an age). For this reason, if you present only a certificate of naturalization, you may get asked to submit a petition as well. And if you get asked for the petition, then you may get asked for the oath, too, which is usually on the back of the petition, because if they're not sure that the certificate is really for your ancestor then they'll also need proof of naturalization and a petition without an oath does not constitute such proof. Of course, if you already have the petition and oath then you didn't need the certificate in the first place.

5. An original certificate of naturalization is much more likely to be accepted by itself than a certificate of naturalization from some other source, such as USCIS or a county court. This is because if someone has an original certificate, then in all likelihood it belonged to a relative. On the other hand, anyone can obtain documents from USCIS, so a certificate from them is more likely to be for a person who just happens to have a name that is similar to your relative's.

6. When one submits documents from a source (USCIS, NARA, etc.), you will often be asked to submit all documents from them, even though all of them wouldn't have been necessary if they weren't available. For uncertified documents you are more likely to be asked for a cover letter or the envelope they came in, too.

7. Consulates generally like to see certified documents. Those from NARA are certified, and often county court ones are, too, although recently we've seen more local archives refusing to certify documents. USCIS documents were certified a long time ago, but now are not, although it is still possible to get a Federal apostille on USCIS documents for use overseas. Consulates differ in their requirements for certification; some will require that naturalization documents have an apostille.

8. NARA documents, so long as they include the petition and oath, are properly certified, and do not contain "major" discrepancies, may be accepted as sufficient by themselves, though some consulates in the US also require a copy of the certificate of naturalization that can only be obtained from USCIS (unless you happen to have your ancestor's original that you can bring to your appointment to show them and leave a copy of).

9. County court documents are often the best - they tend to include both the certificate of naturalization and the petition/oath, as well as other documents such as a certificate of arrival; they usually can be certified; they tend to be better quality copies than those from USCIS; and they usually contain a cover letter. The problem with these documents are that they can be hard to find, since there is no centralized source for them, and it may be hard to get the archives/county to certify them. Still, especially for naturalizations before 1906, they may be your only source for the naturalization documents.

10. Note that the sources mentioned in the last 2 items (NARA and county courts) do not necessarily overlap. You may be able to find documents at one or the other or both. And sometimes neither, since some documents that were held at county courts have been transferred to USCIS and now can only be found there.

11. Some naturalization records, including those for more recent naturalizations, are only available from USCIS. USCIS records are uncertified (although with some difficulty can be), so they are not accepted by themselves at some consulates, such as SF. Even some consulates, namely, NY and Chicago, that will usually accept USCIS records by themselves will sometimes ask to see other records, too, because the USCIS records are uncertified, often of poor quality, and have some identifying info blacked out.

Proving that Someone Did Not Naturalize

What if you cannot find any record of your ancestor's naturalization?

You then must provide "proof" that he didn't. For US consulates, to prove no naturalization, you need a lot whereas to prove naturalization you need much less. So, you will need the following under all name and birth date variations for your ancestor:

• USCIS certificate of non-existence of naturalization (known as a "CONE" or "CNE" in the forum.)
  • To receive a Certification of Non-Existence of a Naturalization Record, fill out and send in form G-1566.

• No Record letter from the relevant National Archives NARA) branch
  • You ask them to do a search and then put in writing that they found nothing.
• No Record letter from the local county courthouse where your ancestor lived.
• Certified census from NARA showing both your ancestor and next in the line of descent on it so the first one available after the next in the line of ascent became an adult. They want to see your ancestor listed as an "alien" (notated by "Al") or as "first papers" (notated by "Pa").
  • Note that census records after 1950 do not contain citizenship status. Instead, you should rely on an alien registration explained below. Should your consulate still insist on a census after 1950, you have to go through the census bureau and request an "age search". If your ancestor cannot be found on the census, a negative search result from the census bureau may suffice. Also note that a census incorrectly stating your ancestor naturalized is not, in itself, grounds for denial of your request, particularly if you have all the other information indicating otherwise. You might be asked for additional documentation, though.
• Optional (depending on the consular officer) but useful to have as supporting evidence.
  • You may also need to present an A-File ("alien file") if your ancestor was alive during the 40’s. (You can get this from the USCIS.)
  • If you have access to them, it’s nice to show your ancestor’s old Italian passport and their copy of an American green card (if applicable) as they had to have a right to live here as a non-citizen if they never naturalized.

Apostilles

No, not an apostle, an apostille ("AH-POH-STEEL").

An apostille is a certification document affixed to public documents for international use by the Secretary of State of each State in the United States.

“The apostille is a creation of an international treaty, the Hague Convention of 1961. The United States of America joined the Hague Convention in 1981. The Convention provides for, among other things, the certification of public documents to be used in countries that have joined the Convention.

In accordance with the provisions of the Convention, this office issues apostilles only for documents intended for use in foreign countries that also are signatories of the Convention. This document is the equivalent of a Certificate of Authority used in countries that are not participants in the Hague Treaty. An apostille has the same requirements, the same fee, and the same instructions as a Certificate of Authority. Apostilles shall not at any time be issued for use in the United States."

You will need an apostille on every document directly related to your direct line of descent. The only documents that do not require an apostille are naturalization documents. The exceptions to both of these rules are if you are applying in Italy, in which case, all documents must have apostilles.

Before sending your documents for apostilles, take scans of them to allow for easy sending to translators later on. Once the apostille is affixed to the front of a document, you should NOT remove it. Removing or damaging an apostille (ex: removing a staple or hole-punching) invalidates it and you will have to get it again.

Each document needing an apostille is done by the Secretary of State of the state the document is from. If you are applying in Italy, and require an apostille for a federally issued document (i.e. from NARA or USCIS), you should send your documents to the Authentications office at the U.S. Department of State (be sure to review Federal Apostille Requirements from the U.S. Dept of State before sending documents in).

Each state has a website that gives the information as to where, how, and what the cost is.

A table of the US states is below for convenience, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these prices.

Translations

The following content is originally sourced from the Dual Italian Citizenship Tapatalk forum. Full authorial credit for this content is given to Mr. Malcomb Schreiber and Amanda Palladino for updating it.

🇮🇹 Which documents need to be translated into Italian? 🇮🇹

Documents to be submitted for the application process can be divided into two main categories, ancestor documents and applicant documents. Ancestor documents are those documents used to prove one’s claim of Italian descent while the applicant documents are those vital records and other court issued documentation that directly relates to the applicant and will eventually be sent to Italy for transcription. All consulates universally require that applicant documents not already in Italian be translated. In particular, this includes applicants' birth, marriage certificates, and, when applicable, divorce records, as well as any birth certificates for applicants' children. Adoption, legal name changes and any acquired declaratory judgment paperwork that relates to the applicant or the applicant’s minor children falls within the category of documents that must be transcribed in Italy and therefore have to be translated into Italian. The ancestor documents are not sent to Italy to be recorded so the obligation to have them translated depends on the requirements imposed by the consulate or comune where the application is to be presented.

Generally, vital records for direct line ancestors, even if they are not applying for citizenship recognition, must also be translated. Sometimes documents (i.e., birth and death certificates) for the spouses of these direct line ancestors are required to be translated as well. Naturalization-related documents, including no-records letters and census records, from the US do not have to be translated if they are being used at a consulate in the US, but are required to be translated if they are being used at a consulate outside the US. As a general rule, all non-Italian documents used when applying at a comune in Italy or through the court of Rome must be translated. Furthermore, non-Italian documents from one country must always be translated when used at another country outside of Italy.

Some countries in Europe, such as France and Germany, issue documents in international format, which have the information in multiple languages, including Italian; such certificates do not need to be translated.

Naturalization Documents do NOT need to be translated unless you are applying directly in Italy at a comune, through the court of Rome, at an Italian consulate located outside the USA

Special note for Washington D.C. applicants (as of Sept. 2019): The Embassy Consular services division is reported to now be asking for naturalization documents to be translated.

Translated by whom?

Some countries, such as Germany and Argentina have officially certified translators, which are required to be used for translations of documents from that country (the consulates in these countries should have a list of such translators, since they are obligated to verify their signatures). In the US and Canada there are no such certified translators, but some consulates maintain a list of reliable translators as they do for certain other types of professions such as doctors and lawyers, although using a person from their list is not mandatory it can be a useful place to begin your search when you are not sure where to start.

There are five different types of translation; simple, certified, apostilled (AKA legalized by an apostille), consulate legalized and court sworn.

1) A simple translation is just a way to express that a translation is unofficial or lacks legal value. It is just a translation without anything attached to it and missing extras, such as the translator’s signatures or stamp. When it comes to presenting a simple translation to the Italian Government they will only be accepted by an Italian consulate where the language of the source document that was translated is the same language spoken officially in the country where the consulate is located. A simple translation of an original document redacted in French cannot be submitted to any of the Italian consulates locates in English speaking countries even if that particular officer knows French. Consulates can accept simple translations as they will later examine the content of the translation and compare it to the original to determine its accuracy. If approved the translation will be stamped by the consulate as being an accurate translation. Most applicants applying in the USA will for the most part only need simple translations with a few exceptions.

Because consulates in the US can accept simple translations of English language source material many consulates will even accept translations done by the applicant ("self-translations"), so long as they are of good quality. They don't actually verify that you are the one that did the translations, so you could, for example, have a friend do them. Using Google Translate or similar applications/websites is not prohibited, but not recommended either, because consulates will often reject translations that are obviously written by someone that is not fluent in Italian, even when the important information is clear.

2) Certified translations. These are basically the same as simple (or unofficial translations, that is, translations having no legal value in Italy) but with the addition of a separate page stating that the translation was done by a professional. One can think of certified translations as a translation where the translator or translating Agency has claimed it by placing their signature or stamp somewhere on the translation or accompanying certification page. Often translators will provide this type of certification, free of charge, as it is rarely requested by the consulates. All such translations will still need to be examined by the consulate and stamped as being in conformity to the original before any transcription in Italy can be made. One typically encounters this type of translation when a translator well-known to one consulate provides the translations for an applicant presenting their work to a consulate where they are unknown. The translator will write up a one page statement declaring to have translated all the documents correctly.

3) Apostilled translations are your most common form of “official translation” having legal value in Italy. This is what most people mean when they say that they need certified translations. The certification used here is different than above as it is a public oath taken before a Notary by which the translator is made legally responsible for the accuracy of the translation. The certification sheet that gets attached to each translation is document specific and will state both in English and Italian that this (insert name) document was translated accurately and in its entirety. The certification sheet bears the translator's signature and the signature and seal of the notary. The fact that it is notarized allows for the translation to be apostilled. For some special documents, such as court orders or divorce-related documents, which will be presented to the Italian consulate in NY a simple translation will not suffice and the officers there will insist that these documents be accompanied by apostilled translations. Boston only accepts apostilled translations even when it comes to translations of vital records. Applicants presenting translations to an Italian consulate outside of the USA, at the Comune in Italy or to the Court of Rome can make use of Apostilled translations as one of three ways to submit a translation of legal value.

4) Consulate legalized translations. This is what the consulates do behind the scenes to turn a simple translation into a legal one. The exact process of legalizing a translation varies from consulate to consulate but consulate specific instructions can be found on your consulate’s webpage. Typically you will go in by appointment or mail in the translation that needs to be legalized along with apostilles original document. The consulate’s charge for this service and the rate changes every three months based on the exchange rate being used for that trimester. If you are doing this through the mail then it is standard practice to provide the consulate with a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return. Once the officer finishes evaluating your translation for completeness and accuracy they will staple the translation on top and stamp it as in conformity to the original. They fold back the right hand corner and place their stamp over it making the translation and original document one entity. Keep in mind though that some consulates will write on top of your legalized translation that you omitted a translation of the apostille. To avoid that writing you will need to also provide a translation of the apostille when requesting legalization. Consulate legalized translations are the only form of legal translations accepted by the comune of Rome. When you will be submitting documents from a foreign country, you will have to submit Consulate legalized translations unless that country is also a signatory of The Hague convention and issues apostilles. It is advisable to check with the consulate in that country as to their preferences on the translator you employ for these documents. Some consulates will only legalize a translation if you used a translator from their list or one located in the same country as where the document originated.

5) Court Sworn Translations. This form of official translation can only be done in Italy. The translator has to take the translations to the Italian Court and swear to their completeness and accuracy. There is the need to buy a marca da bollo for every three pages of translation as the oath cover sheet counts as one of the allotted four pages. If you are a 1948 case applicant and you leave the translations up to your lawyer then he will usually subcontract with a translator who will provide this service. For most people this method has turned out to be the most expensive as getting the documents sworn is time consuming and that time needs to be compensated. As a side note there are some towns who will accept a translation done by a translator in Italy who does not use the court sworn method but rather goes to the comune and makes an oath before the comune clerk instead. The Courts however will only accept the traditional swearing method with the attached oath sheets.

When it comes to ways of turning a simple translation into an official translation of legal value there are options. One caveat to keep in mind though is that the officer at the consulate or the clerk at the comune may have a preference for one of the three and reject the other two. For instance at the embassy in DC the officer there only accepts consulate legalized translations and not apostilled and there are clerks at certain Comuni who want consulate legalized translations only and will refuse court sworn. It’s highly advisable to try and figure what will be acceptable before you invest money in one method to have to redo it all over again to please the person accepting your application.

Which parts of the documents need to be translated?

Apostilles, letters of exemplification, and other certifications affixed to a document don’t have to translated for any consulate in the USA and rarely for applications directly in Italy and elsewhere.

When translating, everything on the face of the documents must be translated. This includes all legalese and boilerplate. This is often very difficult to properly translate and the reason why people who do self-translations get tripped up - if it becomes obvious that the translator is not fully competent and then all translations from that source get rejected out of hand. Do not accept a translation where the seals and signatures have been photoshopped. Mirroring the original formatting is good but photoshopping signatures and seals can be seen as an attempt at forgery. The Italian Government wants it to be obvious to all that it is a translation and not an Italian version of state-issued document.

What if a translator makes an error?

Since translators usually will provide you with translations in Word document form, if you spot an error you can just correct it yourself. If they send you the translation in PDF then ask them to correct the error and resend. Almost all translations have some typos on them and need to be proofed by the applicant. You don’t have to know any Italian to double check all the filled-in information. If the filled-in information on the translation is all correct then most consulates will ignore an Italian language typo that is part of the instructions or questions on the vital record but incorrect filled-in information is most likely a do over.

Must apostilles and translations be done in a certain order?

No, they can be done in either order. In fact, to save time, you can send copies of the documents to a translator while getting apostilles for the originals. It is often less expensive to have all of your documents translated in one fell swoop rather than one at a time. It is always best to scan copies of all your documents as you receive them. In most cases, you will only be providing a scan of your documents to the translator. Beware that apostilles are sometimes attached in a way that they obscure the underlying document, making it difficult or impossible to scan and completely translate it afterwards.

Authentications

Have documents issued outside the area that is covered by the consulate at which you are applying authenticated by the consulate(s) that does cover the area where they were issued.

This step is no longer required unless the documents are from a different country than the one in which you are applying. An example would be if you were applying in the US, but also had some Brazilian documents for one of your ancestors. This would require you to have the Consulate or Embassy in Brazil authenticate the document before applying in the United States. This step doesn't apply to Italian documents either.

Discrepancies on Documents

Critical to establishing your claim to Italian citizenship is proving through vital records that your are descended from your Italian ancestor born in Italy. In order to do so, the officer reviewing your documents needs to feel certain that each person in your line to this Italian ancestor was descended from the prior. They will consider all the information available on the documents, particularly birth and marriage certificates for each generation, comparing especially birth dates, names of parents, and locations they were born and married in. If there are major discrepancies across these documents, such as someone who was born by one name appears as the parent on the birth certificate of the next person in the line of descent as a completely different name with no clear evidence that they are the same person, you will probably run into problems.

When you have discrepancies, whether you should address them in advance of your consulate appointment to submit your application and how you should deal with them will depend on several factors. Key factors include where you will be applying, where the documents are from, how much money and effort you are willing to put into addressing them, and how important it is for you that you increase your chances of immediate application acceptance.

What should be addressed in advance of your consulate appointment to present your case? Generally, discrepancies on the documents pertaining directly to the applicant (birth and marriage records) should be addressed in advance. This is because the applicant’s vital records will be transcribed in the Italian registries and officials will be concerned that key information is correct–name (first, middle if applicable, and last, as well as any suffix such as Junior), birth date, city of birth (yes, city must be listed, not county), and parents’ names.

Beyond the applicant’s own vital records, there are no black and white answers as to what to do, if anything, with name and date discrepancies until you have your appointment. Every case is unique, each consulate and even the individual officers handle discrepancies differently. There have been examples of the same consular handling similar discrepancies different in different cases. While some consulate websites explicitly state that all discrepancies must be addressed prior to your appointment, this is not necessary. (Note that if you are applying in Italy, see our documentation page under the Apply-In-Italy section. If you are applying through the courts, such as for a 1948 case, you need to defer to your lawyer's preference.)

Based on numerous testimonials from applicants and professionals who work through cases with discrepancies, most consulates are quite lenient in this regard. It is a of a lot of work, expense, and frustration amending documents. You may find that the consulate doesn’t need that level of effort. In fact, there have been a few reports of applicants being reprimanded by the consulate for amending ancestors’ vital records.

In a 2018 interview we had with a consulate citizenship officer, we were told that “minor discrepancies are not taken into consideration, as long as we are sure that we are looking at the same person over various documents. Some of the documents must be filed with the Consulates but not sent to Italy for registration. In this case, it might not be necessary to amend the certificates. The biggest problems emerge when the discrepancies are serious, therefore affecting the applicant’s capability to prove his or her case… In any case, when an application cannot proceed due to discrepancies, the officer will indicate to the applicant how the documents need to be amended.”

So, the consulate may find the discrepancies are subtle enough that they don’t care. This is especially the case with phenetic changes so the name is pronounced correctly in English, and Anglicizations (like Giovanni to John). If they do care, resolution may be as simple as showing that there isn’t another person with the alternate spelling from the same town (positivo/negativo letter from the comune, explained further down in this page).

The primary concern of the consulate is to ensure you are correctly representing your family line. If they can reasonably track with your paperwork, minor discrepancies can be overlooked. You may very well cause concerns when amending a vital record, only to have it conflict with how your ancestor represented himself on other non-amendable documents, like the census, naturalization, green card, and war registrations. Sometimes consistency in the inconsistency is better.

It is important to remember that, even though it doesn’t feel like it to you with all the prep you’ve done leading up to it, the appointment is the START of the process in the eyes of the consulates. They do not outright deny cases based on documentation issues if the applicant meets the basic qualifications. The consulate will tell you what concerns they have, if anything, and tell you (and, you can negotiate) what you need to do, if anything, to address the concerns. Follow-up, even for the most “prepared” of cases is very common. They usually allow it through mail/email.

We have collected hundreds of appointment recaps from the members of our Facebook group where discrepancies were noted. The vast majority were accepted without question. In the rare cases where the consulate had a concern, something less than amending the document was accepted as a compromise. If you are a member of our Facebook group, you can find the list here.

How do you deal with discrepancies once you find out you do have to, or if you want to proactively? If you go to your appointment and the officer feels she cannot proceed without having something addressed, be sure to discuss potential remedies and come to an agreement in writing as to what you need to address and how. This is very important so you aren’t left guessing what you need to do and it helps the officer remember what was agreed to, given they deal with hundreds of cases. If you are a member of our Facebook group, you can consult others for their experience and read through appointment recaps. Here are some typical ways to deal with discrepancies on US vital records:

• Naturalization Documents – Note that many foreigners used the US naturalization process as a means of establishing a legal name change. Often on the oath document, completed when the naturalization was formalized, it will state something to the effect of the person known as XYZ is from here forward known as ABC.
• Supporting Documents – These are documents that are not explicitly called-out as being required on the consulate’s website, but may be helpful in connecting name changes across documents and confirming dates and timeframes of events. These extra documents do not need translations or apostilles, as they will not be registered in Italy, rather they will be used by the consulate official to help them in evaluating your case. They don’t necessarily need to be certified copies, though if they come into play in your case, the consulate may ask you to get a certified copy and send it in after your appointment. The following are examples of some supporting documents and how they might be helpful. Bring everything you think might be helpful, but keep these non-required documents separate from the required ones and only present them if they will be helpful at a point of concern during your appointment. Extra documents that the officer is not expecting could take your appointment off track or even derail it.
  • Arrival records (ship manifests) can help establish when a person arrived, who they came with, where they came from, and where they were headed. 
  • Court documents, if found, can establish the legality of name changes. In some cases, our ancestors went through formal processes to change their names.
  • Census records can help establish use of alternative names. For example, if in 1910 Giuseppe La Rocca is listed with his wife and 3 children, then in 1920 he appears as Joseph Rocca, but has the same address, wife, and children listed, it is most definitely the same person and these records help establish the name change. Certified copies can be obtained from National Archives.
  • Baptismal records can be obtained from the diocese chapter over the church where your ancestor was baptized. Sometimes a “baptismal name”–like the of a saint–is given to the child and it will appear on the baptism records. Sometimes children would from that point forward go by the baptismal name or use it as their middle name where they had none at birth. This might help explain the mysterious use of a new first name or addition of a middle name later in life.
• Amendments – This is a process in which the vital records office (state or county) allows amendments to be made under certain circumstances when provided with adequate evidence to support the change. How they go about making the amendment varies from state-to-state and county-to-county. Sometimes they will strike-through the original information on the record and notate the corrected information. Others will create an entirely new record with the changes. Yet others will add an aka (also known as) line for name discrepancies. All of these are acceptable methods if done by the records office such that the amended document can receive an apostille from the Secretary of State’s office.
• Court-Ordered Corrections – Some states/counties do not allow amendments to vital records at all. Sometimes they only allow them from the person the record is for, making it impossible to address a discrepancy for a deceased person. In these cases, you can take your complaint to the courts with your documentation supporting the requested correction and petition the court to order the vital records office to make the change. Your justification is that their refusal to do so has caused you personal harm–you cannot claim your Italian citizenship without the correction. While it is possible to do this yourself, it will require research as to the appropriate court with jurisdiction over the document(s) in question and their procedures for filing. Many employ the use of a lawyer.
• One-and-the-Same Order/Declaratory Judgment (we’ll use OATS for short) – Similar to the above process for court-ordered corrections, a OATS order can be a convenient way of dealing with discrepancies across several documents. Rather than petitioning the court to order corrections, you are asking the judge to certify that they agree that the person listed as x, y, and z with the birthdates of 7, 8, and 9 on such-and-such records is the same person who was born as ABC on date 123. Once certified, you can have the court order translated and obtain an apostille on the order from the Secretary of State, making it legal for use in Italy. See below for a template.
• One-and-the Same Affidavit – This is the same as above, but rather than submitting it to the courts, you have a credible individual draft and sign an affidavit before a notary that states that the person listed as… is the same as the person who was born as… Such affidavits are usually only acceptable as an alternative to amendments if it is from the person who is in question. So, for example, if your grandfather in your line of ascent to the Italian ancestor (or maybe he was the Italian ancestor) was born Pasquale and started using Samuel at some point in his life and never legally made the change, yet Samuel appears on some of the documents you have to submit as part of your case, he can sign an affidavit that he was born Pasquale, began using Samuel, and affirms that he is the person who married so-and-so and together they birthed your parent, the next descendent in your line from the Italian ancestor. To legalize this document for use in Italy, you would send it to the Secretary of State's authentication office in the state in which the notary is registered and obtain an apostille. The OATS should be translated to Italian.
• Self-Declaration - Similar to an OATS, a self-declaration is a simple letter that you or one of your living ascendants writes and signs before a notary to address discrepancies. For example, if your grandmother's given name was Margherita, but she went by Peggy her whole life, she could write a letter attesting this and that the discrepancies seen on her birth versus later documents are because of her use of her preferred name.
• Sworn Agreement of Concordance (Perizia Giurata di Concordanza) - Somewhat like a OATS judgment, this is a type of document that can be presented to a Justice of the Peace in the US or a Notary or tribunale (lower court) in Italy along with the documents in question, describing the discrepancies and asking the person to evaluate and agree that X and Y are the same person whose correct information is Z. The key to this document is that the Justice/Notary state that they take on the legal responsibility for this judgment. This is not something that you need a lawyer for, so it is a much less expensive option than going through the courts for an OATS judgment. This document will need to be written in or translated to Italian. See below to download an example.
• Positivo/Negativo Letter – If you have name and/or birthdate discrepancies on US documents as compared with the birth and/or marriage documents from Italy for this ancestor, you can request a letter from your Italian ancestor’s comune attesting that they are confident that the person you have identified in such-and-such US records is the same as the person born in their city in Italy. (Positivo.) Also, they have found no one else born in that city by the names and birth dates found on the US documents. (Negativo.) While this isn’t always accepted as a substitute to egregious name discrepancies, it can help address discrepancies on documents that cannot be amended, such as US naturalization records.