Documents for Italian citizenship: what to translate, apostille and mistakes to avoid

In short

• For citizenship by marriage or by residence, you normally need your birth certificate and the criminal record certificate from your country of origin (and from every country you have lived in since age 14), legalised or apostilled and translated into Italian.
• For citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis), you need the full chain of birth, marriage and death certificates as full copies: the rules have been stricter since 2025.
• Order matters: first the apostille on the original, then the translation, which must also cover the apostille.
• The criminal record certificate is valid for six months: it is the document that most often expires while the application is being prepared.
• Before ordering, check which form of translation the office receiving your application requires: some also ask for an apostille or a consular stamp on the translation.

Applying for citizenship is one of the longest procedures a foreign citizen goes through in Italy, and one of the most demanding in terms of paperwork. A birth certificate without an apostille, an expired criminal record certificate or a translation that leaves out a stamp is enough to get your file sent back. In this guide you will find, for each route, the list of foreign documents to translate, the rules on legalisation and translation, and the mistakes to avoid.

What are the routes to Italian citizenship?

The governing law is Law no. 91 of 5 February 1992. For people with foreign documents, the three most common routes are marriage, residence and descent. The foreign documents required are largely the same; what changes is how many you need and how far back the search goes.

Citizenship by marriage or civil union (Art. 5)

The foreign spouse of an Italian citizen can apply for citizenship after two years of legal residence in Italy following the marriage, or after three years of marriage if the couple lives abroad. These periods are halved if the spouses have children, born or adopted. When the decree is issued, the marriage must still be valid and the spouses must not be separated (Art. 5, Law 91/1992).

The other requirements: knowledge of Italian at least at B1 level, proven by an educational qualification or a certificate from a recognised body (Art. 9.1), payment of a 250 euro fee to the Ministry of the Interior, and no disqualifying convictions. Applicants living in Italy apply online to the Ministry of the Interior and the file is processed by the Prefettura (the local office of the Ministry of the Interior); applicants living abroad apply to the competent Consulate.

Typical foreign documents:

• birth certificate from your country of birth, showing both parents, legalised or apostilled and translated;
• criminal record certificate from your country of origin, from any country whose citizenship you hold and from every country you have lived in since age 14, issued no more than six months earlier, legalised or apostilled and translated;
• marriage certificate registered in Italy, identity document, residence permit or residence card, fee receipt, language certificate.

Citizenship by residence (Art. 9)

Anyone who has been legally resident in Italy for a certain number of years can apply to be granted citizenship: generally ten years for non-EU citizens and four years for EU citizens, with different periods for some categories (stateless persons, refugees, descendants of Italian citizens, adults who were adopted). Sufficient income over recent years is also required.

As far as foreign documents are concerned, the requirements are the same as for the marriage route: birth certificate and criminal record certificate from the countries you have lived in, legalised or apostilled and translated. The deadline for completing the procedure is 24 months, extendable to 36, for both Art. 5 and Art. 9 (Art. 9-ter).

Citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis) after Law 74/2025

Decree-Law no. 36 of 28 March 2025, converted by Law no. 74 of 23 May 2025, added Art. 3-bis to Law 91/1992. A person born abroad who holds another citizenship is deemed never to have acquired Italian citizenship, unless one of the conditions laid down applies, in particular:

• the application for recognition, with full documentation, was submitted to the Consulate or the Comune (the Italian municipality) by 23:59 (Rome time) on 27 March 2025, or on the date of an appointment notified by that date, or court proceedings were started by that same date;
• a parent or grandparent holds, or held at the time of death, only Italian citizenship;
• a parent lived in Italy for at least two consecutive years after acquiring citizenship and before the child was born.

The rule was challenged before the Constitutional Court, which in judgment no. 63 of 2026 declared the questions raised partly inadmissible and partly unfounded, and in order no. 147 of 2026 referred a question on whether Art. 3-bis is compatible with EU law to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The matter is not settled: if your case depends on these rules, get advice from a lawyer before investing in documents and translations.

Where the right exists, the documents are the same as always, for every generation of the line:

• extract of the Italian ancestor's birth record, issued by the Italian Comune;
• certificate from the foreign authority stating whether and when the ancestor was naturalised;
• birth, marriage and, where applicable, death certificates of every person in the line, as full copies, legalised or apostilled and translated;
• any divorce judgments or corrections explaining differences in names.

For a line of three or four generations you can easily end up with ten to fifteen certificates: it is worth gathering them all before ordering the translations, so that they are done in a single order with consistent names.

Legalisation and apostille: why they come before the translation

A foreign public document is valid in Italy if its authenticity is certified. This is laid down by Art. 33 of Presidential Decree (DPR) 445/2000, subject to the exemptions provided by international conventions. In practice:

• apostille, if the country that issued the document is a party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961: a stamp affixed by the designated authority of the issuing State;
• consular legalisation by the Italian Embassy or Consulate, for countries that are not party to the Convention;
• no formality for many documents issued by an EU country: EU Regulation 2016/1191 exempts from the apostille public documents relating to birth, marriage, residence, citizenship and absence of a criminal record, among others.

The apostille is requested in the country that issued the document, on the original, and must be done before the translation: it is part of the document and is translated with the rest. If you translate first and apostille afterwards, the translation does not cover the apostille and has to be redone. All the steps, country by country, are explained in our guide to apostille and sworn translation.

What form must the translation take?

This is the point where precision pays off, because Prefettura websites often refer to a "legalised translation" or an "official translation" without explaining what they mean. The general rule is in Art. 33(3) of DPR 445/2000: documents 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".

In practice, for citizenship you will come across three forms:

• a translation by a sworn translator in the issuing country, with the translator's signature in turn apostilled or certified by the Italian Consulate. This is the wording used, for example, by the Consulate General of Italy in Lyon: the translation, "made by an official sworn translator, must be certified by the competent Italian Embassy/Consulate or legalised with an Apostille";
• a translation sworn in Italy (asseverata), with an oath taken before a court clerk, a justice of the peace or a notary;
• for documents from another EU country that fall under Regulation 2016/1191, a translation certified by a qualified person in any Member State (Art. 6(2)), or, if the office accepts it, the multilingual standard form attached to the document, which often removes the need for a translation altogether.

The differences between these forms are explained in our guide to sworn, asseverated, certified and legalised translation. The practical advice is simple: check the document list of your Prefettura or Consulate and, if the wording is unclear, ask in writing which form of translation they accept.

What Giuradoc delivers, and when you need something more

Giuradoc's standard translation is a sworn translation in PDF: you upload a legible scan or photo, a translator sworn before the competent courts of appeal translates the document in full, signs it, stamps it and certifies that it is faithful to the document received. You receive it by email within 24-48 working hours. For uploading to the portal and for many procedures, this is the format you need; when the office asks for more, you add it:

• if they want to see the translation on paper at your appointment, add the paper copy by post (15 €);
• if they require an apostille or legalisation on the translation, or a translation certified as conforming to the original (rather than to the scan), we will send you a quote: you will find these options among our additional services;
• if they expressly require a translation sworn before an Italian court (asseverata), the standard PDF translation is not that form, but the asseverazione can be arranged on quotation: write to us before ordering.

A full comparison of the options is on the which translation to choose page, and in our guide on when a PDF is enough and when you need the original.

Rules that always apply

• Full translation: every page, stamp, marginal note and the apostille itself.
• Names identical to your passport: the Prefettura checks every letter across birth certificate, criminal record certificate, passport and residence permit. If the spelling varies (transliterations from Arabic, Cyrillic or Chinese), tell us the one in your passport.
• A translator other than yourself: you cannot translate your own documents, even if you know both languages well.

Which documents to translate: list by type of document

These are the foreign documents that come up most often in citizenship applications, with the product page for each (the price is the same for all: 30 € per page):

• sworn translation of a birth certificate: required for all three routes;
• sworn translation of a criminal record certificate: one for each country of residence since age 14;
• sworn translation of a marriage certificate: for marriages celebrated abroad and for the iure sanguinis line;
• sworn translation of a death certificate: for ancestors in the line;
• sworn translation of a court judgment: for divorces and civil status corrections;
• foreign certificate of residence and family status certificate: when the office asks you to prove your residence or household composition abroad.

The most frequently ordered documents are also gathered in the most requested translations collection; for a document you cannot find, there is the other document page. The available combinations are from and into Italian for English, Spanish, French, German, Romanian and Arabic, as well as between these six languages. For another language, write to us for a quote.

Steps to follow, in order

• Check the requirement: years of residence or marriage, B1 level, and for descent the conditions of Art. 3-bis.
• Read your office's list (Prefettura or Consulate) and note the form of translation required.
• Request the certificates in your country of origin: full copies of birth certificates, a recent criminal record certificate. Request the criminal record certificate last, because it must be less than six months old when you submit your application.
• Have the apostille or legalisation affixed to each original, unless the country is exempt.
• Order all the translations together, uploading scans of the original and the apostille, with names written as in your passport.
• Submit your application on the Ministry of the Interior portal or to the Consulate, and keep the originals for your appointment.

The mistakes that most often hold up applications

• Expired criminal record certificate: it is valid for six months from issue. If it expires, you need a new certificate, a new apostille and a new translation.
• Apostille added after the translation: the translation has to be redone to include it.
• Partial translation: an untranslated stamp or marginal note makes the document incomplete.
• Different names across documents: ask your country's Consulate for a certificate of identity (certificato di esatte generalità) and have it translated with the rest.
• An extract instead of a full copy: for descent you need full copies with all annotations.
• A forgotten country of residence: you need a criminal record certificate for every country you have lived in since age 14, except Italy.
• Form of translation not checked: if the office also requires an apostille or consular stamp on the translation, finding out afterwards costs time. Check beforehand.

The cost of the complete file depends on the number of documents: for an application by marriage or residence, two or three translations are often enough. We have written a dedicated guide on how much a sworn translation costs, and for several documents in the same application we can prepare a single quote. If citizenship is the final step of a path that began with your residence permit or with converting your driving licence, you will already have translated many documents: just check that they have not expired.

Frequently asked questions

Is a translated criminal record certificate valid for six months from the translation or from issue?

From issue. The translation does not expire, but the criminal record certificate does: six months from the date the authority in your country issued it. Order the translation as soon as you have received and apostilled it.

My birth certificate is multilingual: do I need a translation?

Multilingual extracts and, for documents from an EU country, the multilingual standard form provided for by Regulation 2016/1191 can make a translation unnecessary, if the office considers the information they contain sufficient. If the Prefettura asks for one anyway, we translate the parts in the foreign language.

Can I upload the PDF translation to the portal?

Yes: the online application is submitted by uploading scans of the documents and translations. Keep the originals and bring them to your appointment: if the office wants the translation on paper, add the paper copy by post.

Is your translation accepted by the Prefettura?

It depends on the form your Prefettura or Consulate requires. The sworn PDF translation is suitable for many procedures; if the office also requires an apostille or consular certification on the translation, certification of conformity with the original or an asseverazione in Italy, tell us before ordering: we will tell you what we can do and send you a quote. More answers in our frequently asked questions.

Do the new 2025 rules also apply to citizenship by marriage?

No. Art. 3-bis, introduced by Law 74/2025, concerns recognition by descent for people born abroad. Citizenship by marriage (Art. 5) and by residence (Art. 9) follow their own rules, with the B1 language requirement and the 250 euro fee.

How long does it take to translate the documents?

24-48 working hours for a standard document. For an iure sanguinis line with many documents, we confirm the timeline before starting. All our services are listed on the our services page.

Sources: Law 91/1992, Art. 5; Art. 9-ter; Art. 3-bis; DPR 445/2000, Art. 33; Regulation (EU) 2016/1191; Consulate General of Italy in Lyon, citizenship by marriage; Consulate General of Italy in Basel, iure sanguinis citizenship; Constitutional Court, judgment no. 63/2026 and order no. 147/2026.