Apostille, legalization and notarization

Our apostille and legalization services ensure you get the required Italian governmental authority authentication of documents for their international use.

What is the difference between apostille and legalization?

Apostille and legalization are both administrative procedures through which an official document issued in Italy (e.g. court documents, administrative documents, notarial acts, official certificates etc.) is authenticated and certified to be used outside of Italy. Often, the document must be authenticated by an Italian public notary before it can apostilled or legalized.

As opposed to legalization, apostille is a simpler and faster procedure but it is available only for areas that are party of the Hague Apostille Convention of 5 October 1961. Instead, for jurisdictions that are not part of the Hague Apostille Convention, the document shall be legalized by the Embassy or Consulate in Italy of the country where the documents have to be used.

As of today, the Hague Apostille Convention has 115 parties. Apostille and legalization is not needed for documents issued in the following jurisdictions: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Latvia (Bruxelles Convention of 25 April 1987), Germany (Rome Convention of 7 June 1969) and Hungary (Budapest Convention of 26 May 1977).

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