The Apostille is a common but unusual form of document certification that will be necessary to acquire when submitting documents issued outside of Italy for the purposes of Italian citizenship. In this article, we will cover what is the Apostille, what it is for and when you may need it.
The Apostille Convention/Treaty was drafted by The Hague Conference on Private International Law in 1965. The convention specifies how a document issued in one signatory country can be certified for the purpose of being used for an official purpose in another country. It shares similarities with notarization, however, an Apostille is recognized internationally.
The Apostille certifies the authenticity of a public document, stamp or signature of the public official who certified the original document. It is generally in the form of a sheet and/or sticker sometimes with ribbon attached to the original document.
The issuance of an Apostille is how a country can show that it vouches for the validity of the document, making it unnecessary to have the document recertified in another country.
Who issues this certification?
This will depend on the country where the document is being acquired. In the UK Apostilles are issued by The Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In the case of the USA, it will depend on whether the document has been issued by the state or the federal government. For documents issued by the federal government the Apostille is issued by the Department of State in Washington DC.
For documents issued by the single US states, the apostille is issued by a state authority appointed by the law (in most cases the Secretary of State’s Office)
Some examples of documents that can be “Apostilled” in the USA:
- Certified copies of birth certificates
- Certified copies of marriage certificates
- Certified copies of death certificates
- Certified Divorce Judgments
Please note:
In some US states, in order to get a document apostilled you may need to obtain intermediate authentications. For example, a birth certificate issued by the New York City Department of Health needs to bear a letter of exemplification (a letter of exemplification is a page attached to a New York City long form birth certificate. It is hand-signed by a Deputy City Registrar and attests that the attached birth certificate is a true copy of the actual record. Furthermore, in order for the document to be “apostilled”, a NYC birth certificate must be authenticated by the NY County Clerk.
Also, it may not be possible to get an Apostille for older vital record documents in the case the state or local registrar who certified the original document is no longer in office.
If you require any assistance in gathering documents for the purposes of Italian citizenship, you can contact us directly through this link.
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