The Italian government usually permits name changes in only two situations:

(1) your life is in danger

(2) your birth name is obscene.

If you changed your name prior to applying for citizenship, you must amend your birth certificate. To do so, you generally need to request a change of name decree from your local court, then contact the department of vital records of the U.S. state in which you were born and ask them to amend your birth certificate, presenting the decree as supporting evidence. 

Contact the Italian Consulate that has jurisdiction over the state/province where you reside to find out what legalizations are required for birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates in your country.

APOSTILLE is the legalization that the document is true and correct and is  provided by the Office of the Secretary of State of the State where the document/certificate is issued. NOTE: The Apostille is not a stamp on the certificate. It is a legalization, i.e. a document stapled to the birth/marriage/death certificate by the Secretary of State.

Yes, most divorces include a marital settlement agreement (the division of assets and child custody plan). If the marital settlement agreement is incorporated in the divorce, then the entire divorce document needs to be translated. CLICK HERE to learn more about our translation services.

All birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates requiring an Apostille must also be translated into Italian. Apostilles do not need to be translated into Italian.

No, they will not return any documents to you.  Whether you are planning to outsource the entire project to a company like us or you are collecting all the documents yourself, we advise you keep the original documents you have and order new ones. Often the original documents that have been passed down from your parents or grandparents are not in the correct format or properly certified to be eventually apostilled.

While gathering the required family records, it is not uncommon to discover inconsistencies in these documents.  There may be name, date or place differences or spelling errors in birth, marriage and death documents.  Examples might be the misspelling of first or last names, such as Americanization of Italian names, nicknames instead of formal names or different birth dates on different documents. 

You must request a "certified copy" issued in a "long form" or a "full form"; (not "certification" or "abstract) of non-Italian documents.  This format contains the names of the parents of the individual who relates to the document itself.   This is the format required for all birth, marriage and death records. They are normally acquired from your State or Province offices that provide vital statistics.  

Yes. Because citizenship when granted is retroactive; Italy requires that these documents be recorded in Italy. You can’t hide the existence of marriages, divorces, or minor children.

You will need a letter from the Town Hall (Comune) stating that no birth record exists, If no church document is available either, sometimes the Consulate will accept a certified copy of the Italian military draft document (for males) issued by the State Archive of the main Italian province, as evidence.  The Italian military record would need to show the parents’ names and the ancestor’s place and date of birth.