Italy: education documents — translation, legalisation, confirmation

What you need to do

First find out which confirmation your programme requires. The Italian side works with a document describing your certificate or degree and the rights it carries in the issuing country; it is produced by the Italian mission in the country that issued the document, or replaced by a comparability statement from an authorised centre. Which route applies is for the university to decide, so ask the university.

Then comes the order of links that cannot be rearranged: first the document is confirmed in the issuing country, then translated, then legalised, and only then submitted. The translation comes after the confirmation, not before — otherwise it has to be redone together with the marks that appeared on it.

The finished documents are attached to the pre-enrolment application on the state portal. That is not separate bureaucracy but the same file: the portal collects what both the university and the consulate will look at later.

Where the official answers live

• The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — its page on translation and legalisation of documents: who does it and in what order.
• Universitaly — the state portal: what is attached to the pre-enrolment application.
• The Italian Embassy in Chișinău — how this looks for people living in Moldova.

How to check that the requirement has not changed

Ask the university in writing which confirmation it accepts, and keep the answer. It is the only way not to assemble the folder twice: different universities can lawfully differ on the same certificate.

Check validity periods: some documents are valid for a limited time, and a folder assembled too early is expired by the time it is submitted.

Fees and timings for Italy are collected in the facts on the country page, each with a link to its primary source and the date it was checked.