A guide to sworn translation

If the document you need translating is an official document to be submitted to authorities in Italy or abroad, then you require a sworn or certified translation.

These are translations officialised under oath before an officer of the Court, or at a Justice of the Peace or a notary’s office. This procedure consists of the translator certifying that he/she has truthfully translated the original document and accepts civil and criminal liability for the translation.
The documents must be translated from or into Italian. Documents cannot be translated from one foreign language into another: if this is specifically required then an intermediate translation must be made into Italian.
This procedure takes a few working days to complete, excluding the time required to translate the document.
Not all the stages of the procedure depend on the translator: here is a short guide that explains how to go about obtaining a sworn translation.

1 – How do I submit the documentation for translation?
You must submit the original or a certified true copy of the document, which can be obtained from a notary or town hall.
Warning! The document must be legalised for it to be valid for a foreign country. Depending on where it was issued, it must be submitted either to the Prefecture or Public Prosecutor’s office to be certified, which will validate it for use abroad. > Consult the Prefecture website for all relevant indications. http://www.prefettura.it/udine/contenuti/legalizzazione_documenti-49642.htm

2 – What does a sworn translation look like?
The sworn translation you will be given at the end of the procedure consists of a hard copy folder composed of the original document, translation, the oath report and further legalisation of the complete document (if it is intended for a foreign country). The whole folder constitutes one single document to be submitted to the requesting authorities.
Warning: it is not possible to separate the various sections, for example to submit just the translation or to preserve the original document. This would render the entire procedure null and void.
A sworn translation involves extra formalities with respect to a simple translation. It must reproduce as faithfully as possible the format of the original document and contain everything that appears in it: stamps, signatures, administrative stamps, images, logos.
If any substantial parts of the document are irrelevant for the purposes for which it is intended, these can be omitted from the translation and must be clearly marked.

3 – Why do I need revenue stamps?
The law stipulates that sworn translations are affixed with a 16-euro administrative stamp for every 100 lines of text translated, in other words, every 4 sheets.

4 – What does a sworn translation consist of?
An oath report must be completed by the studio and signed in front of an officer of the Court.
The report must specify the identification details of the person taking the oath, the language pair translated and the name of the person or company who requested translation of the document.
The court officer affixes the necessary stamps, acknowledges the oath taken and signs the report. The oath is then entered in a dedicated register, which contains all the certifications listed in chronological order.

5 – What then?
At this point, if necessary, the document is ready to be lodged with the Public Prosecutor’s office for legalisation or apostillation. The time required for this procedure is around two days. We lodge and collect documents and deliver them to the customer.