English to Italian Translation

This direction applies when an English document has to be submitted to an authority in Italy or in the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland. The usual case is a diploma issued in the United Kingdom or the United States being used to enrol at an Italian university, or an English commercial or legal document being submitted in Italian to an Italian court or public body. In Italy, because a declaration of value issued by the consulate is required alongside the translation in education applications, the process does not consist of a translation alone.

The typical users of this direction are people who studied or worked in an English-speaking country and then moved to Italy: the student applying to an Italian university with an English diploma, the company that has to present its English articles of association to an Italian counterparty or court, the family using the birth record of a child born in an English-speaking country for a family or residence procedure in Italy. English documents sent to the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in Switzerland also belong to this direction, and cantonal procedure applies there.

Challenges specific to this pair

Both languages use the Latin alphabet; the real difficulty lies in legal terminology and official register. English common law concepts cannot be forced into Italian civil law; they are rendered by function. Official Italian favours long, subordinated sentence structures and set formulas (ai sensi di, con la presente); as the short sentences of the English source are adapted to that register, not one condition is dropped. Date and number formats follow Italian usage; the thousands comma and decimal point of English are reversed in Italian.

The second difficulty lies in document format and titles. English degree names (BSc, LLM) are not forced onto an equivalent Italian degree; the assessment is made by the relevant institution, and the translator’s task is to convey the degree in its original form and explain it. Under the Italian sworn translation procedure (asseverazione), the translation is physically bound to the original document and entered in a record at the court registry; because this formal requirement is applied strictly, the way the document will be presented is planned accordingly from the outset. The positions of the seals, stamps and signatures on the source document are preserved in the translation with a note.

Third, the abbreviations and numbers in English documents call for care. Institutional abbreviations are not carried into Italian as they stand; they are expanded and, where necessary, also given in their original form. Registry, registration and file numbers are not translated, but the record they belong to is stated. In education applications the Dichiarazione di valore obtained from the Italian consulate is requested together with the original document and its translation, so the translation has to be consistent with that declaration. In files with many documents, the person’s name and the equivalents chosen for institutions are kept consistent across every document.

The physical side of the Italian procedure makes it essential for the source document to be complete. Since in asseverazione the translation is bound to the original, the English document must be submitted in full, including all its pages, its reverse sides and the seals on it; one missing page halts the entire procedure. For that reason the scans are checked for clarity and completeness before the process begins. For diploma applications, Italian institutions often also ask for a recognition or comparability statement such as CIMEA; that document is prepared together with the translation, in a form consistent with it. An exact match between the dates, numbers and titles on the document, the translation and these supporting papers is the detail that decides whether the application is accepted at the first attempt. It is also verified at the outset that the English source carries the apostille the Italian authority requires, obtained in the country of issue.

Documents for which this direction is requested

Education files come first; English diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions are requested together for university applications and recognition, and their content is conveyed without being summarised. Next come birth, marriage and criminal record certificates, along with commercial contracts, powers of attorney and company documents. In family and residence procedures, the names in civil registry records are expected to carry the same spelling throughout the file.

• English diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions (university application and recognition)
• English birth, marriage and criminal record certificates
• Commercial contracts, powers of attorney and company documents

Chain of certification

Italy certifies a translation through a procedure in which the translator is sworn before the court (asseverazione, producing a traduzione giurata); for education applications the Dichiarazione di valore obtained from the Italian consulate is usually mandatory, and the translation on its own is not enough. The Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland applies cantonal notarisation. The translation can be prepared at our single office in Ankara; but to set the process up correctly from the start, review the country certification regime and the document requirements of the destination.

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The values here are for a typical file; the number of pages and the difficulty of the subject may affect the outcome. The requirements in force on the date of the transaction should be taken as the basis.