SERVICE OF LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS
The Embassy of Italy in Colombo, while recalling that Sri Lanka has not yet adopted the Hague Convention of 1961, which replaces legalization with the Apostille, informs that, due to the situation of civil status registries and the frequency of document forgeries in Sri Lanka, as well as the very high number of requests for legalization, the service of legalization of documents issued by the Sri Lankan Authorities will only be carried out in observance of the procedure outlined below, in accordance with the provisions of art. 63, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 71/2011 and art. 33 of Presidential Decree 445/2000.
Starting from 1st June 2024 applications for legalization must be submitted to the offices of VFS Global in Colombo: Italian Legalization Application Centre – Colombo, Sri Lanka, Address: c/o Italian Visa Application Centre in Sri Lanka, First Floor, No 464, Galle Road Colombo 03.
Important Notice to Applicants: Effective 30 September 2024, the Italian Legalization Application Centre in Colombo will move to No. 75, Arnold Ratnayake Mawatha, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka. All applicants are advised to visit our new location for Italian legalization lpplication submissions, collections and information services.
To download the forms needed to start the Translation and Verification procedure, please visit the following site: https://visa.vfsglobal.com/lka/en/ita/Legalisation
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE FULLY OPERATIONAL FOR THE SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS FOR LEGALIZATION ONLY FROM 17 JUNE 2024. WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
Documents to be legalized must be submitted in original, AFTER BEING LEGALIZED BY SRI LANKAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. They may be subject to random checks to verify their authenticity and therefore forwarded to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for inspection.
The legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka must refer to the original document that will be submitted to the Embassy for its legalization, and not to its translation or to the register from which the document is extracted. Therefore, the correct procedure is to first obtain the original document and then submit it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalization. Finally, the original document, with its legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, must be submitted for legalization by the Embassy.
When submitting the documents, the interested parties have to sign the application for legalization by the Embassy, and can require as well the translation service by VFS.
At this time, both the services fees and the consular fees due for the legalization and certification of conformity of the translation to the originals of the foreign documents must be paid.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DOCUMENTS WILL ONLY BE FORWARDED TO THE EMBASSY ONLY AFTER THE TRANSLATION AND RANDOM VERIFICATION OF AUTHENTICITY PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. VFS GLOBAL WILL UPDATE THE APPLICANTS REGARDING THE STATUS OF THEIR APPLICATION.
Once the legalization and authentication of the translation has been completed, the Embassy will return the completed document to VFS, which will send it to the user by courier.
Users are invited to refrain from visiting the Embassy (no walk-ins) and from sending e-mails for requests for information, updates on the status of applications or reminders, since the entire procedure involves times and procedures that cannot be changed for any reason and do NOT depend on the activities of the Italian Embassy in Colombo but on external partners, as well as on the Sri Lankan authorities themselves. The Embassy recommends avoiding unnecessary recourse to service agencies or intermediaries and to report – to the email address consolare.ambcolombo@esteri.it – any improper request for sums of money from third parties.
PLEASE NOTE: in cases where legalization is required prior to the submission of a visa application, please ensure that you request and obtain an appointment for the submission of the visa application (see the ‘visa’ page) within the six-month deadline of the ‘nulla osta’, even if the legalization process has not yet been completed due to the extended timeframe of the IOM verification. In this case, when submitting the visa application to VFS, it is necessary to submit a receipt proving that the legalization process has been started. In this way, the Embassy will be able to interrupt the period of validity of the nulla osta and prevent it from expiring.