{"id":178,"date":"2023-04-11T18:19:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T12:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/servizi-consolari-e-visti\/servizi-per-il-cittadino-italiano\/traduzione-e-legalizzazione-dei-documenti\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T16:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T11:11:33","slug":"traduzione-e-legalizzazione-dei-documenti","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/servizi-consolari-e-visti\/servizi-per-il-cittadino-italiano\/traduzione-e-legalizzazione-dei-documenti\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation and legalization of documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

SERVICE OF LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Please note that Sri Lanka has not yet adopted the Hague Convention of 1961, which replaces legalization with the Apostille. Consequently, documents issued in Sri Lanka by official authorities and intended for use in Italy must be legalized.<\/p>\n

Due to the current state of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil status registries, the frequent circulation of forged documents in the country, and the high number of legalization requests, the legalization of documents issued by Sri Lankan authorities is carried out exclusively in accordance with the procedure outlined below, pursuant to art. 63, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 71\/2011 and art. 33 of Presidential Decree 445\/2000.<\/p>\n

SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Applications for legalization must be submitted to the VFS Global offices at the following address:<\/p>\n

Italian Legalization Application Centre<\/p>\n

5th Floor, No. 675, Dr. Danister De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 09, Sri Lanka<\/p>\n

Tel.: +94 11 2350602 (available from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday to Friday)<\/p>\n

For information on the appointment system and to download the forms required to initiate the translation and verification procedure, please visit the dedicated website<\/a>. Consular fees and any applicable translation costs will be collected at the time of the payment for the service.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED WHEN APPLYING FOR LEGALIZATION<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Documents to be legalized must be submitted in original and accompanied by the attestation issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Please note<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> the attestation issued 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.<\/p>\n

Important<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> please be aware that documents may subsequently be forwarded to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for random authenticity checks.<\/p>\n

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENTS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As Sri Lanka does not have a system of sworn translators officially recognized under its legal framework, applicants may request VFS Global\u2019s translation service when submitting their documents, subject to an additional fee.<\/p>\n

COMPLETION OF THE PROCEDURE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Once the document has been legalized and the translation authenticated, the Embassy will return the documentation to VFS Global, which will arrange for it to be sent to the applicant by courier.<\/p>\n

COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE EMBASSY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Applicants are requested not to visit the Embassy in person without an appointment (no walk-ins) and not to send emails requesting updates on the status of their applications or asking for the process to be expedited.<\/p>\n

The procedure for completing the process cannot be altered, and processing times may also be affected by parties outside the Embassy, for example where IOM carries out random checks to verify the authenticity of documents.<\/p>\n

The Embassy also recommends that applicants refrain from using service agencies or intermediaries. Any improper requests for sums of money by third parties should be reported to consolare.ambcolombo@esteri.it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NOTE FOR VISA APPLICATIONS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Where legalization is required for the purpose of submitting a visa application (e.g. family reunification), applicants are advised to book an appointment (Book an appointment | vfsglobal<\/a>) within the six-month validity period of the nulla osta<\/em>, even if the legalization procedure has not yet been completed.<\/p>\n

In such cases, when submitting the visa application (Visas \u2013 Embassy of Italy in Colombo<\/a>), the applicant must provide the receipt confirming that the legalization procedure has been initiated. This will allow the Embassy to suspend the running of the nulla osta<\/em>\u2019s validity period, thereby preventing it from expiring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SERVICE OF LEGALIZATION OF DOCUMENTS Please note that Sri Lanka has not yet adopted the Hague Convention of 1961, which replaces legalization with the Apostille. Consequently, documents issued in Sri Lanka by official authorities and intended for use in Italy must be legalized. Due to the current state of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil status registries, the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":170,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-178","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3944,"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178\/revisions\/3944"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambcolombo.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}