In this guide
  1. Which desk stamps a study record
  2. The signature is what gets checked
  3. Cost of the state stamp
  4. When a notary or a court comes into it
  5. Sending study papers abroad

Which desk stamps a study record

On the facts we hold, a study record is handled on the administrative side, so you apostille an Academic Transcript in Italy through the Prefettura. That is the arm of the state sitting in each provincial capital, and its job on your file is narrow. It confirms that the signature and seal on the sheet in front of it are the real thing. It forms no view on your marks, your dates of study or how a body abroad should read any of it.

The signature is what gets checked

Everything turns on whose name closes your sheet. A page you printed from a portal carries no signature at all, so there is nothing to confirm and the counter cannot help. Anyone puzzling over how to apostille an Academic Transcript should therefore ask the body that holds the record for a signed and sealed release, on paper, dated recently. Then ask a second question that most people miss: is that signer's specimen signature lodged with the office that will stamp it?

Cost of the state stamp

The apostille cost for an Academic Transcript in Bologna comes to a €16 tax stamp for the document. Buy it, fix it to the sheet, and hand the two in together. Some papers are let off, so ask at the desk before you spend. Whatever the body that holds your record charges to release a signed copy is its own charge, decided by that body, and it sits outside the figure quoted here.

When a notary or a court comes into it

Sometimes a reader abroad asks for a certified copy rather than a fresh release. If a notary signs for that copy, the paper becomes a notarial act. The legalisation of an Academic Transcript in Bologna then runs through the Procura della Repubblica at the court instead. The court office works by district, taking acts formed in the area it covers. Ask the reader which of the two it wants, because the choice changes the building, the queue and the day.

Sending study papers abroad

Once you apostille an Academic Transcript in Bologna, keep the record, the stamp and any sworn translation together as one item. Italy has issued this stamp under the 1961 Hague Convention since 1978, so it is built for cross-border reading. Even so, the body that receives your file writes its own rules on age, form and language, and it may want a second paper alongside the record. Ask it in writing, then post nothing until the reply is in hand.