Apostille or consular legalisation for Vietnam?
Both are ways of proving that the signature on a paper is genuine. An apostille does it once, in the country that issued the document, and member states agree in advance to trust it. Consular legalisation does it twice: an Italian office first, then the destination's own mission in Italy. Vietnam runs on the second method for now.
Vietnam's position and the date that matters
Vietnam's accession year is 2026, and the Convention becomes live there on 11 September 2026. That single date splits every file into two groups. A paper needed before it must carry consular stamps, and a paper needed after it can travel on the certificate alone. There is nothing in between, and no early credit for having signed up.
The Naples to Vietnam route step by step
Get the record in a current, signed form: an extract from the comune, a certificate from the Procura, a transcript from the university. Take it to the Prefettura in Naples if it is administrative, or to the Procura della Repubblica if a notary or a judge produced it. Add the €16 stamp where it is owed. The Vietnamese consular office in Italy closes the file.
What the corridor costs and how long it takes
The Italian half is cheap and quick to price: €16 a document, less the exempt ones. The Vietnamese half is the variable, both in fee and in waiting, because a mission sets its own counter hours and its own queue. That is why a Naples file bound for Hanoi is usually planned backwards from the date it is due, not forwards from the day it is ordered.