Sri Lanka needs legalisation, not an apostille
An apostille is not accepted for Sri Lanka. That is worth stating plainly and first, because it is the opposite answer this kind of page usually gives, and getting it wrong wastes a trip to the Prefettura on a certificate the receiving country will not take. Sri Lanka has not signed the Hague Convention, so the single-stamp shortcut most member-state destinations use simply is not available here. A person searching for a fast one-stop route to Sri Lanka will not find it, and no amount of paperwork substitutes for the extra stage the country's own rules require.
Document legalisation for Sri Lanka instead means a longer chain: the Italian side confirms the document's signature is genuine, and Sri Lanka's own diplomatic side then adds its own approval on top. Two authorities look at the paper rather than one, which is exactly the older process the apostille was designed to replace for countries that had joined the Convention. Sri Lanka simply has not made that move, so its documents from abroad keep going through both stages.
What still happens in Padua
The Italian portion of the process does not disappear just because Sri Lanka is outside the Convention. The Prefettura di Padova – Ufficio Legalizzazioni, Piazza Antenore 3, 35121 Padova, still checks that the signature and seal on the document match its own records — the identical check that underpins an apostille anywhere else, just issued here as a legalisation rather than that single stamp. A resident of Padua still visits one desk for this part; it is only what happens afterward that differs from a Convention-member destination.
Where a sworn translation comes first, the Tribunale di Padova – Ufficio Asseverazioni on Via Nicolò Tommaseo 55 takes the translator's oath, with the Giudice di Pace di Padova on Via Carlo Rezzonico offering the same oath as an alternative venue. That bundle then goes to the Prefettura before moving to the next stage of the chain. Doing the translation first, rather than after the Italian check, avoids sending the paper back and forth between the two offices.
What comes after the Italian step
Once the Prefettura's part is finished, the document still needs Sri Lanka's own diplomatic representation in Italy to complete the legalisation. That stage sits with Sri Lanka's side of the process, not the Prefettura, so its exact requirements are worth confirming with that office directly rather than assuming they mirror the Italian step. Nothing about this second stage is covered by anything the Padua authorities handle or control.
An apostille from Italy to Sri Lanka is, again, not what gets produced here — the end result of this longer route is a legalised document, a different certificate with a different look, and a Sri Lankan office will expect that shape rather than the single apostille form. Presenting an apostille in its place risks a rejection at the receiving desk, since the paperwork simply will not match what Sri Lankan rules ask for.
Cost and timing across the chain
The Prefettura's own stage costs €16 per document as a tax stamp, with some document categories exempt, and runs 2-10 business days like any other Padua visit. That figure covers the Italian check only, and it stays the same whether the document is headed to a Convention member or, as here, to a country that is not.
What you need for an apostille for Sri Lanka does not actually exist as a single product, since the country takes legalisation instead; plan for the Italian stage on the timeline above, then extra time on top for the consular stage that Sri Lanka's own representation in Italy controls. Building in that extra margin from the outset avoids a document sitting unfinished past a deadline that only accounted for the Padua half of the chain.