Where Vietnam stands today
Vietnam is on the way into the Hague Apostille Convention, not yet inside it. The accession is recorded for 2026 and it enters into force on 11 September 2026. Before that day a Vietnamese office has no duty to read an Italian apostille, so document legalisation for Vietnam still runs through the mission here in Italy. From that day forward the single certificate takes over, and the apostille requirements for Vietnam come down to one Italian mark.
Which Palermo desk stamps your paper
The split is by signer, not by subject. A birth, marriage or residence entry signed by an official at a Sicilian comune is an administrative paper and belongs to the Prefettura. A notarial deed, a power of attorney or anything issued by a court belongs to the Procura della Repubblica. Send a paper to the wrong desk and it comes back without a stamp, which costs a week nobody planned for.
The Palermo → Vietnam route step by step
Bring the original, buy the €16 tax stamp, and hand both to the right desk. The mark goes on the paper itself, so nothing is reissued and nothing is retyped. The bundle then leaves Sicily for the Vietnamese mission in Italy, where a consular stamp goes on and the mission's own charge is paid. Only a file carrying both marks is finished under the rules that apply now.
Cost and timing from Sicily
One figure is fixed and the rest is not. The tax stamp per paper is set by Italian law, and some record types escape it. The consular charge is set by the mission and no national rule fixes it. Time is where Palermo differs: an apostille from Italy to Vietnam that starts in Sicily spends extra days simply moving, so begin the job earlier than a mainland sender would.
Translation and the order of stamps
If the receiving side needs the text in another language, the translation is sworn in Italy before any stamp goes on. A translator signs the asseverazione in front of a Tribunale, the court stamps the bundle, and the later marks then cover the lot. Doing it the other way round leaves the translation outside the chain, and the file has to go back to the beginning.