Italian Dual Citizenship: Which Birth, Marriage, Death and Divorce Records Need Apostilles?

What we do, and don't do, in this type of case

Our role in an Italian citizenship file is identifying the correct apostille authority for each U.S. record you already know you need, and coordinating that process. We don't determine which records your specific line of descent requires, and we don't assess whether your case meets any eligibility requirement, those questions belong to the competent Italian consulate, the relevant comune in Italy, or an Italian citizenship professional you're already working with.

Birth records

Each person's birth record in the line of descent your case requires is apostilled by the U.S. state where the birth occurred and was recorded. If different family members were born in different states, each record follows its own state's apostille process, independently of the others.

Marriage records

As with birth records, the marriage record is apostilled by the state where the marriage was recorded, which doesn't necessarily match either spouse's state of birth or where they later lived. If your file includes several marriages in the family line, each record is handled independently by its own state.

Death and divorce records

When a case requires a death record or a divorce record or decree, both follow the same logic: they're apostilled by the state where the event was recorded, not by any living family member's current state of residence. If your case involves a divorce, confirm with your citizenship professional whether you need the state's summary record, the full court decree, or both, since these can be issued by different authorities within the same state.

The sibling article on Florida documents

If your records are specifically from Florida, we have a dedicated guide with more detail on that state: Florida documents for Italian citizenship. If your file combines records from several U.S. states, also see our guide to multi-state citizenship documents.

Certified copies, not photocopies

Each record needs to be an original certified copy issued by the relevant state vital records office. A photocopy, even a notarized one, is generally not eligible for apostille. Requesting the certified copy directly from the vital records office before starting the apostille process avoids having to repeat the request.

How the correct authority is determined

The rule we use for each record is the same one we apply across the site: identify who issued the document, not which country it's headed to or where the requester lives. You can read this rule with more examples in our guide to state vs. federal apostille, and see the general overview of citizenship-by-descent documents in this introductory guide.

Once you have your list of records confirmed with your consulate, comune, or citizenship professional, we can coordinate the apostille for each one. See our dual citizenship apostille page for more information.