Getting foreign education documents recognized on the territory of the Republic of Italy

Foreign education documents in and of themselves do not wield any legal force in Italy. In the case that the necessity arises to use such documents on the territory of the Republic of Italy, you will have to engage in the procedure of having their conformity to established Italian education standards recognized.

For the purposes of continuing education or implementing work activity in a specialty, in almost all cases, all you have to do is process a Dichiarazione di valore in loco (visit here to learn more about getting DDVs processed).

However, if you need to take part in state competitions or obtain special benefits, you will need to complete two different procedures regulated by multiple norms.

1. RECOGNITION OF EQUIVALENCY: tied to each specific case. This means that the equivalency of a foreign education document under a certain specialty is recognized to an Italian education document in the same specialty. A distinctive characteristic of having equivalency recognized is that the framing of recognition is contained in the determination issued and valid exclusively for one specific target. In other words, for each target, a separate recognition of equivalency and a separate determination must be acquired.

Having equivalency recognized is regulated by articles 2 and 3 of Law #148/2002 of the Lisbon Qualifications Recognition Convention.

2. EQUIPOLLENCE DELCARATION: entails a detailed analysis of the entire education course for the obtained education document. Based on the results of the analysis, a declaration is issued granting full legal conformity of the education document to Italian education standards and permitting it to be used for any purpose.

An equipollence declaration is regulated by article 5 of Law #148/2002 of the Lisbon Qualifications Recognition Convention.

Elligible applicants for equipollence declarations include citizens of the Republic of Italy as well as citizens of European Union member states in accordance with article 13 of the EU Law #28 as of 1/25/2006.

Applicants for equipollence must deal directly with the Ministry of Education, University, and Research (MIUR: Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca), in particular the Department of Higher Education and Scientific Research – the Main Department for Student Affairs, Development, and Higher Education Internationalization at the address: 00153, City of Rome, 61 Michele Carcani Street, Office IV (Dipartimento per la formazione superiore e per la ricerca – Direzione Generale per lo studente, lo sviluppo e l’internazionalizzazione della formazione superiore – Uff. IV - Via Michele Carcani, n. 61 – 00153 Roma).

The list of documents required to obtain an equipollence declaration includes:

• 1. Copy and translation pages of the diploma with attachments certified by an Italian Consulate.
• 2. A Dichiarazione di valore in loco issued by an Italian Consulate.
• 3. A declaration of Italian citizenship in simple written form (or citizenship of another nation that’s a member state to the EU);
• 4. A copy of a form of identification document.
• 5. A copy of an Italian tax number (Codice Fiscale).
• 6. A copy of a highschool diploma.
• 7. A copy of all provided documentation.
• 8. An equipollence declaration application form.

If you are gathering documents to apply for an equipollence declaration, we will be happy to help you process a Dichiarazione di valore in loco and obtain a codice fiscale (tax number).