Legalizations and translations
Lebanon is not a party to the 5 October 1961 Hague Convention on the abolition of the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents. Therefore, public documents issued by Lebanese authorities that must be presented to the Italian Public Administration must be legalized and translated into Italian, following this procedure:
- The original document must be legalized by the competent Lebanese Authority, then by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and finally by the Consular Chancellery of the Italian Embassy in Beirut.
- The original document must be translated by an official translator. The translation must be legalized by a notary, then by the Ministry of Justice, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and finally by the Consular Chancellery.
The legalization of the original document always follows the procedure in point 1. It is possible to follow a simplified procedure only for the translation (procedure in point 2), entrusting it to one of the official translators present in the list of sworn translators recognized by this Consular Office. In this case, it is NOT necessary to have the translation legalized by the notary, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is sufficient to have the translation legalized only by the Consular Office.
Once the legalization and translation procedures have been completed, the interested person must present himself at the Consular Office with the document (always in original) to be legalized (appointment to be taken on Prenot@mi platform). In the absence of the necessary documents and stamps, it will not be possible to proceed with the legalization.
Please remember that the Consular Office legalizes only the signature of the competent Lebanese official; the legalization does not bind the Consular Office in any way with regard to the content of the legalized document.
Please come to the Embassy on the day of your appointment with the completed “Request for Authentication/Legalization of Documentation form”.
ATTENTION! Documents issued by Italian authorities on Italian territory and which must be used in Lebanon cannot be legalized by this Consular Chancellery.
In order to be valid in Lebanon, deeds and documents issued by Italian authorities must be certified by the Prefecture in the city where the deed or document was issued and subsequently legalized by the Lebanese diplomatic-consular representations in Italy.
Such deeds and/or documents must then be certified by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will validate the signature of the Lebanese diplomatic-consular official who legalized them.