Schmidt & Schmidt provides services for the retrieval of civil status documents, as well as obtaining duplicates of lost or damaged documents in the Vatican with their subsequent legalization and translation.

If your personal documents are lost or damaged or you need to obtain current copies of documents it is necessary to request duplicates of documents. Often, those who have left the Vatican face difficulties in this procedure. Our service allows you to request documents in the Vatican remotely and we can carry out courier delivery of the document to anywhere in the world.

When to obtain duplicate documents in the Vatican

A duplicate birth certificate, marriage certificate, name change certificate, divorce certificate, criminal record certificate or death certificate may be required to register a marriage abroad, a newborn child, citizenship, inheritance, data verification for pension applications, opening bank accounts, employment and other bureaucratic issues.

What documents can be requested from the Vatican:

• Birth certificate
• Marriage certificate
• Certificate of change of surname
• Divorce certificate
• Death certificate
• Certificates of good conduct
• Educational documents
• Other civil status documents

Required documents for docuement procurement

Since civil status documents are personal documents containing personal data, they can only be requested by their owners or persons authorized by them. That is, first of all, to request documents, we will need a signed power of attorney from the owner of the document. Additionally:

• Copy of passport
• Birth data and name and surname change
• Data on the place of registration of civil status records

Responsible authorities

Registration of citizenship and civil status acts is carried out by the Governor through a bureau appointed for this purpose.

Consular legalization of documents in the Vatican

The Vatican is not a signatory to the Hague Convention of 05.10.1961, which established a procedure for simplified legalization of public documents by certifying them with an apostille. Therefore, it is possible to legalize public documents from the Vatican, as well as documents of other states for their subsequent use on the territory of the Vatican, only through the procedure of consular legalization.

Deadlines for requesting documents in the Vatican

Requesting documents usually takes about two weeks, in some cases, depending on the processing time of the application by local authorities, the terms may differ.
Requesting certified copies of educational documents takes about two weeks.
This period does not include the time required for legalization of documents and their translation.

Notarized translation of documents from the Vatican

Copies and duplicates of civil status documents can be translated into Russian or another language by a sworn translator in the Vatican or the translation can be done in the destination country. Schmidt and Schmidt provides translation services for civil status documents with their subsequent certification. The cost of the work is calculated based on the volume of a specific document.

Our advantages

• Personal approach to each order
• Transparency
• High quality of service
• Speed ​​of document processing
• Optimization of your financial costs
• Legal impeccability of all procedures