APPLICATIONS FOR NAME/FAMILY NAME CHANGE
Pursuant to articles 89 and following of Presidential Decree 396 of 3.11.2000, as amended by Presidential Decree 13 March 2012 n. 54, anyone who wishes to change their name or add another name to their name or wish to change their surname or add another surname to their name, must apply to the prefect of the province of their place of residence or the one in whose jurisdiction the civil registry office is located where the birth certificate to which the request refers is located.
Alternatively, an Italian citizen residing abroad may submit a written request to this Consulate General, for subsequent forwarding to the competent Prefecture.
Admissibility of applications: in the Italian legal system, the change of name and/or surname is an exceptional matter, therefore requests may be admitted only and exclusively in the presence of objectively relevant situations, supported by adequate and significant documentation and by solid and significant motivations: ridiculous or shameful surnames or names or that reveal natural origin.
In no case may the attribution of surnames of historical importance or in any case such as to mislead as to the applicant’s belonging to illustrious or particularly well-known families be requested in the place where the applicant’s birth certificate is registered or in his/her place of residence.
The Consulate General has no decision-making power over the procedures for changing the name and/or surname, acting as a simple intermediary between the citizen and the competent Italian Prefecture and has no power to intervene on the timing of the procedure which is determined by a series of steps regulated by the Civil Code and by the response times of the Prefecture illustrated below.
The outcome of the application is discretionary and the Prefect can reject it if he deems the reasons given insufficient or unfounded.
As a reminder, according to the italian law, a woman married to an Italian citizen does not automatically take her husband’s surname
The entire procedure for changing the name and/or surname, as it is carried out at the competent Prefecture in Italy, is carried out only and exclusively in Italian.
Procedure for applications submitted to this Consulate General
Application for changes of name and/or surname follow the following steps:
Submission of the request by the interested party on a specific form, accompanied by various documents. The application is subject to payment of a consular fee. For information on the application form and documents to be produced: notifiche.bruxelles@esteri.it
Forwarding of the application by the Consulate General to the competent Prefecture;
The Prefecture has up to 30 days to provide feedback which may be:
* acceptance of the application;
* rejection of the application;
* acceptance with reservation: the Prefect may request any additional documentation, for example a criminal record certificate. Once the requested additions have been provided, the Prefect proceeds to accept or reject the application;
* acceptance.
If the request is accepted:
– The Consulate will receive the Decree of Authorization for the publication of a notice containing the summary of the application for change of name or surname on the Consular Register. The decree will be notified to the interested party upon payment of a consular fee;
– The Consulate will publish the notice for 30 days. After this time, it will notify the competent Prefecture of the publication;
– The Prefecture will send the Decree of Authorization for the change of name or surname to the Consulate, which must be notified to the interested party upon payment of another consular fee;
– The interested party must submit to the Consulate, an application to the Municipality of birth or registration of the birth, for transcription and annotation of the Final Decree of the change of name or surname;
– The Municipality will communicate the transcription and annotation to the Consulate, which in turn will inform the interested party: from this moment on, the change will produce its effects.
The COMPLETE documentation reported above must be sent in advance by email to notifiche.bruxelles@esteri.it. Please do not send incomplete requests as they will not be accepted.
NB: Each procedural step involves the payment of consular fees. For costs and payment procedure: notifiche.bruxelles@esteri.it