How to translate an Italian document to English

How to translate an Italian PDF to English

1. Get the clearest copy you have. Use the PDF the università or the comune sent, or scan the paper. A flat phone photo of each page also works.
2. Create a free account and upload. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages and 3 MB. LoreAI detects Italian on its own.
3. Choose English. LoreAI reads the scan with OCR and translates it.
4. Download the Word file. Headings, tables and the signature block come back in the order of the original.
5. Compare it with the Italian. Check names, place names, dates, grades and every number before you use it.

What our test of an Italian diploma showed

On October 31, 2026, we ran LoreAI on specimen-diploma-it.pdf, a scanned specimen diploma di laurea with invented names, and you can download both files from the example above. Most of it came through as written, with one mistake.

Name and birthplace

Giulia Martina Rinaldi, born in Bologna, unchanged

Degree

Laurea magistrale became Master's degree, with the class code LM-31 kept

Grade

110/110 e lode became 110/110 with honors

Dates

21 novembre 1998 and 18 luglio 2023 became 21 November 1998 and 18 July 2023

Register number

55128 kept as written

Invented town

Esempio, Italian for example, became Example in the university's name and in the place line

The last row shows what to watch for. A place name that is also an ordinary Italian word can get translated. We would expect the same risk for real towns such as Fiume Veneto, since fiume means river, so compare every town and institution name with the original.

Italian terms that need a second look

Some Italian words have no exact English twin. A machine translation picks the closest one, and the reader of your English text should know what the original said.

• Laurea and laurea magistrale are Italian degree levels. Keep the Italian name in brackets after the English, so an evaluator sees which degree it is.
• The grade out of 110, with or without lode, is the Italian scale. Leave it as it is, and do not convert it to a GPA in the translation.
• Classe followed by a code, such as LM-31, names the degree class. Keep the code exactly.
• Estratto, certificato and copia integrale are different kinds of civil records. Translate the name of the record you actually have.

Old Italian civil records and handwriting

Many people translating Italian records are tracing a family line. Older atti di nascita and church registers are often handwritten, in old-fashioned script and abbreviations. We have not tested LoreAI on handwritten Italian registers, and OCR reads printed text far more reliably than handwriting.

For a handwritten entry, use the Word file as a starting point at most. Read each line against the scan, and mark any word you cannot read as illegible rather than guessing. A recent typed estratto from the comune is easier to translate than the old register page, and it is the version an Italian consulate asks for.

Italian dual citizenship: which way do the translations go?

Mostly into Italian, not into English. The Consulate General of Italy in New York asks for the Italian ancestor's birth record as an estratto dell'atto di nascita, issued by the comune within the last six months[2]. The US birth, marriage and death certificates of every descendant go in long form, legalized and translated into Italian[2].

So the Italian records do not need an English version for the consulate. Translate them into English to understand what they say and to check that names and dates match your US documents. Rules differ between consulates, so read the page of the consulate for your area before you order anything.

Using an Italian document in the US

For USCIS, a foreign document comes with a full English translation that the translator certifies as complete and accurate, plus a statement that the translator is competent to translate from Italian into English[3]. A diploma for a credential evaluation usually needs a translation the evaluator accepts. Check their rules first.

LoreAI is not a certified translation service and does not sign translations. Its Word file is a draft. Someone fluent in Italian and English reads it against the scan, corrects it and signs the certification. The diploma translation guide explains how to name the degree, and the certificate of translation template has wording to start from.

Questions people ask