ISEE Parificato for International Students: Home-Country Documents, CAF, Timing and Tuition

Known in Italy as the ISEE parificato or ISEEU parificato, this is the family wealth indicator calculated from documents issued in the country where your family lives and earns. International students need it to compete for the DSU grant and, at some public universities, to pay less than the maximum fee. It does not work everywhere: Sapienza does not accept it for foreign income, and Padua charges non-EU citizens a fixed fee. It is calculated free of charge by the tax assistance centre (CAF) partnered with your university or agency, although some regional agencies assess foreign documents themselves. Collecting, legalising and translating the documents takes weeks to months, and the income year you must document depends on the procedure.

Every rule below comes from official 2026/27 calls and university pages. Dollar figures use the ECB rate of 29 September 2026 (€1 = $1.1355).

What the ISEE parificato is

ISEE (Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente) condenses a household's income, savings and property into one figure adjusted for household size. Students need a specific version — the ISEE for right-to-study benefits (ISEE per le prestazioni per il diritto allo studio universitario). The ordinary ISEE used for other welfare benefits is refused; ER.GO's call says so explicitly.

Alongside ISEE, agencies check ISPE, an indicator of assets only, and you must be below both caps for DSU. The 2026/27 national caps are $32,180 (€28,339.88) for ISEE and $69,960 (€61,608.48) for ISPE; regions set their own, usually lower.

Italian families obtain an ISEE from tax records. A family abroad has no such records in Italy, so the indicator is "equalised" (parificato) from its documents. Three rules apply almost everywhere:

• property abroad is valued at a flat $570 (€500) per square metre, so a 70 m² flat counts as $39,740 (€35,000) whatever its market price;
• local-currency amounts are converted at the Bank of Italy's average annual exchange rate;
• certificates must come from the competent authorities of the country where income was earned and assets are held; self-declarations and affidavits are refused.

Who needs an ISEE parificato

Under the University of Padova's 2026/27 rules it is required for:

• international students living abroad whose family lives abroad;
• international students living in Italy who earn less than $10,220 (€9,000) a year from work and whose family lives abroad;
• Italian citizens living abroad.

You can apply without your family's finances only as an "independent student" (studente indipendente), which requires both of the following: living apart from your family for at least two years in accommodation not owned by a family member, and earning at least $10,220 (€9,000) a year from work for two consecutive years. For 2026/27 the University of Bologna and ER.GO checked 2024 and 2025 income.

Exceptions exist. Students from the countries the Ministry lists as particularly poor for 2026/27 submit a simplified Italian embassy certificate instead. Refugees and holders of international protection use an ordinary ISEE covering only their Italian income. Agencies also accept simplified certificates for students from conflict areas, as described in each call.

Who calculates it: a CAF or the regional agency

The procedure also changes the income year. Where a CAF calculates the indicator, the general ISEE rule applies: income from the second year before the certificate year, so 2024 for a 2026 certificate. Agencies that assess foreign documents themselves asked for 2025 data for 2026/27. If you apply in two regions, prepare two sets of certificates.

The full document list

The binding list is always in the agency's call or the CAF guide, but the official 2026/27 lists from Padua, ER.GO, EDISU and DiSCo share the same core.

Student's personal documents

• passport;
• Italian tax code (codice fiscale), issued by the Italian consulate in your country of residence or, in Italy, by the Revenue Agency;
• disability certificate, if applicable;
• in Padua, the signed authorisation form (delega) for the ISEE parificato.

Household composition

• a certificate of household composition at the time of application, with names, dates of birth and relationships;
• details of both parents — EDISU always requires them;
• in special cases, a divorce certificate or court order, a parent's death certificate or a guardianship order; for adult siblings living elsewhere, proof of their residence.

Income of every adult household member

• a certificate from a public authority showing gross income, including taxes, for the reference year;
• if unavailable, ER.GO accepts an employer's certificate of annual salary, the December payslip if it shows the year's total, or all twelve payslips;
• for non-working members, proof of unemployment or inactivity and of any benefit received;
• at ER.GO and Bologna, each member's occupation and whether they worked more or less than six months in the year;
• pensions, welfare payments and maintenance;
• any scholarships received in Italy, which are treated separately.

Real estate

• a certificate of all buildings owned by each adult, with floor area in square metres;
• if there is no property, a certificate of no ownership for each adult member;
• any outstanding mortgage at 31 December (ER.GO, Bologna);
• if the family rents its home, the lease showing the annual rent (Padua, DiSCo).

Savings

• balances of all accounts and deposits at 31 December, plus the average annual balance in Padua;
• securities, shareholdings and savings-type insurance policies;
• if there are no accounts, this must be stated expressly — for this item only, EDISU accepts a notarised declaration.

DiSCo Lazio adds one condition: total household income cannot be zero and must be consistent with the financial requirements for a residence permit.

Where the documents come from

Italian agencies describe what each certificate must show and who must issue it; they do not publish country-specific document names. Typically families use their national tax authority or employer for income certificates, the land or property registry for real estate (including certificates of no ownership), their banks for year-end balances, the civil registry or residence authority for household composition, and pension or employment agencies for benefits and unemployment. Before paying for apostilles, send scans to the CAF or agency and ask whether they are acceptable. If a certificate is issued electronically, check whether it can be apostilled or whether a paper version is needed. An apostille can be placed only on official documents, so employer and bank letters are usually apostilled via a notarised copy or a notarised signature — agree this route with the CAF or agency before paying for it.

Apostille, legalisation and translation

Legalisation. Padua's 2026/27 guide groups countries into four areas. EU documents are exempt from legalisation. Countries party to the 1961 Hague Convention — for example the United States, United Kingdom, India, China, Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — need an apostille. Particularly poor countries use a simplified embassy certificate. Every other country needs consular legalisation at an Italian diplomatic mission.

Translation into Italian. Under ER.GO's rules, translations must be made by the competent diplomatic or consular mission or by an official translator. EDISU requires the translation to be inseparable from the original: loose pages that cannot be matched to a certificate are rejected, and translation errors cannot be fixed by request after submission — a new original with a new translation is needed.

Document dates. Agencies limit how old certificates can be, which is why they cannot be prepared a year ahead:

• EDISU Piemonte: translations and legalisation must date from 2026;
• DSU Toscana: certificates must be issued in 2026;
• Padua: household composition dated after 1 January of the ISEE year; income and asset certificates after 1 January of the previous year.

If documents cannot be issued in your country, several agencies accept a certificate from your country's consulate in Italy legalised by an Italian prefecture. At EDISU this applies only to countries where the agency recognises difficulties in issuing documents.

Timeline: how not to miss the deadlines

Padua warns that collecting, translating and legalising documents can take several months. A practical sequence for the 2027/28 intake:

1. Winter 2026/27. For each target university, note who calculates the indicator (CAF or agency), which income year applies and the deadline.
2. From January 2027. Request certificates dated 2027 to satisfy EDISU, DSU Toscana and Padua's household certificate rule.
3. February–April 2027. Apostilles and translations; check every certificate against the agency's list before sending.
4. When the CAF portal or agency window opens. Upload the set. In Padua the CAF checks the files and emails the indicator, or asks for replacements; the ISEE date becomes the date of the last corrected file.
5. Before the DSU deadline. In 2026: 22 July in Lazio (the application itself), 24 August at ER.GO, 4 September at EDISU, 7 September in Tuscany and 30 September in Padua.
6. Before the fee-reduction deadline. In 2026: 20 November in Bologna (foreign documents via ER.GO) and 10 December for the ISEEUP in Lazio; at Politecnico di Milano the 2027 ISEEU parificato for the second instalment is filed from January 2027.

How the ISEE parificato affects tuition

At a public university the indicator sets the variable contribution. By law students with an ISEE up to $24,980 (€22,000) are fully exempt, and universities may raise the threshold. For international students, however, rules differ:

Worked examples by income level are in our guide to free university education in Italy, and regional DSU caps and amounts are in our scholarships guide.

Common mistakes

• Self-declarations instead of certificates. ER.GO, EDISU, DSU Toscana and DiSCo refuse them; EDISU's only exception is a notarised declaration of having no bank accounts.
• Missing no-property certificates. Each adult household member needs one, not just the parents.
• The wrong income year. CAF procedures for 2026/27 used 2024 data, while ER.GO and EDISU asked for 2025.
• Translations separated from originals. EDISU rejects translations that cannot be matched to a certificate.
• An ordinary ISEE. Agencies accept only the ISEE for right-to-study benefits.
• A CAF not partnered with your university. DiSCo excludes indicators from unrecognised CAFs, and Padua accepts only its partner centre.
• Zero declared household income. Lazio does not accept it, and your visa still requires proof of funds.
• Filing in the last days. A CAF need not accept an incomplete file, and corrections take time and new translations.

What to do next

Build a table for your shortlisted universities: who calculates the indicator, which income year is required and by when. It will show how many sets of certificates you need and when to start. StudyU does not calculate ISEE and does not decide on benefits — CAFs, agencies and universities do. Personal strategy, requirement checks, shortlisting, document preparation, submission and follow-up are provided under a contract with StudyU. For the full admission route, see our Italy country guide.

FAQ

Sources

• University of Padova: benefits and ISEE, 2026/27 guide
• University of Padova: fixed fee for non-EU citizens
• University of Bologna: reduced flat fee for non-OECD citizens
• Politecnico di Milano: Law 232/2016 exemptions and the ISEEU parificato caveat
• ESU Padova: how to apply for the ISEE parificato
• Politecnico di Milano: students with income and property abroad
• DiSCo Lazio: 2026/27 call and ISEEUP deadline
• ER.GO: 2026/27 general rules, international students
• University of Bologna: foreign income documents
• EDISU Piemonte: 2026/27 call and consular documents
• DSU Toscana: 2026/27 call
• Ministry of University and Research: ISEE and ISPE caps 2026/27
• Ministry of University and Research: particularly poor countries 2026/27
• Sapienza: ISEE for international students
• HCCH: Apostille Convention status table
• Italian Revenue Agency: codice fiscale

Official sources checked on 23 September 2026.

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