Visura Camerale in English: What It Shows, What It Costs, and How to Order One
By Giulia Mancini, Head of Corporate Formation, Milan office. Giulia Mancini leads company formation for founders who are not resident in Italy. She started out preparing incorporation deeds in a Milan notary practice and has spent twelve years on the same problem since.
Reviewed by Alessandro Ferri, Tax and Accounting Lead. Updated 11 September 2026.
Every registered business sits inside the Italian company register, and a visura camerale is the extract that puts what the register holds into one document a bank, a notary or a counterparty can actually read.
Definition. A visura camerale (chamber extract) is an official informative document from the Italian Register of Companies, kept at the Chamber of Commerce for a business's province. It reports the business's legal, registry and administrative details. An English-language version, the Company Registration Report, costs the same as the Italian original, removing the need for a separate translation.
Two documents share the same source data but do different jobs, and choosing wrong costs a founder a lost week with a bank or a notary. What follows covers what is actually printed on the ordinary and historical extracts, why the English version is not a translation service, the visura-versus-certificato decision, the full official fee table, and the one access barrier that catches nearly every non-resident who tries to order one online for the first time.
What Is a Visura Camerale?
The legal basis: a public register under Art. 2188 of the Codice civile
Carrying on an economic activity as a business in Italy requires registration with the Register of Companies, held at the Chamber of Commerce of the province where the business has its seat. That obligation only means anything because the register itself is public. Art. 2188 of the Codice civile states it in four words: il registro è pubblico, the register is public. Nothing about the visura is a courtesy extract from a private database. It is a document drawn from a public record that the law itself makes open to anyone who asks.
What the document actually is, in one sentence
A visura camerale is an official informative document giving every detail of the registered business: legal and registry particulars, name, legal form, registered office, the codice fiscale (tax code), the activity carried on, and much else about its administrative bodies and corporate offices. It is not a certificate, not a contract, and not proof of anything beyond what the register itself states. It is, simply, the register's own record of one business, printed.
What Information Does a Visura Ordinaria Actually Contain?
The base document is the visura ordinaria (ordinary extract), the current snapshot of a business's registry, legal and fiscal data. Three groups of fields make it up.
Entry particulars, contacts and the digital address (domicilio digitale / PEC)
The ordinaria opens with entry particulars, name, personal data and contacts, then the address of the seat. It carries the domicilio digitale (certified digital address, also called PEC) and the sede legale (registered office), the address a company must maintain and keep current, the subject of its own guide on registered office in Italy. Alongside these sits the codice fiscale / partita IVA, the identifiers that travel with the business on every filing.
Legal form, incorporation date, objects and share capital
The next block is the business's constitutional data: legal form, date of incorporation, the objects clause and the share capital. This is the part a counterparty checks first when confirming that a company exists in the form it claims, and that its capital matches what a due-diligence file describes.
Corporate bodies, owners' quotas, registers, rolls and licences
The final block lists the activity carried on, the number and type of staff, quality certifications and attestations, administrative and control offices and qualifications, the corporate bodies, and owners and members with their quotas. That last field is where the visura's disclosure stops and a separate register begins: full beneficial-ownership tracing runs through the beneficial owner register in Italy, not through the visura's quota listing. The ordinaria closes with registers, rolls and licences, and any secondary offices or local units.
How Does a Visura Storica Differ From the Ordinaria?
What the historical extract adds: the full change history since incorporation
The visura storica (historical extract) adds, on top of the ordinaria, the whole history of changes from the original incorporation to the date requested, as far as actually filed with the Chamber of Commerce. Every registration and every filing of documents in the Register appears: past directors, past registered offices, past capital figures, every amendment on record. The ordinaria answers "what is true today." The storica answers "how did it get there."
Historical staff-number statistics
Beyond the change log, the storica also carries historical staff-number statistics, tracking how a business's headcount moved over the years covered by the extract rather than showing only the current figure the ordinaria reports.
When you actually need the history, and where the deeper reading lives
A buyer vetting a specific shelf company before purchase reads a storica section by section rather than skimming it. That due diligence checklist for a shelf company belongs to ready-made companies in Italy and is not repeated here.
Can You Get a Visura Camerale in English?
The Visura in Inglese / Company Registration Report
Yes, and it is not a translation service bolted onto the Italian document. The Visura in Inglese, officially the Company Registration Report, is the register's own English-language equivalent of the visura ordinaria, drawn up to the same standard.
Same content, same cost, no separate translation needed
The English version costs exactly the same as the Italian ordinaria. That single fact removes the two most common objections a non-resident raises before ordering: paying twice, once for the document and once for a certified translation, and waiting on a translator's turnaround before a bank or a notary abroad will even look at the file.
The QR code, and why the English certificate is cheaper than the Italian one
The document's first page carries a QR code so a recipient can check its authenticity directly, without relying on the paper alone. On the certificate side the comparison actually runs the other way: the English certificate costs less than the Italian one, because it is exempt from stamp duty. Between the visura and the certificate, English costs the same or less, never more.
Can You Order Just One Section? What Is a "Blocco"?
Not every reader needs the whole extract. A visura can be bought as a single targeted "block" covering one section only, at a fraction of the full document's price.
The available information blocks
Telemaco lets a registered user buy exclusively a single informational block: a document containing only one specific section of the official visura. The sections on offer include amministratori (directors), other office-holders, business transfers, mergers and demergers, the registered office and local units, dissolution and insolvency procedures, statutory auditors, activity records and licences, controlling entities, filings under examination, holdings in other companies, and shareholders' rights over quotas and shares. A founder who needs only the directors' names, or only the insolvency-status section, has no reason to buy the rest.
Price: EUR 1.00 to EUR 3.00 per block, against a full extract
A single block document costs EUR 1.00 to EUR 3.00, depending on whether it is simple, complex or complex-historical, against EUR 3.00 and up for a full ordinaria. For a narrow question, such as confirming who currently holds the power to sign, the block is the cheaper and faster route.
Visura or Certificato Camerale: Which One Do You Actually Need?
One decision determines whether a document a bank or a counterparty asked for actually does its job.
Why a visura has no certifying value
A visura camerale provides official information and data, but it has no value as a certification and is therefore not enforceable against third parties. It tells a reader what the register holds. It does not, on its own, prove anything to a court or bind a counterparty who wants to dispute a fact in it.
What a certificato camerale adds: legal force and a six-month validity
The certificato camerale, unlike the visura, has the legal force of a certification, is valid for six months from the date of issue, and is enforceable against third parties. That validity window matters in practice: a certificate ordered too early for a closing date may already have expired by the time it is needed.
Start with one question: does the reader need legal certifying force enforceable against third parties, for a financing request or a merger, for instance? If no, a second question follows: does the full change history matter? A no there points to the visura ordinaria, current data only, no fixed expiry. A yes points to the visura storica, the same lack of expiry but with the full history added. If the first answer is yes, the certificato camerale is the only document that will do, valid for six months from issue.
When a counterparty specifically asks for the certificate
The certificate is requested in specific cases where a visura is not enough: financing requests, corporate mergers, and similar situations named by the register itself. Outside those cases, a visura remains the right, cheaper and unrestricted document.
What makes a paper certificate hard to fake
Buying a certificate online requires watermarked paper and holographic counterfoils, obtainable at the Chamber of Commerce, which give validity to a remotely issued certificate and guarantee it cannot be reproduced. The counterfoil is colour-coded by type: gold for the Certificato Anagrafico or di Iscrizione, silver for the Certificato Storico, copper for the Certificato Artigiano. The certificate also states the number and value of the revenue stamps required to prove payment of the mandatory duty, and any stamps applied must be dated on or before the certificate's own issue date, a detail that trips up a reader assembling a document pack out of order. Buying online also requires enrolling with Telemaco under activation profile 2, database access plus the sending of electronic filings.
The Italian equivalent of a "certificate of good standing"
Foreign readers frequently search for the Italian equivalent of a "certificate of good standing," and there is a specific answer. The Certificato Anagrafico or di Iscrizione, issued with closing option "F," is known as the Certificato di Vigenza. It confirms that no insolvency proceedings are currently pending against the business, and nothing beyond that confirmed scope.
How long each document stays valid, and when the ATECO code matters
A visura has no time limit on its validity, because it is not a formally regulated document; its currency depends only on the date it was issued. That makes it the right document in every case where a certificato is not compulsory, and in every case where the ATECO activity code must be shown, since that code does not appear on the certificate at all.
How Do You Actually Order a Visura Camerale as a Non-Resident?
Three channels exist, and only one of them is realistic for someone who has never held an Italian digital identity.
Free and unregistered: the basic search on registroimprese.it
Without Telemaco registration, a user reaches an essential set of functions and documents directly from the registroimprese.it home page: the ordinary and historical visure, English included, no account required. A registered Telemaco user gets a full professional approach to the Register and the Chambers' databases, but for a single, occasional lookup the free route is often enough.
Telemaco: every document type, but only with SPID, CIE or CNS
Telemaco, built by InfoCamere, is the online-counter service the Italian Chambers of Commerce make available to businesses, professionals, private individuals and ordinary citizens alike. With it a user can search by codice fiscale, partita IVA, numero REA, geography, legal form, capital or turnover, and buy online every official document of the Register, as well as file Comunicazione Unica and the annual accounts. Becoming a Telemaco user is simple, guided and free of charge in itself. Since 28 February 2021, implementing the Simplifications Decree (D.L. 76/2020), registration requires one of three credentials: SPID livello 2, CIE 3.0, or CNS. On registration the user also picks an activation profile, database access only, or database access plus electronic filing, and pays official minimum amounts once registered, by prepaid account or by ICONTO.
The barrier a non-resident actually hits
Since 30 September 2021, Telemaco access for private individuals runs exclusively through SPID, CIE or CNS, with no stated alternative credential. This is the practical trap: a founder who has never set foot in Italy typically holds none of the three, and no workaround is published for that gap. The honest answer is that self-service Telemaco registration is closed to that reader until an Italian digital identity is obtained through other means, and the free basic search or the in-person counter route remain the realistic alternatives in the meantime.
Free for your own company: impresa.italia.it
A company's own legal representative or owner can get that company's visura camerale free of charge, including in English, through "impresa italia" (the app or impresa.italia.it), which also shows the status of filings, the accounts, and the digital file. Access still requires SPID or CNS, both issued free by the Chambers of Commerce against the office the person already holds in the Register, and the app additionally accepts CIE.
Three channels, compared on the same three points. The free basic search on registroimprese.it needs no registration, covers ordinary and historical visure in English, and works for a non-resident with no Italian digital identity. Telemaco is free to join but has required SPID livello 2, CIE 3.0 or CNS since 28 February 2021, and unlocks every document type in exchange. impresa.italia.it is free for a company's own representative, also gated behind SPID or CNS with the app accepting CIE, and returns only that company's own visura. Only the first column is open to someone who holds none of the three credentials.
Who Uses a Visura Camerale, and For What?
Assessing a business's solidity and legal standing
A visura guarantees the actual existence of the business and the legal publicity of every act concerning it, letting anyone assess a business's solidity and know in advance who they will be dealing with before signing anything.
Notarial deeds, financing requests and property transactions
Many notarial deeds need the document in support: preliminary agreements and sales, powers of attorney, business transfers or leases, mortgage financing, loan renegotiation, and mortgage cancellation. A notary drafting any of these routinely asks for a current extract before proceeding.
Checking a counterparty's activity status, management and ATECO classification
The document verifies a business's activity status, active, inactive, suspended, in liquidation, in arrangement with creditors, in bankruptcy, or ceased. It identifies the management body and legal representatives, shows directors' powers, delegations and signing authority, and reports the registered office, any secondary offices or local units, the ATECO activity classification, and staff data by number, type and category. It also shows business certifications, such as SOA attestations, organic-operator status, quality, environmental and safety certifications, where they apply.
KYC checks, and who else relies on the document
Businesses use the visura to check a new customer, business partner or supplier, a tenant before a commercial lease, or a construction company before buying property from it. The register itself names the use case directly: analisi KYC, know-your-customer analysis, alongside financing requests, tax-incentive information, building permits and marketing research. Professionals such as accountants and notaries rely on it for drafting deeds, administrative filings, service of judicial acts, financial advice and debt recovery, and ordinary citizens use it for public information, supplier research and property purchases.
How Much Does a Visura Camerale Cost?
| Document | Who it's for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Visura ordinaria | società di capitali | EUR 5.00 |
| Visura ordinaria | società di persone | EUR 3.50 |
| Visura ordinaria | imprese individuali e altre forme | EUR 3.00 |
| Visura storica | società di capitali | EUR 6.00 |
| Visura storica | società di persone | EUR 4.50 |
| Visura storica | imprese individuali e altre forme | EUR 4.00 |
| Specialised extracts (storia delle modifiche / contratto di rete / artigiana) | businesses needing one specific record type | EUR 2.00 to EUR 3.00 |
| Single "blocco" document | a reader who needs one section only | EUR 1.00 to EUR 3.00 |
| Visura in English | a non-resident or a foreign counterparty | same price as the Italian ordinaria |
| Certificato camerale in English | a counterparty requiring legal certifying force, valid 6 months | less than the Italian certificate (stamp-duty exempt) |
Fees by legal form: società di capitali, di persone, imprese individuali
Prices for an official visura in Telemaco match the minimum amounts of the Ministerial Decree on secretarial fees for the online counter. A società di capitali pays EUR 5.00 for the ordinaria; a società di persone pays EUR 3.50; a sole trader or another form pays EUR 3.00. The gap between forms is small, but it is fixed, not negotiable and not discounted for volume.
Visura storica and the specialised extracts
The historical extract follows the same ladder one step up: EUR 6.00 for a società di capitali, EUR 4.50 for a società di persone, EUR 4.00 for a sole trader or other form. The specialised extracts, the storia delle modifiche, contratto di rete and artigiana extracts, sit at EUR 2.00 to EUR 3.00 each, well below a full storica for a reader who only needs one of those specific records.
What is genuinely free: Telemaco registration and your own company's visura
Three different things are free, and conflating them causes confusion. Registering as a Telemaco user costs nothing; the documents bought once registered still carry the minimum fees above. A company's own legal representative obtains that company's own visura entirely free of charge, including in English, through impresa.italia.it. Neither of those "free" routes removes the SPID, CIE or CNS requirement described above.
From Our Practice: What Non-Resident Founders Get Wrong About the Visura
Three mistakes recur often enough to name directly. First, ordering a visura when a counterparty actually asked for a certificate. A bank, a notary or a financing counterparty that needs legal certifying force will not accept a visura in its place, and the two documents look similar enough on the page that the difference is easy to miss until the file is rejected. Second, assuming Telemaco registration is a formality reachable from anywhere. Since 28 February 2021, and for private individuals since 30 September 2021 with no stated alternative, registration itself requires an Italian digital identity most non-residents have never held, and discovering that at the point of need costs real time. Third, defaulting to the Italian original because an English document is assumed to carry a premium. It does not: the Visura in Inglese costs the same as the Italian ordinaria, and the English certificate costs less, so ordering the wrong language version is a pure loss with no cost justification behind it.
Accuracy note: fees and access rules above are given as published by the register operator as at the update date of this page and may be revised. Check the current rule directly before relying on it for a specific filing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a visura camerale?
An official informative document issued by the Italian Register of Companies, giving the registered particulars of a business: name, legal form, registered office, codice fiscale, the activity it carries on, and its administrative and corporate bodies, held at the Chamber of Commerce for the province where it has its seat.
What is the difference between visura ordinaria and visura storica?
The visura ordinaria reports a business's current registry, legal and fiscal data only. The visura storica adds the complete history of changes and filings made at the Chamber of Commerce since the original incorporation, together with historical staff-number statistics, rather than a snapshot of today alone.
How much does a visura camerale cost?
The official Telemaco minimum fees are EUR 5.00 for a società di capitali (ordinaria) or EUR 6.00 (storica), and EUR 3.00 to EUR 3.50 (ordinaria) or EUR 4.00 to EUR 4.50 (storica) for other legal forms such as partnerships and sole traders.
Can I get the visura camerale in English?
Yes. The Visura in Inglese, officially called the Company Registration Report, is drawn up to the same standard as the Italian ordinaria and costs exactly the same amount, which also removes any need to pay separately for a translation.
Does a visura camerale have legal force?
No. It provides official information from the Register but has no value as a certification and is not enforceable against third parties. Only a certificato camerale carries that legal force, so a visura is not a substitute wherever certification is specifically required.
What is a certificato camerale, and how long is it valid?
Unlike a visura, a certificato camerale has the legal force of a certification and is enforceable against third parties. It is valid for six months from the date of issue and is requested in specific cases, such as a financing request or a corporate merger, where a visura is not enough.
How do I order a visura camerale?
Without registering, registroimprese.it's free basic search gives the ordinary and historical extracts, including in English. Telemaco, once registered, unlocks every document type, single sections and certificates. A certificate can also be obtained in person, on watermarked paper, at the Chamber of Commerce.
What is the Italian equivalent of a "certificate of good standing"?
The closest equivalent is the Certificato Anagrafico / di Iscrizione issued with closing option "F", known as the Certificato di Vigenza, which confirms that no insolvency proceedings are currently pending against the business.
Ordering the right extract only matters once a company actually exists on the register to be extracted from. For a founder who has not yet reached that point, the starting question is how to register a company in Italy in the first place, before any visura or certificato comes into play.