Frequently Asked Questions

You can appeal our evaluation from the section My Requests of your DiploMe account within 7 days from the date of issue of your Statement by clicking on Appeal/Amendment and selecting Appeal from the drop-down menu called Type of appeal. To proceed with your Appeal request you will be required to upload additional documents supporting the re-evaluation by CIMEA experts. In the event of a positive re-evaluation, CIMEA will issue a Statement of Appeal to be attached to the previous statement which became the object of the appeal. In all cases, applications for appeals that do not comply with the Contractual Terms and Conditions signed at the time of requesting the service or which are clearly in contrast with the evaluation methodology carried out by CIMEA will not be considered. In cases where the appeal request is forwarded beyond the stated period, the request will be considered inadmissible and automatically rejected.

You can request an amendment of your Statement from the section My Requests of your DiploMe account within 7 days from the date of issue of your Statement by clicking on Appeal/Amendment and selecting Amendment from the drop-down menu called Type of appeal.
Before requesting an amendment please consider that - according to CIMEA's policy - your personal details are reported in your CIMEA Statement exactly as indicated in your educational documents and that your last name is written in capital letters. Please therefore restrain from requesting any amendment in the latter cases, as they will not be accepted by CIMEA.

The Declaration of Value (Dichiarazione di Valore - DOV) is a document issued exclusively by the Italian Diplomatic Mission (e.g. Italian Embassy or Consulate) in the country where the qualification was awarded. CIMEA's mandate does not include the issuance of the Declaration of Value. Therefore, please refer to the relevant Italian diplomatic mission for any additional information.

ARDI is a free tool allowing holders of qualifications from the signatory countries of the Lisbon Recognition Convention to obtain an automatic correspondence of their qualification. It contains the majority of qualifications from those countries related to the academic sector or final school qualifications, providing a comparative opinion on their correspondence with Italian qualifications, as well as specific evaluation notes for each type of qualification in line with the typical elements of the foreign reference system. This allows the Italian institution responsible for recognizing the qualification to assess the existence or absence of ”substantial differences” in line with national and European evaluation practices. The absence of a qualification from a specific country does not mean that it does not exist or cannot be evaluated.

Please note that the Statement of Correspondence includes a specific date indicating when it was downloaded because the information in these documents and in ARDI may undergo changes, additions, and/or modifications, including the inclusion of new qualifications.

You can still apply for our services, but please note that during the application process you will be required to upload the relevant official evidence of your name/surname change and to provide us with the necessary information to allow for a straightforward processing of your request.

We appreciate your concern regarding the capitalization of your last name. Please be assured that this is not an error. CIMEA capitalizes the last name on all our Statements to distinguish the last name from the first and middle names. This is CIMEA policy, and the capitalization of the last name will not be changed.

No. CIMEA is not in charge of any formal recognition procedure of foreign qualifications in Italy and it cannot therefore make any formal recognition decision. Hence, CIMEA's Statements do not establish nor guarantee in any way the formal recognition of your qualification, but they are a useful indication for the authorities and the bodies designated by law during their different recognition procedures. The Statements fulfill the function of a non-binding authoritative opinion and they do not bind the institutions in any way during their assessment and recognition procedures.

In the procedures for the evaluation of foreign qualifications, CIMEA applies a methodology in line with the criteria established by the Lisbon Convention and in line with the practices shared at international level by the centres representing the ENIC and NARIC networks. For more information click on: https://www.cimea.it/EN/pagina-metodologia-valutativa

The evaluation of a foreign qualification takes into account the status of the institution that issued the qualification, which must be official, i.e. fully recognised/accredited for the entire national territory in which it operates. The sole authorisation to operate, the mere fact that it is active in a specific territory, the fact that there are different authorisations, accreditation and/or recognition other than those mandated at national level for the issue of qualifications in the national higher education sector, or any other authorisation that does not prove that an institution has completed all the phases envisaged by the accreditation/recognition procedures in place in the foreign system of reference for higher education institutions, including cases of temporary and/or conditional accreditation, cannot be considered as proof of the official status of the foreign institution with the scope of recognising the qualifications issued by it.

The assessment of a foreign qualification takes into account the status of the institution that issued the final credential ( awarding institution), and of the one where the studies actually took place or which organized them (teaching institution).

By "official" title/qualification of a given education system we mean those that the competent authorities of the education system of reference define as belonging to their own country as issued in accordance with the national legislation in force in the field of education. The definition of "official title/qualification" in the sense explained above applies to qualifications at any level: elementary, secondary, or higher (both in the university and non-university sectors). Please note that in many systems, official institutions can also issue unofficial titles, i.e. not directly belonging to the national system, so it is a good idea to check both the official status of the institution and the qualification.