How to prepare, scan and upload your documents
Read this once before your first upload. It covers the order of work, how to scan, and how uploads are named and reviewed. Uploads open after your service agreement is signed and your first payment is confirmed.
1 Complete your onboarding form first
Fill in the onboarding form before anything else. It gives your consultant what they need to start matching you with universities. No passport yet, or under 18? You can still complete it: the form asks what applies to you.
Do
- Keep your passport next to you. Every name and date must match it exactly, because universities and the visa file are checked against it.
- Save and come back. Your answers are kept as a draft until you press Submit.
- Unsure of a required answer (marked *)? Write what you know, for example "not sure, about 85%". Explain it in Additional notes at the end and your consultant sorts it out with you.
Don't
- Don't guess. Questions without a * can stay blank.
2 Gather your documents: applications first, attestations later
Your checklist is on the Documents page. It has these groups, in this order:
- "For your university application" first.
- "For your visa file" after.
- A few extra groups, if they apply to you.
This guide describes the Pakistan route (IBCC, HEC, MOFA, then the Italian embassy in Islamabad or the consulate in Karachi).
Living elsewhere? The steps differ by country.
- Tell us where you live in the onboarding form.
- Your consultant gives you your own list.
Do
- For your university application: plain scans are enough. Your school certificates, transcripts and degree documents do not need attestation or apostille at this stage. Clear, complete scans of the originals are what universities ask for at this stage.
- Attestation is for the visa file. The attested copies are separate items in the "visa file" section of your checklist.
- Who attests what. School certificates (Matric/O-Levels, Inter/A-Levels) go through IBCC. University degrees and transcripts go through HEC.
- Then the MOFA apostille. Everything gets it, and it must show a QR code.
- Scan after attestation. That way the stamps are on your scans.
- Start the chain as soon as your applications are submitted. The offices take weeks.
- Write your CV in the Europass format. It is the EU layout Italian universities know.
- Build it free at europass.europa.eu. Write it in English and export it as a PDF.
Don't
- Don't wait for attestation offices to start applying.
Leave the other visa-stage items for later (bank statement, police clearance, health cover). They come after admission.
More on the visa file
- The apostilled documents feed the Declaration of Value (DOV). The Italian Embassy issues the DOV from three things:
- Your apostilled certificates.
- Certified Italian translations (an authorised translator; we point you to one).
- Proof of where you live.
- The offices name different papers for this.
- Islamabad's last published list (2024) names a domicile certificate or residence permit.
- Karachi's 2026/27 list names a CNIC with an address in Sindh or Balochistan.
- The June 2026 visa lists name a residence certificate.
- Get a Domicile Certificate only when your consultant confirms that the office you will use accepts it. Your checklist says the same.
- The digital CIMEA statement is the paid alternative. Verification takes 60 working days.
- Every DOV item is on your checklist. We prepare the file together.
Cambridge (O/A-Level) students: your results must first be verified by IBCC and an Equivalence Certificate obtained. It is a separate item on your checklist.
3 Scan properly
Blurry or cropped scans are rejected, so check before you upload.
Do
- Scan every document on a flatbed scanner at 300 dpi, in colour.
- No scanner at home? A print shop, your school office or a library can do it.
- Scan the whole page with all four corners, including the back if there are stamps on it.
- Include every page: mark sheets, attestation stamps, the lot.
- Save each document as one PDF. The passport-size photograph is the only JPG.
- Zoom in and check before uploading: every word, number and stamp must be readable.
Don't
- No phone photos and no scanner apps (CamScanner, Microsoft Lens, Adobe Scan and the like). Phones add shadows, skew and filters, and the files get rejected.
- No screenshots, no photos of photos, no images that went through WhatsApp. WhatsApp compresses them, which is why documents go through the portal.
- Don't edit, filter or "enhance" a scan. It can be treated as tampering.
- Don't photograph your passport photo. The passport-size photograph must be the original digital file from a photo studio: white background, taken within 6 months, JPG.
4 Upload one document at a time
On the Documents page, press Upload on the document's row. A panel opens with:
- What we need.
- How to scan it.
- A place to drop the file.
Do
- Upload each file against its own checklist item.
- Let the portal rename it. Whatever your scanner calls the file, the portal renames it.
- The new name follows a clean standard, for example your-name_passport-photo-page_2026-07-16_v1.pdf. The saved name shows in the document's panel.
- A replacement becomes v2, and the earlier version is kept.
- Watch the status chip.
- Uploaded means we have it.
- Under review means we are checking it.
- Approved means done.
- Needs re-upload means read the reviewer's note under the document. Fix exactly that, then press Re-upload.
- The "Your next step" card on Home shows what to do next. When it says "You're up to date", the next move is ours.
Don't
- Don't combine your whole folder into one PDF.
- Don't send documents over chat.
Stuck on anything?
Message us on WhatsApp and we reply. Documents still go through the portal, not chat, so your file stays complete.
Message us on WhatsApp (+39 351 648 0444)