What ISEE is, in one paragraph
Italy assesses many public benefits on a single household indicator called ISEE - roughly, a combined measure of a family's income and assets, adjusted for household size. Italian families produce it from Italian tax records. A family whose income and property sit in Bangladesh has no Italian tax records, so the equivalent is calculated from foreign documents instead. That version is the ISEE parificato.
It is not a scholarship. It is the number that scholarships and tuition bands are read off.
Why it decides more money than most scholarships
At most Italian public universities tuition is income-assessed, international students included. Check your own university's fee notice first, because at least one large university works differently: since 2023/24 the University of Padua charges non-EU students whose family lives abroad a fixed fee, and there the ISEE parificato only lowers the regional tax and decides the regional scholarship. Where tuition is income-assessed, the bands vary by university, but the shape is consistent:
| Assessed position | What a year of tuition typically costs |
|---|---|
| Low ISEE, inside the no-tax area | EUR 0 to 200, often only the regional tax and stamp |
| Middle bands | EUR 500 to 1,500 |
| Upper bands | EUR 1,500 to 2,500 |
| No ISEE filed at all | The maximum band, commonly EUR 2,500 to 4,000 |
Those ranges are indicative and every university republishes its own table each year. The row that matters is the last one. Not filing is not neutral - it is an automatic assignment to the top band. A student who skips the paperwork because it looks difficult pays for that decision every year of the degree.
On top of that, a DSU scholarship application without a valid ISEE parificato is not assessable at all. See which DSU agency covers your university for the deadline you are working against.
What your family actually has to produce
Three things, about the household as it stood in the reference year:
- 1Family composition - who is in the household, issued by the competent Bangladeshi authority.
- 2Income for the reference year, for every earning member of the household.
- 3Property and assets - land, buildings, and where applicable savings, held at the reference date.
The reference years are not the current ones. An ISEE normally looks at income from two years back and assets as at 31 December of the previous year. The CAF will confirm which years apply to the ISEE you are requesting, and getting this wrong is a common reason a file is returned.
The Dhaka chain
Each document has to travel the same route, and none of the steps can be skipped or reordered:
| Step | Where |
|---|---|
| Obtain the certificate | Local authority, employer, bank, land office |
| Apostille (for Italy since 2025, in place of attestation plus Italian Embassy legalisation) | See the attestation guide |
| Translation into Italian | A legally recognised translator |
| ISEE issued | A CAF office in Italy |
No authority publishes a time for each step, so this table does not guess one; the only published figure covers the whole chain, below.
Bangladesh's accession to the Apostille Convention took effect in March 2025, and Italy did not object, so for Italy an apostille replaces the old attestation-and-embassy chain (Denmark, Greece and Finland did object, which is why the full chain survives for those three) - the mechanics are in the attestation guide. The University of Padua's own ISEE guide warns that collecting, apostilling and translating the documents can take several months, so start before your admission result, not after it.
The CAF is a tax assistance centre in Italy. Many will act for you remotely; some charge nothing, others EUR 30 to 100. Your university's international office usually names the CAF it works with, and using that one avoids arguments about document format.
Things families get wrong
Assuming ISEE means income only. It does not. Land and property in Bangladesh enter the calculation. A family with modest cash income and significant land can compute higher than expected. This surprises people, and it is better to be surprised in June than in October.
Declaring a smaller household than the real one. Household size is a divisor in the calculation, so it is tempting to be selective. The composition certificate is an official document and it is checked against the rest of the file.
Understating income or property. ⚠️ This is not a grey area. A false declaration to obtain a benefit is a criminal matter in Italy, and the consequences run from repayment of everything received to loss of enrolment and a residence permit problem. Do not let anyone - an agent especially - offer to arrange convenient documents. Read how to spot document fraud before anyone suggests it.
Treating it as a one-off. An ISEE is valid until 31 December of the year it is issued. You do this again every year of the degree, and the second year is easier only because you know the route.
A realistic timeline
| When | What |
|---|---|
| February to March | List the documents; start with the slowest, usually land and income certificates |
| April to May | Apostille, then translation into Italian |
| June | Submit to the CAF |
| July | ISEE parificato in hand |
| August to September | DSU application, and the university fee declaration |
If you cannot complete it in time
You still enrol. You still pay the maximum band for that year, which is unpleasant but survivable, and you file the ISEE for the following year. What you cannot recover is the DSU scholarship for the missed year - that window does not reopen. Given the sums involved, being one year late on the paperwork is one of the more expensive administrative mistakes available in Italian higher education.
Official sources — check for yourself
- Universitaly — Italy's official portal for international students
- Study in Italy — Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Università di Bologna — fees and benefits
- Cost calculator
Rules and figures change. We review these articles periodically and show the date above, but always confirm the current requirement with the official source before you act on it.
Common questions
What happens if I do not submit an ISEE parificato?+
You are placed in the highest tuition band automatically, which at most Italian public universities means roughly EUR 2,500 to 4,000 a year instead of a few hundred, and your DSU scholarship application cannot be assessed at all. Not filing is a decision with a price, not a neutral omission.
How long does the whole process take from Bangladesh?+
Allow several months. The University of Padua's own ISEE guide warns that collecting the documents, having them apostilled and translating them into Italian can take that long; they then go to a CAF office in Italy, and the slowest documents are usually land and income certificates.
Does ISEE look at income only, or property too?+
Both. Land and buildings held by the household enter the calculation alongside income, which is why some families with modest cash income still compute into a middle band. Find this out early rather than in October.
Do I have to do this every year?+
Yes. An ISEE is valid until 31 December of the year it is issued, so a new one is needed for each academic year. The second year is faster because you know which office issues what, but the documents themselves have to be current.
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