Births
The birth of individuals abroad who are entitled to Portuguese nationality must be registered at a Consular Post.
How to do it?
Birth registration is done:
- by registration, by means of a declaration by the parents or by a declarant qualified to do so, (who also must be registered at the consular services)
- by transcription, based on a birth certificate issued by the local authorities of the country where the birth took place
IMPORTANT: the presence of the parents or of the declarants qualified to do so is required (duly identified and who have legal representation of the registrant or are authorised by proxy to do so).
Recquired Documents
1. In case the interested party is under 14 years old
- Certificate of birth registration of the parent (mother or father or both) of Portuguese nationality, full copy.
- This birth certificate can be obtained ex officio by the consular services.
- If the parents are married to each other, the birth certificate of the Portuguese parent must indicate the marriage or proof of it.
2. In case the interested party is a minor who is over 14 years old
- Certificate of your birth registration, if possible, full copy, and issued by photocopy. If issued by a country other than the European Union, it must be duly legalised. If written in a language other than Portuguese, Spanish/French or English, it must be accompanied by a translation.
- Identification document (passport or other equivalent identification document, issued by the competent authority of one of the countries of the European Union, title or residence permit).
If these documents are not presented, two witnesses must be offered in order to be questioned and, if possible, a document proving the accuracy of the statement must be presented.
3. In case the interested party is over 18
- Certificate of your birth registration, if possible, full copy and issued by photocopy – if issued by a country other than the European Union, it must be duly legalised. If written in a language other than Portuguese, Spanish/Spanish, French or English, it must be accompanied by a translation.
- This certificate must prove that affiliation with the parent of Portuguese nationality (father or mother) was regularly established during the minority.
- Identification document (passport or other equivalent identification document, issued by the competent authority of one of the countries of the European Union, title or residence permit).
The interested party may be represented by a proxy, with a power of attorney, for registration of the birth in the Portuguese civil registry.
If these documents are not presented, two witnesses must be offered in order to be questioned and, if possible, a document proving the accuracy of the statement must be presented.
Marriages
What is it?
Portuguese citizens residing abroad, who want to get married or Portuguese citizens who want to get married to foreigners, must request to the Consular Section to register their marriage after the act.
The marriage registration performed before the local civil registry authorities or before a minister of religious cult, is done by transcription.
How to do it?
Marriage Transcription
The request for transcription of the marriage certificate can be requested at any time by any interested party.
The marriage contracted abroad, before the competent local authorities, or before the ministers of religious worship, must be preceded by the preliminary process of marriage, organised before the consular agents.
If it is not preceded by a preliminary process, the consular agent cannot proceed with its transcription without first organizing "a posteriori" the respective process.
In this case, between two spouses of Portuguese nationality, for the purposes of Portuguese law, the mandatory regime of separation of property will apply, and any prenuptial agreement that the spouses may have granted will be jeopardised.
Documents required to apply for a marriage transcript
- Citizen card/Identity Card or Passport of each of the spouses
- Marriage certificate from the local civil registry issued less than six months ago, apostilled by the competent authority in the country (see here)
- Deed of the Prenuptial Agreement (translated if it has not been drawn up in Portuguese, Spanish, French or English)
- Birth certificate of the foreign spouse, in case applicable, apostilled by the competent authority in the country (see here)
Preliminary process for marriage
What is it?
Anyone who wants to get married, civil, catholic or civil in a religious form, needs to organise a process in order to publicise this claim.
How to do it?
The organisation of the marriage process can be requested by the bride and groom, or by their attorneys with special powers, at the consular post or the civil registry office in Portugal.
When doingthe declaration for marriage, the bride and groom must choose the form of the marriage, which may be either civil, catholic or civil modality in the religious form, indicate the place (name of the Church/Conservatory and complete address), where they intend to marry and the desired property regime, indicating whether they will a prenuptial agreement deed must be granted; they must also indicate the habitual residence of the spouse of Portuguese nationality in the last twelve months.
The marriage process is valid for 6 months, from the date on which the Registrar/Consular Section of the Embassy draws up the order authorizing the marriage.
The bride and groom should only organise the process 6 months in advance of the date chosen for the celebration of the wedding.
Documents required to request the organisation of the wedding process
Narrative birth registration certificate for each spouse, issued less than 6 months ago (can be obtained ex officio by the Consular Section, at no cost to the user) or if the spouse is a foreigner, title or residence permit, passport or equivalent document, being waived if required represented by attorney.
Valid Identity Card/Citizen Card for each of the spouses
In the case of a minor spouse, consent document for the marriage of a minor
Prenuptial agreement or certificate of the respective deed, if any.
NOTE: The spouse of foreign nationality must present a birth certificate issued by the civil registry of the country of origin and the respective translation (if the document is not drawn up in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, French or English), identity card or valid passport or document equivalent; must also present a certificate of matrimonial capacity.
In the event that the spouse of foreign nationality cannot present the certificate, because there is no diplomatic representation of the country of his nationality or for other reasons of force majeure, the lack of the document may be compensated by the declaration that, in accordance with his personal law, no impediment prevents the celebration of the marriage, which will be affixed to the initial declaration for marriage.
Death
What is it?
Death is a legal fact of mandatory registration, when referring to Portuguese nationals, regardless of whether it occurs in Portugal or abroad.
How to make it?
The registration of death is done:
a) by inscription, the consular section draws up the record whenever transcription is not possible
b) by transcription, based on a death certificate issued by the local authorities of the country where the death occurred
Who can declare it?
- The next of kin, or other relatives of the deceased who were present at the time of death;
- The hospital director or administrator;
- The minister of worship;
- The person in charge of the funeral;
- The administrative or police authorities in the case of abandonment of a corpse;
- The owners of the house where the death took place.
NOTE: when the death occurs abroad, other declarants may be accepted in addition to those provided for in Portugal, particularly when they present themselves with a declaration issued by a local entity, in which case the record is drawn up by transcription.
Documents to be presented
a) by registration
- Deceased's identification document
- Medical certificate of death, in accordance with local law, which may be in a different format from that used in Portugal
b) by transcription
Based on the local death certificate issued by the competent local authority
If the deceased is of Portuguese nationality
- Deponents' identification documents
- Death certificate or, failing that, self-written by the competent administrative authority, with the intervention of two witnesses
- Indication of the Civil Registry that holds the birth certificate of the deceased
If the deceased is a foreigner, to update the birth record of the Portuguese spouse
- Deponents' identification documents
- Death certificate or, failing that, self-written by the competent administrative authority, with the intervention of two witnesses
- Birth certificate of the surviving spouse (can be obtained ex officio by the Consular Section)
- Marriage Certificate (can be obtained unofficially by the Consular Section of the Embassy)
NOTE: The death that occurred abroad whose record has not been drawn up by the diplomatic or consular agent can be directly transcribed at any Portuguese civil registry office.
A death record that has not been proven by a medical certificate or verification report can only be recorded, regardless of the date and place where it occurred, by means of a decision resulting from an administrative justification process.
Certificates
What is it?
The certificate is a document intended to prove acts contained in the registers or archives of any public office.
The certificates are generally associated with a birth, marriage or death certificate.
How to order?
Portuguese civil status certificates can be issued by the consular section of the embassy in three different formats: narrative, full copy and international model.
The narrative certificates narrate the contents of the seat in a synthetic way. It mentions the elements extracted from the text of the entry, together with the changes introduced by the entries in the margin.
In the full copy certificates, the entire text of the entries to which they refer and their annotations are transcribed.
The certificate in an international model is intended to be used abroad, has a multilingual format and is issued in the models approved by the International Convention on the Issuance of Multilingual Certificates of Civil Registry Acts, approved by Government Decree nº 34/83, of 12 of May.
The certificates can be requested online through the Portal eportugal.gov.pt - https://eportugal.gov.pt/ and also through the following link: http://www.civilonline.mj.pt/CivilOnline/
Portuguese civil registration certificates may also be obtained ex officio at the Consular Section at no cost to the user, when intended for the organization of Civil Registration processes (birth and marriage).