A civil wedding in Portugal for foreigners: documents, fees and timeline

This guide goes deeper than getting legally married in Portugal, which compares the civil, Catholic and symbolic routes. Here is the civil one only, for couples who are not Portuguese: the law it rests on, the papers, the fees, the dates that can’t move and what your own country has to issue. Article numbers refer to the Código do Registo Civil (the Civil Registry Code) unless another law is named.

Can two foreigners marry in Portugal?

Yes. Any Conservatória do Registo Civil in the country can organise the process (art. 134), and the Code asks a foreign citizen for a passport or residence permit as identification (art. 137) — there is no requirement to live in Portugal. Same-sex couples follow exactly the same process; see same-sex weddings in Portugal.

Who files the process, and where?

• At any Conservatória, in person (arts. 134–135). Ask for an appointment; you make a declaration that you intend to marry and hand in your documents.
• Through a representative. The declaration can be made by someone holding a power of attorney with special powers for the act (arts. 43 and 135). The power of attorney needs a signature recognised in person, an authenticated document or a public deed — or, if it is given to a lawyer or solicitor, just your signed document (art. 43). Couples who live abroad can use a Portuguese lawyer, solicitor or planner this way.
• Not online, for most foreigners. IRN’s Civil Online service opens marriage processes for Portuguese citizens and for Brazilians with the general equality status under the Porto Seguro treaty, who sign in with the Portuguese citizen card or Chave Móvel Digital.

On the day itself, both of you must be there — or one of you and the other’s representative: only one partner may be represented by proxy at the ceremony (art. 44).

Step by step

1. 1Ask the Conservatória for its list. Which documents, in what form, how recent, whether it wants an apostille, and whether the registrar can come to your place and hour.
2. 2Order the documents from home — the birth certificate first, then the certificate of capacity to marry, timed so that it is less than six months old when you file (below).
3. 3Legalise and translate what needs it.
4. 4File the declaration at the Conservatória, or through your representative. It names you both, says whether you have a prenuptial agreement (convenção antenupcial), and says where and how you will marry (art. 136).
5. 5The registrar checks. They verify identity and capacity to marry, and can ask for more documents, hear witnesses or call you in (art. 143). Anyone can declare an impediment until the ceremony (art. 142).
6. 6Authorisation. Within a day of the last check, the registrar issues the final decision (despacho final) authorising the marriage — or archiving the process (art. 144).
7. 7Marry within six months of the authorisation (art. 145). If the date slips, the process can be revalidated, but only within a year of the authorisation.
8. 8The marriage is registered, and you can order the marriage certificate (certidão de casamento).

The documents, one by one

Translations

Documents in a foreign language need a translation made or certified as the law provides — unless they are in English, French or Spanish and the official handling them knows that language (art. 49; IRN). The US and Australian embassies tell their citizens to translate into Portuguese anyway, so ask your Conservatória rather than assume. In Portugal a translation can be certified by a notary, a registrar or registry officer, a lawyer or solicitor, or a recognised chamber of commerce; it can also come from the Portuguese consulate in the country that issued the document, or that country’s consulate in Portugal (IRN).

Apostille or legalisation

Article 49 says that documents issued abroad under local law can be used without prior legalisation, as long as there are no well-founded doubts about their authenticity; if there are, the registry can ask the issuing authority to confirm them, at your cost. In practice, an Apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention — issued in the country that issued the document — is the usual way to remove that doubt, and the US and Brazilian embassies, among others, tell their citizens to apostille documents for Portugal. Between EU countries it is not needed at all: under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191, in force since 16 February 2019, birth, marriage and capacity-to-marry documents from one EU country must be accepted in another without an apostille, and with a multilingual standard form attached a translation can only be required in exceptional cases.

What changes by nationality

Portugal asks every foreign citizen for the same thing — proof, from your own country, that you are free to marry. What that document is called, where you get it and how long it takes is decided at home. As of October 2026, from each country’s own pages:

United Kingdom

• Living in the UK: give notice at a UK register office and say you need a CNI to marry abroad. GOV.UK says a UK CNI should be accepted in Portugal; the names on it must match your passports, middle names included.
• Living in Portugal or another country outside the UK: you don’t need a CNI. According to the British Embassy in Lisbon, the IRN agreed in August 2013, and reconfirmed in April 2025, that British nationals are treated like Portuguese nationals on this point. Show the Conservatória the embassy’s notice if asked.
• Afterwards: a marriage abroad is not added to UK records — you can’t register it at a UK register office or a British embassy. Your Portuguese certificate is the record.

Ireland

• Apply online at least four months before, with statutory declarations witnessed by a notary, solicitor, Commissioner for Oaths or Irish consular officer; they can’t be dated more than six months before the wedding. If you live in Portugal, the application goes to the Embassy in Lisbon.
• The fee is €66 (€60 plus €6 postage), and €60 more if you apply 28 days or less before the wedding.
• The certificate is issued in Portuguese, and no apostille should be needed for an authority in another EU country.
• Ireland recognises the marriage if it is entered on the Portuguese civil register.

United States

• The US Embassy will not issue a certificate of no impediment, because no such document or authority exists in the US. Instead you sign a statement of eligibility to marry before a consular officer, by appointment: $50 (or the euro equivalent) per notarisation.
• The embassy asks for a birth certificate issued within the past six months, apostilled by the state that issued it and translated into Portuguese — and the same for any divorce or death certificate. It cannot certify state documents itself.
• It says the Portuguese process takes at least four weeks, that living in Portugal is not required, and that someone with your power of attorney can start it.
• Marriages valid where they took place are generally valid in the US; questions go to your state’s Attorney General.

Canada

• Canada does not issue certificates of non-impediment. It issues a Statement in lieu of certificate of non-impediment to marriage abroad, which does not state your civil status — by email from Global Affairs Canada, or through the Embassy in Lisbon (from CAD 30 per document, by appointment).
• Bring a long-form birth certificate showing your parents’ names; the Lisbon embassy can apostille provincial vital-statistics documents (CAD 50 each).
• The embassy advises filing at the Conservatória three to six months ahead. A marriage in Portugal doesn’t need registering in Canada: you show the Portuguese certificate.

Australia

• The Australian Embassy in Lisbon issues the CNI, in person (the form witnessed by a consular officer or notary) or by post, for the current notarial fee. Bring originals: your passport or birth certificate with photo ID, any divorce or death certificate — and your partner’s original ID.
• The embassy asks for a birth certificate issued within six months, with a Portuguese translation, and can apostille divorce papers by appointment.
• Its page says the marriage must take place within three months of approval; the Portuguese code says six (art. 145). If your dates are tight, ask the Conservatória.
• You can’t register an overseas marriage in Australia, but in most cases it is legally recognised there.

Germany

• As a rule you need an Ehefähigkeitszeugnis in the international CIEC format, from the Standesamt of your current or last residence in Germany — Standesamt I in Berlin if you never lived there. The embassy only certifies signatures and copies.
• According to the embassy, Portuguese registries want documents no older than six months with an official Portuguese translation (an international-format birth certificate is usually enough), and the process filed between six months and one month before the wedding.
• An interpreter is required if one of you doesn’t speak Portuguese; a friend or relative can do it, but not one of the couple.
• Ask for the international marriage certificate: Germany accepts it without apostille or translation. Registering the marriage in Germany (Nachbeurkundung) is optional — €60 through the embassy, and it can take months.

France

• You need a certificat de capacité à mariage, issued after the banns are published for ten days. Apply to the French Embassy in Lisbon by post only, at least two months before; you may be called for an interview.
• For that file: a French birth certificate under three months old, or a foreign one under six months, legalised or apostilled and translated into French.
• Transcribing the marriage into the French civil register isn’t compulsory but is recommended — without it the marriage has no effect for third parties in France — and the banns file is required to do it. Bring the full Portuguese certificate or the 12-digit code of the online one.
• A marriage contract, if you want one, is signed before the wedding.

Brazil

• Each Brazilian partner asks the Consulate-General in Lisbon for a declaração consular de estado civil (€15), by appointment through e-consular, with a Brazilian birth certificate issued less than six months before and apostilled in Brazil.
• Brazilians with the general equality status under the Porto Seguro treaty can open the Portuguese process online, through Civil Online.
• For the marriage to have full effect in Brazil, register it at the consulate — in person, not by post or proxy, €20, with a Portuguese certificate issued at most six months before — and then transcribe it at the registry of your domicile within 180 days of returning to Brazil.

Anything not in this table — Dutch, Belgian, Swiss, Scandinavian or any other nationality — follows the same rule: ask your embassy or consulate in Portugal what it issues for a marriage here, and show the Conservatória its answer.

How long does it take?

The law itself moves quickly: the registrar must decide within a day of the last check (art. 144). What takes time is everything around it — documents from abroad, apostilles, translations, the Conservatória’s diary and your registrar’s availability for the place and hour you want. IRN asks couples to organise the process at least one month before the date. Because the authorisation lasts six months, filing two to four months ahead leaves room to fix a missing paper without moving the wedding.

What does it cost?

Outside the state’s fees you pay for the documents and apostilles at home, translations, an interpreter if one is needed, and any lawyer, solicitor or planner who files for you. As one published example, Wedding Portugal’s civil-ceremony package starts at €1,195 with official fees included (2026). The rest of the budget is in what a destination wedding in Portugal costs.

Witnesses and an interpreter

• Witnesses are optional: two to four may take part (art. 154). They become compulsory only if the identity of either of you cannot be checked from your documents. They must be adults and can be relatives (art. 46).
• An interpreter is appointed when either of you does not know Portuguese and the official does not speak your language (art. 42) — so if your registrar speaks English, you may not need one. Ask how it is arranged and what it costs.

What happens at the ceremony

The ceremony is short and its words are set by law (art. 155). The registrar announces the marriage, reads your declaration and the authorisation, asks those present whether they know of any impediment, and reminds you of the rights and duties of spouses. Then each of you answers, in turn: «É de minha livre vontade casar com…» — “it is of my own free will to marry…” — followed by the other’s full name. The registrar closes with «Em nome da lei e da República Portuguesa, declaro… unidos pelo casamento»: “in the name of the law and of the Portuguese Republic, I declare … united in marriage.” You, your witnesses and any interpreter then sign the record.

At the Conservatória, or somewhere else?

The day, hour and place are agreed between you and the registrar, and any registrar may marry you anywhere in the country (art. 153). The simplest is a ceremony at the Conservatória in office hours. Outside it — a quinta, a garden, a hotel — or at another hour, the fee rises to €200 and you provide or pay for the registrar’s transport. In Lisbon and the Algarve, IRN also offers public municipal rooms for ceremonies: at the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and the Câmara Municipal de Albufeira. Whether a registrar can come to your place, on your date, at your hour, is the Conservatória’s call — ask before you book anything that depends on it.

After the wedding

• The certificate. Order the certidão de casamento in person or online; the online version is an access code that works as the certificate for six months. The international (multilingual) model cannot be ordered online (IRN).
• For use at home, a Portuguese certificate may need an apostille — issued in Portugal by the Procuradoria-Geral da República and regional prosecutors’ offices, by appointment or online for digital documents, for €10.20 — and possibly a translation. Inside the EU, the multilingual standard form usually replaces both.
• Registering at home. Some countries want the marriage registered with a consulate or a home registry (France and Brazil among them); others simply accept the Portuguese certificate. The nationality table above says what each country’s page says.

Where your photographer fits in

• It is short. Tell your photographer the ceremony is civil, so they are in place before the registrar begins — the two «É de minha livre vontade» and the declaration happen within minutes.
• At the Conservatória, ask whether photographs are allowed during the ceremony and how many guests fit in the room.
• The signing is the one moment everyone stands still — a good place for family to gather round.
• Civil on one day, symbolic on another: some couples sign at the Conservatória on a weekday and hold a symbolic ceremony with all their guests later. Tell the photographer which is which when you book.

When the paperwork is under way, browse photographers or tell us about your day and see who is free on your date. Planning the whole year? The wedding planning checklist puts these deadlines next to everything else.