Same-sex weddings in Portugal: the law, the process and recognition at home

Portugal opened civil marriage to same-sex couples in 2010, after only the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway and Sweden in Europe, and nothing in the process asks who you are marrying. The Conservatória, the documents, the fees and the ceremony are the ones every couple has. What is worth your time is the part that happens outside Portugal: how your own country will treat the marriage once you are home.

Is same-sex marriage legal in Portugal?

Yes. Lei n.º 9/2010, published on 31 May 2010, “permits civil marriage between persons of the same sex” (art. 1). It rewrote article 1577 of the Código Civil, which now defines marriage as “the contract celebrated between two persons who intend to found a family through a full communion of life”, and it repealed the provision of article 1628 under which a marriage between two people of the same sex was legally non-existent. The Constitutional Court, asked by the President to review it before it was signed, found nothing unconstitutional in it (Acórdão 121/2010, 8 April 2010). The law came into force on 5 June 2010; two days later, on 7 June, Teresa Pires and Helena Paixão married at a Lisbon registry office, the first same-sex couple to do so in Portugal.

Two later changes complete the picture. Lei n.º 2/2016 removed the exception the 2010 law had kept for adoption: married same-sex couples can adopt like any married couple. And the Constitution lists sexual orientation among the grounds on which no one may be privileged, harmed or deprived of any right (art. 13). In ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map 2026, which scores 49 European countries on the laws that affect LGBTI people, Portugal ranks 12th with 67% (Spain is first, with 89%).

How do two foreigners marry in Portugal?

Through the same civil process as everyone else. The civil wedding guide has every step, the document checklist and a timeline; in short:

1. 1Open the processo preliminar de casamento at any Conservatória do Registo Civil — in person, or through someone holding a power of attorney for you. Do it at least a month before the date you want.
2. 2Bring your papers: a passport (or residence permit), a birth certificate and a certificate of capacity to marry from your own country, issued less than six months before. Documents not in English, French or Spanish need a certified Portuguese translation.
3. 3The registrar checks and authorises. From the authorisation you have six months to marry.
4. 4Marry at the Conservatória, or somewhere else agreed with the registrar, in Portuguese — an interpreter is appointed if one of you doesn’t speak it. Two to four witnesses may take part; they are not compulsory.
5. 5Order the marriage certificate (certidão de casamento) to take home.

Will our marriage be recognised at home?

A marriage celebrated in Portugal is valid in Portugal from the day of the ceremony. What happens at home is your own country’s decision. Where same-sex marriage is legal, a foreign marriage that was valid where it took place is generally treated like any other — but each country has its own steps, from simply showing the certificate to registering it with a consulate or a registry. These are the years same-sex marriage became legal in the countries most of our couples come from:

Inside the EU: the 2025 ruling

On 25 November 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled, in case C-713/23, that a member state must recognise a marriage between two EU citizens of the same sex that was lawfully concluded in another member state where they had exercised their freedom to move and reside. The case concerned two Polish citizens who married in Berlin while living in Germany. The Court added that the obligation does not require any country to introduce same-sex marriage in its own law, and that each country chooses the procedure — but it must not make recognition impossible or excessively difficult. The ruling is about couples who lived in the country where they married; whether it reaches a couple who travelled to Portugal for the wedding is a question for a lawyer in your country.

If your country does not recognise same-sex marriage at all, the Portuguese marriage remains valid in Portugal and in the many countries that do. Think about where you live, where you might move and what you need the marriage for — residence, inheritance, a partner’s visa — and take advice at home before deciding between a legal wedding here and a symbolic ceremony.

Civil, symbolic or both?

• Civil in Portugal — the marriage itself, with the Portuguese paperwork and a ceremony in Portuguese. Good if you want the legal act to happen here, in the place you chose.
• Legal at home, symbolic in Portugal — the papers at home, and in Portugal the ceremony you write, in your language, led by whoever you choose, at the hour you want.
• Both in Portugal — a short civil ceremony on a weekday at the Conservatória, and a symbolic ceremony with all your guests on the day of the party.

A Catholic wedding is not available to same-sex couples: the Church’s Code of Canon Law defines the matrimonial covenant as one “by which a man and a woman” join (canon 1055). Some other faith communities in Portugal take a different view; if a religious element matters to you, ask your own community and fold it into a symbolic ceremony.

Finding suppliers — and a photographer — who get it

Portugal’s law is settled, but every supplier is a person. A few direct questions save surprises:

• Ask to see whole weddings of same-sex couples, not one picture. The way a photographer works with two brides or two grooms — posing, light, the getting-ready — shows in a full gallery.
• Say how you want to be described: names, pronouns, who walks in and how. A good celebrant and a good photographer write it down.
• Check the venue’s and the celebrant’s wording in contracts and scripts — “bride and groom” templates are common and easy to change if you ask.
• Two getting-ready places often mean a second photographer, or a timeline that moves one photographer between them. See the wedding-day timeline.

When you are ready to look, browse photographers, read how to choose a wedding photographer, or tell us about your day and see who is free on your date.