Documentation

The main address for this site is http://expat.silvert.org. All other sites are mirrors and may be out-of-date.

Documentation

Providing the necessary documents to Portuguese authorities can be a challenge. This is particularly true for citizens from the USA and Canada where many documents which are issued by national authorities in Portugal and many other countries are the responsibilities of states or provinces.

For example, you may be asked to provide an American marriage or divorce certificate, or a Canadian driver's license. When you show up with documents from North Carolina or Ontario they have no meaning to the Portuguese authorities.

You may be asked to have the documents certified by your embassy. I don't know what the US Embassy does, but the Canadian Embassy refuses absolutely to have anything to do with Provincial documents - they won't even confirm the validity of translations to Portuguese.

Official translations can be made by certified translation bureaux (check the yellow pages), but you will probably have to get some sort of official letter from your state or province confirming that the document is of national stature. If you are exchanging your driver's license for a Portuguese one, there are certain statements that the issuing authority has to confirm.

Additional cultural differences can also cause problems. If you are remarrying in Portugal, you may have to provide proof that you appeared before a judge to get your divorce - since this is not always required in N. America, you may not be able to marry in Portugal (go to Gibraltar and get married there, it is the usual expat option!).

Keep in mind too that the nature of the documents that you produce may not correspond to what is in use in Portugal. The Portuguese have a single organic document that tracks all of their official events, such as birth and marriage, and some officials are confused by separate certificates as issued by other countries. When my wife sought to register our Gibraltar marriage in Portugal, she was originally told that she had to go to Penafiel, where she was born, to add the information to her Certidão de Nasciemento. A more sophisticated official was finally able to register her in the conselho where we live now, avoiding a 600 km round trip!

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