# Portugal — records retrieval dossier > EasyPassport knowledge base for citizenship-by-descent record retrieval. **General > guidance to confirm on the official pages listed under Sources — not legal > advice.** Fees, URLs, offices, and processing times change; verify before quoting. ## Vital records (birth / marriage / death) - **Holding office:** Civil birth/marriage/death records are held by the Conservatórias do Registo Civil (civil registry offices), under the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN, Ministério da Justiça). Modern records are centralized in a national database; older civil registers (>100 years) are deposited in the Arquivos Distritais (district archives), and for Lisbon district in the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo. - **How to request:** Online via the IRN 'Civil Online' portal (civilonline.mj.pt) or the gov.pt / justica.gov.pt 'Pedir certidão' service — you receive an access code to view/download the certificate electronically; or in person at any Conservatória do Registo Civil (records are nationally networked, so any office can issue any Portuguese civil certificate); or by mail. Overseas applicants can also route requests through a Portuguese consulate. - **Online portal:** https://www.civilonline.mj.pt/ - **Who may request:** Anyone (qualquer pessoa) may request a birth, marriage or death certificate — no proof of relationship needed — EXCEPT for records of an adopted person or a person who legally changed sex/given name, which are restricted per the gov.pt 'Pedir uma certidão de nascimento' page. - **Cost:** €10 for a civil certificate; the online request is stated to be ~10% cheaper than at the counter. Apostille (separate step) is €10.20 per document. Fees are set by the Regulamento Emolumentar dos Registos e do Notariado. - **Timeline:** Certificate is available via the access code once payment clears; the online access code is valid for six months. In-person issuance is often same-day for recent records; older records requiring archive retrieval take longer. - **Language:** Portuguese. - **Notes:** Nationwide compulsory civil registration in Portugal dates from 1911 (secular civil registry created after the 1910 Republic; an earlier civil-registration decree existed from 1878 but coverage before 1911 is partial). For anything before civil registration, the record is a Catholic parish register (registo paroquial), not a civil certificate. Rule of thumb from the archives: civil registers and parish books less than 100 years old are still at the Conservatórias; older ones are in the district archives. ## Historical & church records (before civil registration) - **Parish / church:** Pre-1911 events are recorded in Catholic parish registers (registos paroquiais): baptisms (assentos de baptismo), marriages (casamentos) and deaths (óbitos), each kept per parish/freguesia by the parish priest. Mandatory 'proper-book' registration of baptisms and marriages dates from 1563 (24th session of the Council of Trent; many parishes kept them earlier); death registration became mandatory from 1614. Parish books older than ~100 years are deposited in the Arquivos Distritais (and, for Lisbon district, in the Torre do Tombo); books under 100 years old may still be at the local Conservatória. Many are digitized and searchable online. - **National / state archive:** Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (ANTT / DGLAB) in Lisbon is the national archive and also holds Lisbon-district parish and post-1911 civil records. The nationwide search platform is DIGITARQ (https://digitarq.arquivos.pt) — the shared online catalog/image viewer for the Torre do Tombo and the district archives. Each district has its own Arquivo Distrital (e.g. ADPorto, etc.) reachable through DIGITARQ. Torre do Tombo genealogy portal: https://antt.dglab.gov.pt/pesquisar-na-torre-do-tombo/genealogia-ou-historia-local/genealogia/ - **Notes:** Free volunteer/community indexes and images: tombo.pt and FamilySearch (microfilmed Portuguese parish registers). The Torre do Tombo genealogy guide explicitly advises working generation-by-generation upward: get the parent's birth certificate (which names the grandparents), then the grandparent's — and for anyone born >100 years ago, look for the baptism record in the relevant Arquivo Distrital. Additional genealogically valuable ANTT holdings: Passaportes, Governo Civil de Lisboa (passport/emigration), notarial records (cartórios notariais), and matrimonial dispensations (Câmara Eclesiástica). ## Apostille / legalization - **Competent authority:** The Prosecutor General of the Republic (Procurador-Geral da República / Procuradoria-Geral da República, PGR) is the single competent central authority for issuing and verifying apostilles, under Article 2(1) of Decree-Law No. 86/2009 of 3 April 2009. By delegation the power is also exercised by the Regional Prosecutors General of Porto, Coimbra and Évora and by the lead Public Prosecutors of the Guimarães Court of Appeal and of the Azores (Ponta Delgada) and Madeira (Funchal) districts. - **URL:** https://www.ministeriopublico.pt/perguntas-frequentes/servico-apostilas - **Process:** Two channels. (1) Electronic documents (digitally signed / with a validation code — e.g. a certidão issued online) MUST be apostilled electronically through the e-APP portal at https://apostila.ministeriopublico.pt. (2) Paper documents: apostilled at a PGR/prosecution counter — Lisbon (PGR Serviço de Apostilas, Campus de Justiça, Av. D. João II, Edifício E, 1990-097 Lisboa; postal Rua da Escola Politécnica 140, 1269-269 Lisboa) accepts documents from anywhere in the country; the regional offices (Porto, Coimbra, Guimarães, Évora, Funchal, Ponta Delgada) generally handle documents from their own judicial district. In-person apostille service in Lisbon is now by prior appointment booked through the e-APP application; as a rule apostilles are otherwise issued on the spot in order of arrival, except for batches of 5+ or requests after 4:00 p.m. - **Cost:** €10.20 per document (one tenth of a unit of account, UC). Free for those who prove economic hardship (via a document from the competent administrative authority or a public social-welfare institution). Payment at the counter by cash, ATM/Multibanco, postal order, cheque to IGCP, or bank transfer (IBAN PT50078101120000000686152, BIC IGCPPTPL). - **Notes:** Portugal is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, so a Portuguese civil certificate apostilled by the PGR is directly usable abroad with no further legalization — and, conversely, a foreign certificate used in a Portuguese nationality file must be apostilled by that foreign country's authority (or bear a Portuguese-consulate visa). The apostille only authenticates the signature/seal of the issuing officer; it does not translate or validate content. Note the two portal spellings seen in the wild: the official e-APP portal is apostila.ministeriopublico.pt (some pages also render apostilla.ministeriopublico.pt); ignore third-party 'apostille.org'-type sites. > **Apostille authority — verification (✓ confirmed against HCCH, 2026-07):** Both facts hold. Minor nuances only, no material correction: (1) The named authority is correct. HCCH's official Portugal Competent Authority page (https://www.hcch.net/en/states/authorities/details3/?aid=339, last updated 2021-11-01) confirms the Procuradoria-Geral da Republica / Procurador-Geral da Republica (PGR) as the Art. 6 competent authority (HCCH translates it "The Attorney General of the Republic" — same office as "Prosecutor General"), delegated to the Attorneys General of Porto, Coimbra and Evora, the Assistant Attorneys General at the autonomous regions of Madeira (Funchal) and Acores (Ponta Delgada), and the Tribunal da Relacao de Guimaraes — matching the research's six delegated offices. HCCH does not itself cite Decree-Law No. 86/2009 (it predates/differs from HCCH's metadata), and HCCH lists the apostille price as EUR10.20; the DL citation was not independently verified on HCCH but the authority identity is fully confirmed. The research's cited source URL (ministeriopublico.pt/perguntas-frequentes/servico-apostilas) is consistent since the Ministerio Publico is headed by the PGR. (2) civilonline.mj.pt is a genuine official IRN/Ministry of Justice civil-registry portal (HTTP 200, live birth/marriage/death certificate services), not hallucinated. ## Translation - **Requirement:** Foreign-language documents supporting a Portuguese nationality/registration file must be accompanied by a certified translation into Portuguese (tradução certificada para português). - **Notes:** Two important exemptions on the official IRN page: (1) translation may be waived if the document is in English, French or Spanish AND the specific registrar handling the act masters that language (IRN lists the specific registry offices whose staff are certified in each language — you should confirm with the office beforehand); (2) EU public documents (birth, marriage, death, name, filiation, nationality, etc.) issued by another EU member state need no translation if accompanied by the EU multilingual standard form (Regulation (EU) 2016/1191). Portugal has no single 'sworn translator' register like some countries; a certified translation is one made or certified by a notary, a lawyer (advogado) or solicitador, a chamber of commerce, or a Portuguese consulate abroad — that certification act can itself then be apostilled. The IRN reference page: https://irn.justica.gov.pt/Traducao-de-documentos/Documentos-estrangeiros ## Emigration & naturalization (the chain-break) - **Emigrant / exit records:** Portuguese emigration/exit is documented in passport and emigration series held by the Torre do Tombo and district archives — notably the 'Passaportes' holdings and the Governo Civil (civil governor) passport registers (e.g. PT/TT/AC/GCL, Governo Civil de Lisboa, 1839–1984), searchable via DIGITARQ (digitarq.arquivos.pt). Each district civil governor issued passports, so the relevant series is the one for the ancestor's home district. Historic Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros (Foreign Ministry) consular series at ANTT can also document emigrants. - **Destination naturalization:** THIS IS THE PORTUGUESE CHAIN-BREAK: under the law in force before 3 October 1981 (Lei n.º 2098/1959 and predecessors), a Portuguese who VOLUNTARILY acquired a foreign nationality AUTOMATICALLY LOST Portuguese nationality (a Portuguese woman also lost it by marrying a foreigner). So if the emigrant ancestor naturalized in the destination country (USA, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, France, etc.) before 3 Oct 1981, they lost Portuguese nationality — and the modern grandparent route explicitly requires a grandparent 'que não tenham perdido a nacionalidade' (who has NOT lost it). You must therefore check the destination country's naturalization records and their DATE: US (USCIS Genealogy / NARA naturalization petitions & certificate files), Brazil (Arquivo Nacional 'cartas de naturalização'), Canada (LAC), etc. Acquisitions on or after 3 Oct 1981 (Lei 37/81 allows dual nationality) do NOT cause loss. If loss occurred, the line is not automatically dead — the ex-national (or the record thereof) can be reacquired under Lei 37/81 (and Art. 67 of the Nationality Regulation covers reacquisition by those who lost it under Lei 2098), but that reacquisition/annotation must exist for the descent chain to hold. - **Notes:** Portugal itself does not centrally register when an emigrant naturalized abroad — the loss had to be (and often was not) annotated on the Portuguese birth record. The justica.gov.pt guide 'Perdeu a nacionalidade portuguesa porque optou por uma nacionalidade estrangeira' handles the pre-1981 loss case; reacquisition is free. Practically: pull BOTH the ancestor's Portuguese birth/baptism record AND the foreign naturalization certificate with its date to establish whether the chain broke. ## Gotchas - The 100-year rule splits custody: civil registers and parish books LESS than 100 years old are still at the local Conservatória do Registo Civil (request via Civil Online), while OLDER ones have moved to the district Arquivo Distrital (search DIGITARQ) — asking the wrong institution wastes weeks. Records straddling ~1911 (start of civil registration) may exist as BOTH a parish baptism and a civil birth entry. - The pre-3-October-1981 automatic loss of Portuguese nationality on voluntarily naturalizing abroad (or, for women, on marrying a foreigner) is the single biggest chain-breaker. A grandparent who became American/Brazilian/etc. before 1981 lost Portuguese nationality; the grandchild route requires the grandparent NOT to have lost it, so you must date the foreign naturalization and, if loss occurred, pursue reacquisition first. - Name-spelling drift: Portuguese surnames were freely re-ordered and re-spelled historically (a child did not have to carry the father's surname; matronymics, dropped/added apelidos, and phonetic variants like Silva/Sylva, Oliveira/Olivera abound), and emigration officials abroad further altered them. Baptism entries are indexed by the priest's spelling of the day, not a modern standard. - Parish (not civil) is the key jurisdiction for pre-1911 records, and parish boundaries do not equal modern concelhos/freguesias — you need the exact parish (freguesia) of baptism, and neighboring-parish books must often be searched because families moved between adjacent parishes. - Death registration only became mandatory in 1614 (baptisms/marriages from 1563), so early death records are sparse or missing; and older parish books can be damaged, illegible, or lost — expect gaps rather than a clean unbroken chain. - Electronic vs paper apostille mismatch: a certificate you pulled ONLINE (digitally signed) can only be apostilled electronically via the e-APP portal — taking its printout to a paper counter will be refused; conversely a paper certificate goes to the PGR/regional counter. Route each document to the matching apostille channel. ## Sources - [IRN (Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado) — Pedir certidão (civil records request)](https://irn.justica.gov.pt/Servicos/Pedir-certidao) - [Civil Online — official IRN portal for civil-registry certificates (€10)](https://www.civilonline.mj.pt/) - [gov.pt — Pedir uma certidão de nascimento (who can request, access code, cost)](https://www.gov.pt/servicos/pedir-uma-certidao-de-nascimento) - [Ministério Público / PGR — Apostila (central authority = Procurador-Geral da República, DL 86/2009, €10.20, e-APP portal)](https://www.ministeriopublico.pt/perguntas-frequentes/servico-apostilas) - [Public Prosecution Service of Portugal (EN) — Apostille FAQ](https://en.ministeriopublico.pt/en/perguntas-frequentes/apostile) - [e-APP electronic apostille portal (PGR)](https://apostila.ministeriopublico.pt/) - [IRN — Tradução de documentos / Documentos estrangeiros (certified translation rules, EN/FR/ES waiver, EU multilingual form)](https://irn.justica.gov.pt/Traducao-de-documentos/Documentos-estrangeiros) - [justica.gov.pt — Nacionalidade: É neto de um português (grandchild route, required documents, apostille+translation)](https://justica.gov.pt/Como-obter-nacionalidade-portuguesa/E-neto-de-um-portugues) - [justica.gov.pt — Perdeu a nacionalidade porque optou por nacionalidade estrangeira (pre-1981 loss / reacquisition)](https://justica.gov.pt/Como-obter-nacionalidade-portuguesa/Perdeu-a-nacionalidade-portuguesa-porque-optou-por-uma-nacionalidade-estrangeira) - [Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (ANTT/DGLAB) — Genealogia guide (parish records, 100-year rule, 1563/1614 dates, passport/emigration fundos)](https://antt.dglab.gov.pt/pesquisar-na-torre-do-tombo/genealogia-ou-historia-local/genealogia/) - [DIGITARQ — national archives online catalog/search (Torre do Tombo + district archives)](https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/) - [Lei n.º 37/81 (Nationality Law) — Diário da República](https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/lei/37-1981-564050) --- General guidance, not legal advice. EasyPassport is a document-organization tool, not a law firm. Confirm your own case with the relevant authority or a qualified professional.