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Getting Married in Portugal as a Foreigner

Researched and written with AI tools from official sources. How we make our guides

How to marry in Portugal if you are not Portuguese: who can marry, the registry process, the documents you need, the fees, and your property choices.

The Portugal Brief 11 min read

Getting Married in Portugal as a Foreigner

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You are a foreign couple, resident or not, who want a legally valid wedding in Portugal.
  • You are a foreign resident marrying a Portuguese citizen or another foreigner.
  • You want a church, mosque, synagogue, or other religious wedding that also counts in law.

Not for you if: you want the legal rights of a couple without marrying. Read Living Together Unmarried in Portugal (União de Facto) instead.

To marry in Portugal, you open a marriage process at any civil registry office (Conservatória do Registo Civil). The registry checks you are free to marry, approves it, and you marry within six months. You need no visa or residence, but you must both be 18 or over. A weekday wedding at the registry costs €120. A weekend, holiday, after-hours, or venue wedding costs €200, plus the registrar's travel. Start at least one month before your date.

Who can marry in Portugal

You can marry in Portugal if you are both free to marry under the law. Nationality, residence, and visa status do not matter. Tourists marry on the same terms as residents, and same-sex couples marry on the same terms as everyone else.

You cannot marry if:

  • either of you is under 18. There are no exceptions, not even with parental consent. That route ended on 2 April 2025.
  • either of you is still married to someone else, even if that marriage was never registered in Portugal.
  • a court has ruled that an adult under legal protection cannot marry, or one of you has obvious dementia.
  • you are closely related: parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, siblings, or aunt or uncle and niece or nephew.
  • you are related by marriage in a direct line: step-parent and stepchild, or parent-in-law and son-in-law or daughter-in-law.
  • one of you is, or was, the guardian of the other, or held parental responsibility for them.
  • one of you is awaiting trial for, or was convicted of, the intentional killing or attempted killing of the other's spouse.

If you married at 16 or 17 before 2 April 2025, your marriage stays valid. The change only affects new marriages. Marriage also no longer makes a minor legally an adult.

Civil, religious, and symbolic weddings

You have four options. Only the first three are legal marriages.

  • Civil wedding (casamento civil). A registrar marries you at the registry or at a venue you choose.
  • Catholic wedding (casamento católico). A priest marries you in church. Portugal's agreement with the Holy See gives it full civil effect once it is registered. The parish sets its own conditions, such as a preparation course, so ask early.
  • Religious wedding with civil effect (casamento civil sob forma religiosa). A minister of another faith marries you. The church or community must be established in Portugal, and the minister must be accredited by it. Mosques, synagogues, Protestant churches, Hindu temples, and other recognised faiths can all do this. Ask your community before you book.
  • Symbolic wedding. A ceremony led by someone who is not a registrar or an accredited minister has no legal effect. This includes most humanist and beach ceremonies. You must also marry at the registry, before or after.

All three legal forms start with the same registry process. They have the same legal effects and the same rules on who can marry.

Step by step

  1. Choose your date, place, and type of wedding. Agree the day, time, and place with the registrar.
  2. Decide on your property regime. If you want anything other than the default, sign a prenuptial agreement first. See "Prenuptial agreements and property" below.
  3. Gather your documents. Allow extra time for anything issued abroad.
  4. Open the marriage process. Go to any civil registry office in Portugal. It does not have to be where you live or where you will marry. Some offices ask you to book first, through the government's Siga booking portal or app. A priest or minister can also open the process for you with a signed request.
  5. Wait for approval. The registry checks for any impediment. There is no public notice period. Until the wedding day, anyone can report an impediment to the registry. If the registry refuses, it tells you in person or by registered letter.
  6. Marry within six months of approval. If you miss this deadline, you must start again.
  7. Get your marriage certificate. Order it online or at a registry once the marriage is registered.

Can you apply online? Only if both of you are 18 or over, hold a Portuguese Citizen Card (Cartão de Cidadão), and are Portuguese citizens or Brazilians with equal rights status. You sign in with the card or the Chave Móvel Digital. If you are a foreign resident without Portuguese citizenship, you cannot use the online service. You must go to a registry in person, or send someone with a power of attorney.

Can someone apply for you? Yes. You can give a power of attorney with special powers to open the process. It must name your partner and state the property regime and the type of wedding. At the ceremony itself, only one of you can be represented by an attorney. The other must be there in person.

Documents you need

If you are a foreign citizen, bring:

  • your passport or Portuguese residence permit.
  • your birth certificate, legalised and translated into Portuguese if it is in another language (see "Apostilles and translations" below).
  • a certificate of capacity to marry (certificado de capacidade matrimonial), if your country issues one. It proves you are free to marry under your own law.
  • proof that any earlier marriage has ended, such as a final divorce decree or a death certificate.
  • your prenuptial agreement, if you signed it at a notary.
  • a power of attorney, if someone is acting for you.

If you are a Portuguese citizen, bring your Citizen Card. The registry looks up your birth record itself.

The registry can ask for other documents if it needs them. Ask the office you will use for its list before you order anything from abroad.

The six month rule. The certificate of capacity to marry must be less than six months old when you open the process. If your country sets a different validity, that applies instead. The six month limit applies only to this certificate. The law puts no time limit on your birth certificate. Some offices still prefer a recent one, so check.

If your country does not issue a certificate of capacity. You can make a declaration that nothing in your own law stops you from marrying. If the registrar has doubts, they may ask two witnesses to confirm it.

Apostilles and translations

The rules depend on where your documents come from.

  • If they come from another EU country: you do not need an apostille for public documents such as birth certificates. EU rules removed that step. You can also ask your home registry for a multilingual standard form. It is attached to the certificate and can save you a translation.
  • If they come from outside the EU: the law lets the registry accept foreign documents without legalisation unless it doubts they are genuine. In practice, many offices expect an apostille or consular legalisation. Get one unless your office tells you in writing it is not needed.
  • Translations: documents in a foreign language need a translation into Portuguese. Some registrars accept English, French, or Spanish if they read it well. Ask first rather than assume.

An apostille does not reset the validity of the document underneath. Get the apostille soon after the certificate is issued, so it is still under six months old when you file.

What it costs

These are the official registry fees. They cover the marriage process and the registration of the marriage.

WhatFee
Wedding at the registry, weekday, during opening hours€120
Wedding on a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday€200
Wedding at a venue away from the registry, any day€200
Wedding at the registry after opening hours€200
Urgent marriage the law allows, such as risk of imminent death€120
Prenuptial agreement with a standard regime, made at the registry€100 more
Prenuptial agreement with a custom regime, made at the registry€160 more
Registering a prenuptial agreement made at a notary€30 more
Marriage certificate online€10
Marriage certificate on paper€20 (€10 for family allowance or social security)

Weddings away from the registry. The €200 fee replaces the €120 fee, so the extra is €80. You must also arrange the registrar's transport or pay their travel costs. Ask the registry for a quote before you book the venue.

Fast-tracking. There is no paid fast-track for an ordinary wedding. Start early instead.

You can pay by Multibanco card or in cash at the counter. The registry also takes a bank cheque or a postal order made out to the IRN, the registries agency. Translations, apostilles, notary fees, and interpreters are extra.

Prenuptial agreements and property

Your property regime (regime de bens) decides who owns what during the marriage, and after divorce or death. You choose it when you open the process.

  • Community of acquired property (comunhão de adquiridos). This is the default if you sign nothing. What you each owned before stays yours, and so do inheritances and gifts. Most things bought during the marriage are shared.
  • Separate property (separação de bens). Each of you keeps what you own and what you acquire.
  • General community property (comunhão geral). Almost everything becomes shared, including what you owned before.
  • A custom regime. You write your own rules within the limits of the law.

Some rules are fixed by law:

  • If either of you is 60 or over: you are always married under separate property.
  • If either of you already has children: you cannot choose general community property, even if the children are adults.
  • If you choose separate property: you can each give up your right to inherit from the other as a spouse. This must go in the prenuptial agreement.

To choose anything other than the default, you sign a prenuptial agreement (convenção antenupcial) before the wedding. You can do it at any civil registry office or at a notary. You cannot do it online. It lapses if you do not marry within one year. It only binds third parties once it is registered. Read Making a Prenuptial Agreement in Portugal for the detail.

The wedding day

  • Who must be there: both of you, or one of you and the other's attorney, and the registrar or accredited minister.
  • Witnesses: optional for a civil wedding. You can have two to four. Two are required if the registrar cannot confirm your identity from your documents.
  • Language: the ceremony is in Portuguese. If one of you does not speak Portuguese and the registrar does not speak your language, an interpreter must be appointed. Ask the registry how to arrange one.
  • Surnames: each of you keeps your own surnames. You may add up to two of your spouse's surnames if you wish.
  • Time off work: if you are employed in Portugal, you are entitled to 15 consecutive days of marriage leave. Tell your employer at least five days before.

Using your marriage abroad and in Portugal

To register the marriage in your home country, you usually need the Portuguese marriage certificate. For use outside the EU, get an apostille from the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público). It costs €10.20. For use inside the EU, you need no apostille, and you can ask for a multilingual standard form. Then follow your embassy's or home registry's process.

If you married abroad and live in Portugal, Portuguese citizens must have the marriage transcribed into the Portuguese civil register. Ask any registry office or a Portuguese consulate.

Family reunification. A spouse can join a foreign resident through family reunification. Both of you must be 18 or over, and the marriage must be valid under Portuguese law. The resident usually needs two years of residence first. For a spouse you lived with for 18 months before you moved, it is 15 months. Couples with a child in common and some permit holders are exempt. Read Applying for Family Reunification in Portugal.

Citizenship. If you have been married to a Portuguese citizen for more than three years, you can apply for Portuguese nationality by declaration. Read Becoming a Portuguese Citizen by Naturalisation.

Not ready to marry? The de facto union

Couples who have lived together for more than two years in a relationship like marriage have many of the same rights without a wedding. This is the de facto union (união de facto). It covers joint tax returns, the family home, and survivor's pensions. It gives no automatic inheritance rights and no shared property. Read "Living Together Unmarried in Portugal (União de Facto)" for how to prove it and where it falls short.

Common mistakes

  • Booking a venue before checking the fee and travel costs. A venue wedding costs €200 plus the registrar's travel.
  • Letting the certificate of capacity expire. It must be under six months old when you file, not when you marry.
  • Assuming a symbolic ceremony is legal. Only a registrar, a Catholic priest, or an accredited minister of a faith established in Portugal can marry you in law.
  • Forgetting the prenuptial agreement. Once you marry without one, the default regime applies.
  • Assuming you must file where you live. Any civil registry office in Portugal can open your process.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. For a complex case, such as an earlier divorce abroad or property in several countries, ask the registry or a lawyer.

Corrections

Correction, 31 August 2026: an earlier version of this guide said that 16 and 17 year olds could marry with parental consent, that you had to open the process at the registry office where you live or where you will marry, and that every foreign document had to be under six months old. Since 2 April 2025 nobody under 18 can marry in Portugal. Any civil registry office can open the process. The six month limit applies only to the certificate of capacity to marry. Thanks to Plan a Wedding for pointing these out.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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