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Getting a Foreign Divorce Recognised in Portugal

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

How to make a divorce granted abroad count in Portugal: the EU certificate route, the Court of Appeal case for other countries, and the registry update.

Getting a Foreign Divorce Recognised in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You divorced in another EU country and need Portugal's civil registry to show it.
  • You divorced outside the EU, for example in Brazil or the United States, and need it to count here.
  • You or your former spouse is Portuguese, or you want to remarry in Portugal.

Not for you if: you want to get divorced in Portugal now. Read "Getting Divorced in Portugal".

A divorce granted abroad does not count in Portugal on its own. If a court in another EU country granted it (Denmark aside), no court case is needed: you take the decision and an EU certificate to the civil registry. Any other divorce must first be confirmed by a Portuguese Court of Appeal (Tribunal da Relação), with a lawyer. This case is called "revisão e confirmação de sentença estrangeira". Your former spouse gets 15 days to reply. No official processing time is published.

Why you may need it

The rule is that a foreign court decision on private rights has no effect in Portugal until a Portuguese court has reviewed and confirmed it. That applies whatever your nationality. EU rules, treaties, and special laws can set other rules, which is why EU divorces are simpler.

You will usually need recognition when:

  • you or your former spouse is Portuguese, so the divorce must be added to your Portuguese birth and marriage records;
  • your marriage was registered in Portugal;
  • you want to marry again in Portugal;
  • you need Portugal to treat you as divorced, for example in an inheritance or property matter.

Portuguese law says a marriage that has not been dissolved stops either person from marrying again. It also says a fact that must be registered can only be relied on once it is registered.

You do not need a court case just to show a foreign divorce as evidence in a case already running in a Portuguese court. The judge there weighs it like any other evidence.

If the divorce came from another EU country

A divorce decision from an EU country is recognised in every other EU country without any special procedure. In particular, no procedure is needed to update the civil registry once no further appeal is possible in the country that granted it. Denmark does not take part in these rules, so a Danish divorce takes the court route described below.

The same applies to a divorce not granted by a court, such as an agreement or official document registered in an EU country. It must have binding legal effect there.

What to take to a civil registry office (conservatória):

  1. A copy of the divorce decision that proves it is genuine.
  2. The EU certificate for divorce decisions, which the court that granted the divorce issues when you ask. For a registered agreement or official document, the authority that registered it issues a different EU certificate.
  3. A translation, only if the registry asks for one. It can ask for the free text in the certificate, or for the decision itself if it cannot proceed without it.

No legalisation or similar formality, such as an apostille, is required under these EU rules. The EU certificate is issued in the language of the decision, or in another official EU language you ask for.

The current EU rules cover cases started on or after 1 August 2022. Divorces from cases started before then fall under the earlier EU regulation, which also recognises them across the EU.

Portugal can still refuse recognition in a few narrow cases. One is if it is clearly against Portuguese public policy. Another is if your former spouse was never properly told about the case and did not accept the decision. A third is if it clashes with another decision between the same two people. Anyone with an interest can ask a court to declare that there are no grounds to refuse. In Portugal, that request goes to the Family and Children's Court.

If the divorce came from outside the EU

You need a court case at a Court of Appeal before your divorce counts. Portugal has five: Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Évora, and Guimarães. Their sections hear these cases.

Which court

You file at the Court of Appeal for the area where your former spouse lives. If your former spouse lives abroad, you file where they are found in Portugal. If they are not in Portugal, you file in the area where you live. If you both live abroad, the case goes to Lisbon.

The court areas are:

  • Guimarães: Braga, Bragança, Viana do Castelo, and Vila Real;
  • Porto: Aveiro, Porto, and Porto Este;
  • Coimbra: Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Guarda, Leiria, and Viseu;
  • Lisbon: Lisbon, Lisboa Norte, Lisboa Oeste, the Azores, and Madeira;
  • Évora: Beja, Évora, Faro, Portalegre, Santarém, and Setúbal.

You need a lawyer

The law requires a lawyer (advogado) for cases filed in the higher courts, and the Court of Appeal is one. If you cannot afford one, Portugal's legal aid scheme applies in all courts.

What the court checks

The court confirms the divorce only if:

  • there is no doubt that the document is genuine, or about what the decision says;
  • the decision is final under the law of the country that granted it;
  • the foreign court's jurisdiction was not set up to get round the law, and the matter was not one reserved for Portuguese courts;
  • no Portuguese court has the same case pending or already decided, unless the foreign case started first;
  • your former spouse was properly notified of the case under that country's law, and both sides had a fair hearing;
  • recognising it would not lead to a result clearly incompatible with Portuguese public policy.

The court checks authenticity and public policy on its own initiative. It also refuses confirmation if its own review shows any of the other conditions are missing.

Documents to gather

  • An official copy of the full divorce decision, so there is no doubt it is genuine.
  • Proof that the decision is final and can no longer be appealed.
  • Proof of authenticity. If the country has signed the Hague Apostille Convention, this is an apostille issued there. Otherwise, the law asks for the official's signature to be recognised by a Portuguese consulate in that country.
  • A Portuguese translation of any document in another language, if the judge orders one. If the translation is doubted, the judge can ask for one done by a notary or certified by a consulate.

Your lawyer will tell you what else the case needs.

Step by step

  1. Your lawyer files the request at the right Court of Appeal, with the divorce decision attached.
  2. Your former spouse is formally notified and has 15 days to oppose it.
  3. If they oppose it, you have 10 days to answer.
  4. You, your former spouse, and the Public Prosecutor (Ministério Público) each get 15 days to send written arguments.
  5. The court decides, following its usual appeal rules.
  6. Either side can appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice. The Public Prosecutor can also appeal on some grounds.

Your former spouse can only oppose on the grounds listed above, or on a few grounds that allow a final judgment to be reopened. If the decision went against a Portuguese citizen, they can also argue that Portuguese law should have applied and would have given them a better result.

If a notary or registry office granted your divorce, rather than a court, ask your lawyer how the rule applies: the law speaks of decisions by foreign courts.

Updating the civil registry

Once the divorce is recognised, it goes on the Portuguese civil register:

  • If either of you is Portuguese, the confirmed divorce is added as a note (averbamento) to the records it affects, including the birth record and the marriage record.
  • If neither of you is Portuguese, a confirmed decision is still registered. It is added as a note if your records are already in the Portuguese register. If they are not, the Central Registry Office (Conservatória dos Registos Centrais) makes a new entry.

The law tells courts to send a decision on a fact that must be registered to the civil registry within one day of it becoming final. Check that it arrived by ordering a registry certificate. A certificate costs €20.

For an EU divorce, you go to the registry yourself. You can use any civil registry office unless a special rule says otherwise. Call ahead: the registry can skip a translation of a document in English, French, or Spanish only if the official dealing with it reads that language. EU public documents on divorce need no translation if they come with the EU multilingual standard form.

If your marriage was never registered in Portugal

If neither of you is Portuguese, Portuguese law only requires events in your life to be registered here when they happen in Portugal. A marriage and divorce that both took place abroad do not have to be registered.

That does not make the divorce count here on its own. If you need to rely on it in Portugal, for example to remarry or in an inheritance, the recognition rules above still apply.

To marry in Portugal as a foreign citizen, you also need a certificate from your own country showing that nothing in its law stops the marriage. It must be less than six months old, unless your country sets a different validity.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

This guide is written from official Portuguese and EU sources and, for prices and contact details, the providers' own websites.

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

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