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The Procuradoria-Geral da República at Palácio Palmela in Lisbon, the body that issues apostilles in Portugal today

Portugal's Notaries Are Set to Start Issuing Apostilles, and the Data Watchdog Named Five Conditions Before the Platform Can Open

A draft ordinance would finally switch on a power written into the Notarial Statute in 2004, letting notaries issue apostilles through a platform run by the Ordem dos Notários. The CNPD cleared it on 8 September with five changes, from retention periods to blocking AI crawlers.

The Portugal Brief 21 Sep 2026

The public counters and waiting area inside the central civil registry office in Lisbon

The Convenção Antenupcial in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Prenuptial Deed, the Waiver of Forced-Heir Rights That Only Works Under Separação de Bens, and the Five Years in the Family Home It Leaves Behind

Portuguese law reserves a fixed share of your estate for your spouse and children, and no will can override it. Since 2018 there has been one narrow way out, it lives in the prenuptial deed, and it only works if your property regime is separation.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The interior of a Portuguese Espaço do Cidadão public service office, with staff at numbered red and white desks serving citizens and others waiting on chairs along the wall.

Two Fields Have Vanished From AIMA's Permanent-Residence Form for EU Citizens, and the Check Now Runs Itself in About Half an Hour

From 15 September, EU nationals and their family members applying for permanent residence through AIMA's renewals portal no longer supply a NIF or a NISS. The agency verifies both automatically. The fifteen-day and three-month statutory deadlines are unchanged.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

Rows of straw parasols and blue sunbeds on the wide sand of Troia beach in Portugal, with a wooden boardwalk in the foreground and the Arrabida hills across the water behind.

An Order Published on Friday Hands Portugal's Environment Agency Twelve Months to Redraw the Beach Rules From Sesimbra to Odeceixe

Despacho n.º 11520/2026 reopens the Espichel-Odeceixe coastal programme four years after it was approved, after an inspection of 45 kilometres of Grândola coast between Troia and Melides. Sixteen bodies sit on the advisory committee; the beach concessionaires attend only when invited.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The white art deco facade of the Terreiro do Paço ferry terminal in Lisbon, with three tall arched windows, a clock above the central arch and Lisbon taxis parked along the kerb in front.

Cash Is No Longer Accepted at the Terreiro do Paço Ferry Counter, and the European Rule That Would Settle It Is Still Unfinished

Transtejo Soflusa went card only at its staffed Lisbon ticket office on 14 September. An association has asked for the legal basis. Euro cash is legal tender, but what that obliges was left to a 2010 recommendation, and Portugal attaches no penalty to a refusal.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The pink baroque facade of the Guimaraes Court of Appeal on a cobbled street, with stone-framed windows, wrought-iron balconies and an armorial portal

A Non-Compete Clause That Paid Nothing Cost an Insurance Agency 120,000 Euros, Until the Guimaraes Court of Appeal Struck It Down

The agency was barred from competing for two years after leaving the DS Seguros network and paid nothing for the wait. Enforcing the penalty, the appeal court held, was an abuse of right. ECO reports at least 59 similar actions against former agents.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

A modern stone and glass office building on a quiet street in Belém, Lisbon, with parked cars along the kerb and a jacaranda in bloom to one side

The Labour Minister Says Women Are Still Dismissed for Being Pregnant, and the EU Law Meant to Help Is Three Months Overdue

Requests for a CITE opinion on parental dismissals fall on women ten times more often than on men. The pay transparency directive was due in force on 7 June and Portugal's bill has not reached the Council of Ministers.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

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