Initiate the marriage process

The marriage process is initiated when the engaged couple goes a civil registry office and declare their will to get married. They may also do it online.

In the marriage process, the engaged couple may also be represented by their representatives with special powers. The process is concluded with the registry office’s order which authorizes or refutes the marriage.

Service channels

Find out where you can do the service and what the advantages of each channel
  • Initiate now
    Authenticate with the Citizen Card

    See the associated costs in the 'What is the price' field

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  • See the associated costs in the 'What is the price' field

    Take with you the Citizen Card or identity card, and a prenuptial agreement certificate, if it has been prepared at a notary office

    Search for a point of service near you:

Who can Initiate the marriage process?

Where can you Initiate the marriage process?

What are the documents and requirements to Initiate the marriage process?

  • In any case

    You must submit the following documents of the engaged couple:

    • Citizen Card or identity document.
    • A prenuptial agreement certificate, if it has been prepared at a notary office.
  • If the engaged party is under 18 years old

    The authorization of the parents or of the individual who legally represents the minor is necessary.

  • If the engaged party is foreign

    You must submit:

    • the passport or residence permit
    • the birth certificate (certified and translated into Portuguese, if the original certificate was written in a foreign language)
    • the affidavit of eligibility to marry, if the home country of the foreign engaged party issues this certificate.

    Other documents, which are found to be crucial for your process’s assessment, may be required.

  • If you make the request online

    To sign up, you will need:

    • your Citizen Card, with an activated authentication certificate
    • a pin code for the Card’s authentication
    • a compatible card reader.
  • If the engaged couple is represented by their representatives, it is necessary to submit the power of attorney

    The power of attorney may be granted through:

    • an authenticated document
    • a public instrument (power of attorney written by a notary or by a Portuguese consulate officer)
    • a document signed by the represented, with a presential signature recognition.

    The power of attorney must identify the other engaged party (with the name, age, place of birth, usual residence and parentage) and indicate the property scheme and the marriage modality (civil, catholic or civil in a religious way).

What is the Price to Initiate the marriage process?

The cost of the marriage process and registry is 120€

This amount includes the process before the marriage and the registry carried out after the marriage.

Non-urgent marriage on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, outside the registry office or at the registry office but outside of the operating hours

The cost of the marriage process and registry will be 200€ if you opt to get married:

  • on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday
  • on a business day, outside the registry office or at the registry office but outside the operating hours.

In such cases, you must ensure the transport and pay for the travelling costs of the registrar.

If, by law, the marriage is deemed as urgent, only the cost of 120€ will be charged (for instance, if one of the engaged parties is under the risk of eminent death).

Marriage with a prenuptial agreement

If you wish to prepare a prenuptial agreement, besides the marriage process and registry costs indicated above, you will also pay the following amounts.

To

 

Amount added to the process and registry cost

Prepare, amend or revoke a prenuptial agreement

if you opt for one of the scheme provided for by the Civil Code

100€

if you opt for an atypical matrimonial property scheme - that is, a scheme not provided for by the Civil Code, in which the engaged couple defines the rules, within the law’s limits

160€

Register a prenuptial agreement or its amendment, when these have been prepared outside a civil registry office. For instance, prepared in a notary office.

30€

Payment methods

  • Multibanco.
  • In cash (if you submit the request in person).
  • Certified or bank cheque to the order of IRN, in euros, from a bank represented in Portugal and withdrawn from an account domiciled in Portugal.
  • Postal order to IRN.

How can you Initiate the marriage process?

On the location

  1. The process is initiated when the engaged couple declares their will to get married, at a civil registry office or online.

In this declaration, the engaged couple must indicate:

  1. If, after the process is assessed, the registry office concludes that no impediments are observed, the marriage is authorized. If the marriage is not authorized, the engaged couple is notified personally or through a registered letter.
  2. Until the day of the marriage, any individual may denounce, at the civil registry office, the existence of any impediments to that marriage.

Online

  1. One of the engaged parties accesses to Civil Online > Marriage, signs up with the Citizen Card and submits the request.

To submit the request online, the individual must be over 18 years old, be Portuguese or Brazilian with the general rights and duties equality status and hold a Citizen Card.

  1. When you receive the message that the request has been submitted, the other engaged party also accesses to Civil Online > Marriage, signs up with their Citizen Card and confirms the request.
  1. The request is sent to the chosen registry office and the engaged couple is notified of the process’s progress.

It is not possible to prepare prenuptial agreements online

The prenuptial agreements are agreements on the marriage property effects. It is necessary to prepare a prenuptial agreement whenever, for instance, you wish to establish a marriage property scheme which is not the communion of acquired goods.

If the engaged couple wishes to prepare such an agreement, they must go to the civil registry office or to a notary office.

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