Certified Copy of Documents in Portugal

What a Certified Copy Is

A certified copy (cópia certificada) attests that the photocopy conforms to the original document. Under Portuguese law, a certified copy carries the same evidential force as if the act had been performed with notarial intervention (Diário da República — Lexionário; Decreto-Lei n.º 28/2000 art. 2.º).

The Ordem dos Advogados electronic-registry step is mandatory: an advogado-certified copy is only validly certified if the act is registered in the Ordem's system at the moment of certification, generating an identification number that appears on the certification (Portaria n.º 657-B/2006 of 29 June).

Who Can Certify a Copy in Portugal

Portuguese law authorises several parallel providers, each with the same evidential force per the Diário da República lexionário definition:

• Juntas de freguesia — for standard documents; useful when the recipient is a Portuguese public authority.
• CTT — Correios de Portugal — €18 for up to four pages under the published tariff, walk-in service.
• Câmaras de comércio e indústria — for business documents.
• Advogados — including THE-Ö Legal, with mandatory registration in the Ordem's electronic system per Portaria n.º 657-B/2006.
• Solicitadores — with the same electronic-registry requirement.
• Notário público — the traditional route via cartório notarial.

When You Need a Certified Copy

Certified copies are typically requested for immigration and residency files (AIMA), Portuguese citizenship applications (IRN and Ministério da Justiça), bank onboarding, university enrolment, foreign consular submissions, foreign court proceedings and cross-border property or corporate transactions.

The choice of provider matters. A CTT-certified copy is inexpensive and adequate for many domestic uses; a lawyer-certified copy carries the same evidential force but is often preferred when the copy will accompany a broader legal file, when the original is a foreign document, or when the receiving authority is a foreign counterparty.

Acceptance Is Not Universal

No Portuguese certification confers automatic acceptance by every possible recipient. Whether a certified copy is accepted by AIMA, IRN, a specific bank, a specific consulate, a specific university, a foreign court, an employer or another recipient depends on several factors: the purpose of the submission, the recipient's own internal rules, the type of original document, and the professional who performed the certification.

For sensitive files — citizenship applications, cross-border acts, non-Hague destinations — we confirm the acceptance route with you before issuing the certification. Where the destination requires an apostille or consular legalisation on top of the certified copy, we coordinate that additional step.

Foreign Documents

For a document issued abroad, we first review the origin-country legalisation status: was the document apostilled in its origin country, or does it require consular legalisation? Some documents validly issued in the origin country need no further legalisation to be used in a Portuguese notarial act, per Article 41 of the Código do Notariado.

Where a certified translation of the foreign document is required, we handle that in parallel — either via signature recognition of a qualified translator's certification, or by advogado certification of the translation under Decreto-Lei n.º 76-A/2006 art. 38.

How We Deliver

Bring the original — in person or by secure courier. We take the photocopy, verify against the original, register the act in the Ordem's electronic system generating the identification number, sign and stamp the certification, and return the certified copy with the original.

For files that need multiple certified copies, we work from a single intake and produce the full set in one session. Where a subsequent apostille or consular legalisation is needed, we handle the coordination and deliver the fully-legalised set.