Power of Attorney in Portugal

The Electronic POA Registry (procuracoesonline.pt)

Since 2017, the Portuguese Ministry of Justice operates an electronic power-of-attorney service at `procuracoesonline.pt`. The service allows a POA to be created and registered electronically using the Portuguese Cartão de Cidadão or Chave Móvel Digital.

The electronic POA is a convenient route for straightforward representation acts between Portuguese residents. For cross-border acts, for acts involving foreign nationals without a Portuguese CC, and for acts where the underlying transaction requires a specific form (real-estate deeds, corporate acts, some family-law matters), the traditional advogado, solicitador or notário route remains the appropriate choice.

We advise on which route fits your specific representation need and, where the electronic POA is the right route, we prepare the underlying instructions and coordinate the registration.

Cross-Border POAs — From Abroad, For Portugal

A power of attorney signed abroad for use in Portugal follows one of two routes:

- **Portuguese consulate route** — the POA is executed at a Portuguese consulate in the country where the grantor resides, using a Portuguese-law-compliant form. The Portuguese consulate handles the authentication step. This is the traditional and cleanest cross-border route. - **Local notarisation plus apostille** — the POA is drafted in Portuguese-law-compliant form, signed and authenticated locally by a foreign notary, and then apostilled by the origin country's competent authority. The apostilled document is admissible in Portugal for the acts within its scope, with certified translation into Portuguese where required.

Country-specific notes:

- **United States** — local notary authentication followed by Secretary-of-State apostille of the notary's commission is standard. County certification is often required before the state apostille. - **United Kingdom** — local notary or notary public authentication followed by FCDO apostille. - **Russia and Ukraine** — Hague signatories; local notarisation followed by Ministry-of-Justice apostille. - **Spain, France, Italy, Germany** — Hague signatories; local notarial authentication followed by the origin-country apostille authority.

For the receiving-side act in Portugal, we handle the certified translation into Portuguese and the representation of the attorney-in-fact before the Portuguese counterparty — AIMA, IRN, tax authority, bank, court, cartório or private counterparty.

Revocation and Substitution

Under Article 265 no. 1 of the Portuguese Civil Code, a procuração is freely revocable by the grantor, regardless of any clause to the contrary or waiver of the right to revoke. The exception is the "irrevocable" POA — granted in the interest of the attorney-in-fact or a third party — which cannot be unilaterally revoked without just cause.

Substitution — where the attorney-in-fact delegates the granted powers to a further sub-attorney — is permitted only if the original POA expressly authorises it. We advise on the correct form during drafting to avoid the common problem of a POA that cannot be sub-delegated when a sub-delegation is later needed.

Russian and Ukrainian Cross-Border POAs

For a POA to be granted by a Russian or Ukrainian national for use in Portugal, the standard route is: notarisation at the origin-country notary in the Russian or Ukrainian form, apostille by the origin-country Ministry of Justice, certified translation into Portuguese in Portugal, and — where a specific act requires it — an accompanying Portuguese-side signature recognition or authentication.

Since 2022, verification of Russian-origin apostilles has become more nuanced in some Portuguese destination-authority contexts. Where the destination is AIMA, IRN or a Portuguese bank, we verify acceptance in advance. Ukrainian-origin apostilles continue to operate under the standard Hague framework.