The Portuguese Notarial System Explained

Why This Guide Exists

Portugal's notarial system does not look like the notarial systems most foreign nationals are used to. There is a public notário in the Latin tradition, but since the 2004 reform there are also parallel providers — Portuguese lawyers, solicitadores, chambers of commerce, juntas de freguesia and CTT — with defined delegated competence for specific notarial acts. Understanding which route delivers which act, and with what legal effect, saves time, money and rejected documents.

This guide explains the Portuguese notarial system from the perspective of a foreign national who needs a notarial act performed in Portugal or a Portuguese document authenticated for use abroad. It cites the Portuguese legal sources verbatim where relevant.

What the Notarial Function Actually Is

The Diário da República lexionário defines the notarial function (função notarial) as "the activity which, in representation of the State, aims to give legal form and confer the presumption of authenticity (\"fé pública\") on out-of-court juridical acts." It is codified in the Código do Notariado.

The stated purpose of a notarial act (Código do Notariado art. 1.º n.º 1) is to confer qualified evidential force on juridical acts and facts recorded in a written document. In other words, a notarial act produces a document that public authorities and private counterparties accept as authentic without further proof — that is what "fé pública" means in practical terms.

Notários Públicos and Cartórios Notariais

The Código do Notariado art. 2.º n.º 1 designates the notário as the primary organ of the notarial function. Notários operate through cartórios notariais — public-facing notary offices, typically named after the notário — and are members of the Ordem dos Notários.

Notários exclusively perform certain acts: escrituras públicas (public deeds), some testamentary acts and certain register entries. Real-estate transactions traditionally require an escritura pública, though since 2008 the Documento Particular Autenticado framework has allowed most real-estate transactions to be authenticated by advogados or solicitadores as an alternative — see the dedicated guide on the termo de autenticação for the details.

Advogados and Solicitadores — the Delegated Notarial Competence

Decreto-Lei n.º 76-A/2006 of 29 March assigns a defined catalogue of notarial acts to Portuguese advogados and solicitadores — the delegated notarial competence. In the words of a leading Portuguese-lawyer commentary summarising the decree: "In Portugal, lawyers have notarial powers, equivalent to Notary Offices. Therefore, there is no difference between notarial acts performed by lawyers and notarial acts performed by notaries" (Advocacia Adriano Martins Pinheiro, Junho 2022).

The catalogue includes: preparation and authentication of powers of attorney; certification of copy conformity with originals; certification of translations; authentication of private documents; simple signature recognitions with special mentions; in-person signature and handwriting recognitions; drawing up of private powers of attorney; formalisation of extrajudicial notifications.

Each act performed by an advogado or solicitador under this delegated competence must be recorded in the electronic system of the corresponding Ordem at the moment of the act, generating a unique identification number that appears on the document (Portaria n.º 657-B/2006 of 29 June). Without this electronic-registry step, the act is not validly certified.

Parallel Providers

In addition to notários and advogados / solicitadores, the Diário da República lexionário confirms that the following providers can certify copies of documents with the same evidential force: juntas de freguesia (parish councils), CTT — Correios de Portugal (post offices), and câmaras de comércio e indústria (chambers of commerce).

• Juntas de freguesia — for standard document copies. Convenient for daily use; walk-in.
• CTT — €18 per document up to four pages under the published tariff.
• Câmaras de comércio e indústria — historically for commercial documents.
• Consular agents — Portuguese consulates abroad perform notarial acts for Portuguese citizens and, in some cases, for foreign nationals with a specific link to Portugal.
• Special organs — under Código do Notariado art. 3.º, certain military commanders, private notários of municipal chambers and Caixa Geral de Depósitos, and other statutory entities can also perform notarial acts in defined circumstances.

Which Acts Each Provider Can Perform

The table below maps the most common notarial acts to the providers competent to perform them. Where multiple providers appear, all produce the same evidential force for the act.

• Escritura pública — notário público only.
• Termo de autenticação (private document authentication) — notário, advogado, solicitador, câmara de comércio.
• Signature recognition (simple, com menções, presencial, por semelhança) — notário, advogado, solicitador.
• Certified copy of documents — notário, advogado, solicitador, junta de freguesia, CTT, câmara de comércio.
• Certified translation — via signature recognition of the translator, performed by notário, advogado, solicitador, câmara de comércio (Decreto-Lei n.º 244/92 for chambers of commerce).
• Powers of attorney — private form: advogado, solicitador, notário; public form (escritura): notário; consular form: Portuguese consulates.
• Apostille — Procuradoria-Geral da República and District Deputy Prosecutors General only.
• Consular legalisation (non-Hague) — Portuguese consulates only.
• Videoconference authentication (since 15 November 2021) — notário, advogado, solicitador, conservador, consular agent — for the acts listed in the corresponding Justice Portal notice, excluding wills and certain land-registration acts.

Evidential Force — All Roads Lead to the Same Legal Effect

For acts within the delegated competence of advogados and solicitadores under Decreto-Lei n.º 76-A/2006, the evidential force is identical to that of an act performed by a notário público. The Diário da República lexionário on certified copies confirms this expressly: certifications performed by the listed providers "confer on the document the same evidential force as if the acts had been performed with notarial intervention."

This means: an advogado-authenticated procuração or an advogado-recognised signature is not a second-class notarial act. It is not "almost as good as" a cartório act. It is legally the same, provided the electronic-registry step is completed.

Which Route to Choose

For most day-to-day notarial needs — signature recognition, certified copies, private powers of attorney, most authentications — an advogado or a solicitador is a direct, convenient and fully-authoritative route. Where the act is public by nature — a real-estate escritura pública, a will, some register entries — a notário is required.

For cross-border scenarios, the choice is often driven by follow-on steps: whether an apostille or a consular legalisation is required, whether a certified translation is needed, whether the destination country accepts a lawyer's authentication or requires a notário's. An English-speaking Portuguese lawyer with a full multilingual practice can typically walk the whole file from intake to legalised delivery in one engagement.