Need your Portuguese document translated for the U.S. — or a U.S. document accepted in Portugal? Start with the direction: the translation, certification, and apostille rules are not the same.
Requirements reviewed by Natalia Vega
Senior Certified Translation Reviewer · Last verified June 2026
Reviewed June 2026 · Natalia Vega
Portugal uses a certified-translation system: the translation's accuracy is certified before a notary, a lawyer, or a chamber of commerce (and recorded at the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado). For a Portuguese document used in the United States, a certified English translation with a signed Certificate of Accuracy is what USCIS and universities accept. Portugal has been in the Hague Apostille Convention since 1969, so a Portuguese certidão is apostilled by the IRN — not consularized.
Confirm final requirements with the authority receiving the document.
Need a certified Portuguese → English translation?
From $24.95/page · signed certification included
Quick reference
Confirm final requirements with the authority receiving the document.
| Translation standard | Notarized translation (Notarised) · tradução certificada |
|---|---|
| Who can translate | Any competent translator, provided the signature is officially certified |
| Apostille | When the receiving authority requires authentication; separate from translation |
| Apostille authority | The Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) / the Procuradoria-Geral da República for certain documents. |
| Accepted languages | Portuguese |
| Responsible authority | Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) |
Official-use requirements
The local certification system, who may translate, and what gives the finished document legal effect.
Cross-border authentication
Portugal is part of the Hague Apostille Convention (since 1969), so public documents are authenticated with a single apostille — no consular legalization.
From Portugal
The Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) / the Procuradoria-Geral da República for certain documents.Portugal has been a party to the Convention since 1969.
Toward Portugal
A U.S. document going to Portugal is apostilled in the United States — the state Secretary of State, or the U.S. Department of State for federal documents — and then translated into Portuguese with the translation certified.
When the receiving authority requires an apostille on the original, obtain it before translation so the apostille certificate can be translated too. See how apostilles work, or order a certified translation.
Submission checklist
Ask the conservatória do registo civil for the full record so all annotations (averbamentos) are present.
Cover the registry data, the averbamentos, and any apostille, with a signed Certificate of Accuracy.
File them with USCIS, the university, or the credential evaluator.
Need the Portuguese translation service rather than the rules?
Continue to the language hub or choose the exact document you have.
Two directions, two rulebooks
Choose the destination first. It determines the language, certification, and whether an apostille belongs in the packet.
Portuguese birth certificates, diplomas, transcripts, and other non-English records need a complete certified English translation for USCIS, U.S. universities, and credential evaluators.
A U.S. document going to Portugal is apostilled in the United States — the state Secretary of State, or the U.S. Department of State for federal documents — and then translated into Portuguese with the translation certified.
Choose the document you have for its format-specific translation guidance. These links cover the records most often submitted from Portugal to USCIS, universities, and credential evaluators.
ptcertidao de nascimento
Portuguese birth certificate translation is one of the highest-volume requests for USCIS family and status cases.
Signed & stamped Certificate of Accuracy
Word-for-word · exact structure preserved
Portuguese diploma translation is often required for admissions, licensing, and employment verification.
Signed & stamped Certificate of Accuracy
Word-for-word · exact structure preserved
pthistorico escolar
Transcripts require line-level translation of courses, grades, scales, institutional headers, and signatures.
Signed & stamped Certificate of Accuracy
Word-for-word · exact structure preserved
certidao de casamento
sentenca de divorcio · certidao de averbacao
certidao de obito
passaporte · cartao de cidadao · RG
NIF · CPF
Portuguese records reviewed by Natalia Vega — Immigration quality-review lead
Avoid preventable delays
The mistakes we see most often on Portuguese documents — and what a correct certified translation does instead.
A Portuguese certidão records later events in the margin; skipping them hides changes a U.S. office needs to see.
Portugal uses European Portuguese terms and document structure; treating a Portuguese certidão as Brazilian can misname fields.
Portuguese grades run out of 20; reading them as percentages distorts the record a credential evaluator computes.
Anonymized Portuguese-to-English orders. Each case shows the exact translation problem and how we solved it for the receiving authority.
A Paraná-issued Brazilian birth certificate carried two verifiable digital seals: a state-level FUNARPEN selo digital and a separate cartório 2D barcode. Both are checkable online by the receiving authority. We translated each seal as its own bracketed inline block and kept the verification URLs in English. The certified translation was delivered for a USCIS family-based filing.
A Brazilian two-page school transcript covered nine years of Elementary Education and three of Secondary, with every grade from 6 to 9 labeled under two parallel numbering systems — the old 'Série' and the post-2008 'Ano.' We preserved both labels on every applicable row, reproduced the dense multi-row table grid cell-by-cell, and flagged one calendar-year gap in the original (the year 2007 is absent). The translation was delivered for a USCIS filing.
A Brazilian Inteiro Teor birth certificate carried a modern marginal annotation recording the holder's CPF (taxpayer number) and citing the CRC inter-registry information exchange. The annotation is a separate registry action issued years after the original birth entry. We translated the certificate with the annotation preserved as its own paragraph, identified the two cited Brazilian institutions in English, and kept the redundant date forms typical of Brazilian civil registry copy. The translation was delivered for a USCIS family-based filing.
Clear per-page pricing
A one-page certidão is priced as a single page; multi-page records are priced by their page count. Standard translation delivery is 24 hours for most 1–3 page orders. Notarization, hard-copy mailing, and apostille service are priced separately because their timelines differ.
Certified translation from
One physical source page, any length.
Start my translation See all pricing and add-onsQuestions people ask before submitting
No. U.S. authorities do not require Portugal's certification chain. A certified English translation with a signed Certificate of Accuracy is what USCIS, WES, and ECE accept.
certified Portuguese translationYes, since 1969. A Portuguese public document used abroad is apostilled by the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN), not legalized at a consulate.
how apostilles workFor a Portuguese-issued document, the translation works from European Portuguese conventions; the English target is the same, but the source terminology and document structure are Portuguese, not Brazilian.
Portuguese translation servicesThey are the margin annotations recording later events — marriage, divorce, name change. A complete certified translation renders them, because a U.S. office reads them as part of the record.
Portuguese certidão translationPortuguese grades run on a 0–20 scale. A certified transcript translation preserves the scale so WES or ECE can map it, rather than converting to a U.S. GPA.
WES translationPricing is per page. A one-page certidão is a single page; multi-page records are priced by page count.
see live pricingNo. USCIS and universities reject self-translation; an independent translator must complete and certify it.
what a certified translation isInformation verified against official sources. Last verified June 2026.
