Through a Portuguese parent
Register your birth in the Portuguese civil register, or declare that you want to be Portuguese. Your parent’s own birth must be registered in Portugal. The consulate covering where you live can tell you how it handles this.
Through a grandparent: step by step
- Check your grandparent was Portuguese by originNot naturalized later, and they never lost it. They don’t need to be alive.
- Gather the documentsThe list is below.
- Fill out the formAdults use form Modelo 1D, the declaration that you want to be Portuguese.
- Submit itAt a Portuguese consulate, by mail to the Conservatória dos Registos Centrais in Lisbon, or in person at a nationality desk (Balcão da Nacionalidade) in Portugal. Lawyers must file online.
- Pay the fee€250 for adults on the government’s service page (the registry fee regulation lists €175, so confirm with the consulate), and free for under-18s. Translations, apostilles and postage are extra.
- WaitNo official processing times are published.
Documents for the grandchild route
- Your full birth certificate, with an apostille
- Your parent’s full birth certificate, with an apostille (not needed if it’s already registered in Portugal and you give the registry details)
- Your grandparent’s Portuguese birth certificate (not needed if you give the registry, year and entry number)
- Criminal record certificates from the countries where you were born, are a national, and have lived since age 16, translated where needed
- Proof of your knowledge of Portuguese language and culture, once the new regulations say how
For UK, Irish and US certificates, see the certificate table on our Ireland page.