Portuguese criminal record with an apostille: how to get it from abroad

You’ve left Portugal, and now another country wants your Portuguese criminal record certificate, usually with an apostila. Canada, Brazil and Italy are among the countries that ask for one from places you’ve lived.

Since July 2025 you can request it from abroad through an online form, with no Portuguese ID card and no trip back.^[1] Most of what you’ll read still describes the old route, and even Canada’s own instructions for Portugal haven’t caught up.

Two things catch people out. The purpose you choose is printed on the certificate and can’t be changed, and the apostille is a separate step with its own office. This guide takes you through both, country by country.

No Citizen Card, no Digital Mobile Key, or no time for Portuguese portals? Our Portuguese criminal record service gets you the certificate and the apostille through our partner lawyer in Portugal, with one power of attorney you sign online. Everything below is what you need to know either way.

Neste guia10 sections

1. Do you need an apostille on your Portuguese criminal record?
2. How can you get a Portuguese criminal record from abroad?
3. What can you use a Portuguese criminal record for?
4. Which purpose should you choose on the request?
5. How much does it cost, and how long does it take?
6. What does the certificate look like, and does paper matter?
7. How do you get the apostille in Portugal?
8. How old can your Portuguese certificate be?
9. What do recent files tell you about doing this from abroad?
10. Should you do it yourself or have it done?

Do you need an apostille on your Portuguese criminal record?

Yes, if the country asking is in the apostille convention, and most are. An apostille is the stamp that proves a Portuguese official really signed your certificate.

Three situations cover almost everyone:

• The country is in the convention. Canada (since January 2024), the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Cape Verde and every EU country are. You need the apostille.^[12]
• The country isn’t in the convention. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt aren’t. An apostille won’t do: the destination’s embassy has to legalise the certificate instead.^[12]
• You’re Portuguese and it’s going to another EU country’s authorities. An EU rule drops the apostille for a criminal record, but only for a record issued to you by your own country of nationality.^[13]

“I’m moving from Portugal to Spain. Do I still need the apostille?”

If you’re not Portuguese, probably yes. The EU exemption only covers a record from your own country. A Portuguese certificate for an American, a Brazilian or a French citizen is outside it, so Spain or Italy can still ask for the apostille.^[13]

If you are Portuguese, you also get a free multilingual EU form with a clean certificate. Portugal issues it only to Portuguese citizens.^[3]

How can you get a Portuguese criminal record from abroad?

In one of four ways, and which ones are open to you depends on whether you still have a Portuguese login.

• The online form for people living abroad. It’s built for people with neither a Citizen Card nor a Digital Mobile Key, and you pay online by card, PayPal, MB WAY or Multibanco.^[1] Once you start it, you have 24 hours to finish.^[2] The certificate is issued within 10 working days of your documents and payment arriving.^[5]
• Online with a Digital Mobile Key. If you got one while you lived in Portugal and it’s still active, or you have an eID from another EU country, you can request online and get it within 3 working days.^[3]
• At a Portuguese consulate. Several consulates take requests in person by appointment, including London, Paris, Toronto, Boston and São Paulo.^[9]
• Through someone in Portugal. They go to a counter with your signed authorisation, which states the purpose, plus a copy of your ID.^[4]

Use the form only if you really live abroad. If you live in Portugal and use it, your request is refused and your fee isn’t refunded.^[2]

Which of these can you actually use?

Only the form, if you have no Portuguese login and you’re not in Portugal. The portal needs a Citizen Card, a Digital Mobile Key or an EU eID.^[3] If you never set up a Digital Mobile Key while you lived in Portugal and you have no EU eID, that rules it out.

The form gets you the certificate. It doesn’t get you the apostille, and that’s where most people who do this alone get stuck.

What will they ask you for?

Your full name exactly as on your passport, your place of birth, your date of birth and your parents’ names, and your nationality. Officials check these against your ID.^[5] You don’t need a Portuguese tax number for your own certificate.

What can you use a Portuguese criminal record for?

Anything abroad that asks about your time in Portugal. In recent files we analysed, these came up most:

• A visa or residence permit in another country, including Canadian permanent residence.
• Nacionalidade, such as Italian citizenship by marriage or by descent.
• A job, including work with children and jobs that need a professional licence.
• An adoption or volunteer work, where a background check is part of the file.
• University enrolment abroad.

Whatever it’s for, the request names that use as its purpose, so settle it before you apply.

Which purpose should you choose on the request?

The one that matches what the other country asked for, because it’s printed on the certificate and you can’t change it afterwards.^[8]

You choose it from a fixed list. For use abroad, Portuguese consulates point to two common ones: settling abroad (“fixação de residência no estrangeiro”) and a visa (“concessão de visto em passaporte”).^[8]

If the same certificate has to serve two applications, such as a visa and a job, ask both authorities before you pay. At €5 a certificate, a second request costs you less than a refused file.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

The certificate costs €5, whether you request it online, at a counter or from abroad.^[4] There’s no faster, paid option.

• Online with a Digital Mobile Key: up to 3 working days.^[3]
• From abroad, through the form: up to 10 working days after your documents and payment arrive.^[5]
• At a counter in Portugal: official sources disagree, from same day to up to 10 working days.^[6]

The apostille adds €10.20 per document.^[11] Its timing depends on the route you take, which is the next section.

What does the certificate look like, and does paper matter?

You get it in Portuguese and English, in one bilingual document.^[3] It’s electronically signed and comes with an access code that lets anyone view it online, free, for 90 dias.^[7]

The digital certificate has the same legal value as paper.^[7] What matters is what the authority you’re sending it to will accept:

• They check documents online. Send the PDF and the access code.
• They want an original in an envelope. You need the paper version, posted from Lisbon for €8.25 in total.^[4]

Ask before you request, because the format you choose decides how you get the apostille.

How do you get the apostille in Portugal?

From Portugal’s Prosecutor General’s Office (Procuradoria-Geral da República) and its regional offices.^[10] The Ministry of Justice issues the certificate itself, and the apostille is a separate step.

Since March 2025 the office runs an online apostille service. Documents issued electronically get an electronic apostille.^[10]

Paper documents are a different story:

• In person, by appointment only. You or someone you send books a slot through the same online service.^[10]
• By post to the Coimbra office. It takes postal requests with the original, a copy of your ID, the payment receipt and a return envelope.^[11]

The apostille costs €10.20.^[11] It comes back as its own sheet, so keep it with the certificate: one without the other will be refused.

Already holding a paper certificate?

The apostille goes on the original, so it has to reach Portugal. If it’s close to its age limit, a fresh certificate with the apostille is often the easier route. Our apostille service handles either.

How old can your Portuguese certificate be?

Portugal says three months, but the country you’re applying to decides.^[6]

Where it’s going	In the apostille convention?	What it means for you
Canadá	Yes, since January 2024	Apostille, and a certificate dated after your last six-month stay in Portugal
United States	Sim	Ask the consulate or agency what form it wants
Reino Unido	Sim	Apostila
Australia, New Zealand	Sim	Apostille; check the age rule for your visa
Brazil	Yes, since August 2016	Apostila
Mexico, Cape Verde	Sim	Apostila
Spain, Italy and other EU countries	Sim	Apostille, unless you’re Portuguese
United Arab Emirates, Qatar	Não	Embassy legalisation instead

Sources for the convention column: the Hague Conference’s status table.^[12] Canada’s date rule: Canada’s immigration department.^[14]

“Canada says six months. My certificate is older. Is it dead?”

Not if you’ve left Portugal. Canada’s six-month rule is for the country you live in now. For a country you’ve left, the certificate only has to be issued after your last stay there of six months or more in a row.^[14]

What do recent files tell you about doing this from abroad?

That the paperwork travels further than you’d think. These are recent files we analysed where people needed their Portuguese record for another country.

Three things kept coming up:

• The passport scan. A phone photo gets refused. You need a flat, colour scan of the photo page, with all four corners, the codes at the bottom and your signature showing.
• The signature. It must look like the one in your passport, drawn by hand.
• The purpose and the destination. Both have to be settled before the request goes in, because neither can change afterwards.

Should you do it yourself or have it done?

Do it yourself if three things are true:

• You still have a Portuguese login: an active Digital Mobile Key or Citizen Card, or an EU eID.
• The authority accepts the digital certificate with its access code.
• Nobody needs a paper original with a paper apostille.

Then it costs you €5 plus €10.20, and you don’t need us.

Everyone else hits at least one wall:

• No login. The portal is closed to you, so the form for residents abroad is your only route on your own, and it stops at the certificate.
• A paper apostille. That means an appointment in Portugal, or posting your original to Coimbra and paying through Portuguese channels: Multibanco, cash, a Portuguese state cheque or a transfer to the State treasury.^[11]
• One shot at the purpose. A wrong one means a new request and a new apostille.
• A deadline. Up to 10 working days for the certificate, then the apostille, then the post.

What our service gets you

• You need no Portuguese login at all. No Citizen Card, no Digital Mobile Key, no EU eID and no Portuguese tax number. You sign one power of attorney online.
• Our partner lawyer requests it at the counter in Portugal, so the form’s 24-hour window and its residents-abroad rule don’t touch you.
• We settle the purpose with you first. You tell us the country and what it’s for, and the request goes in with the matching purpose.
• The apostille comes in the same order. You never book a slot in Portugal or post an original to Coimbra.
• You get a scan first, then the original anywhere, tracked: to you, a consulate or a lawyer abroad.
• 3 to 5 business days for the certificate after you sign, about 5 more for the apostille, and a full refund if we can’t deliver the certificate within 10 business days.

That’s how the files above got their certificates to Italy, Brazil, Montenegro and Paraguay.

What we can’t do: decide what the other country accepts. Check its rules on age, format and translation before you order.

Perguntas frequentes

Can I get my Portuguese criminal record if I don’t live in Portugal?

Yes. Since July 2025 there’s an online form for people living abroad who have no Citizen Card or Digital Mobile Key. You pay online by card or PayPal. It only covers the certificate: the apostille is still a separate step.

Can a foreigner get a Portuguese criminal record certificate?

Yes, anyone aged 16 or over can request their own. Foreigners can use the form for people abroad, a Digital Mobile Key linked to a passport or residence permit, or a counter in Portugal.

How much does a Portuguese criminal record cost?

€5. Registered post to an address abroad is €8.25 in total, and the apostille is €10.20 per document.

Quanto tempo demora?

Up to 3 working days online with a Digital Mobile Key, and up to 10 working days through the form for people abroad. The apostille is a separate step after that.

Who issues apostilles in Portugal?

The Prosecutor General’s Office and its regional offices. Electronic documents can get an electronic apostille through its online service.

Is the Portuguese certificate in English?

Yes. It’s issued in one bilingual Portuguese and English version. For any other language you need a translation.

Can I change the purpose after it’s issued?

Não. The purpose is printed on the certificate and can’t be changed. If you need it for something else, you request a new one.

Does the certificate expire?

Portugal treats it as valid for three months, and its access code works for 90 days. The country you’re applying to sets its own age limit, which can be longer or shorter.

Do I need an apostille for Spain or Italy?

Yes, unless you’re Portuguese. The EU exemption only covers a criminal record from your own country of nationality.

What about the UAE or Qatar?

They’re not in the apostille convention, so an apostille won’t be accepted. The certificate needs legalising through the destination country’s embassy instead.

I don’t have a Citizen Card or Digital Mobile Key. Can I still get it?

Yes, in two ways. You can use the form for residents abroad, or someone in Portugal can request it at a counter with your signed authorisation. That second route is how our partner lawyer does it, and it lets us add the apostille in the same order.

Can I get a certificate with an apostille already on it?

The apostille is always a separate step. You request the certificate first, then the apostille on that certificate. Our service does both in one order.

Sources and how we checked

The cases are recent files we analysed for this post. We’ve left out names and anything more identifying than where the certificate was going. Everything else comes from the official sources below.

1. The online form for people living abroad, launched July 2025, and its payment options (Multibanco, MB WAY, card, PayPal): gov.pt, 22 July 2025; DGAJ news.
2. The form is for residents abroad only, must be finished within 24 hours, and is refused without refund for residents of Portugal: Registo Criminal Online, form for residents abroad (updated 24 September 2026; Decreto-Lei 171/2015).
3. The €5 fee, issue within 3 working days online, the bilingual certificate, Digital Mobile Key and EU eID logins, and the European model certificate for Portuguese citizens: Registo Criminal Online, FAQ (updated 24 September 2026).
4. Fees (€5; €8.25 registered post abroad), counters and requests by an authorised person: Justiça, request a criminal record (updated 28 July 2026).
5. Ten working days from abroad, and the identity details checked: DGAJ, criminal record certificate (updated 31 July 2026).
6. Three-month validity, and up to 10 working days at a counter: gov.pt, request a criminal record certificate (updated 25 September 2026).
7. The access code, free viewing, 90 days, and equal legal value of digital and paper: gov.pt, view a criminal record certificate.
8. The purpose is printed and can’t be changed; the purposes most used abroad: Consulate of Portugal in Salvador da Bahia, criminal record. Purpose required: Lei 37/2015, article 10.
9. Consulates that take requests in person: Portal das Comunidades, criminal record; Consulate of Portugal in Paris.
10. Apostilles from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the online service since March 2025 and electronic apostilles: Ordem dos Advogados, 1 March 2025; Ministério Público, delegation of apostille powers (Decreto-Lei 86/2009).
11. The €10.20 fee and postal requests: Tribunal da Relação de Coimbra, apostille service; Tribunal da Relação do Porto.
12. Which countries are in the apostille convention: Hague Conference, status table (last updated 30 June 2026).
13. The EU exemption and its nationality condition: Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 on public documents, articles 2(1)(m), 4 and 7.
14. Canada’s date rule for police certificates: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, police certificates (page dated 16 October 2026).