Apostille
An apostille is the simplified international authentication route created by the 1961 Hague Convention.
Portugal's competent apostille authority is the Procurador-Geral da República, with delegated regional authorities. The current official fee is €10.20 per apostille.
Consular legalisation
Consular legalisation is used where the Hague route does not solve the file.
The chain is destination-specific and can involve Portuguese authentication plus a foreign diplomatic or consular step.
Do not use an old country list
Hague Convention membership changes over time and the Convention must also be effective between the relevant countries.
Use the current HCCH status and the receiving authority's live filing requirement. Portugal Papers checks the route before preparing the document.
EU documents can follow a third route
For certain public documents circulating between EU Member States, Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 removes the apostille requirement.
This is why the correct answer is not always apostille or consular legalisation. Sometimes neither is the right step.
Let us build the route
Send us the Portuguese document, destination country and purpose.
We identify the correct authentication path and handle the document retrieval, apostille, legalisation preparation, translation and delivery that belong to the file.