Apostille

Pursuant to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (concluded at The Hague on 5 October 1961 under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law), the apostille consists in a formality by which the authenticity of public documents executed in the territory of a Contracting State and to be produced in the territory of another Contracting State of the said Convention is certified, thus conferring the documents a formal probative value.

The apostille is intended to legalise documents issued by by ministries, courts, registry offices and notaries, public schools, city councils and parish councils.

The central authority/competent to issue/confirm apostilles is the Prosecutor General of the Republic [article 2(1) of Decree-Law No. 86/2009 of 3 April 2009]. Upon delegation this competence may be granted to the District Deputy Prosecutor General of Porto, Coimbra, Évora and to the public prosecutors who lead the County District Prosecutors’ Offices of Madeira (seat in Funchal) and Açores (seat in Ponta Delgada).

According to the law (article 1 of Decree-Law No. 86/2009 of 3 April 2009): 

— the apostille issuing/confirmation costs one tenth of an account unit (AU): €10.20.

— the apostille is free of charge for those persons who demonstrate their financial hardship by producing a document issued by the competent administrative authority or by way of a Statement issued by a public social welfare institution.

WARNING (PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE SERVICES):

As a rule, apostilles are issued/verified at once, by order of users’ arrival (no booking allowed).

The following cases are exceptions thereto:

― Requests involving the issuing/verification of 5 or more apostilles

― Requests entered after 04:00 p.m.

― Unavailability of the facsimile signatures requiring apostille