Portuguese Birth Certificate Translation for UK Visa

Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese nationals live in the UK. Many need translations for a late EUSS application or a spouse visa. Brazilian nationals are a large and growing group too, applying for UK Skilled Worker and family visas. Portugal and Brazil share a language, but their birth certificates look very different. Each needs its own handling.

Portugal: Assento / Certidão de Nascimento

Portugal's Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) runs the civil registry. The Certidão de Nascimento (birth certificate extract) shows your full name, your date and place of birth, your parents' names and nationalities, and the registry reference. The full version also lists your grandparents' names. That full version, the certidão completa, carries every later note as well: name changes, marriages, and deaths.

Brazil: Certidão de Nascimento

Brazilian birth certificates come from the Cartório de Registro Civil das Pessoas Naturais (Civil Registry Office) where the birth was registered. That is usually the town where the child was born. Brazil has standardised its birth certificate format through the DNB (Declaração de Nascido Vivo) system. Since 2010, all new certificates follow one national format.

Portuguese Diacritics and Special Characters

Portuguese uses accent marks (á, â, ã, à, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú) and the cedilla (ç). A certified translation keeps them exactly as they are. The tilde vowels (ã, õ) are very common in Portuguese names and have no English match, so they are copied straight from the source document. If your UK documents dropped these marks, a short footnote in the translation explaining the difference helps.

Costs and Turnaround

Frequently Asked Questions

My Portuguese birth certificate is from the Azores or Madeira. Is it any different?

No. The Azores and Madeira are autonomous regions of Portugal. They use the same civil registry system (IRN) and the same document formats as mainland Portugal. Birth certificates from these regions are translated in exactly the same way.

I was born in Brazil but have been living in Portugal. Which birth certificate should I use for my UK visa?

Use your Brazilian birth certificate, from the Cartório de Registro Civil where you were born. If you are applying as a Portuguese national, your Portuguese nationality certificate or passport is the main document. Even so, you may still need the Brazilian birth certificate to prove who you are and who your parents are. We can certify a translation of both.

My Brazilian birth certificate shows only my mother's name. How does this affect translation?

Brazilian law allows a birth to be registered with only the mother's name when the father is unknown or absent. The certified translation copies the document as issued, so it shows only the mother. This is common, and UKVI sees it often. The translation simply marks the father's field as "not declared" or "unknown", matching the source document.