Portuguese passport process for Goans - How to get Portuguese documents

For Goans who are in the process of procuring the various documents, it is important to know that the Portuguese passport documentation  requires that all documents if obtained in English, should be translated in the Portuguese language.

For almost all documents belonging to an era before 1961 in Goa, the documents are easily available in the Portuguese language and one has to apply for it with the respective authorities.   So fortunately documents such as the birth teor ( Registo de nascimento) , marriage teor ( Registo de casamento) are already in Portuguese and therefore need not be translated.

However documents such as the residence certificate, the additional proof of residence ( obtained from employer, school, Church etc) , or any other additional document such as the divergence certificate etc  are normally obtained in the English language but are however required to be translated in the Portuguese language.

Also for applicants born after 1968, the birth teor and the marriage teor are also in the English language and therefore need to be translated to Portuguese.

Portugal does not accept documents in the English language, with the exception of the Indian passport which is the only document accepted in English and also the police clearance certificate, which is a document for the reference of the local consulate in Goa to verify the antecedents of the applicant with respect to any crimes committed. The Police clearance certificate is actually not a part of the documentation process and is apparently not sent to Portugal for processing with the rest of the documents.The original document is to be submitted as it is.

So if your document is in the English language, you need to translate it in Portuguese language  which therefore implies that your one document becomes two documents ( the original English and the translated Portuguese version) which means your cost of attestation is double all the way. So effectively you pay the following

English document	Notary	60 (approx)
	Collector	100 (fixed)
	Undersecretary	100 (fixed)
	Portuguese consulate attestation	719 (fixed)
	Total	979

 

Portuguese document	Notary	100 (approx)
	Collector	100 (fixed)
	Undersecretary	100 (fixed)
	Portuguese consulate attestation	719 (fixed)
	Translation cost	100 ( approx)
		1119

So for every document which is in English you end up paying 979 + 1119 = 2098 for the document. However if the document was directly obtained in the Portuguese language itself you would end up paying half the amount at Rs 1019 per document  with no translation cost as well.

It is therefore important that Goans should save this amount wasted by making a second document, by being a little more diligent and persuasive while obtaining the documents and try their best to obtain the documents directly in Portuguese which also has more credibility.

How does one do this?

For many who reside in the villages of Goa, the appropriate authority to issue the residence certificate is the panchayat. The Panchayat or the Sarpanch should be persuaded to give such a document directly in Portuguese. If he has no knowledge of Portuguese, get the matter translated yourself and get it printed for him and confirm the matter with him explaining the reason for doing so. Your persuasion skills are very important in this areas. Similar skills are required to persuade the authorities concerned to obtain the document from the Mamlatdars office in case your residence certificate is to be obtained from the city limits. Persuasion is also required to repeat the process for documents required from the church the employer. You could save around 4-5 thousand over all such documents.

Translators are available in Goa all over and you need to get a good one though. Try asking the lawyers or notaries as to who is reliable and get the translation done properly.  Fees range from 50-100 per document depending on the whims of the translator concerned .