Revision of Foreign Sentence in Portugal
The acts and facts concerning the Portuguese that occur abroad formalized by judicial sentence (or by notarial deed of equivalent value), such as divorce, acknowledgement of paternity, adoption or non-marital union, must be ratified by a Portuguese court trough a judicial action of revision of foreign sentence for that court sentence / deed to have value in Portugal.
The acts and facts concerning to the life of a Portuguese are registered and recorded on his birth certificate.
The most common acts and facts are marriage, divorce and death, but there are also changes to registration data (such as sex, name, etc.), prenuptial agreements or changes to the property regime, adoption, regulation of parental power, inhibition and interdiction, curation of absentees and presumed death.
The Portuguese who celebrate these acts and facts abroad have an obligation to transcribe / transpose these acts and facts to the Portuguese Legal Order, even those who obtain Portuguese nationality as a second nationality.
In Portugal it is the civil registry offices and abroad, it is the embassies and / or consulates that have jurisdiction for civil registration processes.
However, some acts and facts that take place abroad, are not merely of civil registration, but are executed by judicial means (or by deed of equivalent value), such as divorce, acknowledgement of paternity, adoption, stable union, etc.
The juditial sentence, to be valid in Portugal, must first be reviewed and confirmed by a Portuguese court. Thus, there is a mandatory legal action to review a foreign sentence, which can only be done in Portugal at the Lisbon Court of Appeal and can only be conducted by a lawyer registered in Portugal.
After deciding on the judicial action of revision of foreign sentence, the court communicates the sentence to the competent registry office and it endorses the act / fact to the birth certificate of the interested party (ies).
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