I found this instruction but the website is dead 
https://novaiorque.consuladoportugal.mne.gov.pt/images/manual_de_instrues_para_agendamento_online_compressed.pdf
We are trying to get documents ready and, long story short, we want to certify a translated copy in the embassy.
Land up at the embassy with ID, the document that needs certification, screenshot of the dead website or screenshot with msg if appointment not available. They will support you. In extreme scenario, u may need letter from ur lawyer citing urgency.
But I still believe it is better to wait for further clarification from AIMA before certifying documents.
Sorry what kind of clarifications?
No you don’t do that in the USA. Consular Certification is for countries not part of the Apostille Treaty. Since both USA and Portugal are members, you do Apostille instead of Consular Certification.
The Certification referred to in the AIMA email is (according to Prime Legal: AIMA's new GV process) certification by PT lawyers in PT.
Right but my husband has a second passport and he can’t get an apostille for some of his documents easily. Much easier to certify a translated copy if we can.
In that case they must be certified by the PT consulate in the country of the document’s origin.
I believe going to the PT consulate in Nova Iorque would not work.
If your husband’s country is a Hague convention member he’d have to obtain the apostilles in that country. Or, if they are not a member, then do as @anonymous69 advised.
He is trying to avoid travelling there and the country has no Portugese consulate 
I hoped the consulate in US would do. This is quite complicated 
Sorry to intervene, I was reading this forum online and decided to create an account since this is super relevant to me as well.
I have a similar situation where I need my parents to get an apostille on my birth certificate that they obtained in Eastern Europe. They said for apostille I need to write a locally notarized permission for someone to get it since it’s MY birth certificate. Meaning I can’t do it in Canada myself.
So I only have one of two options I think:
Travel to my birth country and go to the local notary in person and write a permission for my parents to get an apostille whenever they need to renew it.
Travel to that country and get an apostille for my birth documents myself
I don’t think, if the apostille is a must have, I have another choice.
To get an apostille it takes 2 months sometimes(there is a long waiting list), they deliberate delay it I think.
So I am not sure how I am going to do this for my family to be honest.
@frond-exiles-0q, you can probably sign a Special Power of Attorney that authorizes your parents or an actual attorney to transact business on your behalf. The SPoA will possibly have to be signed in front of an official from the consulate of your birth country, or possibly notarized locally and then authenticated by the consulate. You’ll have to ask your consulate for actual requirements.
As for @michelle.watson.mda’s question: in general, a (Portuguese or otherwise) consulate will only authenticate if the country issuing the document is not a Hague Convention country and the consulate is actually responsible for the country issuing the document. Otherwise you’ll need to get the apostille or ask the right consulate to authenticate.
My advice to you both is to accept that this will be an expensive and tedious process. We’re not quite done yet, but will probably spend more than US$60k by the end of the move, not including the opportunity cost of letting €280k sit idle. Not to say you shouldn’t look for opportunities to save time and money, or that you won’t get lucky with a sympathetic bureaucrat, but you need to understand that you now live between the cracks of bureaucracies, and trying a shortcut can end up being the long way around.
It was $550k for us 
What’s the most expensive part that costs + 60k?
As others noted above, there may be no need to travel at all.
You should rather determine as to whether his country is a member of the convention or not. This’ll clear up the rest of the steps.
In order, it’d be the moving company, the residence card fees, two biometrics appointments (plus neighborhood research), legal services, original application fees, apartment search, tax representation, and then the various documents and SPoAs.
My country is a member.
AND! The Special Power of Attorney can only be obtained in person from the local notary while present in the country,it can’t be received from the consulate in the US, I know how crazy it seems.