We are one of those families who sat on applying for the PGV and are now making a run for it!
Iām confused by our attorneyās instructions and think something might be getting lost in translation. I would love to get clarification from anyone here who might know the answer.
It sounds like my attorney is saying
get birth and marriage certificates
get those certificates apostilled
get those certificates translated
get the translations apostilled
Is this what other people did? A friend who did the PGV a few years ago said he only got the docs apostilled and his attorney handled the translation/certification. I wonder if because they are overloaded, they are pushing more of the work back onto us, to keep the process moving forward.
Iāve already ordered new marriage/birth certificates (arriving this week). So I just want to get ahead of the process and understand what I specifically need to do next.
If anyone has
clarification
recommendations on translators, certifiers, notaries
any other advice or criticism
Please comment! Thank you in advance for this communityās help! Longtime lurker and first time poster!
In my case, I got the certificates, had them apostilled, and my lawyer took care of the translation. I donāt believe the translated copies are apostilled (in fact, Iām not even sure what that concept would involve?)
If they were translated in Portugal there is no need for apostille, since the purpose of apostille is cross country recognition.
Probably the most important deadline is the main applicant, which requires no birth or marriage certificates. You can add your spouse and children once their apostilles are available.
Your attorney is correct. The certificates need to be apostilled. They also need to be translated, and the authority of the translator is notarized, and then the accompanying notary certificate must be apostilled.
Here was my process that was accepted by my attorneys and SEF (awaiting my final approval at this point)
Get your documents (certified copies)
Get documents apostilled (If you can go to your secretary of stateās office and get it done via walk in, do that vs. mailing. Here in CA it took about 6 weeks, just like US State Dept Apostille)
Get documents, with apostille attached, translated (itās all treated as one document for translation purposes). Most attorneys will handle but I sent mine to languex.co You send them a scan, and they send you a translation with certification. Took about two biz days. I printed it off on nice paper and sent it, along with original dox/apostille to attorney via Fed Ex. I paid about $45 per document at the time vs when my attorney did it in Portugal I think I paid a couple of hundred for one document.
You shouldnāt need any notaries for those documents as your state can apostille a certified document issued by one of its counties. Good luck!
@kwakers012 , you are receiving some different opinions on the translations. If you are not having your Portugal lawyer handle the translation for you, I would recommend that you follow your lawyerās specific instructions if you are having it done in your home country. At this stage of the game, the last thing you want is a delay if the translation (and its supporting certification) is not acceptable to the SEF.
Sure, asking the lawyer is always nice, but if I followed my initial lawyerās āadviceā I would not even have closed the property deal by now. Thatās what this forum is for - share input from real-life successful experiences and knowledge of the original official sources (the latter lawyers never share for obvious reasons).
If you look up the previous thread I quoted it does provide all the info including the official SEF requirement on translations.
āDouble apostilleā may work but it is not an official option that SEF lists out.
Go to vitalcheck.com and order the certificates needed. Pick the copies that are prepared for apostil.
Mail certificates and apostil request to the secretary of state office (the state that issued the certificates. Check the office website for form and payment. Walk-in will usually be faster if not far).
Mail the apostilled certificates to the lawyer in Portugal. They took care of the translation with some charge.
This might be off topic slightly. Just adding in another perspective that I received.
We are a family of five. My attorney said I can apply as the main applicant and then add my husband and kids in later on. Or not add our kids at all since we wonāt be living there in the next 3 years, and kids are not eligible to apply for citizenship/passport until they are 16 or 18 (I donāt remember precisely). He said if we have plans to have our kids attend schools in Portugal on a later date, they can get student resident visa, which is much cheaper than golden visa. They are still eligible to apply for citizenship once their parents become a citizen, and when they meet the age requirements. ā> if anyone else has received this same opinion, please feel free to comment. Based on our attorneyās suggestion, I am leaning to not include our kids in the application for now. You can still add your kids during the visa renewal process too according to him.
The documents required from us:
Marriage certificate,
FBI background check.
Both documents need to be apostilled in our state of residence, we will need to mail the documents to our attorney will arrange the translation and certificates in Portugal.
Just to circle back on this thread. I ended up going with the āget state level apostilles and then send the apostilled document to my Portuguese Lawyerā option.
I emailed for clarification, but it wasnāt any clearer.
A friend of mine who has already been through the PGV process (already done biometrics and has his first residency card) told me he just sent the apostilled docs to his attorney who handled the other steps.
Thank you everyone for responding! This took a couple of steps off my plate!
From my experience, we only had our birth certificates and criminal clearances apostilled. I am single so I donāt have a marriage certificate. Since our documents are in English, there was no need for us to have them translated. At any rate, I donāt think translations need to be apostilled. Only. the original documents (i.e., birth cert, criminal clearance, marriage cert) need to be apostilled.
Iām curious how many times people have had to have their marriage certificates and their criminal clearances done, apostilled, and translated. My lawyer tells me that these documents are only valid for six months or so, and because the process has so far taken 17 months (my wifeās biometrics are tomorrow), weāre now on our second round of getting all this done. Itās very expensive and as many of you know, a pain to get done. Whatās been your experience?
The marriage cert is valid 6 months. The criminal clearance is only valid 90 days.
I did a clearance for pre-approval and another for the actual biometrics appointment.
It seems for automatic renewals they donāt require a fresh criminal clearance? But if they go back to in person renewals, I would expect you have to do 2 again, 1 for renewal pre-approval and 1 for renewal biometrics.
Our lawyers did all the translating on their side though so we only had to pay for records and apostilles.