ohwanderlin

If you’re planning to register with your partner as de facto partner in Portugal, welcome to the party! Moreover, you might have realized that there are not so many articles out there sharing how to become a registered couple in Portugal, that’s why I started this post in hope that it can help you with your Portugal experience somehow. So let’s go straight to the topic!

Who we are: My boyfriend and I are both non-European and we both have a Portuguese residence card.

Where to be registered as de facto partner in Portugal

Freguesia

Every neighborhood has its own Freguesia, we were registered at ours.

👉🏻Freguesia around me

Official- what you need to be registered as união de facto partner:

• Both parties are above 18 years old
• Have been living together for more than 2 years
• Proof of documents:
  1. declaration (that you have been living together for more than 2 years)
  2. Both party’s birth certificate

Useful link: Eportugal government website

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Does this sound easy? But if you have been living here for a while, you must understand already that it wouldn’t be THAT easy. So before officially applying, I went first to the freguesia that we plan to be registered and ask what “exactly” they need. Not surprisingly…

What exactly do we need to get registered as união de facto partner

• Portuguese Residence card
• Proof of address in Portugal that you are living in the same address (one for each person)
  • Water bill/ Electricity bill/ Bank…etc
• Witness ×2
  • They have to be Portuguese, living in the same neighborhood (the neighborhood of the freguesia you’re going to)
  • They can either bring their ID card with them and go with you/ or lend their ID card to you so you can run the process
  • They can be relatives with each other (but not with You or your partner)…which means if you’re planning to knock on your neighbor’s door, you only need to knock on one😉
• Application form( provided by Freguesia)
• Fee: €15

How it went

Everything went pretty smooth surprisingly. No extra documents are required.

About how long we have been living together, I thought they might want to check our former Airbnb bookings or something like that, but nah. He just asked whether we have been living together for more than 2 years, we said yes, 2 years 10 months and we’re good to be registered!

We paid €15 and can come and get it after 2 working days!

Seeing our experience it sounds like easy peasy, but as we are in Portugal…personally will highly recommend you to go to your freguesia and tell them who you are, where you are from, and ask what they require for your união de facto registration. (I even went twice to double-check with a different person😂)

So~hope you find this information useful and your journey would be as smooth as ours😉

See also: Lisbon Market guide