Commercial and Company Document Translation for Portugal

Most Turkish companies sending commercial documents to Portugal are relieved when they discover that the country has no sworn translator system. Approval is no easier for that, though; the burden of it has merely shifted from the translator to the notary, the lawyer or the consulate. This page deals with the documents a company established in Türkiye will submit to the Portuguese register, to its buyer or to a tendering authority.

The logic of the commercial register and the Turkish documents

Companies in Portugal are entered in a commercial register, and electronic access to the register entries is widespread; since your counterparty can see the information on their own side in a matter of minutes, they expect documents from you at the same speed and with the same clarity. The equivalents in Türkiye are a currently dated certificate of activity from the trade registry directorate and the announcement in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette. The articles of association are added for the shareholding structure and the field of activity, the signature circular for authority to represent. Where a branch or a subsidiary is set up, the board resolution of the parent shareholder enters the file as well and calls for the highest level of approval. There is one further detail Portuguese counterparties watch: the company’s name, address and tax number must be written identically on every document in the file. Where discrepancies of title in the Turkish papers – an abbreviation spelt out in one place, left short in another – are preserved in the translation too, the other side may see two separate companies, and inconsistencies of that sort delay a file to no purpose.

No sworn translators: where does the burden of approval land?

There is no central sworn translator regime in Portugal. A translation is made official when the translator’s declaration is attested by a notary, a lawyer or a consulate. This is not to say that anyone at all may translate; the authority giving the attestation puts the translator’s identity and declaration on record. In a translation produced in Türkiye the chain is a familiar one: the signature of a sworn translator, notarisation, apostille. Portuguese counterparties generally recognise it, because their own system rests on attestation as well. Which level is called for document by document can be found on our document types page.

Who attests	What they do	Typical use
Notary	Attests the translator’s declaration	Registration and contractual business
Lawyer	Approves the translation on their own declaration	Commercial files, correspondence
Consulate	Attests a translation drawn up abroad	Files sent from Türkiye
Apostille authority	Verifies the source of the document	Turkish official documents

Which Portuguese? The choice of variant is a small but real risk

Portuguese is used with different habits of spelling and terminology in Portugal and in Brazil. In legal and commercial texts that difference stops being a matter of style and reaches into institutional terminology: the equivalent of one and the same concept in the two countries does not always coincide. Preparing a file bound for a register or a buyer in Portugal in European Portuguese lets the other side read the text in their own institutional language. Where a company sends documents to both the Portuguese and the Brazilian market, the two files have to be run separately; sending a single translation to both leads at the very least to follow-up questions. Naming the destination country plainly when you place the order removes that risk altogether.

Export paperwork does not enter the translation chain

The certificates of origin and movement certificates used in sending goods to Portugal fall within the competence of the chambers and the customs administration; as they are forms printed in more than one language, they are not translated. Invoices and packing lists, too, are drawn up in a foreign language from the start. The chain of translation and attestation is for texts that place an obligation on the parties or evidence an authority: contracts, powers of attorney, register entries, judicial papers. The health and analysis documents that come into play in sectors such as wine, olive oil and food are issued in the formats of the administrations concerned, and their approval is not obtained through sworn translation.

Powers of attorney and the place of the apostille in the order

If a matter in Portugal is to be handled by your local lawyer, the power of attorney stands at the centre of the chain. The text must state plainly what is to be done and where the authority ends, and the principal’s power to represent should be supported by a current register entry and the signature circular. The order runs like this: signature before a notary, then the apostille, and the translation last. Break that order and the apostille certificate is left untranslated, which sends the file back. Portugal is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; verify the current list of parties through the HCCH.

The commonest ground for refusal, and the form of delivery

In commercial files going to Portugal the first ground for refusal is a translation sent without any attestation whatever; the point that “there is no sworn translator system” is misunderstood, and the translation goes off entirely unapproved. The second is the date of the document: the register entry is expected to bear a current date. Third comes the incomplete set; the certificate of activity and the trade registry gazette announcement should go together. On delivery a full set, stamped and signed, is expected, and the translation should be submitted attached to a copy of the original. You can send us your file through the quotation form and see what the difference in scope costs on our pricing page.

What is set out here rests on common practice; a country’s legislation and institutional practice may be updated. Verify the detail with the institution to which you will hand the papers.