Portuguese to English Translation

This direction is used when a Portuguese document has to be sent to an English-speaking country. The source is a diploma, birth record or contract drawn up in Portugal or Brazil; the target is the USA, the UK or Canada. Unlike the en|pt pair, here Portuguese administrative and legal concepts are conveyed to an English reader, and which variant the source comes from has to be read correctly.

The main users are people with an educational or professional background in Portugal or Brazil who are moving to an English-speaking country: a student applying for a master’s degree in the USA or the UK with a Brazilian or Portuguese diploma, a family submitting Portuguese documents in a Canadian immigration procedure, a company presenting its Portuguese contract to an English-speaking counterpart. For these profiles, consistency of identity and the correct rendering of multiple surnames are the most fragile point in the process.

Challenges specific to this pair

A person may have more than one surname on Brazilian documents, and reducing them to a single English “surname” field breaks the identity match; the chain of surnames is preserved and the order in the passport is taken as the basis. Identity numbers peculiar to Brazil (CPF) and the names of Portuguese administrative documents (certidão) are either left untranslated or rendered by their function. Date and number formats are set according to the English target; accented names are aligned with the spelling in the passport.

The second difficulty lies in variant and terminology differences. The spelling differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese call for the source text to be read correctly; the name a concept goes by in Brazil may differ from the one used in Portugal. Portuguese and Brazilian higher education concepts are not forced into an equivalent English degree; the recognition decision is left to the assessing body, and marking systems are not converted but explained. The position of the notarial and institutional seals in the source document is preserved in the translation with a note.

Third, Brazilian documents usually carry notarial certification (cartório) and signature recognition (reconhecimento de firma); the content of these annotations is translated and their functions are indicated with a note. Registration and file numbers are not translated but identified by the record they belong to. In immigration and recognition files with many documents, the name (including all the surnames), the equivalents given for institutions and the date format are kept the same across all documents, because English-speaking authorities can read even the smallest inconsistency as separate documents.

Brazilian civil registry documents can come in two forms: the summary form (em breve relato) and the full text (inteiro teor); as an English-speaking authority usually expects the second, which form has been submitted is stated clearly in the translation. Where a Brazilian diploma carries the registration annotation (registro) needed for the degree to be valid, that annotation is preserved; it shows the official standing of the document and so matters to the assessor. Portuguese marking systems (out of 20 in Portugal, out of 10 in Brazil) are not converted but explained; the decision to convert belongs to the recognition body. The content of the embossed seal, the cartório annotation and the signature recognition stamps in the source document is translated and their positions are indicated with a note. Documents of both Brazilian and Portuguese origin are then placed correctly before an English-speaking institution and give rise to no request for further explanation. Portuguese documents commonly carry the European standard form or notarial certification, and these annotations are conveyed into English by their function. Whether the source comes from Brazil or from Portugal is decisive not only for spelling but also for institution names and the form of certification, so it is settled at the outset; the authority can then place the document in the right context and the process is completed in one pass. Telling us the target country and institution before you send the document allows us to choose the right level of certification and the right variant from the start.

Documents for which this direction is asked

Education files lead the way; diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions are at the centre of the recognition assessment. They are followed by birth, marriage and civil registry records; criminal record certificates and administrative certificates; commercial contracts and company documents. Across the whole file, the forename and the surnames are kept in a single form.

• Portuguese or Brazilian diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Criminal record certificates and administrative certificates
• Commercial contracts and company documents

Chain of certification

As the target is an English-speaking country, no sworn translator system is looked for; the USA and the UK ask for a translation with a statement of accuracy, while Canada asks for a translator registered with a professional association or an affidavit. An apostille has to be obtained in the country the source document came from, Portugal or Brazil. You can see the expectations, which vary with the target, on the certification regime of the country page, and the papers required in the document guide.

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The account here summarises the typical case; the notarisation and apostille steps are costed as separate items. We recommend checking the current position with the authority that will handle the matter.