certidão
Published 3 November 2026, 17:05
certidão (certificate, official extract)
A general word for an official certificate or extract, of which there are dozens. The most common are the certidão de nascimento (birth certificate), the certidão permanente do registo predial (land register extract), the certidão do domicílio fiscal (proof of tax address) and the certidão de situação tributária (showing you owe nothing to the tax office). Many are issued online, through the Portal das Finanças or IRN portals, and often you get not a piece of paper but an access code for viewing the document online.
Where you come across it. In almost any dealings with official bodies: the bank, renting, buying a home, AIMA, visas, the health centre.
Being asked to “bring a certidão” means nothing without a second word, so always ask which one. Each has its own validity period, and how recent the certificate is often matters as much as which type it is.
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