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The Portuguese Justice Ministry issued on 10 March 2010 a decree (no 145/2010) establishing permanent certificates of people's civil status. The documents will be accessible online as from 20 March 2010, via the 'Civil Online' website.
Pursuant to the aforementioned decree, the permanent certificate of civil status means the availability in electronic format of the up-to-date information contained in one's birth records. It will thus save citizens the time and procedure of visiting the competent offices to obtain a paper-based certificate.
The decree also specifies that the request for access to the permanent certificate shall be made through the 'Civil Online' website "by the citizens - of age or emancipated - to whom the records relate". The applying citizens must furthermore authenticate with their Citizen Card [Cartão de Cidadão, in Portuguese], Portugal's electronic identity certificate.
Once their application has been completed and the corresponding amount provided for in the decree has been payed, the users will receive an access code enabling them to view their permanent certificate online, unless the requested access was denied to them, in which case they will be informed of the motives of the refusal.
In line with the decree's provisions, the transmission by its holder of the access code to another entity will correspond to the legal delivery of a birth certificate to the latter.
Further information:
