# Portuguese citizenship via ancestry, specific questions



## astromagpie (Oct 7, 2015)

Hello everybody. I know that there are several posts about this topic already, but I have some specific questions which weren't covered before. I also didn't know if it's alright to bump a 3 year old thread, so here's my new one.

Me: US citizen, doing a PhD in France, in France for 3 years on a scientist visa. I do not plan on returning to the US if I can help it. I want to get Portuguese citizenship.


My right to citizenship: My grandfather was born in Portugal, and moved to the US, where he married my grandmother (American) and had two children. I am aware that I am able to register for Portuguese citizenship based on my grandfather's heritage, as long as I register:

- his marriage to my grandmother
- the birth of my mother
- the marriage of my mother to my father
- my birth.

My questions:

- I have my birth certificate, my mother's birth certificate, my grandfather's original birth certificate from Portugal (I CANNOT TAKE THE ORIGINAL WITH ME, IT'S VERY OLD), his death certificate, his marriage license to my grandmother, his US naturalisation, his communion confirmation (US).

- My US birth certificate is very standard, it just has the names of my mother and my father, and my county of birth. Is this okay?

- My mother's birth certificate is the same. Is this okay?

- I can't find a copy of my parents' marriage license anywhere. Is this step really required? Can I just be considered a child out of wedlock or something? They have been divorced since shortly after I was born, and I'm pretty sure my mom threw all documents relating to their marriage into a bonfire sometime in the early 1990s.

- When my grandfather came to the US he changed his name into something more phoenetically American. I have a certificate showing the name change, but is this going to cause problems?

- I have consulted with an immigration lawyer on this matter, but her fees are huge. It's something like 2800 euros in the end. I'm a grad student and really that's an insane amount of money. Am I being taken for a ride, or is this sensible?

Progress so far:

- I have given an immigration lawyer 400 euros to check whether my grandfather is still registered with the country, and to obtain his birth certificate for me. I have not paid for any other services at this time. Hopefully, if he did something fantastic like register his children and grandchildren, she'll tell me.

------------

That's everything. Sorry for all the text. If you can be of any help at all, I'd appreciate it tremendously.

Thanks in advance to all you lovely people. I really need help and I need to know if I'm making the right choices.


----------



## TonyJ1 (May 20, 2014)

The documents do not necessarily have to be the originals, but you will have to get every document translated into Portuguese and every document will have to have the 'apostille of the Hague' certifying its authenticity. 
All this is possible to be done without the intervention of a lawyer, but you will still incur a lot of costs.
I suggest you contact your nearest consulate and get the details.

All life's events are registered against the birth certificate - if you have an old birth certificate, it will make it easy to trace and obtain the latest version


----------

