If you choose to legally marry in Madeira, rather than signing the wedding certificate in your home country, before or after your wedding here, there is some paperwork that needs to be organised, which I can assist you with.
The Ceremony will be conducted in Portuguese but I can organise a translator.
The process can not start before 6 months prior to the wedding date, but it can take as little as 2 weeks to get everything done.
What you will need is:
Your Passports. Photocopies of passports are accepted for the initial process to begin but on the day you will need to produce you actual passports for the Registrar to see.
Your Birth Certificates. International Birth Certificates are required which are within 6 months in date. Therefore the easiest option is to purchase new International Birth Certificates from your local Registry Office. Some countries do not provide International Birth Certificates (such as the UK), so you then need a ‘long’ birth certificate which can be translated.
Divorce Certificate and Death Certificates. These are needed if either or both individuals have been previously divorced or widowed. The can be certified copies.
A Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage. This document you can obtain from your local registry office (if you live in the UK) and it proves that you are entitled to get married. It will need to be translated into Portuguese which we can organise for you here.
A Procuração. This is a Power of Attorney document allowing us to organise all your paperwork for you.
All documents must have an Apostille Stamp to authorise their validity. Also note that you do not receive any of the documents back after the wedding, which is why it is wise to obtain new documents for this whole process.
Once we receive all the documents, we will organise to have them translated into Portuguese here in Madeira. Once translated and notarised by a Portuguese Notary, we can enter them into the Registry Offices here and book a Registrar for your wedding date.
After the wedding you will be issued with an International Wedding Certificate.
Same sex marriages are legally binding in Madeira and the process is similar to that written above.