What if my name is spelled wrong on my CIPLE certificate?
Report it to your exam centre in writing within 5 working days. The spelling on the attendance sheet you signed on exam day is the spelling that gets printed, so check it there. Once the certificate has been issued, correcting a name means paying for a duplicate and returning the original.
Catch it on exam day
The attendance sheet you sign when you arrive carries the name that will be printed on your certificate. Reading your own name on that sheet takes two seconds and is the cheapest insurance available anywhere in this process.
Pay particular attention if your name contains characters that Portuguese forms handle badly: accented letters from another language, apostrophes, hyphens, multiple surnames, or a given-name and surname order that differs from the Portuguese convention.
If you spot it after the exam
Report it to your centre in writing, within 5 working days of the exam. Email is fine and is better than a phone call, because you want a record with a timestamp.
Be specific: give your candidate number, the name as printed or recorded, and the name as it appears on the identification document you registered with. Attach a scan of that document.
If you spot it on the issued certificate
This is the expensive branch. Once the certificate exists, a correction means requesting a duplicate, paying for it, and returning the original.
Duplicates are free only where the original was damaged in delivery or where the error was CAPLE's own fault. An error that traces back to what was recorded at registration or on the attendance sheet is not treated that way.
Why it matters beyond tidiness
The certificate is going to a Conservatória as part of a citizenship application, alongside identification documents. A name that does not match across those documents is exactly the kind of discrepancy that generates a request for clarification and adds months to a file that was otherwise complete.
Get the spelling right at the point where it is free to fix.