The trial is due to commence on 17 March in Faro, it emerged this week.
A source from the Attorney-General’s office confirmed the case is currently “in a judicial phase and under the jurisdiction of a Judge.”
Silva, whose last known address was in Vilamoura, is to be brought before a judge after refusing to return his daughter to her mother following a two-week holiday in September 2012.
He is accused of unlawfully keeping the girl, then seven, from her mother, his ex-partner Candice Gannon, who had been granted parental custody and lived on the island of Madeira at the time.
Silva is also said to have flouted a court order to return the girl to her mother.
He was eventually detained by PJ detectives in early 2013 following a complex investigation which culminated in the issuing of an international arrest warrant.
Ellie, by then eight, was handed over to the authorities by her paternal grandmother in February 2013.
It is thought she had spent several months living with her father in Oporto, northern Portugal.
Reports this week by Correio da Manhã claim that should Filipe Silva be found guilty of kidnapping his daughter he could face up to ten years in prison.