Getting married in Brazil - cartao help

Member since 20 September 2024

kellermanjmNew member14 October 2024 20:27:38

I am a US Citizen, and my fiancee is Brazilian. We are getting married in Brazil. She is from a smallish town called Parnaiba in Piaui. We have all the required documents, translations, apostilles, etc. She took them to her local cartao today and was told that a foreigner cannot marry in Brazil, which we all know is not accurate. Most likely they don't know the laws because I doubt a foreigner has been married there before lol.

Has anyone run across this before? How do we "escalate" this to a different governing body who can help educate the local cartao? Can we contact a different cartao and get married there instead?

Besides getting married in the US, which would have been way easier lol - any other ideas?

abthree Brazil expert

Member since 28 December 2017

abthreeBrazil expert14 October 2024 21:17:31

6093

10/14/24 @kellermanjm. Yes, you certainly can get married in Brazil, as long as you're unmarried, have a valid visa, and you're not in visa overstay status. You're almost certainly right that this is the first time that the person with whom you spoke been confronted with the question. Before giving up on that cartório, you might ask to speak with the person in charge.

You can try printing this page off and showing it to the cartório:

https://www.casamentocivil.com.br/estra … -no-brasil

You can certainly also go to another cartório -- Parnaíba is a pretty good sized city, and should have several cartórios that can perform weddings. One or more of them may make weddings sort of a specialty, and will be glad to do it and get the fee.

TGB13 New member

Member since 06 November 2024

TGB13New member06 November 2024 11:26:17

The process is fairly painless. I got married in June in São Paulo although I am a permanent resident. However this is a lack of experience from this Cartório and you may find others in the city willing to put in the work to understand the process.