Getting married in Brazil

Hello All,

Like others fell in Live with Brazil way of life and of course the people,  My fiancé is from Rio, although living now in Sa Paulo, she is a Professor with Sec.of education.  We spent xmas in Porto Seguro , loved the place  , anyway last march i went to San Francisco ca clerks office and got a certified copy of my birth certificate, past Marriage license, record of status,  and went to get my divorce e decree only to find all it was is a copy of the original i already had,  also had to get some mortgage etc address residency proof notarized locally, ok then had everything apostilled, scanned it all to my fiance who had everything translated in Foz do Iguacu whete she was living at the  time. All good, so i flew down to go to the civil registry but after we thought about the whole process , we decided to put it off until she was back working , just frustrating to wait wait wait,  now we put together a file and petition to send off for the I-129 f  fiancé  visa thinking this would be easier and quicker, but not. After researching the timelines and

Reading about how even if she gets the visa it is up to the inspector at the entry point of us that can deny anyway.  Amongst the  15.5 month wait as of 2023 to even process. So again we will go ahead with our original planes to Marry in Brazil.

all this said my concern is

i know i have to have all my documents re apostilled and realize my proof of residency and my record of status will need to be re done because or the six month rule,  but my certified birth certificate, old Certified Marriage license and my original certified divorce decree  i am confused about some say i need to pay for new copies which is stupid because the first time around getting all this translated they used my original divorce decree at the registry in Foz and translated everything.   So before i go down to San Francisco again and pay for copies of my record of status I want be very sure that i can use my existing copies of the other documents described above and have apostilled to use at the registry in Brazil.    Thanks , any real up to date answers will be much appreciated, Obrigato. Danny

Hello All,

Like others fell in Live with Brazil way of life and of course the people,  My fiancé is from Rio, although living now in Sa Paulo, she is a Professor with Sec.of education.  We spent xmas in Porto Seguro , loved the place  , anyway last march i went to San Francisco ca clerks office and got a certified copy of my birth certificate, past Marriage license, record of status,  and went to get my divorce e decree only to find all it was is a copy of the original i already had,  also had to get some mortgage etc address residency proof notarized locally, ok then had everything apostilled, scanned it all to my fiance who had everything translated in Foz do Iguacu whete she was living at the  time. All good, so i flew down to go to the civil registry but after we thought about the whole process , we decided to put it off until she was back working , just frustrating to wait wait wait,  now we put together a file and petition to send off for the I-129 f  fiancé  visa thinking this would be easier and quicker, but not. After researching the timelines and

Reading about how even if she gets the visa it is up to the inspector at the entry point of us that can deny anyway.  Amongst the  15.5 month wait as of 2023 to even process. So again we will go ahead with our original planes to Marry in Brazil.

all this said my concern is

i know i have to have all my documents re apostilled and realize my proof of residency and my record of status will need to be re done because or the six month rule,  but my certified birth certificate, old Certified Marriage license and my original certified divorce decree  i am confused about some say i need to pay for new copies which is stupid because the first time around getting all this translated they used my original divorce decree at the registry in Foz and translated everything.   So before i go down to San Francisco again and pay for copies of my record of status I want be very sure that i can use my existing copies of the other documents described above and have apostilled to use at the registry in Brazil.    Thanks , any real up to date answers will be much appreciated, Obrigato. Danny

@bloomboy

Good luck. I'm an expat from the States and we finally gave up and got married in the US and registered the marriage back here in Brazil.

The biggest challenge with us was the Brazilian obsession with apostiles, This is kind of like an international notarization, In the US this is done by the secretary of states of each of the individual states. To even get the ball rolling, I would have needed apostiles from 7 different US states. Kind of the perfect storm two bureaucracies meeting together.

If this is your first marriage it may be easier for you. For me i need to apostile my prior marriages and my prior divorce decrees. If we had followed that path we would also have had to get all these documents translated into Portuguese by a government recognized translator.

In any case I would recommend if your fiancé has a visa you return to your home country for the actual legal marriage and register it with the Brazilian embassy in that country and when you return take that document to be registered in Brazil. No translations needed and fewer apostilles.

Of course, when you return as a legally married couple you can still have a beautiful ceremony here for your spouse and Brazilian family and friends to share your joy.

(In the US and the other former British colonies, usually legal marriage and church marriage are done at the same time.) In Brazil and many other countries, a religious or larger ceremony is separate from the legal process. Even with approval to be married in Brazil most couples would have a larger celebration in a church.

Hope that helps and God bless your marriage!

01/17/23 @Christmas Spirit. Believe it or not, Brazil deciding to accept apostilles was an improvement! Until Brazil joined the Hague Convention on Apostilles in 2015, every foreign document had to be individually legalized at a Brazilian Consulate for use in Brazil. For some reason, Canada has never joined the Apostille Convention, and Canadian docs still have to be processed the old way. Ugh!

We also got married in the US and registered the marriage at the Brazilian Consulate there and then at the cartório here. That doesn't fit in with everyone's plans, but when it fits, it does seem to simplify things, and to simplify the visa process as well.