Marriage & Visa

Hello Joshua,

Your wife can't get a VIPER Permanent Visa if you're not planning on being permanent residents of Brazil. They don't issue "just in case" visas.

At any rate, unless your foreign marriage is registered with the Consulado-Geral do Brasil responsible for the Minneapolis area (Probably Chicago) and obtain a new Marriage Certificate issued by the Consular Cartório she can't even apply for a VIPER "com base em cônjuge brasileiro".

The other factor making a VIPER impossible in your circumstances is that once issued the holder of the visa must enter Brazil within 90 days or it is no longer valid. Also remaining outside Brazil for more than 2 years one loses permanent resident status, unless the absence from the country is due to exceptional circumstances, such as being hospitalized.

Theoretically, if you were willing to go through all the cost and the trouble of applying for the new Marriage Certificate, obtaining the VIPER, coming to Brazil within the 90 day period and then being here long enough to obtain her CPF, Cédula de Identidade Estrangeiro and return to Brazil at least once every two years, then a VIPER is possible. Hardly think it's worth the effort though. Getting around the necessity of proving residence in Brazil isn't too difficult since you have parents or other family members here, you could get one of them to agree to let you use their address (you'd need to obtain, if only temporarily, some account like cellular phone, etc., in your name as a comprovante de endereço however. If you plan on coming back here ever two years to visit then it might be worth the effort, it does have it's advantages since you both would have the legal right to work here. Another consideration, if you don't already have any, would be children of the marriage and their rights to Brazilian citizenship and obligations as citizens.

I don't know how the fact that she's married to a Brazilian citizen, in the USA, but not recognized here would effect her ability to obtain a tourist visa. I doubt there would be much, but it is BRAZIL after all, and the country that turned bureaucracy into a SCIENCE.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Hi Joshua,
From my understanding, if you got married abroad, you are "married" under Brazilian law, even if you didn´t register at the Brazilian Consulate. However, the Brazilian government has no way to check if you are married or not elsewhere in the world.
I hope you never have to go through a divorce, but in case you did, it´s all better if you had not your marriage registered at the consulate, so you don´t have to go through a lot of bureacracy later on, because you will go through another bureacracy just to register at the consulate. If you don´t need your wife to be a Brazilian citizen, and there is no real advantage of being one, unless you are going to an America non-friendly country and won´t get an entry visa because of her American citizenship, there is no reason as to why you want to go through the hassle and cost of citizenship process.
She can get a tourist visa to enter Brazil. One is not obligated to apply to a Brazilian citizenship just because she is married to a Brazilian citizen. Unless her yearly stay will be over 180 days (please check on this), no need for residency. Even if she stayed over the limit, she can pay a fee and come back again.

Note: At first I thought that no need to register your marriage at the consulate if you don´t live in Brazil, but if you have INSS (social security benefits accumulated), life insurance, or even real estate you bought after you got married, you better have it registered, but I guess, you still don´t need to get a citizenship for her. Unless the law doesn´t allow a non-citizen to collect what is rightfully hers.
Even if you lived in Brazil, the "lei do concumbinato" may protect her. I just don´t know which kind of trouble she may have with the Brazilian immigration laws.

The following is a translation of the information contained in the Brazilian Consular website regarding registration of foreign marriages in Brazil.

REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE BASED ON LOCAL WEDDING

A - GENERAL RULES
The marriage celebrated by a foreign authority is considered valid in Brazil. To produce legal effects in the country it must be registered in the Brazilian Consular Office and later transcribed into 1º Ofício do Registro Civil of the municipality of their residence in Brazil or in the Cartório do 1º Ofício do Distrito Federal. The transcript should be made preferably at the first opportunity in which one spouse travels to Brazil or within 180 days from the date of the final return to the country

- For registration of marriage, the presence of the Brazilian spouse is necessary in the Brazilian Consulate, who will be the declarant and sign the term to be entered in the Book of Records. If both are Brazilians, either one could be the declarant.

*****************************************

There is a vast difference between a foreign marriage between two non-Brazilians and one between one or two Brazilians which is celebrated abroad.

A marriage that does not produce any legal effect in Brazil. This can have serious consequences in terms of the rights of inheritance, the right to receive pension benefits or insurance benefits paid out for a decesase Brazilian spouse, since there are firm rules regarding degrees of relationship of potential recipients. If children are involved it would also require a Power of Attorney registered in the Cartório from the Brazilian spouse in order to register a birth in the name of that spouse. Very complex issues come into play.

Let's look at a HYPOTHETICAL situation:

Roberto (Brazilian spouse) and Indira (Pakistani spouse) celebrate their marriage in Pakistan, but do not register the foreign marriage at the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in Islamabad and therefore don't have a new Marriage Certificate issued by the 1º Consular Cartório. They move to Brazil and don't register the marriage at either the Cartório in the municipality where they live, nor in the Cartório in the Distrito Federal.

So let's imagine that for whatever reason they simply decide to remain in Brazil after 180 days. Indira couldn't apply for a VIPER Permanent Visa (based on having a Brazilian spouse) since legally their marriage simply didn't exist in Brazil. So now she'd be in an "irregular migratory situation" should she remain in the country beyond that time. Not a situation that couldn't be resolved, but a serious complication to one's day-to-day life.

Now Roberto and Indira have two children, José and Maria while living in Brazil. It is necessary for Roberto to register a Power of Attorney in the Cartório, in order to register those children in his name. Otherwise they'd have to be registered in the birth name of the mother. This could prove quite a burden in later life.

So now, let's assume that José and Maria were registered in their father's name, all well and good so far. They now have lots of legal rights as born Brazilians and having been registered in their father's name.

Now let's imagine many years have gone by, the youngest is now 25 years old. Roberto and Indira are getting on in years, Indira isn't well, she can't work and she's still never obtained permanency or considered "married". During those years she and Roberto have managed to build a nice house in which to raise their children. She has contributed to that house both financially and with her hard work as a wife and mother. She's comfortable and secure in the knowledge that she's got a place to live out her golden years, despite her failing health.

Suddenly, tragedy strikes! Roberto is killed in a car crash which was 100% the fault of the other driver. Now what? Indira is stuck between a rock and a hard place. She can't claim DPVAT benefits for her husband's death because her marriage doesn't have any legal effect. She can't apply for any insurance benefits that might be applicable, for the same reason. Same story with receiving benefits from Roberto's INSS pension. The house which was always registered in Robert's name only suddenly doesn't seem so secure now, since legally it doesn't belong to her anymore, by reason of not being legally married. Roberto's bank accounts are all frozen at the moment of death, she can't touch them, same reason.

Meanwhile, José and Maria DO HAVE all the rights to those things, because they are provably Roberto's children. Things being what they sometimes are in this life, let's imagine that José and Maria jointly decide that MONEY is more important than love or bloodlines or anything else. Where does that leave poor Indira?

Now you're starting to get the overall picture. José and Maria have legal rights to inherit the house, receive the proceeds of all their father's bank accounts, pensions, insurance and anything that they can lay their hands on. That's the law here in  Brazil. Poor Indira has no legal rights, nada, zero, zip, nothing!!! Not unless she can establish some rights through a lengthy, complex and costly legal process. She now could end up sleeping under a bridge like so many in Brazil.

So, maybe registering a foreign marriage doesn't look so necessary when one is young, but just put yourself in you own shoes some 20 or so years down the road and see if you still think the same way... I doubt that you will.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Tea

A foreign marriage is valid in brazil but does not produce any legal effect. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the eyes of the law. It means exactly what it says, it doesn't produce any legal effect.

That means that if the one of the spouses buys real estate only in his/her name, that the property only belongs to that person independent of pre-nup or marital regime.

However, a person that is married abroad is considered married in brazil and would have to fill out "casado" and not "solteiro". Filing out solteiro would be fraud (falsidade ideologica).

A Brazilian married abroad has the legal obligation to register his foreign marriage within 180 days when they move here.