Registering a foreign marriage in Brazil

@abthree  You’ve been so helpful in this very confusing process. It turns out that we will need a pre-nup as the consulate has confirmed they will not allow us to pick a regime de bens. The claim is that local law should govern our marriage, but of course the U.S. does not specify a marital property regime. So, to be explicit, we have drafted a pre-nup to submit with our marriage registration at the consulate.

Since you also mentioned submitting a pre-nup, I wonder if you could tell me if you experienced any hurdles getting it accepted in Brazil? We know we need to notarize, apostille, have a sworn translation, and submit the document separately to a registry office that is different than the Cartório. We’ve tried to align the wording to closely made the total separation regime, but we just don’t know how this will all go down. Any advice, suggestions, warnings? We are very tired and confused and just hoping we have our ducks in a row at this point.

03/07/23 @carnahancaitlin.  I'm so sorry to hear that.  Every Consulate is a little different. 

We did not experience any issues at all with our pre-nup.  It had to be notarized for the Consulate, but not translated or apostilled.  We had to give them a copy, which went into their files.  It was called out on the consular Certidão that they issued to us, and the cartório in Brazil didn't even ask for a copy for their own records when they recorded the Certidão; they just issued our Brazilian Marriage Certificate, our Traslado de Casamento, repeating word-for-word the language of the Certidão.

When we bought our apartment later we had a Sworn Translation of the pre-nup done because THAT documentation repeated the language of the Traslado de Casamento, but the cartório for real estate transfers didn't ask for a copy either!  They just quoted the Traslado.  I hope that it goes as easily for you.

My wife is Brazilian and we've been married 7 years. We got married in the US and live in the US.  Her family resides in Brazil.  I've tried reading through this forum and trying to figure out what steps as of 2023 that are needed to register our marriage in Brazil.  We may plan on moving there in the near future. Thanks in advance.

05/21/23 My wife is Brazilian and we've been married 7 years. We got married in the US and live in the US. Her family resides in Brazil. I've tried reading through this forum and trying to figure out what steps as of 2023 that are needed to register our marriage in Brazil. We may plan on moving there in the near future. Thanks in advance.
-@soccerman4000

Welcome!  If you and your wife registered your marriage at the Brazilian Consulate, you already have all you need.  Follow the instructions on the face of the Certidão Consular that they gave you.  In brief, your wife (you can go along, but the Brazilian partner makes the request) will take the Certidão to the Cartório do 1° Ofício in her hometown and request a Brazilian Marriage Certificate, a Traslado de Casamento, and give them the Certidão.   In a week or ten days, she can pick up the Traslado.  That's it.  The Cartório will keep the Certidão, so ask them to give you an authenticated copy for your records.

If you haven't registered your marriage at the Consulate,  no problem:  there's no time limit.  You can do it now.  Ask them for a duplicate or two for your records.

If you've lost your Certidão over the years, still no problem:   the Consulate can issue you a duplicate.

If you try to register your marriage with just a US Marriage Certificate without registering at the Consulate, make sure that you have an apostille on it and a Sworn Translation prepared in compliance with Brazilian law.  You may be ok, but the Cartório will have a lot more ability to complicate things than they can with a Certidão Consular.

@abthree Thanks for the response.  We haven't registered our marriage with the Consulate yet. We are currently visiting her family in Manaus and the topic came up about us researching what we'd need to do. 

This is all new to us. Do we need to go to the nearest Consulate to where we live in order to register? If that's the case,  our closest would be Washington D.C. All we have so far is our  Marriage certificate from the US. 

05/21/23 @soccerman4000.  Yes, you're probably in that consular district.  Look up Registering a Marriage on the Washington Consulate website for the requirements.  It's not hard.  We did ours at the Chicago Consulate without any trouble.

Big country, small world!  My husband is a Manauara, too. We live in Manaus.  What neighborhood are you in?  We live in Centro.

@abthree We're in Alvorada. Yes,  it's a small world.  We flew in last weekend and will be here until next weekend. Everyone was free these two weeks,  so we planned to come and visit family. 

05/21/23  @abthree We're in Alvorada. Yes, it's a small world. We flew in last weekend and will be here until next weekend. Everyone was free these two weeks, so we planned to come and visit family.
-@soccerman4000

Got it -- right by the Polícia Federal.  That could come in handy! 😂

Lol

@abthree

Lots on interesting info you gave......nice job......I have a question...

My wife is from Brazil and I am an American....we got married in NY in 2018    she got all her paperwork and is an American citizen now....

we moved to Florida 2.5 years ago

I was wondering if we ever wanted to buy an apartment in Brazil should I become a Brazilian citizn (is it possible to get dual citizenship like my wife has)  as I would guess I would need a CPF number to have a bank account there as well?

thanks  Mickey

    @abthreeMy wife is from Brazil and I am an American....we got married in NY in 2018    she got all her paperwork and is an American citizen now....we moved to Florida 2.5 years agoI was wondering if we ever wanted to buy an apartment in Brazil should I become a Brazilian citizn (is it possible to get dual citizenship like my wife has)  as I would guess I would need a CPF number to have a bank account there as well?thanks  Mickey      -@easygoer1050

Hi, Mickey.  No, you wouldn't have to become a Brazilian citizen to buy an apartment.  You wouldn't even need to become a permanent resident, although naturally you'll want to if you plan to live here, and you would be able to easily enough because of your marriage.  You should get a CPF, which you can do either at the Brazilian Consulate, or on your next visit to Brazil.  I understand that you can even do it online, but someone else will need to tell you how that works.  You don't need a Brazilian bank account to buy property and you have to be a resident to open anything more than a savings account, but as a Brazilian citizen your wife can open one on arrival, or continue to use any she already  has.

If you become a Brazilian citizen, you don't have to renounce your American citizenship, and will be a dual citizen like your wife -- and me.

See above answers to @soccerman4000 on registering your marriage  in Brazil.  Any other questions, please feel free.

Thank you forall the information that was great     so i would need to get my marriage certificate translated to Portuguese then submit it to a local ( maybe Orlando)  consulate?

  11/27/23  Thank you forall the information that was great     so i would need to get my marriage certificate translated to Portuguese then submit it to a local ( maybe Orlando)  consulate?        -@easygoer1050

No.  Brazilian Consulates in the United States will accept official documents in English.  If you were married in the Orlando Consulate General's consular district (Central and Northern Florida), that should be enough.   If you were married in a different consular district, they may require an apostille.  They may also accept an out-of-district document that has a raised seal without an apostille; check with the Consulate.

The Consulate's website will have instructions on how to register your marriage,  including what documents you and your wife will need to bring with you.