Divorce of two foreigners in Brazil

First off, it is absolutely necessary to determine if you are not confusing "permanência definitiva" permanent residence in Brazil by means of VIPER Permanent Visa with having become a naturalized Brazilian citizen. They are quite different and impact greatly on your divorce. It is also necessary to know exactly where you married and if it was a foreign marriage, was it ever registered in Brazil?

You do not need to actually go through a separate divorce here in Brazil as such. What you need to procede with is "Sentença Estrangeira de Divorcio - Homologação". To do this you will require a Brazilian lawyer to handle the matter. If, in fact, either or both of you are naturalized Brazilian citizens (and not just permanent residents) then the Brazilian divorce "homologação" WILL NOT have legal effect until one year has passed since the foreign divorce; or two years since  a defacto separation.

Since you make no reference in your posting whether or not the property in Brazil was an issue dealt with in the divorce this is something that you will need to discuss with the lawyer, since it raises separate issues that I certainly am not able to advise you on.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Thanks, William, for the reply.

We are not Brazilian citizens, our child is (because he was born in Brazil, he automatically got the citizenship). We got permanent residency (cedula de identidade de estrangeiro - classificaçao;permanente) through him. Our marriage was never registered in Brazil. I just remember making public translations of our marriage documents, that's all.

It seems things are far from being straightforward when it comes to Brazil I just wanted to understand if a foreign citizen file for divorce in Brazil based on one of the following:

- Having a Brazilian child;

- Having property in Brazil (subject to property division through divorce);

- or having resided there with permanent residency

Since you and your wife are not Brazilian citizens and if you've been outside of Brazil (without retruning even temporarily) for more than two years, it is quite likely that even your permanent resident status has been revoked too. The fact that your marriage was never registered here in Brazil would make me think that you do not even need a divorce here in Brazil. I presume that you either have already begun your foreign divorce proceedings or intend to, in which case I would think that it would be far less complex for you simply to have a Brazilian lawyer advise you regarding either division or disposition of the property here in Brazil, which surely could be accomplished without the formality of a Brazilian divorce. It is also my understanding that you would, in fact, first have to register your foreign marriage at the Consulado-Geral do Brasil where you now live and also here in Brazil at the 1º Oficio de Registro Civil in Brasília in order to apply for a divorce here anyway.

What exactly is your intention for the property? Is it to be sold and the proceeds of sale divided? Are you keeping it and one of you buying out the other's interest? Another thing you'll need to consider is whose name the property is registered in, yours, hers or both? How long has it been since you last actually saw this property? Was it left unoccupied during all this time or did you rent it out or have someone caring for it. The reason I ask this is the fact that there is a law here called the law of "usucapião" (squatters rights) which provides that after five years of uncontested occupation of a property the title can pass to the occupant. So you need to make sure that the property is still indeed yours if this is the case.

I would think that if it is your intention to simply sell the property then all your issues could be resolved with nothing more than a private contract for sale of the property and that would be the end of the matter.

At any rate unless you intend to return to Brazil in order to transact the sale yourself you'd need to pass a Power of Attorney to someone you can trust here in Brazil authorizing him/her to conduct the sale. Be very careful with this since in legal terms title would effectively pass to your defacto attorney and if that individual was simply intent on conning you out of the property there would be little you could do to prevent this.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts TEam

The property is rented. But my main concern is if she can actually open another divorce case here, while somewhere else there is already one going on. I always thought (based on what I read on the internet), there can only be one divorce case and that is the one that was opened first, no matter where that was.

Also there should be some prerequisites to be able to open a divorce lawsuit; like being a resident.

As I mentioned in order to begin divorce proceedings here in Brazil she'd have to first register the foreign marriage with the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in the country where it took place, then once she received the Marriage Certificate issued on the Consular Cartório it would also need to be registered here in Brazil at the 1º Oficio de Registro Civil in Brasília or the city where she resides in Brazil. Other than that no marriage exists here in Brazil so there would be nothing to "disolve" judicially.

This would not even be necessary since the process of "Sentença Estrangeira de Divorcio - Homologação" is the proper procedure in cases of divorces granted abroad.