dotting the I'd and crossing the t's

You pretty much have it all, unless for some strange reason the Policia Federal ask for something else. Wise to apply for the VIPER here since the new changes came into effect because now as long as the paperwork is all in order once they accept your application you get permanency automatically and can get your Carteira de Trabalho and work right away too. If you apply in the US then you still have to wait until the visa is issued before you can enter the country.

Cheers,
James        Expat-blog Experts Team

Hola gentes,
Wanted to post a follow up to my earlier post. I have been in country for two months now. Prior to departure I got our US marriage certificate legalized at the Brazilian consulate in Los Angeles. Only a Brazilian spouse can register the marriage overseas at the consulate. For a fee of US$ 20 I was able to have the marriage document authenticated. I also legalized a birth certificate and a criminal record history from the San Diego County Sheriff's department. I hand carried all documents with me here to Rio.
Upon arrival we had all these documents officially translated from English to Portuguese. We submitted the marriage certificate for registration two weeks ago at the cartorio and today we are going to the oficio register de titulos e documents to pickup our marriage certificate today. So far so good.
So I am in the honeymoon phase of culture shock, however having served in the US Navy for 26 years ( seven of which were spent forward deployed in Japan) I am assimilating at a steady pace. At 56 years old, I receive a Navy pension and social security disability direct deposit to a US bank, I can withdraw a maximum of R$ 1.000,00 daily and my wife can make deposits to her Bradesco account. The stress of looking for work is a non-issue. I enjoy oil painting and surfing. We are two blocks from the beach on Rua Visconde de Piraja, our apartment is on the backside of the street so we don't have much street noise. From the balcony I can look out upon Corcovado and the Lagoa. This apartment is a little gem and we live well within my fixed montly income.The learning curve on speaking and understanding Portuguese conversationally has been steep but I have only been here two months. I do the grocery shopping, and errands pretty well. I have never asked for help in English or needed to apologize for my weak Portuguese.
Time to start the permanci process, for clarification how do I go about obtaining a certified copy of my passport ? Do I take my passport to a notario and have them burn copies or can I just copy the pages myself and submit them for certification at the notario ?
Overall I am very happy here and glad I made the move.

Hi ohanasurf,

Good to hear that you've made it to Brazil after all the hard work. Just something here that I'd like to remind you about...

Have you registered the US marriage with the 1º Oficio de Registro Civil (either in Brasília or in Rio??? It's very important that you do that. It must be registered in both the Consulado and the Cartório here. Registering here in Brazil is what gives the foreign marriage legal force in Brazil and the Federal Police may not even accept the Marriage Certificate unless it is registered here in Brazil as well as at the Consulado in the US.

For any cópia autenticada you should take the original copy to the Cartório and they will copy it. Even if they were to allow you to make your own copies (which they won't) they would have to visually verify each and every page in order to certify it. They won't take that kind of time.

Also, in the permanency process - the Federal Police only accept one kind of notarization of signatures on any Declaration and that is "reconhecimento da firma por AUTENTICIDADE" it costs a bit more than the other (por semelhança) and you have to personally go to the Cartório, sign the document, produce ID and sign their register. The DPF will reject any other kinds of notarization.

Cheers,
James      Expat-blog Experts Team

Thanks James,
We just returned from the 1 Oficio de Register Civil in Centro Rio with our Certidao de Casamento.

Well, that's worth it's weight in gold, so guard it with your life. Did you get a couple of certified copies made of it while you were there? If you did then carry a certified copy of it around with you at all times. That keeps you legal in Brazil even if your visa stay expires and you haven't yet applied for permanency. The Marriage Certificate trumps them all in lieu of your Cédula de Identidade Estrangeiro when you finally get it.