British citizen marrying in Brazil

Hi Ryan,

For the marriage here in Brazil you will need the following documents:

Your passport and a certified copy which should be made here at a Cartório in Brazil. Check with the Cartório where you will get married if they want copies of ALL pages including blank pages or just the identification page and visa page.

Original (long form) of your Birth Certificate - that's the Birth Registration that shows your parents' full names and their information. This document must be legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there or they may accept legalization by your country's Consulate or Embassy here in Brazil (mine was done by the Canadian Consulate here in Brazil and was accepted when I got married at the Cartório in Jaraguá, São Paulo - SP). This must be translated in Brazil by a Tradutor Juramentado (notarized translator).

Certificate of you status as single (no impediment) again must be legalized and translated as above.

Your Birth Certificate and Certificate of No Impediment can not be more than six months from issue when you submit them at the Cartório here or they are no longer considered valid.

Remember that it's a long process, you can take up to two months or more to actually get married. First you need to submit the documents to the Cartório and apply for Permission to Marry. They will forward this to the Federal Government and the marriage banns get published in the Diário Oficial de União (Official Gazette) then permission is granted and published in the DOU. Then you get married. So if you come here on a 90 day stay you're going to have to have everything ready and go to the Cartório right away and apply. No delay or you might run out of time.

Also you should obtain a Certified Criminal Record Check from your country's police force. This document must be legalized by the BRAZILIAN CONSULATE in the country in which it is issued. You won't need this for the marriage, but you must have it for the Permanent Visa application following marriage.

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

Hi there
To get the certifcate of no impediment, aka 'certificate of freedom to marry', you have to apply for this at the UK embassy. I'm in Dublin but a british citizen. I had to go on the website and book an appointment to see someone about this, the price here is 84. I know go to the British embassy friday to apply.
Hope that helps

Hi,
I understand this is an old thread... I am getting married in Brazil to my brazilian fiancé. I have all my documents legalised and ready to go. The catorio (where we intend to marry) has not requested a 'proof of address' from myself only from my fiancé for his address in Brazil. When reading requirements on the 'consulate general' website it says it's mandatory for the foreign national to have proof of address??
My fiancé is refusing to check with them..again.
I am just wondering if anyone els from the UK was asked for their proof of address when marrying a Brazilian.
I understand my address is on my CNI.
We have already had to re-apply for another CNI as it went over 3 months so we really can't afford to make anymore mistakes.

Thanks in advance x

Once you've read some of the other topic postings on marriage you'll understand that Cartórios are a world all to themselves, they all have their very own little set of rules. There is no such thing as universality in the rules that the Cartórios apply to marriage, it depends strictly on the one you're using.

If yours doesn't ask for proof of address don't worry. None of them go strictly by what the legislation requires.

Thankyou for your response
I have just read on another topic you are informing some-one that their birth certificate needs to be issued within six months to be valid in Brazil?
I haven't found any other evidence of this anywhere? I took my birth certificate to be legalised in person and even there they did not say anything?
When my fiancé went to double check at the cartorio, they were more bothered about his birth certificate being in date and said nothing of mine?
I'm worried he's not asking the right questions to get the answers we need.
Does it again depend on the cartorio?

Many thanks x

If the Consulado-Geral do Brasil has legalized your Birth Certificate that's really all you need to worry about, any Cartório in Brazil will accept it regardless of the date of issue once legalized.

Regarding the proof of address, for all legal purposes (except opening a bank account) you can make a "Declaração Sob Pena de Lei de Residência" and have it notarized in the Cartório. If you're residing with your fiance's family you should attach a copy of one of their utility bills showing the address to the declaration. The following text is the model for the declaration:

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

DECLARAÇÃO DE RESIDÊNCIA

Eu, YOUR FULL NAME HERE, portador(a) do passaporte No. XXXXXX, expedido em dd/mm/yyyy pelo name of issuing agency DECLARO para os devidos fins de comprovação de residência, sob as penas da Lei (Art. 2º da Lei 7.115/83), que sou residented e domiciliado(a) na complete street address BAIRRO name of bairro CEP postal code na cidade de city Estado state conforme cópia de comprovante anexo.
Declaro ainda, estar ciente de que declaração falsa pode implicar na sanção penal prevista no Art. 299 do Código Penal, in verbis:

"Art. 299 - Omitir, em documento público ou
particular, declaração que nele deveria constar,
ou nele inserir ou fazer inserir declaração falsa
ou diversa da que devia ser escrita, com o fim
de prejudicar direito, cirar obriação ou alterar
a verdade sobre o fato juridicamente relevante.
Pena: reclusão de 1 (um) a 5 (cinco) anos e
multa, se o documento é público e reclusão de
1 (um) a 3 (três) anos, se o documento é
particular."

City - State ______ de _______________ de _________________

____________________________________

YOUR FULL NAME HERE

You can attach a telephone, electric, water bill in the name of your fiance or his parents showing this address. It does not necessarily need to be in your name to be legal.

Thankyou that's really helpful.
You say they will accept the document as long as it is legalised by the consulado-general do Brasil? Do you think this will apply to my 'certificate of non impediment'?
I had it legalised 7 months after it was issued and again the consulate said nothing and happily stamped it.
I have a feeling my fiancé did not tell them my CNI had already been legalised.
They just said it had to be issued within 3 months even though the document has no expiry??

Thanks again x

In theory ANY document legalized by the Consulado-Geral do Brasil never loses its validity. I had a criminal record check from Canada legalized and finally used it 4 years after it had been legalized, it was accepted by the Federal Police "no questions asked", mind you I was in Brazil during that time and they did ask for one from the Brazilian authorities as well, but the Canadian document was unchallenged. I doubt that you'll have any problem with the CNI.

i am a British male and I want to marry a Brazilian woman.
I have read here it can take months to arrange the marriage, do I need to go to Brazil in person to start the ball rolling or can I take the papers to the Brazilian consulate in the UK and they can send away the papers

I cannot afford to go and spend 2 months+ in Brazil just to get the paperwork done