The New CIN for Naturalized Brazilian Citizens

08/08/24 The old, handmade Registro Geral (RG) for Brazilian Citizens is being gradually replaced by the Carteira de Identidade Nacional (CIN) during the coming years. Citizens over 60 can go in to request one without an appointment, so I started the process on Friday, July 26. I'll put a log of it here, because I know that it's a subject of interest to several people. As always in Brazil, the process will probably differ a little state to state; I live in Amazonas, so this is how it's happening here.

1 Friday, July 26. We walked over to the Municipal PAC (Pronto Atendimento ao Cidadão) in the Galeria Espírito Santo in our neighborhood with my

CPF;

RG;

Proof of address;

Marriage Certificate (Brazilian);

Título de Eleitor.

The clerk was quick and pleasant in waiting on me. She scanned my documents, took my picture, and then the first problem arose.

FIRST PROBLEM: My mother's middle name appears on my Marriage Certificate and my RG, but not on my CPF record at the Receita Federal, so the system goes "TILT!". Not a big problem, the clerk tells me: there's no Receita Federal rep at the Municipal PAC, but there is at the State PAC in another bairro. She gives me the address, and warns me, "they'll tell you that you have to come back here, but you don't. Once they update their records, it will update in our system and activate your application again." Sounds easy.

First problem lesson: the CIN system and the RF system both key on mother's maiden name for identification, so they have to match exactly.

2 Tuesday, July 30 State of Amazonas PAC. We go there, the gentleman at the RF desk, Sr. Alessandro, is great. He puts in the request, and says to come back in a week and he'll walk me over to the Município of Manaus desk (there's one in the State PAC, too) to tell them that the records now match. I then show him a request that I sent to the RF last year because I heard that I was still showing up in their records as "Estrangeiro" rather than "Brasileiro". He checks the system, and his smile disappears. "It's not here. We should have done this first." he says. I add my Certidão Positiva de Naturalização and my Título de Eleitor to the documents that he already has in front of him.

SECOND PROBLEM: The Ministry of Justice doesn't communicate naturalizations to the Receita Federal, and the RF isn't (or at least, wasn't) one of the agencies that Justiça Eleitoral sends a new citizen to for a records update.

Sr. Alessandro is smiling again, so I'm pretty hopeful. "I'll just update this" he says, "and come back next week to pick it up as we already discussed."

Second problem lesson: new citizens should probably include a visit to the RF to make sure that their records match there, too, while making the rounds to get their Título de Eleitor, RG, and Passport.

3 Tuesday, August 6 State of Amazonas PAC. Sr. Alessandro was as good as his word, and the update is waiting for me. He goes over to the Manaus desk and waves me over. I give the lady there the record of my Protocolo from the PAC in Galeria Espírito Santo. She says, "I'll just update your current Protocolo with this new information and that will reactivate it, and you'll be able to pick up your card at Galeria Espírito Santo when it comes."

4 Thursday, August 8. The original Protocolo reappeared as active in the tracking system today. Forecast for delivery is 60 days from my original application.

5 Friday, August 23. No status change, Protocolo still showing as active.

6 Monday, September 2. The status of my Protocolo suddenly switched back to "Cancelado". Uh-oh! Back to the Municipal PAC tomorrow.

7 Tuesday, September 3. Back to the PAC today. A different clerk was helping me, checked her screen, and frowned at it. "Sir, you're naturalized?", she asked. I told her that I was, and she said, "Oh, it looks like you didn't give us your Naturalization Certificate." (I thought that I had, but no matter.) I told her, "I think that I did, but here it is." She took a picture of it and said, "I'll send this to my Supervisor and ask him to reopen your Protocolo." Now that a human is involved, I'm hopeful. We'll see tomorrow. Or the next day. 🤞🏻

8 Tuesday, September 10. My Protocolo wasn't reopened, so with the holiday over, we went back to the PAC today. The clerk from last week recognized my husband and me, and explained the situation to another person who worked there. He looked at his screen, said something about "being indexed wrong", and re-entered my marriage certificate, my Naturalization Certificate, the Portaria from the DOU that published the naturalization (which they downloaded there), and did a lot of manual data entry. After that, he said that the Protocolo was open again, and that I should still get my card at the end of the month. Just checked, and the Protocolo is showing as open in the system.

9 Monday, October 14. My Protocolo has been canceled again, for the THIRD time. Now, the problem is that my FATHER'S name appears slightly differently on my Naturalization Certificate from the way that it does on our Marriage Certificate. This could be a real problem, since fixing the Naturalization record would require a modification of the Ministry of Justice record, while changing everything else would require modifications by the cartório, the Receita Federal (again) and the Ministry of Foreign Relations, since the ultimate source of the data on the Marriage Certificate was the Certidão Consular issued by the Brazilian Consulate General in Chicago. So tomorrow we'll go back to the Federal Police to request a modification to the Naturalization data. If that's a no-go, I'm inclined to just forget about the new CIN, and keep using my old RN until they arrest me or override their system for the clerical discrepancy.

10 Tuesday, October 15.  We went to the Federal Police but arrived after the Estrangeiros office closed.  We met someone who works there, and he told us to return in the morning and ask for him.

11 Wednesday, October 16.  Back to the PF office, spoke with the very nice person we had met the day before, and colleague who said that once my naturalization was approved there was nothing that their office could do -- but she did take my CIE (and gave me a receipt) and so was able to close out my file in their office, which apparently had never happened.   She told me to request a "Retificação" of my data through the SEI system at the Ministry of Justice.  This is the same system that I used to request my Certidão de Naturalização Positivo, so I already have an ID.  Request submitted online with supporting documentation (RG, Marriage Certificate) when I got home, and accepted.  Transmitted to " Unidade DINAT_Averbação" the same day. 

12 Monday, October 21.  Additional documents (formal request letter, copy of original Portaria from the DOU) requested by email by DINAT_Averbação; Requested documents sent same day via SEI site.

13 Friday, November 22. SEI system shows "Conclusão do processo na unidade".  "Retificação" of my parents' names printed in the DOU.

14 Tuesday, November 26.  We went back to the PAC with a copy of the authenticated page of the DOU showing the revision of my parents' names.  My Protocolo was reopened for the third time.  The process has taken four months now, and still counting.  I've also requested a revised Naturalization Certificate for use in the future.  Just waiting for the new CIN to be issued.

15 Thursday, December 12.  According to the municipal system, my new card was issued at 13:59 today and is waiting for pickup.  Since the PAC closes at 15:00, we'll go get it tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED