Canadian marrying a brazilian

Hello Claudia.

Welcome to Expat.com

Perhaps this thread might help ->https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=242172

Thanks.

Karen

Hi Claudia,

On behalf of the entire Expat-blog Team it's my pleasure to welcome a fellow Canadian on board.

Regarding your situation, having no fixed address in Brazil will complicate matters greatly. Also if you have only two months before your visa stay expires it's likely that you're not going to have sufficient time to gather up all the necessary documents in order to apply at the Cartório for permission to marry, wait for the wedding banns to be published and permission granted and published in the Diário Oficial de União (DOU).

If you have some means of proving that you've lived together publicly in a conjugal, "marriage-like" relationship for more than one year and can produce supporting documents such as joint bank account, life insurance policy naming one party as insured and the other as beneficiary, rental contracts or deeds, etc., you could apply for a VIPER Permanent Visa com base em união estável. If accepted this would at least allow you to remain in Brazil while the application is processed. It would not, however, allow you to obtain a work permit and work in Brazil as would an application for permanency based on marriage or a Brazilian child.

If you can't establish the "união estável" with documents that must be at least one year old, then your only real option would be to come back to Brazil at some point in the future with all the necessary documents ready, apply for permission to marry and then get married. At that time you could apply for the VIPER based on marriage. The process for getting married here can take a couple of months, even with all the documents ready so it's highly unlikely you can do it now.

See the following link for further information on marriage and permanency.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=280525

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

Hi William,

thank you so much for your reply, you are being of great help. great to be talking to a canadian, your infos are so clear, This forum is full of good hints.
Thank you for pointing at me the VIPER permanent visa com base em uniao estavel. I think we will give it a try. I do not need work visa for now.

I was wondering if we have enough document to prove that we are together for more than a year.
We have:

-A canadian bank account with both names since 2010

- A photo/film project on the making since 2011 with a blog/site where we both write and have pictures together.

- Some brazilian media coverage ( magazine articles and tv interviews)

- I don't know if it is of any help but we also have the document, with both our names on, of the custom check in of every countries we visited in the last 2 years by boat ( more or less 12 countries)

I would love to have your thoughts about it if possible.

I also read somewhere that having a judge writing a letter confirming that we are together  for more than a year could help the process. We have two desembagador in our close circle of family that could write such a letter. Would it ever help our process?

Would you have any more information on the steps to follow?

I started filling this form: https://scedv.serpro.gov.br/frscedv/man … ?lang=eng#
is it correct? I bumped into the address section, I dont really know what to write since our address together is the boat, and the boat is on the move. Should I write the address of the marina we are at the moment?
And also for the employers section, I do not have employer as we are developping this project for the last 2 years. Any suggestions for that.

And how long this process can take?

Once again thank you so much
so many questions, sorry but thank you:-)
Claudia

Hi again Claudia,

Please follow the link below to the Ministério da Justiça page on Permenência com base em união estável.

http://portal.mj.gov.br/main.asp?View=% … 0F4CB26%7D

According to their requirements your Canadian joint bank account will suffice, you may want to contact the branch manager and request a letter indicating date on which the account was opened if you don't have a statement from that era.

You can also use a sworn declaration from two individuals to state that they have known you for at least one year and that they are aware of the existance of the relationship. If Brazilians they will have to have their signatures authenticated in the Cartório (Reconhecimento da firma por AUTENTICIDADE) make sure that's the kind they request because there are two different types of authentication. I'm not sure what the procedure would be if your declarants are Canadians, I guess that it could be sworn by any notary, lawyer or Commissioner of Oaths, but I'm not 100% sure on that point. If you've got friends who are desembargadores so much the better, if they're willing to make the declarations then that will carry a great deal of weight.

Since you've been travelling then yes I'd certainly produce all of the Customs documentation in both names during the travels.

Obviously, the more forms of proof on that list you are able to provide the better off you will be, so don't stint on them. I would recommend at the very minimum two or three, if not more.

Good luck to you both.

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

It's not about a judge writing a letter, it's about a judge deciding that you have in fact a stable union.

If you can get the required documents for marriage in time (within 2 weeks or so) the marriage would not be a problem, the real problem would be the process of obtaining the permanent visa, which requires a home visit by the federal police, and depending on where you apply, it can take months before this happens.

The good thing about beiing married however is that you can't be expelled, even without a visa and thus being "irregular".

Although several cartorios will deny an application to get married, this is not legal, and, there are legal ways by which a foregner can stay in the country while waiting to get married.

Hi William!

I am back and I have a question for you on marrying a Brazilian! So I got engaged on my last trip to Brazil over the holidays and now I want to/need to know what the process is for getting married to my fiance.

I have read other threads on the blog on marriage but since I am Canadian it did not apply.  Could you please help me out?  What do I need to do to make this happen??

Thank you SO much in advance

Hi doscaminos,

Please read carefully my first post on the following topic thread:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=280525

Also browse through the other replies, the first posting applies to EVERYBODY including us Canucks, trust me!

The process starts out with applying to the Cartório for permission to marry (Habilitação de Casamento) and you have to have ALL your documents ready in order to do that. It will take at the very minimum 30 day, maybe even a little more, for the scheduled wedding date since the banns must be published and permission granted in the Diário Oficial da União (Official Gazette).

Any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

Hi William!

Thanks for the prompt response (as usual).

I was certainly more worried about the documents needed and you have explained this very well on your other post so thank you for that.

I guess my complication is with the birth certificate.  I was born in Nigeria so that's the birth certificate I hold.  In this case from what I gather below I would have to have my original birth certificate sent to the Consulate General of Brasil in Nigeria for legalization?  Does that sound right?

Thanks!

Additionally, we are considering getting married here in Canada instead and then sending our marriage license to the Consulado for legalizing the marriage in Brazil instead.  Do you think based on my dilemma of being born in another country that this would be easier?  I think the only other bureaucracy more annoying than Brazil to deal with is the Nigerian one.

Do you by chance know the reverse process for marrying a foreigner here in Canada?  What does my fiance need in order to marry me legally here?

Thanks!

Hello doscaminos,

Given the situation with your Birth Certificate from Nigeria yes, I'm sure that you'd be far better off marrying in Canada and then registering your marriage with the Consulado-Geral do Brasil there (Toronto or Vancouver whichever is nearest). There is far less bureaucracy in the marriage process in Canada than here in Brazil. Also if you were to marry here you'd actually have to apply for a new Birth Certificate since it would, by law, have to have been issued within the 6 months prior to being submitted to the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in Nigeria for legalization. The bureaucracy is such here in Brazil that official documents aren't considered valid if they're older than that.

While I'm no longer up-to-date on the details about getting married in Canada, I'm sure that you could get all the necessary information from City Hall in Regina, Sask where you'd have to apply for the marriage license. I believe that as long as your fiance holds a valid Visit Visa for Canada there would be no problems whatsoever.

Please keep me posted on your progress as this will be of great assistance to me in being able to help other members in similar situations.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team