Translation & legalization of edu. certificates for Permanent visa

Hi everyone,

                   This is my first post in this forum and I hope I get some valuable information regarding my query.

Initially, I'm from India and currently working in Ireland. Recently I got a job in a Brazilian National research laboratory. So my Brazilian employers want to apply for a work visa for me. In regard of that they asked for several documents and I was quite comfortable in arranging them. However I find really hard to arrange my educational documents for them. The reason is, they want all my educational certificates to be translated into Portuguese language and get legalized by Brazilian consulate in Dublin.

After contacting Brazilian consulate in Dublin, they had clearly mentioned that they will not translate my educational documents. All they do is, just legalize them so that they are accepted in Brazil. If I want to do any translation, it needs to be only done in Brazil by a sworn translator it seems. In case if I translate them by a private translation company in Ireland, then the consulate will no longer legalize them.

So my question is, how I can translate and legalize my educational certificates and send them to my Brazilian employers for applying work visa in Brazil? If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Thank you so much!

Hello coolalphaman,

For the purposes of anything to do with immigration to Brazil all documents must be translated in Brazil only and by a notarized translator (tradutor juramentado), no way around it.

What you need to do is submit your ORIGINAL documents (as is) to the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in the issuing country (in your case Dublin, Ireland) for legalization. You will need to send the legalized documents to your future employer or their lawyer and have them make arrangements for them to be translated here.

Documents that require consular legalization are as follows:

Certified Criminal Record Check (by whatever name used for this document in your country) - not more than 90 days from date of issue

Educational documents, diplomas, certificates, etc.

Birth Certificate (long form showing names and birthplace of both parents) may be required but best to have anyway. This must be issued within the previous 6 months to legalization or not considered valid.

NOTE: In most cases (except for Certified Criminal Record Check which is 90 days) all documents used for the purposes of immigration, marriage or other legal matters cannot be more than 6 months from the date of their issue to the date of consular legalization or submission for the particular purpose where legalization is not required. Once legalized the document theoretically retains its validity forever.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

Hi William James Woodward,

                                           Thanks a lot for the quick response. I don't know how much time you spend on this forum, all your posts & responses were pretty amazing. You are very generous and really helping many people like me around the world. Thats really great and hats off to you sir!

Coming to the point, as I studied till Bachelors education in India and Masters & PhD in Ireland, I will try to legalize all my certificates till Bachelors education in Brazilian consulate, New Delhi and further Masters & PhD certificates in Brazilian consulate, Dublin. Latter as you suggested, I will send all the legalized documents to my future employer and request them to do the required translate in Brazil.

Regarding police clearance, I'm trying to get it in both India and Ireland.

I never knew that birth certificate should be issued in last 6 months time. I have one issued some 30 years back with no name on it (only date, place and parents names). I need to have a look into this as well.

Once again, I highly appreciate your prompt response.

Thank you

I just recently dealt with someone from India who provided me a link where you can get you Birth Certificate online, authenticated by the Brazilian government website. Let me see if I can find it and I will send you the link.

Cheers,
William James Woodward

This is the link to order your India Birth Certificate online.

http://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in/on … asicSearch

This is now the correct link for your certificate!

Hi Woodward,

                         I think there is a small mistake with the link. It is directing me to Indiana state website. I'm not from USA. Sorry!

Thanks anyway!

Sorry about that, was the wrong site yes.... will find the right one for you.

coolalphaman,
Just one remark: if you mean by legalizing diplomas, to make a certified copy of diplomas that should be easy.
Now if you mean that Brazil recognize officially your diplomas and give you equivalence to BrazilianŽones, that will be much much more difficult.
In all the cases, the nature of your employer means that your diplomas and credentieals have been certainly recognize of great value. Great outcome that most expats and expats candidat would envy!
All the best in Brazil.

Hi Bardamu,

In either case, legalization or Revalidation the diplomas must be legalized by the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in the country in which they were issued FIRST.

Actually, it is more likely if it is for his prospective employer and we're not talking about either a medical, law or engineering degree that the employer will simply accept the (translated) degrees at face value and Revalidation won't even be necessary.

Other than the three professions listed above it is extremely rare that foreigners Revalidate diplomas in Brazil.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

wjwoodward wrote:

Actually, it is more likely if it is for his prospective employer and we're not talking about either a medical, law or engineering degree that the employer will simply accept the (translated) degrees at face value and Revalidation won't even be necessary.

Other than the three professions listed above it is extremely rare that foreigners Revalidate diplomas in Brazil.


William,
Face value = value zero most of the time.
You know well that foreigners represent only 0,4% of population of Brazil. So how Brazilian employers could have any idea of foreign diplomas value and foreign educational system?

One of the solution is to study in a Brazilian university to gain a local diploma, it is a way to validate locally (non-officialy) your foreign experiece and diplomas. Problem: do you want to re-start universty from scratch or study for a master or doctorat ? Certainly second solution....but they you need your foreign diplomas validated to enter degree.

Actually, the educational standards of universities all over the USA, Canada, UK and Europe are well know worldwide, even here in Brazil. Generally speaking the standards of foreign universities are far superior to those here in Brazil. Multinational companies operating here are quite happy to obtain employees with foreign degrees. Truth is that unless you're planning on practicing medicine, law, engineering or enter the public service here in Brazil, revalidation of a foreign degree serves no useful purpose whatsoever and is wholly unnecessary. If anyone thinks that a US, Canadian, UK or European based multinational isn't going to give preference to an applicant with a degree from one of thoes countries, best think again. They will accept them hands down over someone with a corresponding degree granted by a Brazilian university.

The top management of Brazilian companies don't live under a rock, they are well aware of the superiority of the vast majority of foreign educational institutions. The only concern that they have is that the diploma is, in fact, genuine and if it is they are more than satisfied that it wasn't given out like cracker-jack.

My personal opinion is that the whole Revalidation process here in Brazil is a farse, considering that foreign higher education institutions are superior to their Brazilian counterparts in every conceivable way. This is evidenced by the extremely high failure rate of those with Brazilian degrees who seek to have them recognized in foreign countries. In many cases they simply can't. You'd be astonished by the number of Brazilians holding degrees here that end up driving taxi or slinging burgers in cities in North America; Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Chicago and San Francisco are full of them. I'm betting the situation isn't much different in Europe either.

This, for example, is why Brazilian medical doctors are so terrified of the arrival of doctors who've graduated in other countries. They're doing their utmost to ensure that the average Brazilian citizen doesn't find out by living example just how poorly trained Brazilian doctors really are and how much they lack in people skills in treating their patients.

While I love this country, all of its numerous problems notwithstanding, I'm under absolutely no illusion that it is anywhere near being a developed nation quite yet, especially in terms of education.

Cheers,
William James Woodward