Hello everyone,
My fiancee and I have been going back and forth about this one. I'm currently living in Vancouver, Canada, and she is in Brazil. We are trying to move to Brazil after our wedding.
We are planning to get married here in Canada (ironically, to skip the bureaucracy, and not risk the my remaining status in Brazil, as I've already spent 60 days there this year). However, we've run into a problem.
After our marriage, my wife is going to need to return to Brazil the next week for professional commitments (she teaches at a university). I was planning to join her there in September. She cannot stay long enough to wait to receive the official marriage certificate by mail. She needs to go back to Brazil.
She thinks I can take the certificate, when it arrives, to the consulate here in Vancouver to have it legalized (not registered), then take the legalized document to Brazil to register at the Cartorio, and that's that. We move on to the permanency process for me. She is almost certain about this.
I disagree. From everything I've read, I think that SHE has to be the one to register the marriage in Vancouver once we receive the marriage certificate. This, of course, makes things highly difficult, as she probably won't have sufficient leave from her job to come back here and register it until New Years.
So, is she right or am I right?
Also: Would the consulate in Vancouver accept the provisional marriage certificate that they provide after the wedding as a 'stand in' until I can deliver the official one? My spouse could declare the marriage, but I could bring in the official one when it arrives?
Or: I've read somewhere that I can declare the marriage at the consulate if we can show an impediment to her doing it. Any information about this?
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it.
Daniel