Getting Married in Brazil

So several months of stress and worry, about R$600 later, we are finally booked in for our wedding!!! All my documents were fine and fortunately we got the day we wanted!!!

You can find what the Brazilian Consulate says you need here.

However, this was my experience....

I needed:

• Certificate of No Impediment, you can get this from you local registry office and costs £35. Some places say that this is only valid for 90 days, but the registry office in Joinville didn't bother. I had a mild panic attack as Fabio moved so the address was wrong on the certificate, but it didn't cause any problems.
• Full birth certificate with both parents name on
• certified copy of Passport in the UK, which cost £10

The Certificate of No Impediment and birth certificate needed to be legalised by the Brazilian Consulate in the UK, which cost £16 each. You send the original in a special delivery envelope include a  postal order for the amount and another self addressed special delivery envelope. They return it with a big sticker on the actual document.

The certificate of no impediment and birth certificate then needs to be translated by a sworn translator when you get to Brazil. This cost us 177 reais / about £63.

We then needed certified photocopies of the translations and originals which cost R$3.80 per page which we did at a Public Notary.

Fabio needed:

• An updated birth certificate that is only valid for 90 days 
• Identity card and original CPF
• Copy of proof of address, such as a  utility bill water (surprisingly, this did not need to be in Fabio's name)
• date of birth of parents (if alive), date of death of the parents (if deceased)

You can only register the marriage at the Cartorio, a maximum of 45 days before the day you want and a minimum of 30. You need to take all the documents with you along with 2 witnesses who cannot be your parents but may be family members, they need to be over 18. They will need to take their ID and CPF also.

At 45 days, we then needed to 'enter our marriage papers'. All our documents had to be registered at the cartorio, which cost R$50.35, about £17. We then had to 'enter' them. They needed to know the professions, date of birth, place of birth and addresses of both of us and our parents, and also our 2 witnesses.

You also need to tell them if you want to change your name and if you get divorced how you will split the assets. You can either take out what you both put in or split everything that you gain from the time you get married 50/50. They put all the details into a contract, which you both have to sign.

They keep all the originals of the documents, which I did not realise, so now I need to get another birth certificate!!

The cartorio in Joinville (I am not sure if it is the same everywhere) only does weddings on Fridays between 12 and 3pm. The Monday before you need to go in with copies of the IDs of the people who will be your witnesses, you can have 2 or 4 witnesses.

So relieved all that is sorted..... next on to the visa process........ >:(