Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Looking for some help

So here is the thing, I'm having some problems with my Brazilian documents. The latest drama is this...

I got married to Sidnei in the states. In the states (at least in South Carolina) you go get your marriage certificate a few weeks before you get married. You put your legal name on the documents (which at the time is your maiden name). You get married, send in your license with all the signatures, get a copy back, and you take this copy and go to all the different departments to change your name. Which is what I did.

In Brazil, it's different. You go get your license the same day you get married. They ask if you are going to change your name(From what I've been told) and on your marriage certificate goes your married name.

So the problem is this...my marriage certificate has a different name than my passport...and all my other documents. They don't like this so much. I got a letter last week, asking me to come back to the federal police (2 hours away) to discuss this discrepancy. (yay!)

So what I want to know is...anyone out there have any similar problems? I know most of you got married when you got here...but I'm trying to find out what they are going to want from me. I was thinking maybe my birth certificate...maybe old passports? I have everything with me...but *le sigh* the process to get things certified, translated, etc....I don't even want to think about it. Help anyone?

**edited to add: my marriage certificate was translated, signed off by the judge, and I was given a "Brazilian certificate" here. The PF still don't like it!

7 comments:

Carla said...

You can legalize your "American Wedding Certificate" into an Brazilian Wedding certificate by bringing your bc, passport and all that junk. I had to do it before . . . they shouldn't be giving you grief, sorry to hear that. :(

Corin said...

Have you taken your marriage certificate to the cartorio? They should give you a Brazilian equivalent which should -- hopefully -- help!

The PF probably just wants you to get a document from the US Embassy explaining the difference in names. I am supposed to do that because of a discrepancy in my mom's middle name on my last visa application. It's just a bunch more paperwork, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix. The PF told me that the Embassy does it "all the time." (haha)

When all else fails, try a little of that jeitinho with PF! I've had very good luck with them by being the be super sweet and speaking Portuguese! They're used to foreigners who get very rude about having to deal with the Brazilian bureaucracy, so they seem to enjoy talking to a foreigner who likes Brazil and appears unshaken by bureaucracy.

Good luck!!!

Nina said...

thats lame, I didnt have any type of problem with my name on my marriage license and then later changing it. Maybe in Campinas they are used to this by now. Its strange that you are being questioned about it, and especially after all this time.

Just bring all your paper with you, you never know what you are going to need from the federal police. My marriage license was authenticed by the Brazilian Embassy in the U.S., then it had to be regrisitered by the cartorio.

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

An important thing to keep in mind, before driving the 2 hours out there, you should perhaps produce notarized copies of all your documents and bring that with you. Just in case they ask you for anything like that, you don't waste the trip. If they don't ask you can just keep these notarized copies for any future event. Notarized copies never expire and are really cheap to have made.

Ray

Corinne said...

I had a problem because my mother's maiden name was on my birth certificate and her married name on my Brazilian marriage license. I had to have my mother get a court doc in the US that both names were for the same person. But you should be able to get either the Policia Federal or the cartorio or possibly the consulate to do something like this I would think. If you are coming to BH for the Policia Federal, I have a friend who is an official translator if you need it.

Laural Out Loud said...

We tried to get our marriage recognized the first time we went to Brazil, and it was such a huge task that we gave up fairly quickly. We figure we'll just do it when we finally move there and have months on end to devote to it. Good luck!

Rachel said...

SO I read your update which brought me to this post. The US consulate should be able to change the name so they are the same on US documents. I've seen it being done at the consulate.

I do not envy you! I dealt with all this like 4 years ago and it was hell! Good luck :D