The step-by-step to the wedding

Hey up!

English Bridegroom (living in England) v Brazilian bride (living in Brazil)

Marriage in Brazil - 2015

1. Check in your city which notary performs marriage abroad. In Belém - Pará, this type of marriage is only performed at the 1st Civil Wedding District, on Wednesday and Fridays mornings  
Address: Felipe Patroni Square, S/n - Room 303 - Cidade Velha, Belém - PA, 66015-260
Phone: +55(91) 3218-2153 / 3205 - 2153


2. In England, he (she) has to request the full birth certificate (an updated copy) overal official office. This document took about 30 days to get ready (this period was for a person who doesn't live in London, I believe it should take less time for someone who lives in the capital)
3. The groom (or the bride) in England needs a copy of your passport (the page with the photo, but the photo doesn't need to be colored) signed and acknowledged by a notary public and also a marital status certificate (certificate of no impediment to marriage [certificate of being single])
4. With these three documents in hand, it needs to be sent to the FCO - Foreign and Commonwealth Office - GOV.UK to stamp first and then to the Consulate General of Brazil in London for stamping and recognize them as genuine docs.
5. These two stages of the FCO and the Brazilian Consulate took around 15 days to be completed and then the future husband (or future wife) sends the documents to Brazil
6. The person who is in Brazil takes the documents in English for a sworn translator of your city to translate to Portuguese. Our documents were ready in aboout three days because the sworng guy was wonderful and has accelerated the process for us, I can pass the contact to whom you need.
7. The person who is here in Brazil also need a certifies copy and the original of its updated birth certificate, a simple copy of the ID (identity document) and CPF (Brazilian National insurance number) to present in the office. If the Brazilian already have the ID doc that contains the numbers of your Social Security number, so it is okay just take this document.
8. The registry itself gives them a civil state declaration in which you fill with data from the bride and groom and their marital status. This document must also be signed by two persons as witnesses and these signatures must be recognized before handing over the office. 
   
9. Foreign partner must be in Brazil at least 15 days before the wedding date to submit to the Federal Police and request a statement of the legal period in the country. This statement was delivered at the same time of the request for us.
10. The couple must address registry for the groom to present and sign the wedding schedule and deliver the statement of the Federal Police (which is one of the documents required for them to perform the wedding)
11. The presence of someone translating everything during the cerimony is at the discretion of the couple. It is not something that they require. We preferred to rely on the presence of one, which by the way was wonderful during the whole ceremony!
12. You will need at least two people as witnesses to sign at the time of the ceremony. We had so many people there celebrating with us that we didn't need to worry about that. Ah! And it is not necessary that these people are exactly the same witnesses of marital status statement that I told you above.

Important informations:

• The official translation of documents should be held in Brazil. I figured if I knew someone in another country to translate into Portuguese, the groom could send already translated, but no. I can't explain why, but it was what they guided me to do, then that's my little tip.
• The documents must be received by the office to schedule the wedding 30 to 40 days prior to the date you want the wedding to be held. They do research during this period to confirm if the couple are not married or had other reason that would prevent them to get married.

I hope this helps in some way, good luck!

T'ra and see ya in bit!! xxx