You are still going to need your birth certificate authenticated (get 2 copies) by the embassy in Greece.  After that, you have a little time, so send it ahead and have a sworn translator translate it.

However, I had a sworn translator do my birth certificate the first time, and the cartorio would not accept his translation.  Something about not stamping the original.  So I had to redo that.  Same with many other things that should have been straightforward.

Hire a despachante.

Originally posted by Afroditi ....I am greek and my boyfriend is brazilian,can anyone inform me what procedure should I follow to get married to him?....

Well in the first place it depends WHERE you want to get married. In Brazil, Greece or .... ??? 

then you need it translated in Brazil, also you will probably need to get it certified by the Greek government and then by the Brazilian consulate before getting it translated by a sworn translator in Brasil

@ Tark: Para bens to you for your marriage in Brasil! I have no doubt every step you describe was absolutely neccessary to accomplish this where you got married in Brasil.

I was married in Sao Paulo, capital. I think I must have been very fortunate, because I had a much easier (though still expensive) time meeting cartorio requirements for my birth certificate.

I had a copy of my birth certificate, authenticated by the state where I was born, mailed to me in Brasil. I took this to an offical judicial translator in Santos. The cartorio accepted this translation of my birth without taking exception.

Also, for us, a despachante was totally unnecessary. We simply visited our local cartorio (you must use the cartorio for the area where you can prove you live); got a list of their requirements; provided the documentation, then set a date for our ceremony.

Again, I have no doubt that where you got married every requirement which you had to fulfill was necessary. My only point here in mentioning the differences with our experience is -

that the birth certificate needs to be first certified by the Brasilian consulate in the country of origin before it is brought to Brasil for translation, and the need for a despachante...or not...

- seem to be technical requirements relevent to the state, city or cartorio where the ceremony will take place.

Brasil has laws, protocols and requirements. Unfortunately, uniformity in the manner in which they are applied, for things like marriage and driver's license, are sometimes open to frustrating little variances.

Of course, it is best to have every important document certified and authenticated to the nth degree before coming to Brasil, especially one's birth certificate. Thank goodness the judicial translation of my birth certificate which I had done in Brasil got me through for my marriage and RNE. I've read in this forum where others have apparently not been so lucky.

@ Afroditi: Hope this does not confuse. If you want to get full certification of your birth certificate: Do so, if possible! Get an authentic copy from a state office in Greece. Have the Brasilian consulate in Greece certify it. Bring this to Brasil and have it translated by an official judicial translator. Or, you might risk slipping by like I did. Who knows? All this will probably depend on the cartorio where you will be married.

PS: If you are a widow or divorced, make sure that you get these documents fully certified too. If you have never been married, then you will have to make a sworn certified statement for this too (This I did at the US Consulate in Sao Paulo. Yours would probably be at the Greek Consulate, but maybe you can get a certification of that in Greece more easily.)

All of this would be academic, if before you get married, you could snap your fingers and be sitting by magic at the cartorio where you will be married to ask them to put all their requirements in writing. Even if you could, things in Brasil can still throw up bureaucratic surprises. Maybe this is why everyone is so laid back about so many other things in this country, and also why this forum is so full of so much effort to make sense out of all of the bureaucratic redundancy.

Good luck.

Edited by Grads - 29 March 2012 at 20:23

Separacao de bens is a personal issue and an important part of some unions when selected. Do what make sense for you.

About translating your birth certificate from Greek to Portugues: You should start searching now for a certified judicial translator. I have no idea who translates Greek.

Edited by Grads - 31 March 2012 at 08:14