Getting Married in Brazil

[Bryan and Isabel 29]

Hey Guys,

Im new at this and don't even know if im in the right forum but here goes. My girlfriend and I have decided to get married. I am a US Citizen and she is a Citizen of Brazil. I have decided to go to Brazil Next month to get married over there. The process of getting married in Brazil im pretty familiar with that, I feel comfortable handling it solo but any advice would be appreciated. My biggest concern is AFTER the marriage, I will return to the USA and I want to know what is the process to be able to bring her to the USA. I'm completly new at this and need a basic explanation on this topic. There are so many different Visa's I don't know which one applies to my situation. I did as much research as I can on getting married the correct way and all Im missing is the second part of this Journey. I hope there is someone who can help me =(

God Bless

Bryan

[LADYDARE 28]

Read this guide it will help you a lot. http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_bring_your_foreign_spouse_to_live_in_the_US#Final_Step_2_.E2.80.93_NVC_Case_Forwarded_to_the_Foreign_U.S_Consulate

[Ty & Nanda 3]

Hey My fiance is currently in Brasil and a Brasilian citizen although I cant tell you what to do I can share with you what I have discovered in my walk down this road. I am 5 months + into my K-1 visa actually called USCIS today for an update. If you plan on living in Brazil and staying their go for it I wish I could do that just no real way for me to make any moeny their been 3 times this year alone and kept my eyes open and tried to see what i could do even with being a native spanish speaker that didnt help. If you Marry in Brazil she wont be able to fly back with you if and when you have to come back , kind of sucks for a newley wed couple... I have also found that the time to process her ability to come her and have the marriage validated etc in the USA is alot more costly and lenthy than the K-1 visa. if time and money is of no concern to you id say go for it and I would have done the same unfortunantly i dont have the time or money to support my standard of living in BR. just some insight from someone 5 almost 6 months into this game. let me know if I can be of any more advise to you. Good Luck

[SunDrop 59]

If you plan on marrying outside of the US/ before obtaining an entry visa for her, you would be applying for a CR-1 visa. This is a spouse visa.

As you've indicated you're planning on marrying there, rather than getting engaged, obtaining a visa and marrying her in the US, I'm

moving this thread from K-1 Fiance/ee Visa Process and Procedures to IR-1/CR-1 Spouse Visa Process and Procedures.

If you decide you want to get engaged and file to bring her to the US to get married, then you can either start a new thread back over in the K-1 forum, or ask that this be moved back over (by 'reporting' the thread and giving an explanation to the mods )

Congrats on your engagement and welcome to VJ!

Edited December 30, 2010 by SunDrop

[Tricia599 2]

My husband and I got married in Brasil. I was living there at the time, so we were able to file for DCF (we didn't decide to move to the US until about a year after we got married), so I can't offer any advice on the visa, but I figured I could throw in my two cents about getting married. Getting married in brasil is not hard, you just have to have all of your ducks in a row - and that entails a lot of running around. If you want advice, please feel free to send me a message.

[Juliajulis 0]

Hey Guys,

Im new at this and don't even know if im in the right forum but here goes. My girlfriend and I have decided to get married. I am a US Citizen and she is a Citizen of Brazil. I have decided to go to Brazil Next month to get married over there. The process of getting married in Brazil im pretty familiar with that, I feel comfortable handling it solo but any advice would be appreciated. My biggest concern is AFTER the marriage, I will return to the USA and I want to know what is the process to be able to bring her to the USA. I'm completly new at this and need a basic explanation on this topic. There are so many different Visa's I don't know which one applies to my situation. I did as much research as I can on getting married the correct way and all Im missing is the second part of this Journey. I hope there is someone who can help me =(

God Bless

Bryan

Hi there !

I'm a Brazilian citizen and I got married to a US citizen. Basically, what I have to tell you about our experience is that Brazil has a lot of bureocracy on this subject. Since you are planning to get married here in Brazil, you should bring all the documents the notary may ask you and then, get married. In my case, my husband was divorced and we had to validate his divorce here (it takes about 3 or 4 months). It all went pretty well and we got married last September. When he was back to US he applied a CR 1 visa for me and we are waiting it to be over so I can finally go to US.

Just a note.... I understood that you are getting married here, and the notary asks you 30 days after you submit the papers to analize the case and then, you can chose the date you want to get married.

If you have any doubts don't hesitate to ask !!!

Good luck on your journey !

Happy New Year!

[Sufrank 4]

Hi! My wife is Brazilian, and I live in Brazil with her. I gave up my job to move here, get married, and wait for her CR-1 to be approved. By the time we're ready to enter the U.S. the entire process will have taken about 1 year (yes, 12 months). I would strongly urge you to sit down and research like crazy to develop an honest internal estimate of how long her visa process will take. My wife and I looked it over and made dumb guestimations, imagining a quick 2-3 months, which turned into a depressing and painful 12 - and we were together.

1. You'll need to submit paperwork to the USCIS. You can go to their website and find which service center will process your case. On the same site you can find the estimated time to complete the USCIS portion of the case. The California Service Center processed our case, and it took roughly 5 months, which was the estimated completion time. Once the USCIS completes your case you'll head to the National Visa Center (NVC).

2. You'll need to submit paperwork to the NVC. You'll have to resubmit paperwork you already sent to the USCIS. The NVC will review your case; now, while our case was there the estimated time was 6-8 weeks, and it took an actual 13 weeks until they were ready to schedule our interview at the embassy in Rio. This *could* have been because the NVC was revamping their review process to try to lower review times to 2-4 weeks, and we got caught in the mess of a system revamp. For the purpose of this post I'll assume the processing time is still 6-8 weeks.

- The NVC will literally take weeks to 'review' your case (see if you submitted everything). If you did not submit sufficient material (missing/incorrect document, not enough proof of a substantial marriage, etc., etc.) you'll be RFE'd and they'll ask you to submit more material - which will obviously add more time to your case.

- It takes the NVC 20 days to process incoming mail, so even if you can complete the missing material and overnight it in, it'll still take them 20 days just to realize it's arrived. It'll probably take another few weeks to re-review the case.

- Please note that there is in fact a 'Stupid RFE thread' in these forums, because they just happen. For example, my wife sent in her actual passport. We requested *just* the passport back. This ended up causing a stupid RFE which delayed the completion of our case and the scheduling of our interview by a month.

- The NVC only schedules interviews on the second week of each month (this is coming from an NVC case worker who said it to me on the phone, and from my wife researching the process). Case review complete on the first day of the third week? Welcome to waiting for 3 weeks.

- The NVC does NOT generate mails or e-mails daily. Example: The NVC delayed our case (passport issue from above) on a Tuesday. We found out Friday because I called them. We received an e-mail regarding the delay the next Thursday. Maintaining regular, concise, polite contact with them will probably only ever help your case.

3. Know the process, plan the time it takes to get certifies copies and certified translations, and prepare as best you can for document submissions so the process doesn't stall while waiting for you guys to turn around a request for documents. When the USCIS finishes their review you shouldn't wait to receive a document request to start doing the work - you should have already researched what you'll need to the NVC and have already started gathering it up.

4. The Brazilian government keeps a list of people who are certified to produce Portuguese-to-English translations. My wife can dig up the URL if you can't find it. Someone tried to charge us about 1,000 reias for something we ultimately paid less than 200 to have translated.

5. Congresspersons and Senators can help your case along. While your case is within estimated processing times they can't do much beyond inquire about delays and help resolve them. I've been told they cannot make cases go faster. However, if your case gets stuck, they can be crucial in fixing problems and keeping it moving. Senators usually have a LOT of constituent case work. Try to go to your congressperson instead - fewer people in line means faster action on your case.

6. It's possible to expedite a case. For seven very specific reasons. You can find the list on the USCIS website. You must submit evidence supporting your expedite request. They simply do not ask for any evidence - so if you e-mail saying "Please expedite my case" they'll forward the expedite request with zero evidence and it'll be rejected. Expedite requests do not otherwise stop work on your case - the NVC continued reviewing my case while I submitted an expedite request. Expedite requests are submitted to the appropriate embassy and are evaluated there.

7. The Great Stone Wall. ometimes I'd only find out important information about my case by playing 20 questions with their representatives. Be patient, be firm, be polite, be insistent. The process can be very frustrating at times. Yelling, raging, fighting, screaming, really does nothing. Your #1 best resource is to research the process in depth, truly understand it, and have realistic expectations about how long it'll take. Some cases do magically end up getting completed very quickly for some unfair reason - so add in that dash of hope.

8. It's been a while since I ran the numbers, but expect the process to cost $1,000 - $2,000.

...Well, I wrote a lot more about the NVC than the USCIS. It's been a while since we went through the USCIS portion, and I believe my mind has selectively blocked out the memory because it was unpleasant. The NVC is still a very fresh trauma, but I'm expecting that 13 weeks of my life to become a very pleasant blank once Su and I get to the U.S.

[Sufrank 4]

Su and I just got back from a week long vacation and I'm surprised to see nothing has changed on this post.

Do you have any questions or concerns?

[Voided01 7]

Hey guys I just got married in Sāo Paulo in May, I'm an American born USC and I filed the I-130 on July 13th to the Chicago location. I was just wondering about how long is the process?

Thankss

(P.s. : he got removed from the US in febuary)

[Bryan and Isabel 29]

Hey Guys , Im back after a long vacation. So here are the updates as to what has happened since my original post.

My fiancee and I have still decided to get married in Brazil. But the only problem we have run into is this:

Due to my line of work I would not be able to travel over there to mark the date of marriage together with her, All my "DUCKS" are in a row, paper work ready, documents translated, fees paid, all I need to do is mark the DAte but I can't afford to travel there and then travel back to get married later on. The Cartorio I she has been going to has told her this, if i obtain a "document" of some kind to give my fiancee's lawyer "power of attorney" she can set the wedding date with out me present. Now i've called the brazilian consulate in NYC and they dont know much about where to get that , but all they know is how to approve it?? weird i know... So does anyone have any info about this matter or if this is even possible?? Im so close I can taste the cake already!!!!!

God Bless

Bryan

[Voided01 7]

Hey Guys , Im back after a long vacation. So here are the updates as to what has happened since my original post.

My fiancee and I have still decided to get married in Brazil. But the only problem we have run into is this:

Due to my line of work I would not be able to travel over there to mark the date of marriage together with her, All my "DUCKS" are in a row, paper work ready, documents translated, fees paid, all I need to do is mark the DAte but I can't afford to travel there and then travel back to get married later on. The Cartorio I she has been going to has told her this, if i obtain a "document" of some kind to give my fiancee's lawyer "power of attorney" she can set the wedding date with out me present. Now i've called the brazilian consulate in NYC and they dont know much about where to get that , but all they know is how to approve it?? weird i know... So does anyone have any info about this matter or if this is even possible?? Im so close I can taste the cake already!!!!!

God Bless

Bryan

Hey this happened with me, I couldn't go to set the date and I just got a paper notarized in the US saying that my sister-in-law cause sign for me to set the date...that I didn't have to be there.

[Bryan and Isabel 29]

Hey this happened with me, I couldn't go to set the date and I just got a paper notarized in the US saying that my sister-in-law cause sign for me to set the date...that I didn't have to be there.

REALLY!!!!!!!! OMG WHAT A RELIEF!! Can you pleaes let me know what this paper is called? What does it have to say? and how much does it cost?

[Voided01 7]

REALLY!!!!!!!! OMG WHAT A RELIEF!! Can you pleaes let me know what this paper is called? What does it have to say? and how much does it cost?

I can email you mine but it's in Portuguese

[Bryan and Isabel 29]

I can email you mine but it's in Portuguese

Thank You Reina , but my fiancee and I have decided to go for the K-1 Visa now, but I do appreciate all your help.

Bryan