IR-1 Foreign document notarization. Is it necessary?

[jota pe 0]

Hello everyone. My wife and I are in the early phases of collecting documents to apply for her IR-1. We are currently in Sao Paulo Brazil. I have some questions about document notarization. Before I came to Brazil I had to go to the Brazilian Consulate and have some original US documents (birth certificate, letter of single status etc..) notarized / legalized for them to be accepted as a valid legal document here. Is this also the case when applying for the IR-1 visa? If so I'm also assuming the translations need to be notarized / legalized. According to the consulate website they only notarize public sworn translators signatures who are registered with them. For translations did you use a consular approved translator or did you use an independent service?

I only want to go through this process once and have all my ducks in a row before filing.

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[PallasAthena 101]

You don't need anything notarized. For the early phase (I-130), you just send a photocopy of your documents in English. Brazil does not have direct consular filing (DCF) so you'd follow this guide and included photocopies of these documents: http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

boa sorte!

[jota pe 0]

Valeu,

Muito obrigado!

Edited June 9, 2014 by jota pe