Wedding in Rio

I was listening to the show today and heard the caller who is planing a wedding in Rio. I got married in Rio in August 1989. Before going there, my husband (he is Brazilian) called his father in Rio to ask about documents. His father's lawyer told him all we need was my birth certificate. How simple we thought! How far from simple it actually was! After spending an entire week getting my birth certificate translated, officially notarized, more documents from the US embassy, etc., etc., we finally went to apply for the marriage certificate.

That's when we discovered there is about a 45 day waiting period after filing the marriage application. Since we had already used up one week of our 4 week vacation, my father-in-law taught me what "jeitinho" means (Brazilians' way of dealing with red tape). We managed to arrange the wedding for the same day we were flying home from Rio. Not exactly the way we planned it, but it was exciting and it had a happy ending.

Anyway, just a word of warning to this couple. Make sure they look into ALL necessary paperwork and time frames!

-Renate

 

 

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