Tricia599

Congratulations on the baby!

As far as the Consulate, I don't know how much help this will be, but here's my experience - not one person who I know that has gone for an interview had any additional info looked at by the interviewer.

My neice (who was 15 at the time) came in early 2011 to spend a month with us and we gave her a letter of invitiation to bring to her interview. Her dad was with her and apparently it wasn't a straightforward approval, so her dad offered up our invite letter. The response back was that anyone could print out any letter they wanted on their home computer. So based on that and the other anecdotal evidence I have heard from people, it won't hurt to send it and have her bring it to the interview, but there is very little chance that they will take it into consideration if they do look at it.

For my husband's visa interview (after we were married, but before we decided to move to the US), I had the typical 3" binder of extra stuff. No one ever asked to look at it. If it weren't for me and the interviewer having a common background (we were both exchange students back in the day), he would've been denied too. We were very lucky. I think we were the rare exception in getting a toursit visa, as I could show more concrete ties to Brasil than my husband who was born there.

I am pretty much convinced that they make their decision based on the application sent in ahead of time. I don't remember what the form looks like offhand, but she'll need to get as much info on there as possible to convince them she'd go back.

Good luck!!

Hey all,

I'll be marrying my fianceê in just a few weeks, very exciting! We're living in São Paulo, Brazil. I'm a US citizen, she is a Brazilian. I will be applying for permanent residency here in Brazil within a few weeks as well, and was wondering if the DCF process is possible through the São Paulo US embassy? I've heard it can only be done if you have permanent residency status, however it takes extremely long, sometimes years, to obtain permanent residency here. I will, however, obtain a type of "temporary" residency as my permanent residency is being processed. I hope that me and my wife can move back to the US before the end of the year, and ideally, even if the DCF doesn't work here, we get the expedited visa due to living abroad. However, I'm still hoping a pending permanent residency status will be enough to gain us the DCF filing status!

I don't have my hopes pinned on it though, but we will get through it one way or another. Does anyone have any advice for me, regarding the IR-1/CR-1 process, DCF, or the visa process for my wife coming from Brazil?

Any fellow US/South American expats, I'd appreciate any info! Here in Brazil, the bureaucracy can make your head spin, so any help would be really appreciated.

I did e-mail the US embassy here in São Paulo, as they do not pick up the phone. However, each time I e-mail them, it's talking to a different person each time. So I'm hoping with the combination of contact with them, and help from others on here, I might be able to set the record straight on this.

Thanks all!

J

Unfortunately, no more DCF in Brazil, so you are out of luck on that one. But you are correct - you will have your US visa way before brazil gets through processing your permanent residency.

Tricia: I have never heard of restrictions of when one may need to enter when applied for tourist visa. I have applied for tourist visa in the past, and got it granted, but I only took advantage of it and entered the US on that visa year, or two years later. And it never "expired". I've got it as a 10 year B visa, so maybe you are talking about something else. But, in a simple fact, of she wanting to apply for tourist visa once she gave up her GC has no expiration on it, except the date that is printed on it. If she gets say one that is valid for one year, then she can travel anytime she wants to during that one year with that visa. If she gets it for 10 year like I did, then she may even enter the US three years later of when she has applied. I've never heard of this 60-90 days rule, so unless it varies from citizens of certain countries, that I do not know.

Huh - all my tourist visas for Brazil always had "first entry must be within 90 days" on them - with the reciprocity, I would have sworn that the US visas had them as well. At my husband's tourist visa interview, they asked us specifically if we were going to enter within 90 days and looked at our tickets (stupid, but we bought them ahead of time - that's why it sticks out in my mind). But I've been wrong before and will certainly be wrong again! This has sparked my curiosity, so I'll check my husband's passport when I get home.

I apologize for the misinformation!

You should be able to apply for a tourist visa right away. You can just turn in your green card at the interview for the tourist visa.

However, just to point out one thing - if you apply for a tourist visa, you have to enter the US within 60-90 days of it's issuance for it to be valid. If you don't enter, then the visa, no matter how long it is for, will expire. So unless you are planning a trip back to the US relatively soon after getting back to Brasil, you really shouldn't apply for a tourist visa until you are ready to go. You need to have that first trip within the allotted time frame after it's issued to validate it. Otherwise you'll have to do the whole process again.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

I don't think I can help with the translation issue. I got my Brazilian marriage certificate translated into English, but we had a certified translator in Brazil do that (usually on a per-word basis). A while back, the Rio Consulate used to list a few translators on their website. But if the USCIS lets you do it yourself without having to pay, that would save you some cash.

As for the name change, it depends on who changed their name - the USC or the Brazilian. We actually had both of these cases, so depending on what you need to know, I might be able to help.

You can get married in Brasil on a tourist visa - as long as you're in the country legally, it's fine. However, there is no quickie Vegas-style wedding there. Like Menina said, it's kind of complicated and you need to be really, really organized with documents.

However, if you do get married there, you can apply for permanent residency in Brasil right after the wedding (which, actually, was a much easier process then getting married, document-wise). Since it's my understanding that the Rio consulate doesn't do DCF anymore, I would think that you can file for a CR-1 immediately, but others might have better info in terms of this and whether or not going the CR-1 would be quicker.

I got married in Brasil on a tourist visa and then applied for permanent residency in Brasil (we weren't planning on coming back to live in the US). I went with the intention of getting married and the Policia Federal knew it. I can't remember if they asked me anything when I entered, but for sure they knew when I registered with the local PF and then when I requested an additional 90 days on my tourist visa - they even gave me a checklist as to what I would need to bring back after we got married to apply for residency. If your fiance lives close to a PF, he could pop in and talk with them and see what they say if you'd like to be certain. If you go this route, you will get to know the officers at the immigrant desk very well, as you'll be renewing your residency protocol every 2-3 months once you apply.

Good luck with whichever route you choose. Just remember, Brasil is a heck of a lot more fun as a tourist than it is is you have to actually live there and work for a living

My husband was in the same boat, 2 first names and 2 last names (gotta love that about brazilans - at least he only had 2 last names! Considering some of the names there, 2 last names is pretty short! ). Since I filled out all the forms, I ended up using his NAME2 as a middle name, even though it was part of his first name, and both last names (with a space rather than a hyphen) as his last name.

With names that long, the whole name won't fit on most documents, so however you fill out the forms, there will probably be some form of abbreviation. But no matter what he goes by in real life, you want to use all his names on the forms so they match all his brazilian documentation. If you choose not to use the middle name field, the above poster is right - put an n/a there.

However you choose to do it, just be consistant across the forms and you should be OK.

Good luck!

Would it be to our advantage or disadvantage if I presented evidence that my husband has already started the process for permanent residency in Brazil?

Really, the fact that your husband has filed for residency might not make that much of a difference. The point is to prove that you have strong ties to Brazil.

My opinion is that they make their mind up before you even get to the interview window just based on your application. I have spoken with numerous people who said that they didn't even get a chance to show the additional evidence they brought with them. When I went with my husband, we were in the same situation - we weren't planning on moving to the US at the time and I had filed for permanent residency in Brazil. Because my husband was so nervous, I spoke up and talked to the consular officer. It turns out that we were both exchange students through Rotary and that is how we came to know Brazil. I truly believe that is what got my husband approved. Had I not been with him and had that connection to the consular officer, he would've been denied. The thing that I most remember is the officer saying "I believe you" - and that's what's important, that they believe that you will return to Brazil.

You have to show your ties to Brazil - steady job (I don't know if being fichada helps here), property, bank accounts, family, education, etc. - are really important. Unfortunately, a lot of it depends on the mood of the consul as well. You kind of just have to hope for the best!

I can't comment on your first questions, but as far as the last one - if your USC husband can attend the interview - I would say yes. I was with my husband for his tourism visa interview at the SP consulate the whole time about 4 years ago(I am the USC). Just make sure he has his passport with him. If you're concerned, you may want to send an email to confirm that they will let him in.

Having said that, there was another thread a few days ago about tourism visas - you can probably find it on the portal page. Getting a tourism visa when you are married to a USC is no cake walk. In fact, it's even harder. They assume you are going for the tourism visa to circumvent the immigration process. I was told point blank by the consular officer who interviewed my husband for his B2 that they routinely deny spouses of USCs who have been married a short amount of time.

I don't mean to be a downer, but you need to be prepared for this. If you've been married for less than 3 years, make sure you have a lot of evidence of your ties to Brasil.

Good luck!

Are you the immigrant or is he? If the female is the immigrant then she needs to change her passport name as the visa will come in the passport name.

Just a quick point, this is not entirely true. My husband (he was the immigrant) actually tacked on my name to his (long story) but we didn't have his passport changed. His visa and green card were issued in his married name listed on the marriage certificate (his full name with my last name tacked on), not on the name in his passport. He used that passport for another 2 years or so, but we did have to buy airline tickets in his "maiden" name until he renewed it.

You can apply for permanent residency based on your marriage to a brasilian citizen. If I recall correctly, it's just one form, your marriage certificate, full copy of your passport (this may need to be certified at one of the registry offices) and a fee. If you go to the policia federal and extend your 90 tourist visa, they'll be able to give you information on what you need to bring. That way, you are legal and can work on the books (though I would imagine if you're just waiting out the visa, any job you get wouldn't be "fichada" or on the books anyway).

when you turn everything in to the PF, they will give you a provisional visa (unless it's changed, it's just the bottom potion of the form you turn in that they will sign and stamp - a lot like the registry paper you get when you register with the PF since you are staying). It'll have a 2-3 month expiration date that you will need to go back to the PF and renew (they'll just add a new date and sign/stamp again). It's only a hassle if you don't live anywhere close to a PF office (I lived 3 hours away by bus, so that pretty much sucked every couple of months).

Again, chances are if you are just waiting the 6-8 months for the visa, you won't complete the process - it's utterly backlogged like everything else in Brasil. I applied in June and hadn't even had my home visit by the time we left the following July.

Hope this helps.

Hi all,

I'll be marrying my Brazilian girlfriend in Brazil sometime in January. I was just looking for some general advice on the process. I understand most of it, however still need to find documents such as proof of my single-status, proof of residence, etc.

Questions mostly are how I go about obtaining such documents, do I need copies, how do I "certify" them (Just send to Brazilian consulate?), and an idea on the total cost of just getting married.

I know I have to get my documents translated and everything, but just trying to make it as smooth as possible. I've asked numerous other times, but in this situation, you can never ask enough, right?

Thanks,

J

Have your girlfriend go to the cartorio where you will be married and find out exactly what they need from you. Each one is different, so confirm everything. Everything is easier to get while you're in the US rather than a frantic phone call home to have someone else track something down and get it to you fast.

Statement of Single Status I got from my county Clerk of Courts. Proof of Residence/Good character I got from my local police office. Everything else was pretty straight forward (birth certificate, passport, etc).

If they want everything authenticated by the Brazilian consulate, the consulate for your area should have instructions on their site. My consulate is in DC, and before I could even send it to the consulate I needed to get it authenticated by my state (the Secretary of State's office). Before I could send it to the state, I needed it notarized by a non-expiring notary or a notary registered with the consulate. It's a lot of mail back and forth - and fees ranging from $5-20 (this was about 5 years ago, so the prices may have gone up). Luckily, you should be able to do everything by mail. This will be the bulk of the expense - paying for stamps/seals and mail (make sure you can track everything).

If you need to get stuff translated for your cartorio, you need to find a registered translator in Brazil. If I recall, I think the US consulate in Rio's website had a list of some names if you couldn't find a translator.

In addition to the stuff I had to get from the US, I had to get a letter from the Federal Police saying I was in the country legally. Then I had to take everything and get it registered with the local cartorio, of course, for another small fee (not much).

Once you have everything and turn it in to the cartorio, you pay a fee and then set the date. There is some mandatory waiting period (our city was 45 days), so it's not a quickie Vegas-type thing. We didn't do a church wedding, only the cartorio, so I don't know how they work the civil ceremony with the religious. I lived in a small town and you had to do 2 weddings if you wanted it in church - the first at the cartorio and then at the church.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Have your fiance check with the local cartorio where you plan on getting married. They will give you a list of documents. Have her check twice, because sometimes the docs change depending on who you talk to!

It's not a difficult process to get married in brazil, but it is time-consuming for all the docs and hoops you have to jump through.

good luck to you!

Congratulations on getting your visa!

Are you referring to the CR-1 visa from the consulate that is stamped in your passport? If so, the date is correct. That is just referring to the amount of time you have to enter the country. You have until February 23 to enter the US with that visa. When you arrive, you'll turn in your brown envelope at the POE and in a few weeks you'll get your conditional green card in the mail that has the correct expiration date (2 years from your date of entry). Then, 90 days before that expires, you'll file to lift the conditions on your green card to get the 10-year card.

The one year validity of the visa in your passport is to give them time to process everything and get you your conditional green card. While you are waiting for the physical card, that visa plus the dated entry stamp serves as proof you are here legally.

Hope this helps!

Extend the tourist visa - it's not a bad process.

Be sure to research what it takes to get married in Brazil if that is your plan. Add at least another month between when you register at the cartorio and the actual wedding date (we had to wait 45 days - IIRC, it was a mandatory waiting period). And that is if you have all the docs they want...certified, authenticated (by the Brazilian consulate in the US), and then registered with your local cartorio. It's a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through. Just take that into consideration.

Good luck!

There is no more DCF filing in Brasil. They stopped it a few years ago, so you do have to mail everything in. The final interview will be in Rio. No other consulate does the immigrant interviews. As for the check/money order, it has to be in US dollars and from a bank located in the US.

And I agree with the poster above - sign up for electronic notifications. I wouldn't trust the mail at all - domestic mail is sketchy at best. International is a whole other ballgame. When you send stuff out, go with the Sedex that's guaranteed - I think it's called Mundi or something like that. If you choose the cheaper ones, they don't guarantee the delivery time frame, if I remember correctly.

Good luck!

Just a thought about the Ecuadorian passport - my marriage certificate from Brasil lists all my details, including my nationality and passport number. There might be a question as to why the marriage cert doesn't match the passport when you send them both in for the CR-1. It may not be a problem, but it's something to think about. It might trigger an RFE for you to explain it further, so long as you can do that, I wouldn't think it'd be a problem. But sometimes the USCIS does some pretty unexplainable things....

Good luck!

The birth certificate is enough. My husband had the same situation kind of - his mom would never say who his father was for various reasons. So all his documents (birth cert, ID card, etc) have only his mom's name - they have "em branco" or something like that (I can't remember the exact term right now) in the spot for father's name. It never came up at all during any of our process (we just lifted conditions this past January). I just put "n/a" on all the US documents that asked for father's name.

Hope this helps alleviate some stress!

BTW, is that true that when you travel by car your insurance has to be valid in Canada too? Thanks.

As many times as I have driven across the border into Canada, no one has ever even asked if I had insurance, let alone if it was valid in Canada. If you're worried about getting turned away for that, I'd say it would be incredibly rare for that to happen, if at all. It might be written on the books somewhere, but I've never heard that come up with anyone.

And I can confirm that your green card and brasilian passport are all you need to get across the border and back again. We've done it many times.

Enjoy!

Since you're here already, it would probably be easier to get married here in the US rather than Brasil. Dealing with the local cartorios is never fun and there are a lot of documents. When I got married in Brasil, there always seemed to be one more document to get for them! If you got a US marriage cert and brought it to Brasil, you would probably just need to get it translated by a certified translator in Brasil. But you'd need to check with the local cartorio.

Having said that, if your husband wants to live in Brasil with you for more than 6 months, he has 2 choices - overstaying a tourist visa or applying for permanent residency. If he overstays, my understanding is that he'd get a small fine but no ban or anything like that. If he applies for residency, it's an easy process, but very long (but since you intend to move to the US it really doesn't matter). As soon as you apply, you get a provisional permanent visa from the Federal Police and have to check in every 90 days to extend the expiration date. I had a provisional visa for over a year and they still hadn't visited me. We left to go to the US before they came. I would think that you could work on that visa as well, but I never bothered to investigate that much, since I never cared to be ficahda (I have no idea how to translate that - registered, maybe?).

The only hiccup with this situation is the US side. If you don't already have a US tourist visa, getting one after you are married is very difficult. They assume you are trying to circumvent the immigration process. A few months after I was married, we wanted to go to the US and spend christmas with my family so they could meet my husband. At the interview, we were repeatedly asked why we were not applying for the CR-1 visa. From speaking with others, it is common to deny tourist visas for recently married couples.

Boa sorte in whatever you decide.

The DC consulate does travel. Here is their schedule - http://www.consbrasdc.org/highlight.asp?id=83. It's under "Consulados Itinerantes". Unlike the real Brazil, they work on the weekends!

My husband has to renew his passport by August, so we are going to do it in April when they come to Cleveland. There are instructions on the site for how to renew and change a name (if I remember correctly, you just have to being the document showing the change - marriage certificate). However, there is a form that you have to print out from the web before you go, so do that first. I think the fee is $80 and they the new passport to you. But again, this is all on the site under the passport section.

A bit of advice - make sure you check the website on the days leading up to the scheduled day. We drove 4 hours to Cincinnati last year to get a new Election card only to find out it was canceled for some reason.

Good luck!

Hi I'll be traveling to brasil next week and I'm very worried about the passport name not matching the Green Card or Ticket,

The name on my passport is my maiden name and since i live 10 hours from a Brazilian consulate I could not change in time for this trip,Both the Green card and ticket names are my married name.

Any Brazilian girls have been to the same situation? will i have any problems coming back to the USA?

I"ll be flying with AA.And I'm worried that they will not let me out of brazil.

Thank you

My husband has the same situation. He added my last name to his when we got married (strange, I know, but it made him happy) and his passport is in his birth name and his green card is in his new married name. He's never had a problem. If you're worried, bring along your marriage certificate, as that should show both names (we got married in Brazil, so ours shows both names).

Good luck!

We got the same letter. It sounds like the standard interview letter. The only difference was that we got an RFE before the interview letter. Since oyu didn't get an RFE, I would guess that it is just random. That doesn't help the nerves though.

WE brought everything we had already sent in and some extra affidavits (our RFE was for communal residence), all of our bank statements ( we had just sent in maybe 4 per year), copies of everything I could find related to our health insurance (I had our dentist print out our records, since that is the only doctor we seem to see on a regular basis), and any junk mail I could find that showed us at the same address. I had three 1-1/2" binders stuffed. The only thing I was asked for were copies of our bank statements (which they already had) and proof that we were on the same insurance.

The interveiwer spoke mostly to me (I am the USC) and seemed to ask my husband questions as an afterthought. He even told us from our file, he wasn't sure why we were there. Since it looks like you had good evidence, I suspect you'll be in the same boat.

Get together what you have and try to keep calm - which is easier said than done. If you are anything like me, sleep and appetite will be missing from your life until the interview.

Take care and good luck!

Thanks a lot for your post!!

Do you remember how long was the interview? They interviewed both of you together or separately? Can you remember more questions?

Thanks!!!

We had a joint interview. Once we got in the room, I'd say we were in there for about 20 minutes. I brought along a translator since my husband's english is still pretty basic and I wanted to avoid any miscommunications (I didn't think they'd let me translate anything). I did send a letter to the USCIS office asking if this was OK. They called me back and said it was fine.

At the interview, they swore everyone in and asked us general info - names, birthdays, address. After that, most of the questions were directed at me. How long we'd been married, where I worked, where my husband worked, then related questions about what hours we worked, who's job had health insurance, who leaves first, who gets home first. Then he asked about our house - what kind of house, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, where is our bedroom, who usually cooks dinner. Then he asked us where we spent the holidays (our interview was right after christmas), if we did anything at the house. While he was talking to me, he wrote everything down.

Then he asked us if we had anything else we wanted to add to our file (to which my response was "what do you want?", since I had 3 full binders of stuff). He checked our file to see what our RFE was for, and since it was for proof of communal residence, I gave him an affidavit from my mom saying we lived with her (I had previously only sent a letter - not notarized). He asked my husband a few questions, a few of the same ones and a few related questions about my family and that was it.

It was very informal and conversational the whole time, but I think that is part of the psychology of it all. I imagine it is the same as an AOS interview. None of the questions were too in-depth or intimate, just general day-to-day stuff.

I hope this helps!

The date of interview is 29th of feb.

Thanks

Sorry about this turn of events. I understand your frustration/worry/fear since we got an interview notice as well. We had our interview last month and all went well, but up to that point, it was a few weeks of no sleep and little appetite. Hang in there and focus on getting yourself as prepared as possible. The questions they asked us weren't anything a typical married couple wouldn't know - how many cars you have, where is your bedroom in the house, what hours each person works, etc.

Good luck. If I can give you any info about our interview that might help, let me know.