Language guide · Portuguese
Portuguese to English certified translation
Brazilian and Portuguese civil documents share a feature that decides a surprising number of filings: the margin. Divorces, name changes, and corrections are recorded as averbações on the certificate itself — so a translation that stops at the printed form can miss the very fact your case turns on.
What you need — the short answer
Any Portuguese-language document submitted to USCIS needs a complete English translation plus the translator's signed statement of completeness, accuracy, and competence (8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3)) — the same standard most DMVs, universities, and consulates apply.
Two Portuguese-specific things matter most: **averbações** — the marginal annotations Brazilian and Portuguese registries add to record divorces, name changes, recognitions, and corrections, which are frequently the operative evidence and must be translated — and **currency of the certificate**, since Brazilian practice is to request a recently issued certidão rather than rely on a decades-old copy, because the current copy carries all annotations added since.
JukeLingo translates the document you upload in full — both sides, seals, every marginal note — and delivers it with the prepared certification page. Standard $16.99 per document; Express in under an hour.
Averbações: the margin is the evidence
Brazilian and Portuguese registries record later legal events as annotations on the original certificate. A divorce is typically averbada on the marriage certificate — meaning that margin note is often the divorce proof itself.
When a Brazilian marriage ends, the registry annotates the marriage record; when a name changes, the birth record is annotated; when an error is corrected, that too is an averbação with its own date and authority reference. For a petition that must show a prior marriage terminated, the annotated certidão de casamento frequently IS the document that proves it — which is exactly why marriage certificate translations have to include the margins, and why photographing only the printed face of a certificate is a costly shortcut.
Each annotation becomes a labeled English entry carrying its date, the authority that ordered it, and any case or process number. Where annotations are handwritten or stamped over printed text — common on older records — they're still rendered, with genuinely unreadable portions marked rather than guessed.
Brazil's certidões, and why a recent copy matters
Brazil's cartórios issue certidões de nascimento, casamento, and óbito. Since the 2010 national standardization, copies carry a long national registration number; a freshly issued copy carries every annotation added to date.
Brazilian civil records live with the cartório de registro civil that recorded them, and a certidão is a current extract of that record — not a one-time document you keep forever. Copies issued since the 2010 standardization carry the 32-digit matrícula (national registration number) encoding the registry, book, page, and entry. Older certidões predate that format and show book/page references instead; both are valid, but a recently issued copy is generally the better submission because it reflects every averbação made since the original.
For filers this has a practical consequence: if you were divorced after your last certidão was issued, that old copy won't show it. Request a current one — Brazilian registries and the national online request systems issue them routinely — and translate the current copy. See the birth certificate guide for the parallel long-form question.
Names: several surnames, and 'de' particles
Portuguese-language naming commonly gives multiple surnames, typically mother's line before father's — the reverse of Spanish practice — often joined by particles like de, da, dos, das.
A name like Ana Carolina dos Santos Oliveira may carry surnames from both parents, and the conventional order in Portuguese-speaking countries places the maternal surname before the paternal — the opposite of the Spanish convention, which is a genuine trap for anyone assuming the two systems match. Particles (de, da, do, dos, das) are part of the surname and are preserved as written, not dropped to make a name fit a U.S. form field.
As with Spanish, the translation reproduces the name exactly as printed rather than resolving it into a U.S.-style single surname, so an adjudicator comparing your passport, petition, and certidões sees the same string throughout. Marriage-related name changes appear as averbações on the birth record in many cases — another reason margins get translated.
CPF, RG, and the identifiers on Brazilian documents
Brazilian documents carry structured identifiers — CPF, RG, matrícula, and process numbers — that are reproduced exactly, not translated or reformatted.
The CPF (taxpayer registry) and RG (state identity card number) appear across Brazilian civil and financial documents, alongside the certificate's own matrícula and any judicial process numbers on annotations. These are identifiers, not prose: they're carried across digit for digit, with their formatting punctuation intact, and labeled in English so a reader knows what each one is.
The same discipline applies to Portugal's identifiers (número de identificação civil, NIF) and to the various national numbers used across Lusophone Africa. Bank statements and tax documents bring the additional wrinkle that Portuguese-language number formatting uses the comma as a decimal separator and the period for thousands — worth care on any financial evidence in an I-864 package.
Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa
The language is shared; the document systems are not. Brazilian cartório certidões, Portuguese conservatória certidões, and the records of Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, and others each follow their own formats.
Portugal's conservatórias do registo civil issue their own certificate formats and, like Brazil, annotate later events onto the record. Portugal also issues the Cartão de Cidadão consolidating several identifiers. Documents from Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste follow their own national systems, sometimes with colonial-era records in older formats.
Orthography differs too — Brazilian and European Portuguese spell some words differently, and older documents predate the 1990 Orthographic Agreement. None of this changes how a translation is produced: the document is rendered faithfully as written, in whatever variant and era it comes from. The State Department's per-country reciprocity schedule describes which civil document is expected from each country.
Portuguese translation FAQ
Does USCIS require a certified Portuguese-to-English translation?
Yes — any Portuguese-language document submitted to USCIS must be accompanied by a complete English translation plus the translator's signed certification of completeness, accuracy, and competence under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), filed together with a copy of the Portuguese original.
What is an averbação, and does it need translating?
It's a marginal annotation a registry adds to record a later legal event — a divorce, name change, recognition, or correction. It absolutely needs translating: for many filings the averbação on a marriage certificate is the actual proof that a prior marriage ended.
My certidão is from years ago. Can I still use it?
Often, but a recently issued copy is generally the better submission, because a certidão is a current extract of the registry record and a fresh copy carries every annotation made since. If anything changed after your copy was issued — a divorce, a name change — the old copy won't show it.
How is my name handled if I have several surnames?
All of them are reproduced exactly as printed, in the printed order, with particles like de, da, and dos kept intact. Note that Portuguese convention typically places the maternal surname before the paternal — the reverse of Spanish practice — so the order on the document is what governs.
Are CPF and RG numbers translated?
They're reproduced exactly, digit for digit, with their punctuation intact, and labeled in English so the reader knows what each identifier is. Identifiers are never reformatted or converted.
Is Brazilian Portuguese different from European Portuguese for translation purposes?
The document systems differ more than the language does — Brazilian cartórios and Portuguese conservatórias issue different certificate formats. Spelling differences between variants, and older documents predating the 1990 Orthographic Agreement, don't change anything: the document is translated faithfully as written.
Do I need an apostille too?
Brazil and Portugal are both parties to the Hague Apostille Convention, so their documents can carry one. USCIS filings generally ask for a complete certified translation rather than an apostille, but consulates, foreign courts, and some universities do require one. If you need both, apostille first, then translate the apostilled document.
How much does it cost and how fast is it?
Standard is $16.99 per page within 24 hours; Express is $32.99 per page and under 1 hour; Pro (a JukeLingo translator signs, covered by the Pro Translation Guarantee) is $39.99 per page. Most certidões are a single page even with several annotations.
Margins included
Upload your certidão — both sides, every averbação — and get the complete English translation with the prepared certification page. Standard $16.99, Express in under an hour.
Upload My Document →Sources
This guide is compiled from the official resources below. Requirements change — the receiving authority's current instructions always control.
- 8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3) — the translation requirement
- U.S. State Department — visa reciprocity and civil documents by country — the Brazil and Portugal pages describe which civil documents are expected and how they're obtained
- HCCH — Apostille Convention status table
Last reviewed 2026-08-17 · Reviewed by the JukeLingo translation operations team against the cited official sources