Marridge Seperation

Since you've been a legal Permanent Resident of Brazil for many years, a divorce will not affect your permanency in any way. That is provided of course you return to Brazil once every two years for a brief stay (no minimum stay requirement - just get that entry stamp and exit stamp that are worth their weight in gold).

If your divorce will be by mutual agreement and there are no outstanding issues such as division of assets, alimony, child support, custody, etc., then you can proceed right to a divorce in the Cartório since the de facto separation has been over one year.

At present Brazilian law requires at least ONE lawyer handle the process in the Cartório. You and your spouse can be represented by the same lawyer provided of course this is an individual you both agree upon and can trust.

While the divorce can take place in ANY Cartório de Registro Civil in Brazil, it is best done in the same Cartório where the marriage took place. If the divorce takes place in any other Cartório then the "Escritura de Divorcio" that they issue must then be registered with the Cartório where the marriage took place and this will only delay things a bit. A Cartório divorce is granted same day, when the papers are all submitted and the divorce takes effect 30 days from that point and the parties are free to re-marry.

The Cartório fees for a divorce are relatively small (should be under R$500 total anywhere in Brazil), most lawyers can handle the matter quite easily and I doubt that their fee would be much more than R$1000 - 1500. Since you are out of Brazil you will need to sign a Power of Attorney (Procuração Publico) which will empower someone here in Brazil to sign all the necessary documents at the Cartório in your place, this is something the lawyer will arrange for you. The "attorney/proxy" must be a Brazilian citizen and you would probably end up with someone from the lawyer's office staff actually acting in that proxy position.

How's your Portuguese??? Do you speak it fluently enough to clearly communicate with and instruct a lawyer? If not you should contact your Embassy here in Brazil and see if they have a list of English speaking lawyers in the city you intend to apply for the divorce in.

So, your first steps toward getting this all behind you would be to enter into contact with your Brazilian spouse, see if she's agreeable to a divorce and what issues you need to settle in order to make it happen with as little hassle as possible.

Any further questions or information, don't hesitate to post here.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

Hi James
Thank you very much for your advice there.  I am very please now where I stand.  But James  Its has been a series blow for me having to come back to England,  as I loved living in Brazil very much.  True when I was working for myself  it had been a struggle ,  (By the way my trade is Carpenter & joiner)   Because some weeks there were work but other times there wasn't.   So that affected us financially , so in turn that affected our marriage.  Because we didn't have any money to pay our bills.   My wife claimed that my Portuguese wasn't any good to any one.  But to me James I felt I had made a lot of progress at it since I been down there.   Its because my wife never gave me a lot of support.   That was the reason why we separated  and eventually I had to come back home too.  But as regarding anyone else in Brazil , i.e. in-laws and friends.  They had been very good to me and I owe them a lot in a way of support.  There's one other thing  Would like to asked for advice about.  James.   My wife said some mouths ago ,  some  3 years ago  we had a holiday in England and Italy,  Which she aided out of her Credit card herself.  Well she claimed we still owe the money  who ever she paided it too.   But She is asking me to pay it back.   But to me  why should I?  Because when she did book it up some time before,  I did advise her not for us to go to Italy  because Italy  can be very expensive place to go.  But never  the  less she went ahead and done it.  But I was shocked when she show me the bill some mouths ago.   But why should I pay this because she went ahead  and done this behind my back.   And the other thing was  I never had a  credit card or bank in Brazil.  The only card I depend on was my UK Card.   So in turn what she did  I cannot accept any responsibility for what she did.  If I had use the card myself, then that's fair enough  I would had done the honourable thing and pay them.   But I had been very worried about this for a long time.