The part nobody in Brazil has ruled on

Article 17 of the Lei de Introdução às Normas do Direito Brasileiro denies effect in Brazil to foreign acts that offend sovereignty, ordem pública (public policy) or bons costumes. Does a ceremony held over video offend Brazilian public policy? No court has said, and neither has the CNJ, and no consulate has published an instruction on it. That's the honest state of things as of July 2026, and it's the single most important sentence on this page.

Two facts cut in favor of recognition, and they're the arguments a cartório or a Brazilian lawyer would actually reach for. Neither is a ruling.

Brazil marries its own citizens by videoconference. Article 515 of Santa Catarina's Código de Normas provides for celebration by videoconference, with the couple, the juiz de paz, the registrar and two witnesses all taking part at once, and §1º requires the assento (the register entry) to record that the ceremony was held by videoconference. Bahia, Goiás, Amazonas, Acre and Rio de Janeiro issued comparable provimentos through their corregedorias. A country that writes "celebrated by videoconference" into its own marriage books has a weak public-policy argument against the format.

Brazil already marries people who aren't in the room. Article 1.542 of the Civil Code permits marriage by procuração through a public instrument with special powers. A video ceremony where both people speak their own vows asks less of Brazilian law than a proxy marriage does, and the proxy is already allowed.

Those are reasons a refusal would be hard to justify, which is a weaker and different thing from a ruling in your favor, and we'd rather you knew the difference before you booked anything.

Why the general rule points toward recognition

Two provisions do the work. Article 32 of Lei 6.015/1973, the Lei de Registros Públicos, says records of birth, death and marriage of Brazilians made in a foreign country are considered authentic under the law of the place where they were made, and provides for the traslado at the 1º Ofício of the person's domicile when the record has to produce effect in Brazil. Article 7, §1 of the LINDB then applies Brazilian impediments and formalities of celebration to marriages celebrated in Brazil. A Utah ceremony isn't celebrated in Brazil, so its form answers to Utah law, and Utah recognizes it.

Set against the countries we get asked about most, Brazil sits in a decent position. The route is administrative rather than judicial, and no lawyer is required, which puts it ahead of Argentina and roughly level with Mexico and Colombia. It also has one thing none of those have, which is a domestic practice of celebrating civil marriages by videoconference. We'd stop there rather than sell it any harder. Our step-by-step Brazil registration guide has the document list, the apostille fees, and the order to do things in.

The clock, and the one it gets confused with

You'll see a 90-day registration deadline quoted in Brazilian forums and on a few law-firm pages. It isn't a registration rule. The 90 days in article 1.542, §3 of the Civil Code is the validity period of a marriage power of attorney, which belongs to proxy weddings and nothing else.

The registration term is article 1.544, and it's 180 days counted from the return of one or both spouses to Brazil. Notice what it runs from. Not the wedding, not the certificate, but the return. A couple living in Miami with no plan to move back hasn't started the clock at all. As for missing it, the Code sets no penalty, and Brazilian commentary generally treats the term as directory rather than fatal, since the marriage is valid from celebration and the registration exists to give it public effect. That last part is commentary and settled practice rather than statute, and we're labeling it that way on purpose.

Same-sex couples

Article 1 of Resolução 175/2013 of the Conselho Nacional de Justiça forbids competent authorities to refuse habilitação, celebration of civil marriage, or conversion of a stable union into marriage between people of the same sex, and any refusal has to be reported immediately to the corregedor. Brazilian consular pages describe marriage registration as covering unions that are hetero or homoafetivo. The rule is national and it has an enforcement route attached, which is more than most countries on our list can offer.

What it costs

Our side is $349 for the ceremony plus the $71 Utah County license fee, $420 in total, with the full breakdown on our pricing page. The Brazilian side is separate and paid to other people: the Utah apostille (a few dollars per document, $5 by mail or digital and $20 in person as of July 2026), the tradução juramentada, and whatever your cartório charges for the traslado. Translator and cartório fees vary by state and by office, so we're not going to quote you a real figure in the middle of the country. Ask the office where you'd file.

We don't resell the apostille or the translation. We point you at them, and the traslado is your errand.