I entered a recent dilemma when trying to make my marriage in Civil. Most of the registries in the big city I called required an updated Birth Certificate of a maximum of 6 months, is it really necessary?
We know that laws can change according to state or even city. Despite all the reasons and decrees, we all know that this requirement exists for a reason, to take money from the people by asking for something totally unnecessary.
Trying to request an updated birth certificate online at registrocivil.org, I would have to pay 169 reais to apply in a city in my state and 129 reais to apply for my fiancee in another state.
The Mafia and Bureaucracy of Registry Offices
For many years the need for an updated birth certificate has been discussed when carrying out some activity at the registry office. In the past, the maximum term that a certificate should have was 90 days, but the Government extended it to 12 months.
In some places, such as in the city of Goiânia, where I tried to make my wedding, the maximum time was 6 months. Regardless of the time, it is ridiculous to request an update of the certificate when you have the original guardadinha.
The argument for requesting the updated certificate is to avoid fraud such as a second marriage without a divorce and so on. There are many other ways to make sure of this, in my humble opinion this request is only to generate income for the registry offices.
The worst thing is that none of them warn of the loopholes that allow the person to be saved from the request for an updated certificate. According to the Goiás State Law, which is probably also present in many other states, the person is saved if the registrar confirms the Civil Status or if the person is unable to obtain such a document.
No notary usually warns about this, they just request the updated certificate and still offer a paid service to obtain such a document. Unfortunately, many live far from the registry office where they were born to do it on their own.
Questioning the Registry with such judicial information, he mentioned that if the clerk were able to call and speak to the registry offices confirming our Marital Status, we would be able to proceed without the updated duplicate.
Not all Notaries Require Updated Certificate to Marry
Many cities exclude themselves from this absurd, meaningless and harmful law to the citizen. When he called the registry office in my city, he said he didn't need anything other than the original certificate. The same is true in most small towns.
For this reason, do not give up the pressure of the notaries to pay dearly for an unnecessary document, do research, look for another notary, perhaps in another neighboring city. If it is impossible, appeal to the impossibility loophole.
What makes it impossible for a person to obtain an updated certificate to perform the civil marriage? Perhaps the waiting period, perhaps the lack of financial conditions. Regardless of the case, do not give up the pressure to spend money for nothing.
If they refuse to make your marriage or other registration, you may want to turn to larger bodies to fight the cause. This happened in Rio Verde, where the judicial secretariat forced the registry offices to give a second option for an updated certificate.