For American applicants, one document causes more delays in Brazilian residence files than any other: the criminal record certificate. Brazil asks for it in almost every residence route, from the digital nomad visa to the retiree visa and family reunification. In the United States, that means an FBI Identity History Summary, apostilled by the U.S. Department of State and translated into Portuguese by a Brazilian sworn translator.
Each of those three steps has its own pitfalls. Here is how to get it right the first time.
Why Brazil asks for an FBI check, not a state check
Brazilian authorities want a criminal record certificate covering the country, not a single state. In the United States, the national record is held by the FBI. A state or local police certificate is not a substitute, although applicants who have lived in other countries may also need certificates from those countries for the relevant period.
Step 1: requesting the Identity History Summary
The Identity History Summary is requested from the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, based on your fingerprints. There are two ways to obtain it:
- Directly from the FBI, by submitting your request online and providing fingerprints, either electronically at a participating location or on an FD-258 fingerprint card.
- Through an FBI-approved channeler, a private company authorised to submit requests on your behalf, usually faster.
Before you choose, check one point carefully: the report must be in a form that the Department of State will apostille. The apostille can only be placed on an original report bearing the FBI's official seal and signature. Ask the provider explicitly whether the version they deliver can be apostilled, and if you are abroad, how the original paper copy will reach you.
Fingerprint quality matters. Smudged or incomplete prints are rejected, and the request has to start again, which can cost weeks.
Step 2: the apostille, which only Washington can issue
Because the FBI is a federal agency, its reports can only be apostilled by the U.S. Department of State's Office of Authentications in Washington, D.C. A state Secretary of State cannot apostille a federal document, and this is one of the most common mistakes we see.
- Requests are sent by mail with Form DS-4194, or through a service provider who handles the submission in person.
- Do not have the report notarised. A notary seal on a federal document is unnecessary and can lead to rejection.
- Do not remove staples or separate pages once the apostille is attached.
- By mail, allow several weeks. Providers who submit in person are usually much faster.
Step 3: sworn translation in Brazil
Once apostilled, the report and the apostille itself must be translated into Portuguese by a tradutor público juramentado, a sworn translator registered with a Brazilian commercial registry. A translation made by any other translator, even a certified one in the United States, is not accepted.
Timing: the step most people get wrong
Brazilian authorities expect the certificate to be recent. In practice, a certificate issued within the last 90 days is the safe standard, and some routes and consulates apply their own validity rule. With fingerprinting, FBI processing, the apostille, international shipping and translation, the whole chain can take one to two months, which leaves little margin.
Our advice:
- Start the FBI request once your filing date is clear, not months before.
- Not too late either: if the apostille is delayed, the rest of the file waits.
- Check the name on the report against your passport. Any difference, a missing middle name for example, should be dealt with before filing.
- If you have lived in another country in recent years, ask early whether a certificate from that country is also needed.
If you are already in Brazil
Applicants who are already in Brazil can still obtain an FBI report, but the fingerprinting step needs planning, as does getting the original paper report to Washington for the apostille and then back to Brazil. Using a provider who handles the apostille submission and international shipping usually saves weeks.
The Brazilian certificate
Depending on the route, Brazilian authorities may also ask for a Brazilian criminal record certificate, issued online by the Federal Police and, in some cases, by the state courts. These are simpler to obtain, but they are part of the same file and must be consistent with the rest of your documents.
How we help
We build the document timeline for every American client filing in Brazil, so that the FBI report, the apostille and the sworn translation arrive in the right order and within the validity window. We check each document before translation and coordinate the sworn translations in Brazil, so the file is filed once, complete.