Documents issued in the United States (or in any other foreign country) must be validated by a Brazilian Consulate in order to be officially recognized in Brazil. This applies to powers-of-attorney, contracts, commercial bids, diplomas, school transcripts, donation letters, and any document to be introduced at a judicial court in Brazil.

Procedures:

Submission to the Consulate of the original document to be authenticated, together with:

• appropriate legalization fee (see below)

• for documents submitted by mail, a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of papers. The Consulate will honor a request for return of documentation by Express Mail if a pre-paid self-addressed envelope is provided. The Consulate will not be held responsible for documents sent by mail.

Except for official documents issued by a government authority, as well as diplomas or school transcripts, all other papers must be locally authenticated prior to submission to the Consulate. Prior local authentication procedures include:

1. Notarization (the Consulate will only legalize documents notarized by notary publics within its jurisdiction: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas)

2. Authentication of Notary signature (in most states this may be done directly by the Secretary of State; if not, the County Clerk authenticates the Notary signature)

3. Original State Secretary of State Certification (in states where the Notary signature may be authenticated directly by the State Secretary of State, steps 2 and 3 are combined) - no photocopies of Secretary of State Certification will be accepted

For drop-in submissions, if not brought in by applicant in person, the Consulate will only accept applications delivered by a personal representative (family member or friend, with proper signed authorization, duly notarized), by an employee of the sponsoring company, or by a Houston-based travel or service firm registered with the Consulate. The Consulate will not accept courier deliveries under any circumstances.

Consular authentications will be normally issued within three working days, assuming submission is properly documented.

Fees:

Personal checks are not accepted. The Consulate will take only money orders, certified checks, company's checks, or cash. Cash payment is not accepted for submissions made by mail.

• for school enrollment purposes:  $5.00 per document

• for donation purposes:  no fee

• for purposes of collecting pension payment or salary/retirement payment from a Government agency:  no fee

• for other purposes:  $20.00 per document