Legalisation of Original Documents

In order for a foreign document to be valid in Brazil, the original must be legalised by the Brazilian consulate representation that has jurisdiction of place of issuance. This means that a New Zealand document must be legalised by the Embassy of Brazil in Wellington in order to be valid.

The Embassy can only legalise original documents which have been issued by authorities in our jurisdiction, which includes:

New Zealand, Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Chatham Islands, Kermadec Islands, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Kingdom of Tonga, Independent State of Samoa, and Tuvalu.

If the document has not been issued by a New Zealand authority, it must first be authenticated by the Department of Internal Affairs (http://www.dia.govt.nz/Document-authentication) before being legalised by the Embassy.

Another kind of legalisation is the verification of signature. It constitutes the authentication of the document regarding only the identity of the signatory. The legalisation of the signature, therefore, does not imply acceptance or approval of the document. For that to be done, the document must first be notarised by a notary public.
Only after this step should you bring/send the document to the Embassy for legalisation.

The Embassy of Brazil only legalises original documents in Portuguese, English or Spanish, notarised in New Zealand by a Notary Public and eventually, for some specific purposes, by Justice of the Peace.

The Embassy does not legalise translations.

The translation of a legalised document, whenever necessary, must be done in Brazil by a certified translator.

There is a specific procedure for a Brazilian national who would like to legalise his or her own signature.

In case you are sending documents by mail, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for their return. The Embassy is not liable for the loss, theft or delay of mailed documents.

Fees

To see the fees for the legalisation of documents, please consult the Table of Consular Fees.
 

Processing Time

For legalisations received in person: ten (10) working days

For legalisations received through the post: fifteen (15) working days.