Cross-Border Jurisdictional Protocol
Brazil is the most recent major economy to join the Hague Service Convention, acceding on November 29, 2018, with entry into force on June 1, 2019. Before that, service into Brazil required a slower Letters Rogatory process with Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) approval. Brazil filed some of the most restrictive declarations of any signatory: it fully objected to Article 8 (no foreign diplomatic or consular service) and Article 10 (no postal service, no direct requests to judicial officers). Every request must go through the Central Authority, the Department of Assets Recovery and International Legal Cooperation (DRCI) within the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Brasília, and every document must be translated into Portuguese.
We prepare and submit the Hague request, together with a certified Portuguese translation, to the DRCI in Brasília — the sole valid channel for service into Brazil since its 2018 accession closed off the older, slower Letters Rogatory route for Convention matters.
Start a Brazil Central Authority filing →Brazil will not accept documents for service unless accompanied by a Portuguese translation, with the narrow exception of the Convention's own standard form language. We prepare complete, compliant translation packages.
Prepare a compliant translation →Brazil's auxílio direto framework under its Code of Civil Procedure lets Convention requests move through the federal court system without the STJ exequatur that traditional letters rogatory required — we structure filings to take advantage of this faster domestic pathway.
Discuss the auxílio direto pathway →Complete National Jurisdiction
Active network of local agents, court officers, and Central Authority specialists covering every administrative region.
All international document handoffs are executed pursuant to local sovereignty statutes and returned with court-certified evidentiary declarations.
Judicial Knowledge Base
Yes, but only since November 29, 2018, with entry into force on June 1, 2019 — one of the more recent major-economy accessions to the Convention.
No. Brazil fully objected to Article 10, closing off postal service and direct requests to judicial officers. It also fully objected to Article 8, so foreign diplomatic or consular agents cannot effect service either. The Central Authority is the only valid route.
The Department of Assets Recovery and International Legal Cooperation (DRCI), within the National Secretariat of Justice of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, based in Brasília.
Yes. Brazil will not accept documents for service unless accompanied by a Portuguese translation, except for the Convention's own standard form language.
Foreign litigants relied on the slower Letters Rogatory process, which required approval (exequatur) from Brazil's Superior Tribunal de Justiça. The Hague accession introduced the faster auxílio direto pathway for Convention-eligible requests.
Consult with our international legal support specialists about service of process in Brazil.