A FUNARPEN Digital Seal on a Brazilian Birth Certificate from Paraná

What We Received

A client submitted a Brazilian birth certificate issued by a Paraná-state cartório. The document is the short-form version of the certificate. It was issued in October 2014 from a 2003 birth registration.

A state-level FUNARPEN digital seal sits in the top-right header. A separate cartório 2D barcode sits in the bottom-right corner. Both elements are independently verifiable by online lookup.

The translation was needed as a supporting record for a USCIS family-based filing — the packet style covered by our [certified Paraná birth certificate translation](/translate/portuguese-birth-certificate) service.

How We Handled It

We translated the body of the birth certificate first. The standard field-by-field structure of a Brazilian short-form certificate was reproduced — holder name, matrícula (registration number), date and place of birth, parents, grandparents, and the certifying clause. The redundant Portuguese date forms (e.g., "twenty-eighth of April of two thousand and three") were kept intact.

The two digital seals were preserved as separate bracketed blocks in the position where they appear on the source. The FUNARPEN seal at the top was rendered as a single bracketed inline block. It named the seal authority, marked the seal and control codes as such, and preserved the funarpen.com.br verification URL in English.

The cartório 2D barcode at the bottom was rendered the same way. Its alphanumeric content and its www.ocartorio.net verification URL were both preserved as bracketed seal content. The two seals read as two separate authentication elements on the English page.

The cartório identification stamp was rendered as a third bracketed block. The notary's printed name, the office name in English (7th Notary Office of Deeds and 2nd Civil Registry), and the office address were all included. A US reader sees the same three elements in the same order — body, seals, identification — as the Brazilian original.

Expert Note

"This certified translation is of a short-form Brazilian 'Certidão de Nascimento' issued by a Paraná-state cartório. The document carries a state-level FUNARPEN selo digital in the top-right header — FUNARPEN is the Paraná state fund that operates the cartório digital-seal program — and a separate cartório 2D barcode in the bottom-right corner. The FUNARPEN seal is verifiable at http://funarpen.com.br by entering the seal number and the control number printed on the seal; the cartório 2D barcode is verifiable at www.ocartorio.net. The alphanumeric verification codes printed on both seals have been reproduced verbatim in the translation. The redundant Portuguese date forms typical of Brazilian civil registry copy (e.g., 'twenty-eighth of April of two thousand and three') are reproduced from the original. The 'VRC' (Valor de Referência do Custo) fiscal-reference unit cited in the emolument line is a state-specific notary fee base used in Paraná; the resulting fee values have been rendered in US decimal notation (e.g., R$27.48 from the original R$27,48). 'Bel.' before the registrar's name is the Brazilian Portuguese abbreviation for 'Bacharel' (Bachelor of Laws)."

Natalia VegaIberian & Latin American Legal Translator

The Outcome

The certified translation was delivered for the client's USCIS family-based filing. The body, the two digital seals, and the cartório identification all read as separate elements on the English page. The verification URLs were preserved so a USCIS reviewer could confirm the source online.

We have used the same bracketed-seal approach for every Paraná-issued birth certificate since 2024. The body is what the cartório recorded at the time of issuance. The seals are the cartório's authentication layer. The translation does not flatten the two.