What makes a document valid for use in Brazil? Often you need the original, but there are times when a copy will suffice. Not just any copy though - an “authenticated” copy.

The easiest way to get an authenticated copy is to bring the original to a Brazilian notary office and ask for a cópia autenticada. It’s like getting a certified copy of a document signed by a notary in the US. For example, in Florida, a notary can attest to the authenticity of photocopies of some documents.

But there’s another way to get authenticated copies in Brazil that doesn’t involve notaries.

In 2019, the Ministry of the Economy’s Office of Bureaucratic Reduction (yes, that’s really the name - Secretaria Especial de Desburocratização, Gestão e Governo Digital) published Instrução Normativa 60. For documents filed with trade boards (or Juntas Comerciais), assuming authenticated documents are accepted, Brazilian lawyers and accounts can certify the documents as true.

Why’s that such a big deal? Well, it’s just one less thing to do and one less person to pay. Lawyers already have to sign Articles of Incorporation before they’re filed. So it makes sense to also allow them to authenticate documents too. It can save a long trip (and wait) to the notary office.

Allowing lawyers and accountants to authenticate documents is one step towards reducing the bureaucracy associated with company formation in Brazil. Let’s hope the efforts don’t stop here though. Anyone who’s ever started a business in Brazil knows there’s a long way to go.