Applying from Brazil

Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais (CAC) — federal, free, online via gov.br

Issued by Polícia Federal

Validity is only 90 days.

Cartórios authorised by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça are the apostille mechanism in Brazil.

Issued by CNJ-authorised cartórios

The cartório route is how Brazilian documents are apostilled generally, but it could not be confirmed directly for this use. Confirm with the Embassy and with the cartório before paying.

Certidão de inteiro teor (full transcription), rather than the certidão em breve relato

The full-transcription certificate is the form that shows everything the post needs, but no Croatian source names it for Brazil. Ask the Embassy which form it wants before ordering.

The CAC is valid for 90 days, not six months. Because it is free and issued online, the practical answer is to order it last — after the Croatian-side records, the translations and the appointment date are settled — rather than at the start with everything else.

The Embassy in Brasília does not publish a citizenship document list. The universal core is the same everywhere — the applicant’s own documents, an unbroken chain of vital records up to the Croatian-born ancestor, and proof of emigration for an Article 11 claim — but the local formatting rules, recency windows and translator requirements are not published and have to be confirmed with the post.

Both the apostille route and the name of the correct long-form certificate are marked unconfirmed above. They are marked that way on purpose: they are exactly what general guidance states as fact and what a Brazilian applicant then discovers at the counter. Treat them as questions to put to the Embassy, not as instructions.