Portuguese to English translation

The CNH and its codes

A Brazilian CNH lists the categories you hold (A for motorcycles, B for cars, C, D and E for heavier vehicles) and an observações field of short codes. EAR, for one, marks a driver who drives for paid work (exercício de atividade remunerada). Each code is written out in English, not left for the desk to guess.

Source: DETRAN-SC, EAR: exercício de atividade remunerada (checked 19 September 2026)

Two family names, mother’s first

Brazilian and Portuguese names often carry two or more family names, traditionally the mother’s before the father’s, the reverse of the Spanish order. The translation keeps every name in the order printed and follows your passport’s spelling, so no name is dropped or moved.

Brief or full certidão

A Brazilian registry can issue a certidão in brief (breve relato) or in full (inteiro teor), and the full one carries every later annotation. Ask the office reading it which it wants before you order; we translate the one you send, annotations included. A Portuguese multilingual extract may need nothing: see documents already in English.

The whole licence

Both sides of the card: name, parents’ names where the CNH prints them, date of birth, licence and registration numbers, first licence date, expiry, categories, every observation code and the issuing DETRAN, or the Portuguese equivalent field by field.

Accents kept, spelling matched

Names keep their accents and tildes (João, Conceição) as printed, and the English spelling follows your passport, so every document in your file shows the same name.

Civil records in full

Birth, marriage, divorce and death certidões, police certificates, diplomas and transcripts. Registry stamps, seals and later annotations are translated where they appear; unreadable text is marked in square brackets.