Common-Law Marriage in Brazil: Rights and Duties

Direct Answer

Common-law marriage (união estável) is recognized by the Federal Constitution (art. 226, paragraph 3) as a family entity, generating property and inheritance rights equivalent to formal marriage. No minimum cohabitation period is required: the relationship must simply be public, continuous, and lasting with the intention to form a family (art. 1,723, CC). The partner is entitled to half of assets acquired during cohabitation and to inheritance, per the STF ruling in RE 878,694/2017.

---

What Is Common-Law Marriage

Common-law marriage (união estável) is cohabitation between two people that is public, continuous, lasting, and intended to form a family. It is governed by the Federal Constitution (art. 226, paragraph 3), the Civil Code (arts. 1,723 to 1,727), and Law 9,278/1996.

Legal Requirements

To establish a common-law marriage, the following must be present:

1. Public cohabitation — the relationship is not hidden; family, friends, and society recognize the couple
2. Continuity — the relationship is stable, without significant interruptions
3. Lasting duration — not a passing relationship (no minimum time period required)
4. Intention to form a family — commitment to life together, mutual support, and shared plans
5. No legal impediments — same impediments as formal marriage (art. 1,521, CC), except for de facto separation

What Does Not Constitute Common-Law Marriage

• Dating, even long-term, without cohabitation or shared life
• Casual or sporadic relationships
• A relationship kept secret (not public)
• Concubinage (parallel relationship with a married person not de facto separated)

---

Recognition of Common-Law Marriage

Extrajudicial Recognition

Recognition can be formalized through:

Public deed of common-law marriage: Executed at a notary office, costing between R$ 300 and R$ 800 depending on the state. It is the most secure and easily provable method. It may include the property regime and asset provisions.

Private contract: Drafted between the partners, preferably with notarized signatures. It has evidentiary value but is less solid than a public deed.

Judicial Recognition

When there is no agreement or when proving the union’s existence is necessary (especially after one partner’s death), recognition is achieved through a declaratory court action.

Accepted evidence:

• Testimony from family and friends
• Letters and messages
• Joint photos and videos
• Shared residence proof
• Joint bank accounts
• Income tax return listing partner as dependent
• Health insurance as dependent
• Rental contract in both names

---

Property Rights

Property Regime

In the absence of a written contract, the partial communion of property regime applies (art. 1,725, CC). This means:

• Assets acquired for value during cohabitation are shared (meação)
• Assets predating the union remain individual property
• Inheritances and gifts received during the union are individual

Partners may stipulate a different regime through a written contract (public deed or private agreement).

Meação (Half-Share)

Meação is each partner’s right to half of the common assets acquired during the union. It is distinct from inheritance: meação is an inherent right that does not depend on death.

Type of Asset	Shared?
Property purchased during the union	Yes (50% each)
Property acquired before the union	No
Inheritance received during the union	No
Vehicle financed during the union	Yes
Investments made with income during cohabitation	Yes
Gift with incommunicability clause	No

---

Inheritance Rights

Equalization with Married Spouses

In RE 878.694/MG (Tema 809, judged 10 May 2017) the STF held that “no sistema constitucional vigente, é inconstitucional a distinção de regimes sucessórios entre cônjuges e companheiros, devendo ser aplicado, em ambos os casos, o regime estabelecido no artigo 1.829 do Código Civil/2002”. Note that art. 1.790, which gave partners lesser rights, was declared unconstitutional in diffuse control — it was never formally repealed and still appears in the Code’s published text with a “Vide Recurso Extraordinário nº 878.694” annotation.

Rights in the Estate

The common-law partner:

• Is treated in practice as a necessary heir, though art. 1.845 of the Civil Code names only descendants, ascendants and the cônjuge; the extension to the companheiro is a widely-followed inference from Tema 809, not part of the thesis the STF fixed
• Shares in the deceased’s individual assets alongside descendants
• Receives everything in the absence of descendants and ascendants
• Has a real right of habitation over the family home (direito real de habitação) under Lei 9.278/1996, art. 7, sole paragraph — for as long as they live and do not remarry or form a new union. For a surviving spouse the basis is instead Código Civil art. 1.831, and the home must be the only residential property in the estate

Succession in Practice

Situation	Partner’s Right
With common children	Shares in individual assets
With children only of the deceased	Shares in individual assets
No children, living parents	1/3 of the estate
No children, no parents	Entire estate

---

Conversion to Formal Marriage

Art. 1,726 of the Civil Code and art. 226, paragraph 3, of the Federal Constitution provide for converting a common-law marriage into formal marriage.

Which forum — and why the answer is genuinely contested

Two statutes are in force and they name different authorities, and neither has repealed the other:

• CC art. 1.726: “A união estável poderá converter-se em casamento, mediante pedido dos companheiros ao juiz e assento no Registro Civil.” — a request to a judge, followed by entry in the Civil Registry.
• Lei 9.278/1996, art. 8º: “Os conviventes poderão, de comum acordo e a qualquer tempo, requerer a conversão da união estável em casamento, por requerimento ao Oficial do Registro Civil da Circunscrição de seu domicílio.” — a direct request to the Registrar.

Practice varies by state, and registries in the same state sometimes differ. Do not assume one route; confirm with the registry that will perform the act, and be ready for it to require the judicial path. Whichever route is taken, the union is documented (public deed, witnesses, proof of cohabitation), the Ministério Público is generally heard where a judge is involved, and the conversion is entered in the Civil Registry.

Effects

The conversion is entered in the Civil Registry and the couple are married from that point. Whether — and for which purposes — the property effects reach back to the start of the cohabitation is argued both ways and has not been settled by a binding thesis; treat it as a live question rather than a rule, and address it expressly in a contrato de convivência or pacto if it matters to you.

---

Dissolution of Common-Law Marriage

Dissolution can occur in two ways:

Extrajudicial Dissolution

When there is agreement, partners may dissolve the union through a public deed at a notary office. Requirements:

• Consensus on asset division, custody, and support
• Attorney representation for each party (CPC art. 733, §2)
• On minor or incapable children, the two sources diverge. CPC art. 733 admits the deed only “não havendo nascituro ou filhos incapazes”. Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007, art. 34, §2º (in the wording given by Resolução 571/2024) permits the deed where there are minor or incapable common children, provided guardianship, contact and maintenance were already resolved in court and that is proven and recorded in the body of the deed. Res. 35/2007 has since been amended again, most recently by Resolução CNJ nº 695, de 26/08/2026, whose text we have not been able to retrieve — so treat the position as current-as-published and confirm it with the notary who will execute the act.

Judicial Dissolution

Where there is no agreement, dissolution proceeds as a court action in the Family Courts, following the same procedure as a divorce. Minor or incapable children no longer bar the notarial route by themselves: since Resolução CNJ nº 571/2024 a deed is admitted where guardianship, contact and maintenance have already been resolved in court and that is recorded in the deed. CPC art. 733 — which covers the extinção consensual de união estável in the same article as divorce — still reads “não havendo nascituro ou filhos incapazes”, so confirm the route with the notary before relying on it.

Matters decided in dissolution:

• Division of assets acquired during cohabitation
• Child custody
• Support (children and partner)
• Name use
• Compensation for contribution to assets

---

Same-Sex Common-Law Marriage

The STF, in ADPF 132 and ADI 4,277 (2011), recognized same-sex common-law marriage as a family entity with all resulting rights and duties. In 2013, CNJ Resolution 175 prohibited notary offices from refusing qualification, celebration, or conversion to marriage of same-sex unions.

---

Common-Law Marriage, Foreigners and Immigration

For a binational couple this is usually the reason the subject comes up at all.

A união estável carries the same immigration weight as a marriage. Lei 13.445/2017, art. 37 authorises family-reunion residence for the immigrant who has a Brazilian — or a resident foreigner — as spouse or companion, and it draws no distinction by the sex of the partners. There is no immigration advantage in marrying rather than registering a stable union, or the reverse. What differs is how the relationship is proved.

A marriage is proved by a certificate. A união estável is proved by evidence, in roughly this order of strength:

Proof	What it is	Strength
Escritura pública declaratória de união estável	Public deed at a cartório de notas, or at a Brazilian consulate abroad	Gold standard
Court recognition	A judicial decision recognising the union	Strong
Foreign official attestation	An equivalent foreign document, apostilled and sworn-translated	Accepted, form-dependent
Substitute bundle	Civil certificate, two witnesses, and corroboration — joint lease or deed, joint accounts, Receita Federal dependency, health-plan or insurance beneficiary records, a child’s birth certificate	Fallback; build it deliberately

What a thin file looks like. A deed signed last month with nothing behind it is the weakest version of this application, and it is the version most often refused. Where the union is real but the paperwork is young, assemble the bundle rather than submitting and hoping.

What residency does and does not give you. It is residence, not nationality — Brazil has no citizenship by marriage or by stable union. A temporary family-reunion authorisation is conditioned on the bond itself, not on the printed expiry of the card: if the union ends, the authorisation falls away even though the card shows a future date. Converting to indefinite-term residence is what makes the position durable, and only indefinite-term residence counts toward the reduced one-year naturalisation period for the spouse or companion of a Brazilian (Lei 13.445/2017, art. 66, III, read with art. 221 of Decreto 9.199/2017).

If the union ends. Dissolution ends the basis for renewal, and a pending application is not automatically invalidated by a later dissolution, but a foreign partner who wants to stay needs an independent ground — their own work, their own business, a Brazilian child, or an already-consolidated indefinite-term residence. Deal with that question before the dissolution deed is signed, not after.

The full procedure, the document list and the Federal Police steps are set out in our marriage and stable-union residency guide.

---

When to Consult an Attorney

Common-law marriage matters require specialized family law guidance. Consult an attorney to:

• Formalize the union through a public deed
• Define a property regime appropriate for the couple
• Dissolve the union with fair asset division
• Obtain judicial recognition (post-death)
• Secure inheritance rights

ZS Advogados Associados offers comprehensive advisory services on common-law marriage, from formalization to dissolution or judicial recognition. Contact us for a consultation.

---

Conclusion

Common-law marriage is a constitutionally recognized family entity with property and inheritance rights equated to formal marriage since the STF’s 2017 decision. Formalization through a public deed is recommended to ensure legal certainty, help with proof of rights, and clearly define the property regime. Specialized legal guidance is essential to protect both partners’ interests and ensure the full exercise of their rights.

---

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Each case has specific circumstances that should be analyzed by a qualified attorney.