Brazilian Certificate Number Generator

What is the format of a certificate number?

Defined by the CNJ (National Council of Justice), the certificate number has 32 digits, laid out like this: NNNNNNN DN AAAA A EEEE CCCC FFFFFFF DD. The groups correspond, in order, to the sequence number, act type, year, state, registry office, page and check digits.

The generated numbers are fictitious. For testing and development use only.

Brazilian civil-registry certificate numbers

Birth, marriage and death certificates in Brazil are issued by Cartórios de Registro Civil das Pessoas Naturais. Since CNJ Provimento nº 46/2015, every certificate issued from May 2016 onwards carries a unified 32-digit matrícula (registry key) regardless of which notary issued it. The format makes any Brazilian civil-registry document machine-readable and lets the National Civil Registry Central (CRC) locate the original act in seconds.

Anatomy of the 32-digit key

The canonical layout is:

CCCCCC.NN.AA.AAAA.D.NNNNN.NNN-DD

• CCCCCC — 6-digit CNJ code of the notary office (serventia)
• NN — type of acervo (collection): 01 = standard, 02 = converted book, etc.
• AA — service type: 55 = birth, 57 = marriage, 58 = death
• AAAA — year of registration (4 digits)
• D — book number (1 digit, encoded)
• NNNNN — folha (page, 5 digits)
• NNN — termo (act number on the page, 3 digits)
• DD — two check digits computed with modulo 11

Pre-2016 certificates

Certificates issued before May 2016 follow free formats: each cartório picked its own book/folha/termo layout. Many of those records were later digitized and re-numbered into the 32-digit scheme through the conversão de acervo indicated by acervo code 02.

Where to request a certified copy

The Central Nacional de Informações do Registro Civil (CRC) — accessible via registrocivil.org.br — lets citizens locate, request and receive certified copies fully online, with electronic signature compliant with ICP-Brasil. Most cartórios also accept walk-in requests; a same-day issuance is the legal standard for second copies.

FAQ

How do I locate a certificate when I only know the person's name? Use the CRC search by name plus date and city of the event. The system queries every notary nationally and returns the matrícula if a match exists.

Can I issue a certificate fully online? Yes, since 2019 every cartório must accept electronic requests through CRC-Web. The resulting PDF is legally equivalent to the paper version thanks to ICP-Brasil signatures.

Do certificates expire? The act itself has no expiration — the matrícula is permanent. However, third parties (banks, embassies) usually require a copy issued within the last 90 days to be sure no marginal annotations (averbações) were added in the meantime.

What is the difference between "inteiro teor" and "em breve relato"? Em breve relato is the summary version that fits on one page. Inteiro teor reproduces the full content of the original entry plus every averbação (divorce, name change, paternal recognition). The latter is required for some embassy procedures and citizenship applications.

Can I use these generated matrículas in production? No. The numbers follow the 32-digit syntax and pass the modulo-11 check, but they do not match any real notary record. Use them only for tests, mock data and form-validation development.