Vaccination/school record requirements caught us off guard

Got translated and apostilled copies of everything before we left, vaccination record included, purely on a friend’s advice. Glad we did given how long official translation ended up taking.

Same, wish someone had told us this before we left rather than after.

Did the school accept a doctor’s letter to bridge the gap, or did you need the full formal translated schedule regardless of that?

In my case a doctor’s letter alone wasn’t accepted — needed the formal translated document too. Might vary by school though, worth confirming directly.

Adding this to my pre-move checklist right now, thank you.

Brazilian vaccination booklets are handwritten, and my son's has a few stamps that even the Brazilian nurses struggle to read. In Porto the health centre nurse sat with me and transcribed it into their system entry by entry, which took an hour and was worth every minute. My tip: bring the original booklet and a clean photocopy, and ask your doctor at home for a typed summary before you leave, because a typed list is much easier for anyone to translate.

Adding a typed vaccination summary for both kids to our pre-move list today. Thank you, Ana.

Same experience with a doctor's letter not being enough. They wanted the official record, translated.

Ana's typed-summary tip would have saved us two weeks.