Hi, Tom,
You have a Brazilian Consulate General in Atlanta, so that makes things much easier.
1. As soon as you're married and have the original Marriage Certificate, your wife and you should register your marriage at the Consulate General. You'll both want to go, but technically SHE, as the Brazilian citizen, will be the person registering the marriage, so she MUST be present. If you have a pre-nup, you must have it with you. If not, you will have to choose a property distribution at the Consulate, so you should be ready for that. Follow the directions and make sure that you have all the documents called out here:
The Consulate will issue you a Certidão de Casamento. When you get to Goiânia, deliver the Consular Certidão to the Cartório do 1o OfÃcio there, and they will record your marriage to give it legal effect in Brazil. In about two weeks, they'll give you a "Traslado de Casamento" document, that will serve as your Brazilian marriage certificate. The Cartório will keep the original, so when you get the Certidão from the Consulate, it's a good idea to get a couple of "2a Vias" -- duplicate originals -- as well.
The consular officials processing your visa request will be looking for the Certidão.
2. VITEM XI visa --
3. ASAP after your arrival in Goiânia, register with the Federal Police and start the permanent residency process to get your CRNM. Again, your wife is the one making the official request, so her presence will be helpful. Follow the instructions and have with you the documents required here for "reunião familiar":
Several of these documents will require apostilles. Federal documents, including your FBI Criminal Background Check, need to be apostilled by the US Department of State in Washington; there are services that will handle this for you. State and local documents, including notary signatures, need to be apostilled by State authorities. The ones in your region are listed here:
The Federal Police will expect your FBI Criminal Background Check to be no more than 90 days old on the day you apply for permanent residency. I strongly suggest using an Approved FBI Channeler to "time" your document, rather than relying on the FBI itself: they have a backlog months long, they open and log only one day's worth of mail each day on a FIFO basis, and they can't even give you a status on your application if they haven't opened it yet.
English language documents that you give to the Federal Police will need to be translated by a Sworn Translator appointed by the Junta Comercial of a Brazilian state. You can have that done after you arrive. Don't waste your money on unofficial translations.
4. Labor Card ("Carteira de Trabalho e Previdência Social") I discussed this in a different post. I think that you can only apply for this after your permanent residency is approved.
5. Driver's License. You're allowed to drive in Brazil on your Georgia license for six months. After that, you should have a Brazilian license, issued by the local Department of Transportation, DETRAN. They'll issue it without a road test, based on your US license. You have pay a fee, take the vision and psychcotechnical tests, and either pass a rules of the road test, or take a five day course at DETRAN.
My Brazilian husband and I got married in July, 2017 in Oak Park, IL, and I moved to Manaus on November 1, so I've been through this step by step. Any questions, feel free to follow up.