What it means to search the site, and what the box refuses
To search the site is to ask one question of an index built from page titles, headings and opening paragraphs. The box matches the words you type against those fields and returns pages, not answers. It searches this site only, so a query about another company's service will return nothing. It has no memory of you between visits and no profile of your earlier queries. And it will not guess: a misspelling usually returns fewer results rather than a correction, which is why the suggestions below matter.
Every route to help, on one screen
The results page repeats the three routes a visitor might need next, so a failed query does not send anyone back to the menu. The sitemap is there for browsing by section, and site search is not a menu: it returns pages and every result shows its section. The help centre is there for questions a page cannot answer, including the form that reaches a person. The document library is reachable through the first result in most category searches. Keeping the three together is deliberate: a visitor who lands on a thin result should not have to remember where the rest of the site lives.
Four steps your query goes through
The query is normalised first: case is ignored, punctuation is stripped and common words such as the and for are dropped. Second, the remaining terms are matched against the index, with a title match weighted above a body match. Third, results are ordered by match strength and then by page depth, so a section page outranks a footnote. Fourth, the query is written to a log without your address or account. Nothing about the query is stored with your identity, and the log is used to find terms the index handles badly.
When a search returns nothing
Start by removing one word, usually the one you are least sure of. Then try the name the site uses rather than the name you use: registry extract instead of paper, or civil record instead of certificate. If a term returns results but the wrong ones, open the sitemap and find the section by eye; a section name is often more stable than a phrase. If the page you need genuinely does not exist, the help centre form reaches a person who can say whether it is planned, retired or filed under another name.
Three limits on the results
The first limit is ordering: results are ranked by how well the words match, not by how good a page is, so position one is not a recommendation. The second is coverage: private pages, drafts and files behind a form are not indexed, which is why a document page can exist without appearing. The third is freshness: the index is rebuilt on a schedule, so a page published this week may not be found yet. When a result looks wrong for any of these reasons, the sitemap is the fallback.
What a result shows, and how to read it
When you this service, each result gives a title, a one-line excerpt with the matched words in context, and a path that shows the section. Read the path before the title: a page under document types behaves differently from a page under services, even when the titles are close. The excerpt is drawn from the page itself, so it shows the wording you will meet, not a summary written for the results page. Open two results at most; a third usually repeats the first. If both are wrong, the query needs different words, not more pages.
Your one action
Type the document name, the country or the issuing office, then press enter. Do not type a question; the index matches words, and a sentence adds words that dilute the match. If the first result is a section page rather than a document page, open it, because the section page lists the documents beneath it. That single action covers most visits: one query, one section, one document. Everything else on this page exists for the visits where that sequence fails.
Three visitors, three queries
A visitor with a document in hand should search the document name, then the country if the first result is too broad. A visitor who knows the process but not the page should search a stage word such as review, format or upload. A visitor who arrived from a link and cannot find it again should search a distinctive phrase from the page they remember, in quotation marks if the phrase is long. The test is the same for all three: the first result should name the section you expected before you open it.
What to type, and what to leave out
Type nouns: birth certificate, transcript, side-by-side, Portuguese. Leave out verbs, articles and politeness, because they are dropped before matching. Leave out a full sentence, and leave out a date unless the date is part of a document name. Include a country when the same document name appears in several places, and include a format word when you want a delivery option rather than a document. A two-word query usually beats a five-word one; if it does not, add the country before adding anything else.
Search questions
Why did my exact phrase return nothing? The index matches words after normalisation; try the words separately, then narrow with a country. Are my searches stored? The words are logged without your address or account, and the log is used to improve the index. Can I search inside a PDF? No. The search covers published pages, not uploaded files. Why is a page missing from results? It may be private, in draft, or published after the last index rebuild. What if I still cannot find it? Use the sitemap to browse the section, then the help centre form to ask a person.
