Getting a Brazilian Work VisaOutcomes

1. A Brazilian Temporary work visa (Visto Temporario V) (valid for 2 years and extendable)2. CPF number3. RNE number/form4. Work book5. Activated Brazilian bank account6. Activated Brazilian sim card

Process Overview

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A1 Qualifications (Degree, PGCE, QTS, Induction) A2 Birth certifcateA3 Work reference letterA4 Police record check

Stage A: Legalized documents

B1 Send all documents which have been legalised to the Botofogo address to be processed into a work permit

Stage B: Brazilian work permit

C1 Apply online for an appointment at the consulate that the work permit has been created forC2 Fill in the online application form for your Brazilian work visaC3 Fill in the onlne CPF form C4 Attend appointment bringing all necessary documentsC5 Get your CPFC6 Pick up your passport with your Brazilian visa

Stage C: Brazilian Work Visa in your

passport

D1 Legible entry stampD2 Work visa application form receiptD3 Work visa in your passportD4 Baording pass

Stage D: Finalized Brazilian work visaE1 Getting an NRE

E2 Getting a workbookE3 Activating your sim cardE4 Opening your bank accountE5 Health insurance upgradeE6 Getting a CIE card

Stage E: Getting started in Brazil

A huge disclaimer and a request for new informationEverything in here is just what I experienced and what I think I did. It is intended simply to be a marker for the scale of what was involved, and in no way should be seen as a step-by-step instruction manual for what everyone will need to do. Every application is a unique journey and should be seen as such, but I would like to keep this up to date, so if you can please email me (MrBrannac@gmail.com ) anything you found to be different so I can try to keep an as up to date version as possible, available on my website, here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j30bm9xopz2gvlv/Obtaining%20a%20work%20visa%20to%20work%20in%20Brazil%20PB.docx?dl=0

A super brief summaryThis whole process took me about 9 to 10 months (still on the final thing, the CIE card in June, and I started in October). I have a folder with about 641 documents (though some are earlier versions and duplicates) in it relating to this, a whole bunch of emails, and at its peak was spending about an hour a day on managing and organizing it for the first couple of months. In total it has cost me as a single man about $2000 US, and involved bureaucracies in four continents (I was born in the US, got my qualifications in the UK and was working in Korea). Some things I found easy may not have been included, and some things I found difficult you may find very straightforward but I have tried to be as complete as I could. It was unlike any visa application I have ever been involved with.

An outline of the steps involvedNote: There is a lot of repetition here with the definitions in the Glossary (all words in bold are defined there) but it does give you an order to do things.

During Stage A all of your documents necessary for your new job will be legalized by the appropriate Brazilian consulate in the country which those documents were created in, e.g. a US birth certificate needs to be legalized by the Brazilian consulate with jurisdiction covering the state you were born in. Basically, there is a whole lot of verifying going on, first by a lawyer in the country the document is from (notarization), then by the country the lawyer is from (apostilling), then by the Brazilian consulate in that country (legalization). In all likelihood some (or even all) of your documents will need to be legalized using an agency, e.g. because you don’t live in the capital, or they are from a different country. Once you’ve got all of these bad boys together they get Fed Exed to Brazil (if you are using an agency they can Fed Ex them directly to the school in Rio), you can then start the next process.

Stage B is entirely out of your hands, and involves your legalized documents being sent to Brasilia to be officially translated and imbued with other arcane and mysterious bureaucratic powers so that they have the strength to raise a work permit for a foreign national from nothingness. It takes around 30 to 40 days, including weekends, and results in the creation of a work permit which is valid for a given consulate, e.g. London, which needs to be where you will at that point be living. In my case, this stage started whilst I was in Korea, but I knew that by the time it would be finished I would be living in the UK, so I asked for my work permit to be issued to the Brazilian consulate in London. During this stage you should be thinking about when you should schedule work visa application appointment to deliver your completed online visa application form receipt, additional visa documents (e.g. police report) 2 passport photos and passport to the Brazilian consulate to get your work visa application receipt which will allow to return to the Brazilian consulate to collect your passport with your work visa sticker stuck into it. In order to attend this interview you will need to think about the availability of the appointment slots, because you can only apply for a visa with an

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appointment and you can only make one appointment at a time, and in my case there was a 2 week waiting list for these appointments. It might also be worth thinking about how many pages you have left in your passport before any of this starts (and any-one else travelling with you), if possible getting this stuck into a new passport would be a pretty smashing idea.

Stage C requires you to have some idea of when your work permit will be finalized, this is something that you will need to find out about from the admin staff in Rio. Once your work permit has been issued you will be told about it from Rio, as well as when it should get to the Brazilian consulate in the UK, which will allow you to book your work visa application appointment interview with the consulate to hand in your visa application form, your photo for the visa, and collect your CPF (which requires you to complete the online CPF application form and print it off). You will also need to bring your ACRO police check, and your completed work visa application form. This interview takes about 10 minutes, and could be done by an agency if you can’t make it into London. You will be given a work visa receipt which will give you a date when you can pick up your passport with the work visa sticker in it. I found that I could get my ACRO police check sent directly to the Brazilian Consulate and they were able to process it without any trouble which saved me a working day. I got my work visa application receipt which suggested I could pick up my passport about a week later (5 working days). Again an agency could have done this, but I was able to. If this process does not happen before you are scheduled to leave your home country, the worst case scenario would be that you fly in on a tourist visa, but then have to return to the UK to get it during carnival break, which has sometimes apparently happened in the past.

Stage D on your way into Brazil make sure your entry stamp is legible on your passport, you need to be able to read the date. Also keep your boarding pass, this is further evidence about when you got into Brazil and is needed later to get your NRE number.

Stage E before about a month of getting into Brazil expires your need to go to the immigration department at the airport to get your NRE number, a single A4 piece of paper which is necessary to prove you have completed the visa application process. You will have a photo taken of you during this process. You need to very carefully check your details, like your CPF number, and especially the spelling of your parent’s names (mine were wrong). Bring something to do, it takes about 3hours or longer of waiting, then there is the time in the cab which adds another 2 hours to the waiting, and possibly bring something to eat. Next you will get a workbook, which contains every job you have had in Brazil, and particulars about your job e.g. job title and other things. I needed an appointment in town to apply for it, then about half an hour wait to say hi to the people there, then another appointments the week after to pick it up. This is then given to HR who keep it. CIE card

Activating your sim card – try to do this as soon as you can, ideally in the first couple of days on arrival. With your CPF number you can simply go to a Viva shop and ask someone there to do it for you. It took me about 10minutes in total, but I wish I had done it sooner. Getting a Brazilian bank account is fairly straightforward, but requires the originals of your CPF, NRA and passport as well as photocopies of each, sign lots of things and it takes about 10mintues, I had my interview at work at the end of the day. Then you will need to activate your Brazilian bank account, which means you need to go to a HSBC ATM with your debit card and your debit pin number. You will be asked to create a 3 letter password in addition to a new pin number, think carefully about this. I had a problem with this step and had to instead go to the bank to ask in there about it (I tried to use my credit card pin with my debit card and got my account locked). Health insurance – you will be asked if you want to spend an extra small amount of money on this at the start to get the medium plan instead of the basic, my advice would be to get this resolved as soon as possible; I didn’t and now

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will need to wait until next year to get this done as this can only be done within a window of about a month every year. The CIE Card (my Brazilian ID card) is the final step (that I am aware of) and requires me to go to a notary nearby and sign a form that has been emailed to me in front of them and then pass it on.

GlossaryI found it was quite bewildering (hence this guide), and also that a great many things like a work permit and a work visa were often used interchangeably when they are quite separate things. Be aware that some of these things may be referred to using different names, so some of these definitions are entirely of my own creating to give a better idea of what is going on..

Activating a Brazilian bank account. Again, I wish I had done this sooner, took me about a month all in. You will need to create a 3 letter password as well to withdraw money (the ‘Saque’ option in the menu).

Activating a mobile phone: You will get a sim card when you arrive here, I found my £5 phone from Sainsbury’s worked here without any problems. You will be able to do some things, like get calls, and access data on your phone, but not call other people until you get your phone number registered to your CPF. To activate the phone the easiest way is to go to the Vivo (mobile phone company) shop and ask there, if you get someone with English you are a winner, otherwise you could try to google translate what you want to do. You will need to know your phone number to do this.

Apostil: Recognition by a country that a notarized document has been notarized by a registered notary public. Basically that country is saying that the notarization on the document is legitimate.

Birth certificate: If you were born in a country that is different to the country you are currently living in, you are going to need to get this legalized by the appropriate Brazilian consulate. You will probably need to get it legalized regardless of where you are living.

Boarding pass: Your boarding pass for the journey that got you into Brazil is necessary evidence relating to your entry into Brazil that is needed by the police to produce your finalized work visa.

Brazilian bank account needs to be acquired to get your salary paid into it. I got paid in cash for the first couple of months before this was finalized. If you have US citizenship you will require your Social Security number so the chaps in the US can monitor your life and leak your financial details to hackers via the NSA. You need to do this even if you do not declare your citizenship to anyone before they will allow your bank account application to proceed (I was surprised by this because I had not declared myself a US citizen). You will need the originals of your passport, NRE number and CPF, and photocopies of all including your photo page and your Brazilian work visa to open this.

CIE Card: This is your Brazilian ID card and the last step I am aware of, and requires all of the other Brazilian documents to be in place before you can get it. What I last need to do apparently to get this is to print out a form that has been emailed to me, go to a notary office in Rio near to where I live, notarise my signature for it for about 10 pounds, then send it on for completion.

Collecting your passport: Once you have handed in your passport to get your Brazilian work visa you will be given a receipt for your passport and a date after which you can collect your passport with

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your Brazilian visa as well as your work visa application form receipt. In London the person collecting these two documents does not need to be you.

CPF: CPF stands for "Cadastro de Pessoas Fisicas (Individual Taxpayer Registry), it is essential to do anything involving money, like activating a mobile phone, buying white goods like a microwave and setting up a bank account. You can get this on the same day as you apply for your work visa at the Brazilian consulate providing you have a completed print out of your CPF online application form. It can also be obtained in Brazil.

CPF online application form: An online application form that when completed generates a typed document that you bring with you to the embassy when you have your work visa application interview at the Brazilian consulate when you hand in all of your work visa documents.

Entry stamp: The stamp you get in your passport at immigration when you first enter Brazil (usually at the airport), this needs to clearly show the date in order for your visa to be valid (you need to enter Brazil within a given timeframe, this stamp (as well as your boarding pass) is necessary evidence of the date of your arrival for the police when they finalize your work visa).

Finalized work visa: After you arrive in Brazil you will need to go to the Police station to register your arrival. You will need your passport with a legible date on the entry stamp, your boarding pass and work visa application form receipt. Once this has been completed you will have finished this process and can celebrate with perpetual, lifelong happiness.

Health insurance: Three options available, one where you don’t pay anything and get the least best service (so if you were in hospital you would be sharing your room with 2 or 3 other people, and you have much less choice in hospitals that you can go to. The second option has been recommended to me, and the additional money spent makes it the best option.

Notarization: Authentication of certain documents, e.g. qualifications, birth certificates, police record checks by someone who has been accredited by the state (a notary public). Basically, a lawyer vetted by the government is saying that the document they are notarizing is legitimate.

NRE; a police document that finalizes your visa application process. You get this from the airport about a few weeks after you arrive in Brazil, and it can take anywhere up to 5 or more hours of waiting to get. Make sure you bring something to do at the airport, e.g. laptop and charger or a good book.

Legalization: The Brazilian consulate with jurisdiction covering the area that a document has been apostilled in stating that the apostil is genuine. Basically, a notary says your document is legitimate when they notarize it, then the government says that the notary is legitimate with their apostil, then the Brazilian consulate in that country says that the government’s apostil is legitimate, so those documents can then be used by any Brazilian government agency, e.g. the labor ministry that issues work permits to foreign nationals. A good rule of thumb is if you are in doubt and under time pressures, get it legalized. I legalized Tuesdays, my Korean police record check and my favourite colour, beige, just in case, and one of them turned out to be essential to getting my work visa on time (otherwise I would not have finished this in time for departure which would have meant I would have potentially had to come in on a tourist visa and return to the UK during Carnival to finish this off).

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Online visa application form: An online form that is available at https://scedv.serpro.gov.br that you can use once your work permit has been created (you can’t fill it in until the work permit has been issued in Brazil). It will produce your online visa application form receipt.

Online visa application form receipt: A document which you need to print out and bring with you to your work visa application interview and contains the reference number that will be needed to easily locate your work permit.

Police check: Only considered valid by the London Brazilian consulate for 3 months. In the UK, this can just be the ACRO police check, which takes between 2 to 10 days (bear in mind that this can be a severely understaffed process, so it could take longer, especially if there are any faults whatsoever with the application). It does not need to be legalized if you are getting your work visa in the same country, but does if you are getting it in another country. If you have been recently living in another country, you may need a police check from that country as well, really worth checking because this was my case and I found it somewhat confusing, my advice to my former self would have been to get the Korean police check and legalize it in Korea before you leave, and as soon as you get to the UK get an ACRO police check as well (I got my work visa in the UK). If in doubt get a police check just in case and make sure to legalize them when you are in the issuing country.

Reference letter from work: This is a letter that provides evidence that you have worked the necessary amount given your qualifications so that you are sufficiently experienced to be entitled to apply for a work permit. Needs to be legalized in the country it is from.

Receipt for your passport: When you have handed in your passport to the Brazilian consulate you will be given a receipt which you, or an agency (in London at least), can then use to collect your passport after a few working days with your work visa and your work visa application form receipt.

Work permit: A permit that is issued by the Brazilian labour ministry at the request of your employer in Brazil, which takes around 30 to 40 days (around 6 to 8 calendar weeks). It is created to be used by a specific Brazilian consulate, e.g. the Brazilian consulate in the country you are resident in, and allows them, with the appropriate additional documents and your passport to give you your Brazilian work visa. It cannot be transferred, so if the process takes longer than you think, and you end up residing in a different country, a new work visa will need to be created in Brazil. All your documents that are requested (birth certificate, qualifications, work reference letter, signed contract in Portuguese) are needed before this can be applied for, so if there is a delay in any one of them, the whole thing gets put on hold.

Work visa: A sticker that goes into your passport and is valid for a certain number of days, it initially allows entry to Brazil, and afterwards needs to be finalized by the Brazilian police within 30 days of your first entry to Brazil. It allows you to have paid employment in Brazil and go into and out of Brazil for holidays as many times as you want within the timeframe it is valid for. Each exit and entry to Brazil will require a new stamp in your passport, so ideally put your work visa into a fresh 52 page (the larger version) passport.

Work visa application form receipt: Two pages with information relating to your visa application that you will get when your passport is returned with the work visa sticker in it. It is necessary for the Brazilian police to finalise your work visa when you get to Brazil.

Work visa application interview: This needs to be booked around 2 to 4 weeks in advance online with the appropriate Brazilian consulate, in London there is only one hour per working day where

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these appointments are offered. You can only book one interview at a time, so it is important that you book this for a time when your work permit will have been issued. You will need to bring your passport, your police check, birth certificate, Online visa application form receipt (one per applicant), one passport size photograph and the completed print out of your CPF online application form. Like lots of things, this can be done by a visa agency if you cannot make it yourself, but it will take a little longer

Show-stoppersThings that can redirect or derail things plenty:

1. You’ll need most of your original documents (for UK qualifications though you just need scanned versions)

2. Passport with enough empty pages and time in it. Ideally a new one would be best, but you need to think about getting it well in advance.

3. Time – Everything takes longer than you think, pretty much.4. Police checks – These are valid for 3 months, so if you have been living in another country

recently, you might need to get one for that country, in addition to the country you are living in whilst applying for the work visa. Obviously, they’re also gonna need to be legalized, and for some countries, they are going to be hilariously entertaining to get from abroad.

5. Boarding pass/entry stamp – Super useful to remember to get and keep these for later.

Top tipsKeep in contact with the staff in Rio who are helping you through this process. Whenever you are unsure about anything, ask. If you are still confused or uncertain after you have asked, ask again, but with more details about what you are unsure about and more politely, and simply repeat until you are no longer stuck.

Create an email group that includes everyone in Rio who is CCed into emails sent to you, if anyone complains, remove them from the list, but the more people who get your emails the better really. Sometimes people are ill, or away or otherwise are not able to respond to emails, so if there’s something time sensitive this can save you days.

Bear in mind that some people, though obviously not you or I, are gonna be finding this exciting adventure a little more stressful than totally awesome, and the admin staff that are helping out at their end are rather a long way away from where you are, and possibly where you are at in your life, so try to keep your frame of mind positive, your communiques polite and your soul accepting of the things you cannot change. I thought the determinism of Sufi Islam to be rather an apt way to deal with the process, though the apathia of the ancient Greeks, the emptiness of true experience in Buddhism or a Christian understanding of God’s grace all will probably get you to the same head space. I approached the whole thing as very much a spiritual journey when I was getting the best from myself, but swearing at the moon and impotent, directionless rage were also occasionally used in my toolkit to deal with things.

Eat plenty of sugerfree mints. They’re good for your teeth and there are not a whole lot of moments in life that cannot be improved by being a little more minty.

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Take photos/scan all of your receipts and make sure that when you do so they go directly into your Brazil folder and are properly labelled. Ideally, you could try to get reimbursed for your expenses as you are going along. Create a spreadsheet for your expenses, with details like amount, currency, date, description of cost, file reference number and pdf page number. Create a single pdf of all of your receipts and send this in.

Get a working notepad in Word together, and in it include all of the addresses you need to use regularly so you can just cut and paste them into whatever letters you need to send. I need to send rather a lot.

AppendixHere are just a sampling of the letters and forms needed to help give some idea of the scale of what was involved. Remember, many of these letters involved an awful lot of internet searching to find the right agency and to know what I was supposed to send, and involved a lot of follow up letters, phone calls and emails.

To Brazilian HR in Rio

Dear

Enclosed are:

1. Police record check legalized by the Brazilian Embassy in Seoul2. Record of service legalized by the Brazilian Embassy in Seoul3. Degree original certificate4. PGCE original certificate5. QTS original certificate6. Induction original certificate7. 3 signed copies of my contract in Portugese8. Receipt for the legalization of my Korean Documents

Hopefully, the legalized US and UK documents should arrive on or around the day you receive this. Thanks for your help and I look forward to meeting you in person!

Best wishes

Getting my US Birth certificate Notarized

Hi there,

I live in Korea, but I was born in the US and I am in the process of getting a Brazilian work visa. To do so I need to get my US birth certificate notarized (legalized) by the issuing consular region, but before that I need to get it accredited in the US. The service I need is for someone to be able to send it with the postal order (which I cannot get over here) first to the US accreditation service, then that needs to go to the Brazilian consul with the appropriate jurisdiction for my state for them to notarize, then that needs to be sent to my future employer in Brazil. What I would need from your company then is:

1. I would send you my original birth certificate issued from the right place by post

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2. Send my original birth certificate to the US accreditation service. You would also need to raise the postal money order.

3. Receive the notarized certificate and the original.4. Send both these documents to the Brazilian consul with the appropriate jurisdiction and the

appropriate fee.5. Receive these documents after the Brazilian consul has notarized them.6. Send them to my employer in Brazil by FedEx.7. I would be able to pay either by credit card (my preferred method), paypal or bank transfer

and would like a quote and if there are different categories of service, I would like to know the price of each and the timeframe for each.

8. Time is potentially a real issue here so the sooner you can get back to me the better (I have a variety of other documents being notarized in a variety of other countries and continents, so this whole thing is simply an awesome international scavenger hunt for me at the moment which if it goes wrong I don’t get to spend Christmas with my family)

Thank you for your help and I look forward from hearing from you!

Legalising the Police Records Check and my Work Record History In Korea

Dear Mr Kim

Enclosed is my police records check and my work certification page, both of which need to be notarised by the Brazilian embassy, because they were issued here. I have enclosed 127,000 Won as agreed for the fee, if you could try to get this done as fast as possible it would be extremely appreciated.

I am also in the process of getting my degree certificates and my birth certificates notarised, but they were issued in the UK and the USA. Once I have all of these documents I will send them to Brazil, and they will prepare the work visa, which will then get sent to the embassy here. Once I have that I will then need your help again to hand in my Irish Passport and to then collect it.

It is my understanding that you will be able to organise all of this without me ever going to Seoul, simply by posting the required documentation, is this true?

Thanks for your help!

Yours Sincerely

From Hague Apostle in the UK to get my UK documents

Dear Paddy,

Thank you for your email. I can confirm that I have your 4 documents and order form ready to begin their process. Please note that as your order is over £500.00 it is our company policy to take payment via bank transfer.

Therefore please make payment of £614.00 using order reference to our bank account:

Bank details -

Bank: Cooperative Bank

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Address: PO Box 250, Delf House, Southway, Skelmersdale, WN8 6WT

Account name: Small Firms Services Ltd

Sort Code: 08-92-99

Account Number: 69661710

Swift Code: CPBKGB22

IBAN Code: GB98CPBK08929969661710

If sending payment from a non-UK bank account please ensure the sending bank covers all charges so we receive the correct amount. If your bank can not do this please add GBP12 to the amount you send.

We look forward to receiving your payment and commencing your order.

RegardsLuke Shelton

Apostille Service || Embassy Legalisation || Translationswww.hagueapostille.co.uk || www.embassylegalisation.co.ukCalls from within UK: +44 (0)24 7623 1385 or 0333 772 0408

Online visa application formThis is what the online visa application form needed by the London Brazilian consulate looks like, it is possible that it will be the same for consulates in other countries

https://scedv.serpro.gov.br

Interview at the Brazilian consulate to hand in your work visa documents online appointment booking formFor London the appointment form can be found on this page and looks like this:

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http://cglondres.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/temporary_work_visa.xml

The generated protocol number is: 150109-002858. Do you wish to print out the delivery receipt?

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NRE number

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