Brazilian Permanency & Long Term Visas

Many people have asked me about the possibilities to obtain Brazilian permanency (by this I mean permanent residency) or a working visa. People come to Rio and Brazil, fall in love and want to live here. On this page I have tried to sum up all the options available. If you know of other methods or have good information on the subject please let me know so I can include it in this text. There are basically four different kinds of permanency and long Term visas, I have described them below. Anyone can apply for these but if you don´t meet up to the criterias stipulated your application will for certain be rejected. It is highly recommended that you have a Brazilian, preferrably a lawyer, helping you with the application - believe me when I say it can save you a lot of hassle and cut some corners.

1 - Regular Brazilian Permanency (permanência definitiva)
It is for life and is normally granted for family reasons. It could be that you are married to a Brazilian, have a child with a Brazilian or have family here. If you are born in Brazil you are automatically a citizen of the republic, the mother and father of that child has a right to a permanency if they apply. It is also granted to retired people with a minimum monthly income of 2000 U$. The order of process is that you will have to submit a number of documents and some photos to the Federal Police. Now you will have to wait for the Feds to come and visit you in your house where they will check that what you have stated is true. This can take years, but during this period you are allowed to stay in the country - you just have to go to the Federal Police every few months and get a stamp. After the responsible officers have interviewed you they will send their statement together with all your documents and photos to Brasilia. There it will be processed and if everything goes right you will be approved (you can follow this process on the internet), it will then officially be published in something called "diário oficial". Now the process returns to Rio where you have to fill in another form, give your fingerprints and in the end receive a new protocol - now you officially have a Brazilian permanency and can apply for a job. The last thing you are waiting for is the Brazilian foreigner identity card, this can take a few years to arrive but is not necessary since you already are permanent. A good tip if you want the Brazilian permanency faster is to do this through the Brazilian embassy/consulates in your country, most of the time it is a lot faster.

3 - Investment Visa
Although the type of visa you get is the same as in category 1 I treat it apart since the process is quite different. It is issued to a person that invests a minimum 50000 U$ in a commercial business, this can be your own or in an already existant. If everything goes right you are given a permanência definitiva. You are supposed to do this in collaboration with minimum one Brazilian that initially has to have at least a 10% part of the business.

4 - Student Visa
This is granted for the period of studies you are registered. The most common for foreigners is to study Portuguese at the university PUC-Rio . If you contact them you can get more info (just click on the link above). Most likely you have to sort things out with your university at home to set up an exchange.

Brazilian Citizenship (residência)
To obtain a Brazilian residency is a lot harder than all the options above. It is normally preceeded by having a category 1 - Regular Brazilian Permanency, after 3 or 4 years you can then apply to become Brazilian. The Federal Police will now make a more thorough investigation. What you gain is basically the right to vote and some other citizenship related benefits.

What To Think About
Once again I want to stress the fact that it is better to use a lawyer when you are resolving permanency issues in Brazil. It is well established in the bureaucratic system that the regular citizen always are represented in matters like these. The lawyer makes sure that your application doesn´t get rejected and can help to speed up the process drastically. I have mentioned a few times that it is better to resolve things in your own country, believe me when I say that! Many people have contacted me with phrases like "I speak good Portuguese and English and have worked as a skilled xxxx for so many years. I am coming to Rio de Janeiro next month and wanted to know how I can find a job?" The sad answer I give is that aside from the English teacher option it is almost impossible to get employed: There are few jobs, no job agencies and the culture is built on contacts and family ties to getting you a job in the private sector. In other parts of Brazil it might be easier, but sorting it out before you arrive is for sure easier.

Where To Apply in Rio
Go the Federal Police/Immigration, at Terminal 1, Red Area, 3rd floor, Aeroporto Internacional do Rio de Janeiro/Galeão Antônio Carlos Jobim, tel 3398-3142, open 8h/17h. Note that it moved from the city center in August 2007 (hence the info in all guidebooks will be incorrect for some time). Getting your Brazilian permanency in Rio is probably slightly more complicated than in other states of Brazil since there is a strong bureaucratic tradition here.