3 Tips to Make Moving to Brazil Easy

Moving to BrazilSo many are interested in moving to Brazil but so few are able to due to three major factors holding them back.

And being behind the scenes of this website allows me to get a real picture of what these three factors are.

See, I get messages everyday from different people needing help with different Brazil related issues…

… and within these messages, there is a common theme that I’ve boiled down into being the three main factors keeping people like you from moving to Brazil.

These three factors are something I’ve had to overcome in the past and I am happy to share them with a solution for each today so that you won’t be hindered in moving to Brazil – here they are:

  1. Having the right kind of visa.
  2. Getting a job and having financial stability.
  3. Finding a place to move to.

Get ready because here we go!

1. How to Easily Get a Visa

“Visa issues are keeping me from moving to Brazil, I can’t figure out which one will let me stay there!”  This is a very common roadblock and very normal.

And it’s easy to understand why: you get to stare Brazilian bureaucracy in the face and many times get stared down.

Though if you know how, you can secure yourself a visa pretty easily making moving to Brazil quicker then you think.

This is something I’ve covered more in detail in this post, and I’m happy to recap it here:

  1. Get married
  2. Have a Brazilian baby
  3. Get a student visa
  4. Get a volunteer visa
  5. Just stay…

Irrespective of your reasons for coming to Brazil, the above 5 are the easies ways in.

Joe Naab (who I often refer to on this site) calls the Student Visa a “Secret Permanent Residence” in his book Brazil for Life.

He also goes into the fine details of how he was able to spend only a couple hours a week studying Portuguese at a school in Brazil yet stay for years hassle free.

You can check his book out at this link (affiliate link)

We personally chose to go the Brazilian child route as we are foreigners and this would secure us limitless residence when moving to Brazil.

I’ve written a free guide on how to do the same at this link.

2. Get Your Finances in Order

On the , I recently asked the following question:

To my surprise the majority of people responding with variations of the same answer:

So how do you find a job and get your finances in order before moving to Brazil?

Firstly, you can check out this post where I cover the top 3 jobs for foreigners.

In it, I talk about three main areas where foreigners have an advantage in the job market:

  1. Teaching English
  2. White collar high educated jobs
  3. Going into business for yourself

Basically, do what you can before moving to Brazil to secure yourself financial stability.

I did exactly the opposite when moving to Brazil and I paid for it…

You can hear my story and learn the four building blocks for success in Brazil in my free video series called “The Golden Ticket to Brazil”

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One of the building blocks is called “Financial Stability” where I share how I achieved this and how you can do the same before moving to Brazil (or if you’re already there).

3. Finding a Place to Move into

This next big roadblock when moving to Brazil is the whole “where should I live and how do I rent or buy a place?”.

Firstly, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina is where you should live… ok it’s my favorite place in Brazil 😉

UPDATE: I’ve recently created a post to show you how to rent any house or apartment in Brazil!

This first part of the equation usually depends on you having been to Brazil before or willing to be flexible after you end up moving to Brazil.

I say this because even though a place may look wonderful on the Internet, it could be something totally different to actually be there.

In the near future, Joe Naab will be writing a guest post here on scouting tips when moving to Brazil (as he wrote in detail about in his book Brazil for Life) to help out more that area.

But in essence, research as much as you can about different places to live then do a trial run on one or two (or more).

We did the same thing before coming to Florianópolis, we found a pousada (apart hotel) and stayed there for several months before deciding on whether we would call it home or not.

After several impressive months, we fell in love.

Secondly, you will need to find an actual apartment, house or the like to move into.

Renting a place in Brazil isn’t usually just a show up and begin paying monthly type deal.

Renters usually require the following before they will consider letting you move in:

  1. A letter of reference
  2. Proof of employment
  3. A Deposit
  4. The first few month’s rent
  5. Proof of identity

They do this to be sure that the renter doesn’t take them for a ride when moving in, which is unfortunately pretty common…

But what about you as a foreigner who’s moving to Brazil and needs to rent for the first time?

Here are a few immediate options:

  1. Find a pousada or hotel and ask to rent on a monthly basis
  2. Ask your Brazilian friends if they know of anyone renting
  3. Look yourself on Vivastreet and see what is available and ask yourself.
  4. Use a trusted concierge.

I’ve tried both option 1, 2 and 3 before and if you are only planning on staying for a few months to scout, then a pousada will usually give you a reasonable monthly rate and furnished place.

The difficulty is to find a good pousada that wont jack the price up because you’re a foreigner.

That’s why I used a great and trustworthy concierge who negotiated a great price for me (!!!) for a small fee.

A concierge service is basically a person who is on the ground and has awesome connections that will find something for you at a great price.

All you have to do is pay the concierge for his/her time.

Note: if you are looking for a concierge service in Florianópolis, contact me by clicking on contact in the top right corner of this site and I’ll help you out.

Final word

As time goes, I’ll expand on these problems more and more to help you solve them so that there are no longer any roadblocks keeping you from moving to Brazil.

How will you overcome any of these above obstacles?

I hope that this was helpful in bringing you closer to moving to Brazil and look forward to more and more good stuff in the near future.

Thumbs up if this was helpful 🙂

Valeu – Cheers,

Kevin

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  • In Rio I have found that you need a cosigner with residence and property in same state and three times the monthly rent as income. Very difficult to get in here.

    • Yeah, can be quite crazy!

      There is a way around this though, there are companies that specifically offer a cosigning service for a fee, but they require a lot up front.

      I'll be writing more on the whole renting subject in the near future 🙂

  • One of my biggest concerns about moving to Brazil is how to transport my 2 cats there. They have basically become my children, and I want to have them with me when I move to Brazil. It would kill me to have to give them away. Do you have any tips or resources on how to safely transport pets from the USA to Brazil, Florianopolis in particular, and any the types of documents I will need?

  • I have visited Brazil for many years I would like to get a retired persons visa, I have bought a house in Brazil already I am registered as well but it’s still hard to get the visa

    I am from Scotland but need to travel to London for consulate. But there is so much red tape, and you must have a certain amount of finance per month which I fall short of I have been learning Portuguese privately.

    What is the best way for my to get visa

    Many thanks

    • investor visa would cost you something like 150 000 reais what is about 30k pounds. That´s one way.

      Depend on where you want to live you can buy yourself a local business.

      If you want to talk, I am Brazilian and I am in London until october.

  • Hello all!

    I am going to be moving back to Brazil next year (either Salvador or Floripa) under a student visa. I am thinking that I am going to stay a year, but who knows maybe longer depending on how things go.

    What would you recommend my best bet is on housing – unless i end up staying longer than a year, I don’t really want to get into buying furniture, ect. So i’m just wondering which route i should go…either try and rent privately for a year, or go through a rental agency? As well, thoughts on how long i should arrange a short-term rental in my arrival city while looking for a permanent (ish) place?

    I speak Portuguese so i can do a good deal of negotiating if i had to once i arrived, but i have never rented an apartment in Brazil before; so all advice is welcome! 🙂

    • Hi Kristi,

      I’d get on OLX.com.br and see what furnished options there are for rent. I am sure you can just rent privately with the landlords. I’d avoid dealing with agencies if you can help it, as some of them (not all) are known for requiring loads of paperwork as well as taking big deposits that you may not get back. If you rent privately, sometimes you can get away with just signing a contract at the cartorio and paying a month’s caução. Good luck!

  • Thanks so much! And what about going the route of concierge? Is that not generally worth it if i’m only staying for a year?

  • Hi! I wanted to suggest this FREE guide by Sambatribe – “10 Ways to Experience Brazil in the US”: . Great tips about Brazilian restaurants, events, culture, sports and more, all here in the US! Best way to experience Brazil, other than going there 🙂

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