Your Top Questions about Brazil Answered!

Oct 09 2013

My e-mail inbox gets pleasantly flooded daily with curious members of our community interested in finding out how they can best tackle moving to Brazil.

So I figure that it’s about time to put some more detailed answers to these questions than is possible over a quick e-mail.

Without further ado, here are the top questions asked about moving to and living in Brazil with my best answers for the community.

1. Finding a Job (and the Visa)

Here’s a popular question: “Kevin, can I come on a tourist visa, find a job and then get a work visa?”

In short, no. If you enter on a tourist visa, student visa or volunteer visa, they don’t technically allow you to work on them – you would be working “under the table”.

If you find a company to give you a job, then you can apply for a work visa. The process starts in Brazil and finishes abroad.

This means that after the company get’s their paperwork together from the different ministries etc, they will have to send you the paperwork so that you can go to the consulate in your home country and apply for the visa.

You will then have to wait for visa approval and then you can come back in Brazil on the new status.

This is also true for any other switch of visa except for the case of anything doing with families, which leads me to the next question I get:

“Kevin, I’m currently illegal and on a tourist visa, when my child is born here, can I get a permanent visa?

In short, yes. It doesn’t matter what visa you are on (or not) in Brazil if you have direct connections to a family member. This can be in the form of a Brazilian child (get’s citizenship for being born there a la anchor baby), Brazilian spouse or stable union cases.

This is the one exception to the rule that get’s the whole “leave the country and come back on your new visa” rule waved.

Here’s another: “Is teaching English the best option for foreigners these days to make money in Brazil and what if I do it on a tourist visa?”

If you aren’t sure about your career (i.e. are mostly starting out), then teaching English is a great option!

The demand for teachers is insane in Brazil and it pays decently so that you would have an ok lifestyle. Now, I know for a fact that loads of foreigners teach “illegaly” on a tourist visa or the like though there is a “loophole” to do it legally on a tourist or other temporary “non-work” visa.

You do this by teaching over Skype. The minute your teachings go through the internet, then a whole new set of rules apply. This is due to the fact that Brazil doesn’t own the internet and therefore you aren’t violating any rules.

You could easily recruit students locally and offer to teach them over Skype, receive payment over PayPal connected to your account back home etc.

Though there are people who aren’t interested in teaching English but feel like they “have to”. Teaching English is a good start as there are plenty of jobs out there for qualified professionals.

In a nutshell, to get a great job, you will need to integrate yourself well into Brazil, learn Portuguese and after doing this, your doors of opportunities will be wide open (even for getting a work visa sponsored!).

2. Deciding Where to Live (is it safe)

The next biggest question our community asks, has to do with deciding on what city to live in.

Here’s an e-mail I got today: “my biggest concern is the crime in these city’s if i move i want to be somewhere safe..ive been looking at info about petropolis and it seems like a great place..could i get your advice about making the move?”

The biggest factor affecting our community’s decision about moving to Brazil or usually is based on “how safe” the city is – due to the fact of the crime reputation Brazil has.

Here’s the antidote to the “is the city safe” question: 7 Reasons To Live In A Favela

I’m going to be straight forward and honest with you, if we live out of the fear of danger, then we should lock our doors and never leave the house.

Danger is everywhere no matter what country you are in. Denmark, the country my wife is from, is hailed as one of the “safest” countries in the world yet has one of the highest suicide rates – people don’t kill people there, they do it themselves!

The way I look at Brazil is that there are dangerous places and safe places, through if we are passionate about living life to its fullest and realize that Brazil fits the ticket, then what are we waiting for?

Fear will only hold you back from achieving your goals and on a side note, I’ve never once been involved in a violent crime since setting foot in Brazil in 2005!

3. How much Money do I need to Make?

The last and most asked question our community asks has to do with the amount of money you will need to make in order to have a decent lifestyle.

How much money will I need per month to live in Florianópolis?”

This is something I’ve covered in detail in this post , though am happy to recap.

You basically have a few different costs of living within Brazil:
1. Small/rural living (cheapest).
2. Medium city living (medium).
3. Large city living (expensive).

The general verdict is that if you are a party of 4 living in a rural city, that you could suffice with about R$4,000 a month and live well (that’s like $1,500). If you are living in a medium city then more like R$6–8,000 (around $2,200-$3,000). though if you live in a city like São Paulo or Rio, then expect to earn more like R$10–14,000 a month (like $4,000-$5,500) to live a decent lifestyle.

The above is obviously for a really comfortable lifestyle and you could live cheaper if you wanted to, though this is an area to be careful with if you are a family.

I always say that single people can live in a hole-in-a-wall somewhere and adjust their lifestyle according to their earnings, whereas us with children have a whole other set of priorities.

Final Words

The members of this community obviously ask a lot more questions and this was just an attempt and getting the biggest ones out of the way.

I’ll do my best to keep giving the best answers possible as time continues.

Oh, make sure and sign up for my newsletter below as there’s a really great announcement coming at the end of this month and you’ll only hear about it in there.

Valeu!
Kevin