Living in Brazil

Another website focusing on foreigners living in Brazil, www.gingoes.com.  It has a forum, too, that looks like it will be very useful.  It’s very frustrating for me to find official and correct information about various legal issues, both because of my poor Portugeuse skills and because government documention of things just doesn’t seem very good.  For instance, for registering as a foreigner with the Federal Police, I went to their website to find a number to call to talk with someone about how to do it.  The phone number from the website referred me back to the website.  Nowhere but in the building, on a sign on the wall, did it provide the hours to go register, which cost me one wasted trip as they closed at 2pm in the afternoon.

Anyway, I’m working on getting a bank account now and I still need one more thing to do that — proof of residency — which I should be able to do now.  How is more mysterious.  An electrical bill is likely enough, but I don’t want to wait, but apparently the Federal Police can provide me a document.  I’m told the hours for this are more restrictive — 9am to noon.  And it isn’t clear which documents I need to take with me, so I will be taking all of them and hope I don’t need to print something off the web somewhere (I will look).

Crap, I’m looking into this and I wonder if all the bank wants is my RNE — Registro Nacional de Estrangeiros — which I did last month.  I have a temporary card and a number for this, which I guess does establish me as a foreign resident…hmm, no.  Looks like the banks have a separate requirement for the RNE AND “proof of residency.”  My friend who called for me emailed about “Extrato do SINCRE” which she had never heard of.  Well, one more round here.  And some more online research, which may save me a few cab rides and some confusion.

Holders of long-term visas living in Brazil need to register with the Federal Police within 30 days of entry.  Worst case scenario is probably getting hit with a R900 fine leaving the country if you don’t do it, and that’s enough threat to make me jump through some hoops.  I imagine it can be worse if you get in trouble over something else, too.

Anyway, the official websites about this, at least the ones I could find, pretty much suck.

One of the best unofficial ones is here.  It helped me get all my things straight.  They also have a link to how to find where to go in your city.

Still, it took me three days.  First I realized I needed copies made of all the pages in my passport.  I also needed a couple more passport style photos.  I also needed to print some documents — two documents to pay the fees for the registration and card fees.  That was a trip to Centro with three stops.

One trip to the Federal Police building on Ipiringa to find out that they stop taking registrations at 2pm.  This information is not on their telephone line or on their website.  Typical government B.S.

Finally, one trip with all the right documents (basically all the stuff from the visa application, plus passport with visa, and the above, plus money).  Arrived at 11AM.  Waited for an hour and a half, then had to go pay after seeing someone, and then another wait.  Finally I got fingerprinted with the gooey black ink on the official application form and was done by 1pm.  I now have a temporary registration card that I carry with my passport and entry form.

I really should get certified copies of my passport and visa and stop being risky carrying these with me.  There is a market for U.S. passports and it’s a pain to lose them, I am told.

Anyway, one more government task done.

Coming soon…I got a grant from the government to support the astronomy grad program, so I am going to need to get a bank account.  To get that I need a “CPF” number, like a social security number.  I will document that process.