I recently applied for a marriage visa (known a ‘family
reunion visa’) so that my wife and I can move to Brazil (any day now!) While not a particularly difficult process,
it takes a long time and there is a lot of red tape to navigate through. These notes should help anyone applying for a visa for Brazil, although they should be especially helpful for marriage visas, and the procedure should be similar when applying from countries other than the US.
1. Check the website of your nearest Brazilian Consulate.
This may seem obvious, but the procedure may vary depending
on your nationality and where you live so make sure you follow each
instruction. The websites are typically
easy to navigate, with good instructions in English. There will be a checklist with instructions
but the basic procedure is:
- fill out the appropriate online application form
- once that is submitted you can make an appointment for the Visa interview (ensuring you bring all necessary documentation)
- wait for the Visa to be processed
- move to Brazil
- register with the Federal Police within 3 days of arrival.
2. Identity History Summary Request
For a permanent visa, you will be required to obtain a
“non-criminal record”, issued by the FBI for visas issued in the US, which is
less than 90 days old. The instructions
on the website describe this as an “FBI Clearance Letter” and for more
information, you should visit www.fbi.gov. There are several information service
available; what you need here is an “Identity History Summary Request”, which
involves taking your finger prints and sending them to the FBI for a records
check. US citizens and permanent
residents (ie Green Card holders) can do this electronically at companies who
provide this service, called Live Scan.
All others must get a set of ink fingerprints, taken at a “local, county
or state law enforcement agency.”
I think that Live Scan gives results within days (I can’t
confirm this, though), but as I am in the US on a visa, I had to get ink
fingerprints. Here is my advice for
anyone who needs to do this
- The first thing you should know about this process is that it can take up to 14 weeks to get the results, so make sure you allow plenty of time.
- Check to see whether you need an appointment. I went to the San Jose Sheriff’s office, which is the main one for Santa Clara County. Appointments are not needed for this office, but all other Sheriff’s offices in the county require appointments, so check first.
- Check what payment options are accepted. For Santa Clara Sheriff’s offices, it’s $20, cash or cheque only. I’m not sure about other areas or agencies, but check before you go.
- Print out the fingerprint card from the FBI website. Law enforcement agencies will have their own, if you find somewhere else that does ink fingerprinting, they may not have the card, so take a printout just in case.
- When sending the forms to the FBI, check and double-check the paperwork – make sure it’s signed, has all the right information and – of course – ensure that the payment is included (cheque, money order or credit card form.)
- Finally, there is no way of checking the progress of the request, so I would recommend sending the prints by a method with a tracking number. This though occurred to me within minutes of putting the forms in the post box and would have avoided three months of wondering whether the prints had actually arrived.
3. Making the Appointment
You will need to make an appointment at the Brazilian
Consulate to obtain the visa and you should know that they WILL NOT work to
your schedule. If you need a visa to be
issued within a matter of weeks, then you need to hope like hell that there is
an appointment available.
To make the appointment, you must first fill out the online
application form (see the visa section of the website for your nearest
Brazilian consulate for the link). You
will have the option to upload electronic copies of your passport and a
passport photo if you wish.
You will only be able to access the appointments section of
the site once you have submitted your application and been given a receipt
number. Note that you must make your appointment for within 30 days of
submitting the form. For me, there were
no appointments within 5 weeks, but I didn’t have any problems – I suppose they know how quickly the appointment slots are taken.
If you are applying for a visa that requires a non-criminal
records check (see section 2) don’t worry if you have not yet received the
report, we were advised by the consulate to make an appointment anyway and if
the report were not available, we could return when it was without needing a
new appointment and without losing our place in the queue.
4. Legalised Marriage Certificate
This section obviously only applies to people applying for a
marriage visa. If your marriage was held
outside of Brazil, the Marriage Certificate must be validated by the Brazilian
Consulate under whose jurisdiction the marriage was celebrated (as we got
married in Scotland, it was validated at the consulate in London.) I would advised getting this down as soon as
possible after the marriage, especially if you move somewhere in the
jurisdiction of another consulate.
5. Proof that the applicant has been living in the jurisdiction of the consulate for the past year (only for permanent visas)
This can be a letter from your employer, utility bill
etc. My wife was required to do the same
for an “atestado de resedência” – proof that she lived outside of Brazil for at
least 12 months and thus allow her to import her personal belongings without
having to pay tax on them. For her, it
was particularly difficult as the majority of our utility bills were in my name
and numerous US visas, employment authorisation documents, housing lease
agreements were not sufficient. I would
therefore advise that each person is named on utility bills if at all possible
(eg get the electricity in one person’s name, the phone on the other person’s
name.)
6. Visa fees
The fees are listed on the website and vary by visa
type. Citizens of some countries are
required to pay a “reciprocity fee” in addition to the normal visa fee, which
is equal to that paid by Brazilians applying for visas to that country. The San Francisco website lists on the USA ad
United Arab Emirates as being required to pay reciprocity fees (respectively
$160 and $55) with no fee required for other nationalities. I was however asked for a $155 reciprocity as
a UK citizen. I was able to get in touch
with the Consul (not an easy task!) who apologised that the website was not up
to date (it still isn’t) but confirmed that there is indeed a reciprocity fee
and that I could verify on the website of the Brazilian Consulate in London.
Therefore I recommend that you check the website of the
consulate in your home country (if you live in a different country to your
citizenship) to avoid any surprise extra fees.
By the way, all consular fees (in the US at least) can only
be paid by Post Office money order, so ensure you have them in advance or be
prepared for a last minute run to the nearest
Post Office (in San Francisco, this is a couple of blocks away on Sutter
Street, I (now) know it well!)
7. Termo de Responsibilidade
This section also only applies to people applying for
marriage visas. The Brazilian partner is
required to fill out a form called “Termo de Responsibilidade” which says that
he or she will be responsible for you when in Brazil. This form must be signed in front of the
consular staff. The person we spoke to
didn’t realise this and told us we were finished, if my wife hadn’t known that
the signature had to be witnessed, we could have potentially faced more delays.
8. Notarise this, Notarise that
Everything needs to be notarised, which doesn’t really make
sense to me. They take your passport and
presumably make a copy. Then they ask
for a notarised copy of the passport (this is the same person that you just
handed your passport to) and you need to pay for the privilege too! That’s $20 please. You’ll also need $10 to sign the Termo de
Responsibilidade (section 7.) If you
don’t know about this in advance (or forget) you’ll be going back to the Post
Office.
9. Collecting your Visa
This information relates to the Consulate in San Francisco,
I have no idea whether it is the same elsewhere but it helps to be prepared –
at least you will be told when to return to collect your visa and at what
time. In San Francisco this is between
12 noon and 1pm and that’s all the information you get. After 11am, the ticket machines are turned
off and the attendant has a tendency to disappear. We waited at the machine for about 15 minutes
before my wife asked for instructions at one of the windows. We were told to take a seat near windows 1
and 2 (the visa windows) and wait to be called.
At approximately 12 noon, people collecting visas were asked to form a
line near window 1 and they would receive their visa one at a time. I was asked to have a seat and wait until the
other visas were issued as mine was a permanent visa and they had to give me
instructions for my arrival in Brazil.
10. Registering with Immigration
If you have a permanent visa, you are required to register
with immigration at a Polícia Federal office within 30 days of arriving in
Brazil, taking the approved application form that was given to you when you
received the visa. As I write this, I am
still in the US awaiting my departure to Brazil so there isn’t much to say at
this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment