So we are almost there! (I feel like I've said this already some stages ago..)
We had our permanent visas approved a month ago, and went to the Federal Police 2 weeks ago to get the stamp in our passports, hand in our Temporary RNE's and pick up the RNE Protocolo - the piece of paper with your photo and a stamp. I say "almost there" because it will take another 9 months before we get our Permanent RNE's... but it's the start to the end (of the process), or I should say the start to the start of living here properly.
You can't just turn up to the Federal Police. Renata, our agent, made an appointment for us as soon as she was back in the city. The Federal Police were (are) on strike so I thought it was going to take forever - and it did. We were the first to arrive for the appointed time - though we would've been pushed to the front of the queue with the girls (rent-a-child-for-federal-police-visits would be a great business idea). It's up on the second floor still but they have opened up the office so it's so much more spacious. You can watch the process taking place over half They said only one person could go in so Tim took all the documents assuming they would process everything together.
45 minutes later after a lot of shoulder shrugging and questions he walked out and then it was my turn, with Sophie. It turns out we had the one trainee who had to question everything (i.e. you were born in England but you are British, is this the same question... and unsurprisingly, she asked the same question for Sophie). The delay was because my first visa was stamped in my old passport, but since then it's expired and I obviously have a new one. There was a big discussion about where my new visa should be stamped. To me it was common sense that it should be in my new one, since the other one is technically expired and I don't want to carry it all the time.. but of course, it went in my old one.
It took 3 hours but in comparison to my first visits when I use to leave in tears, out of frustration, this was a walk in the park. Straight after we were interviewed by Band FM Radio. They dedicate their Thursday evening sessions to interviewing expats who live in Sao Paulo. I was quite nervous as it was going to be all in Portuguese and the questions were off the cuff but she reassured me that the listeners love all the silly mistakes foreigners make... It ended up being a lot of fun talking about our lives here, how much I love Brazilians (my Brazilian friends told me off for that), traffic and food. They are always looking for people to interview, so if you think your Portuguese is up to scratch drop me an email and I can put you in touch with them.
In the meantime we'll be working on driving licenses and registering my cupcake company, so this is not the end of my blogging about Brazilian bureaucracy!
We had our permanent visas approved a month ago, and went to the Federal Police 2 weeks ago to get the stamp in our passports, hand in our Temporary RNE's and pick up the RNE Protocolo - the piece of paper with your photo and a stamp. I say "almost there" because it will take another 9 months before we get our Permanent RNE's... but it's the start to the end (of the process), or I should say the start to the start of living here properly.
You can't just turn up to the Federal Police. Renata, our agent, made an appointment for us as soon as she was back in the city. The Federal Police were (are) on strike so I thought it was going to take forever - and it did. We were the first to arrive for the appointed time - though we would've been pushed to the front of the queue with the girls (rent-a-child-for-federal-police-visits would be a great business idea). It's up on the second floor still but they have opened up the office so it's so much more spacious. You can watch the process taking place over half They said only one person could go in so Tim took all the documents assuming they would process everything together.
45 minutes later after a lot of shoulder shrugging and questions he walked out and then it was my turn, with Sophie. It turns out we had the one trainee who had to question everything (i.e. you were born in England but you are British, is this the same question... and unsurprisingly, she asked the same question for Sophie). The delay was because my first visa was stamped in my old passport, but since then it's expired and I obviously have a new one. There was a big discussion about where my new visa should be stamped. To me it was common sense that it should be in my new one, since the other one is technically expired and I don't want to carry it all the time.. but of course, it went in my old one.
It took 3 hours but in comparison to my first visits when I use to leave in tears, out of frustration, this was a walk in the park. Straight after we were interviewed by Band FM Radio. They dedicate their Thursday evening sessions to interviewing expats who live in Sao Paulo. I was quite nervous as it was going to be all in Portuguese and the questions were off the cuff but she reassured me that the listeners love all the silly mistakes foreigners make... It ended up being a lot of fun talking about our lives here, how much I love Brazilians (my Brazilian friends told me off for that), traffic and food. They are always looking for people to interview, so if you think your Portuguese is up to scratch drop me an email and I can put you in touch with them.
In the meantime we'll be working on driving licenses and registering my cupcake company, so this is not the end of my blogging about Brazilian bureaucracy!
Hey huge congrats on getting your permanent visas! Sarah and I moved here in January of this year and we have been trying to get her a permanent visa since we got here. Every time we would take all the papers we thought we had to have after running around the entire city trying to get the right stamps and what not. We ended up having to make two trips to the US to get our Marriage Certificate verified.
ReplyDeleteWe finally got all the right paperwork submitted in July about 4 days before she was going to be required to leave the country. Now we are just waiting. We have heard that here in Recife most people applying for it don't even get their interview for a year...
It is a very frustrating process...but she has her stamp that allows her to stay and she can now start going through the rest of the steps to get a bank account, license etc.
Check out our musings here tobyandsarahonthemove.blogspot.com
Thanks! will definitely have a look at your blog
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