Total SP guia

So I've been living in Sao Paulo for almost 8 months now and have just discovered Total SP!!

I found their guide book in Anna's bookshelf and read it front to back in one sitting. It's a great little guide for Sao Paulo - if you're moving here, or if you're just coming for a weekend visit (though you'd need more than a weekend to check out all their recommendations). I've already picked up 3 of them - a copy for ourselves (I think Anna would notice if we had stolen hers) and a couple as cute little presents.

I had to hunt them down - Livraria Cultura, supposedly the biggest bookshop in Brazil, didn't have a copy but I found them in a little boutique bookshop off Oscar Friere. The shopkeeper asked me if I knew the authors as he knew them personally himself. I like that they are a little more homegrown than your Lonely Planets or Rough Guides. All our weekends in Sao Paulo 2011 are already planned!

They also have an online guide with updates.

http://totalspguide.com/

Gazumped!

Bugger, have lost the house we wanted to buy. Does anyone want to sell their house in Alto de Pinheiros / Pinheiros?

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas weekend! Will post about our weekend later x

Feliz Natal!

So we are finally back in Brazil, after a month of travelling to the Middle East, Hong Kong and Australia for weddings and Tim's work, with our visas and CPF intact! The last (..) bit of paperwork is Tim's 'carteira de trabalha' but we are finally able to start living live here in Sao Paulo.

Since the last post we have decided to buy a house. We found a house in Alto de Pinheiros which needs a lot of work done. We had to take some time to decide whether we are prepared for more bureaucratic headache.... and we decided yes, what better way to learn Portuguese even faster! Tim found an agent to take us around some of the houses in the area. We already decided we want to stay in Pinheiros to make Tim's commute much more bearable. At the moment we are house sitting in Jardins and it can take him upwards of 1.5 hours just one way (bearing in mind it is Christmas season here so traffic is even worse).

We were recommended a couple of architects by friends, one didn't bother to show up so that helped us make the choice. There is a bit of work to be done on the house and she estimates 4-6 months - which I'm translating as 1 - 2 years... see, I'm learning patience albeit slowly!!

Tim has hired a lawyer who has put the initial offer in for us so let's see where this takes us in 2011.

Sao Paulo has lots of Xmas lights and decorations up along Av Paulista and there is a light show in Parque Ibirapuera. We are starting our christmas traditions as a family in sunny Brazil - hunting down recipes for mulled wine, mince pies and christmas pudding which I have managed to make all from scratch has actually been quite satisfying. Apparently the supermarket Casa Santa Lucia has lots of imported stuff but not quite prepared to pay Rs $40 for a box of mince pies... 

It's common for most people to stay with families over Christmas (our nanny is having Xmas with her family - all 70 of them!) and everyone travels to the beach for New Years. We're going to do the opposite this year so we're not stuck in 10-12 hour traffic jams to get to the beach which is technically only an hour away... so we are planning on staying put in Brazil. No more flying! We are off to Paraty for Christmas weekend to have some family / beach time and probably chilling in Sao Paulo for New Years Eve. Will remember to take some pictures of us drinking mulled wine on the beach this weekend...

Merry Christmas, Feliz Natal and Happy Holidays to all!!

Obtaining a CPF in Sao Paulo

Thought it might be helpful to post the instructions that we have received for applying for our CPF. The CPF is an Individual's Taxpayers number and from what we have experienced, you need it for everything - to open a bank account, rent an apartment, book flights online, utilities!! So we are desperate to get ours as soon as possible. Will post again once we have managed to get ours...

1st: Pay the Fee (R$5,50) at Banco do Brasil. Documents to be presented: copy of identification page of the passport and its sworn Translation*

2st: After 48 hours of the payment, the following documents must be presented at Receita Federal: copy of identification page of the passport and its sworn Translation, paid Fee.

The CPF number will be given at the moment of request. The card will be sent to the address informed within 90 days.

Two places to register for CPF are:

Praça do Carmo, s/nº - São Paulo - SP (utilize a saída do Metrô Sé da Rua Anita Garibaldi).
Av. do Contorno, 60 - São Paulo -SP (ao Lado da Estação Corinthians-Itaquera do Metrô).

More information on the CPF is here.


*Update: The passport only needs to be translated if someone else is doing it on your behalf
Update 2: Sophie's CPF can only be done once ours are done as we need to submit our numbers as a part of her application
Update 3: A friend told me today that she had to have a translation of the ID page of her passport for the Receita Police...

Final visit to the Policia Federal!

Just a quick update on where we are as of today. We received Sophie's passport back with the correction this morning and decided to try the Federal Police today. We arrived just before11am and there was only one person in the queue! The guy remembered us and told us to wait, saying it would be quite quick....

We met another couple who I remembered from the last time as well. Nice to know that there are other people in the same boat.

Sophie's passport came back at 12:15 with the protocol - FINALLY!!

So now on to the CPF, registering our baba (nanny), opening a bank account, finding an apartment, buying a car, shipping our things over from London, finding an escolinha for Sophie.... lots more paperwork and patience required!

An update on the update

We went to the Federal Police on Monday morning in the hope that, with Tuesday being a public holiday (Dias das Criancas), it would be a little quieter. We arrived at 8am when they open the doors with Sophie. Having a baby works wonders as you can usually go straight to the front of the queue, or be let in first, without any complaints. *

We were told to sit and wait... 3 hours later Tim came back with Sophie's application... her birth date had been entered incorrectly on their system!! They refused to give her her protocol but we got ours back. We were really disappointed that we still didn't have it all done. We have to send her passport off for a re-correction and go back to the Federal Police one more time.

They are little slips of paper with all our details on and apparently we will be sent our RNE number in a week or so.

Off to try and register for our CPF this afternoon at the post office based on the information here. Without a CPF we have been unable to arrange for any utility bills in our names so let's see how I get on with just our rental agreement...


* I've heard that some people start queuing from about 2am...

Update on RNE

Tough day to write this blog, have been a bit quiet on the blog because we are still dealing with crap associated with moving to this great country. I have a friend in London asking me for visa advice here and I am having to tell him to try someone else because our experience has been pretty bad.

I think jaime updated that we now have visas, but the fun does not stop there. The next step is to register with the Federal Police, get finger prints taken and get an ID card. Well, I got there, stood in-line from just before 7am and it was interesting to talk to some of the folk there. One interesting guy was getting his paperwork on the amnesty programme they have from time to time, he had arrived illegally from Venezuela some time in the early 90s after he had his passport stolen there, he said it was impossible to get a replacement there so that is what brought him here.

Anyhow after waiting in line and running off to the cartorio one more time to get another document (that was not on our list) notarised, we thought we had cracked it. However, the visa we were given in Argentina has a mistake on it and that has brought everything to a complete halt and will send me to another branch of the government on Monday. It is annoying just because it is such a small and petty thing and there are around 30 numbers listed in this small box at the bottom of the visa. The consulate input one of them wrong and we are stuck.

I hate to think what the running tally is of expenses related to this visa but it is getting very big.  My advice to anyone would be that is seems to be fine to move here with a big multinational with a great agent etc, but for those trying to join a small firm, or a start up like me, is to prepare yourself for battle.