Foreign Citizen with an Employment Contract - NR64 (Now called RN80)
Getting a work visa for Brazil can be a complicated venture, but with some time and patience it’s quite possible. I had a huge amount of trouble finding information on the subject and often the information I received was wrong or out of date.
My Situation
I have been to Brazil 8 times in the last 3 and 1/2 years (I have spent something like 6 months there on and off on tourists Visa) and on my last visit I was offered a position with a US Company with a Brazilian division. After accepting the role, it was time to start the process of trying to get a Visa, so here’s the information on what I did.
Obtained from various sources:
“In order to obtain a work visa, a work permit application must be sent to the local Ministry of Labour and Employment (Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego) office by the company wishing to employ the foreigner. Once the application has been approved, the approval is published in the Diario Oficial (Brazilian legal newspaper) and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will then authorise the Consulate or Embassy to begin to process the work visa.
Temporary Visa with a company tie (Visto Temporario V):
This visa is granted to an individual whose qualifications and/or experience clearly demonstrate that his skills set is unique and there is no Brazilian citizen who can assume the role he is intended to perform in the country. This requirement will be rigorously investigated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego).
Due to this stipulation, this visa is usually issued to technicians or skilled workers employed by a foreign-based company with activities in Brazil.
The visa is issued for an initial period of two years with the option to extend it for another two years should the need arise. Following this four-year period, the company has the option of applying for the visa to become permanent.”
Essentials
If you are going for the Temporary work visa, you absolutely need a job offer in Brazil and you need to have the company in Brazil file all of your paperwork there when you are ready to apply for the Visa.
Process
The basic process is as follow:
- You get a job offer.
- You need to supply your documentation (Notarised and Legalised and Translated) to the Misistry of Labour in Brasil.
- They investigate and make a decision.
- If accepted you go to the Consulate in your home country, pay the feee and get your Visa.
Sounds simple in process, but there are a few things you can do to make your life far easier!
Important point: Everything will take longer than you think, this is not a quick process and it is as times very involved, just be prepared to put in a bit of work.
Documentation
Finding your documentation is difficult enough, but figuring out how to make it legal and useful really stressed me out. All documentation needs to be legalised, this is the process of physically sending (or taking) the documentation to the consulate, paying a fee and having it authenticated as being a real, legal document. The prices differ depending on what you are legalising.
The other issue you will no doubt come across is any pieces of paper with a signature on them, in my case a letter of recommendation from my Managing director. You absolutely MUST get this notarized before sending it to the consulate. Your local lawyers will be able to help you find a notary – they basically just observe the signature being made, and stamp / emboss the paper with their seal to confirm it was signed by the person mentioned on the paper. If they are not registered with the consulate, you will need a sample of their signature to send with it. In my case it cost me £72 for a 5 minute process, should have been a lawyer!
You are providing your documentation to show your suitability for the role, the more the better, you need to make a valid case for your employment and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is preferential to employ you rather than a Brazilian.
So in my case I sent the following (originals and photocopies) to the consulate (Price the Consulate charged me):
- My University Certificate (£4)
- Transcript of University Degree (£4)
- My College Certificate (£4)
- Letter of Recommendation (16)
- Copy of the last two pages of my Passport (£8)
*My Passport too, so they could verify the copy.
I sent it Via Special delivery, it took a week to get back to me. You have to include a Self Addressed Envelope inside so they can mail it back. The consulate sends the documents back with an embossed stamp and their seal to prove that they are legal documents in the UK and not forgeries.
They are supposed to send back the originals unmarked and the copies legalised, but in my case for some unknown reason they decided to legalise the originals and leave the photocopies untouched, I did not have time to go through the whole process again, so I just mailed the original off to Brasil.
The next steps are to get your documents off to Brasil and have them translated, then to start the application…. Part two follows.
Useful Links:
Ministry of Labour
Brazilian Consulate (London)
Information about Temporary Visa – Brasilian Consulate
