Visit from the Federal Police?

I am a Brazilian married to an English man. In 2006, we decided to try out life in Brazil. Aside from the sun and good food, we wanted to spend time with Brazilian family, especially as we had recently had our first child. Our transition to Brazil was smooth and uneventful, almost enjoyable, in fact.

One thing most definitely wasn’t, however – bureaucracy. The legalities of bringing both my husband and son to Brazil to settle were time consuming, confusing and frustrating. And if it was bad for us, it sounds like things five years later are even worse.

My British friend Andy, and his Brazilian wife Rose, do amazing work with street kids in Northeast Brazil with a project called My Father’s House. (Read more here or follow Andy’s excellent blog here). Andy was first in Brazil on a tourist visa, then a volunteer visa, and now a spouse visa (or Family Reunion as the Brazilian Consulate calls it). His documents have, no doubt, been seen by a number of officials in Brazil over the past few years and yet they recently felt the need to pay him a personal visit to confirm his marriage was genuine.

‘In my day’, this step was not necessary. My husband’s documents were checked and photocopied in a government back office. We still had to wait, however. I think in the end it took almost a year for his RNE (foreign identity card) to arrive. This point symbolises the termination of the visa process and the beginning of your recognition as a citizen with full legal rights in Brazilian society. How you get to that point, however, is never straightforward or even predictable as Andy is finding out.

What are your experiences of Brazilian or British bureaucracy? Have you found it easy or difficult to get the appropriate documents for you and your family when trying to settle in a new country?  Let us know your stories.

How to help?

I found it!

Many of you, no doubt, have been following the news of the terrible flooding in Rio. Being so far away, it is hard to know how to help other than to pray for those families who were affected. In connection to this, I had been looking for a charity who operated out of the UK but with strong links and experience with grassroots organisations back in Brazil. In my view, this is often the best way to insert financial support into a complex crisis like this.

The ABC trust are a UK based organisation who have been working exclusively in Brasil within the last ten years. Their Flood Appeal page says ‘ We are in touch with some local NGO’s and councils in the region and will be sending all of the money that we raise from this appeal out to help with their efforts.’ If you are considering giving financially with respect to the flooding, we would certainly commend ABS wholeheartedly.

ABC Trust’s regular projects are in three areas: Arts and Culture, Education, and Shelter and Care, and, unusually for a charity, their work is very well distributed across all of Brasil. They do a lot in the UK to raise funds. A recent venture was Gold Challenge, a sporting initiative linked to the Olympics.