Expert: Edison - 3/17/2009

Question
Hi,
My name is Tracey, and my husband and I are in our mid thirties with decent jobs and a family of two boys ages 16 and 9. Together, we both bring in $90,000 to over $100,000 in US dollars a year from our jobs aside from what we make with our hobbies (professional photography for my husband, and restoration of vintage dolls and making Ukrainian Psanky for me with sales on Ebay).

We have been discussing the possibility of buying property and a house in Brazil, largely due to the fact that our jobs can be done remotely through Internet service and pays very decently, so it really doesn't matter where we are in the world as long as we have access to broadband Internet. What I mean to say is, we don't NEED to live in the US and would be able to live in Brazil and work with our US based employers who employ people all over the world from Australia to Canada and beyond.

The houses we are looking at are very attractive to us. I guess what I need to ask is for is how would we go about gathering information on the best places for Americans to immigrate to Brazil, as well as what we would need to do to go through it. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Answer
Hello Tracey,

My personal recommendation is to stay in USA and rent a nice condo at beach in Northeastern part of Brazil during the summer school breaks.

If you really want to move there, you should first visiting the cities that you are considering in moving to, get a work permission visa and find a good school for your kids. There are not many English speaking people and school in Brazil. And in many cities, security is a big problem.

You can get a lot of tips about living in Brazil from expatriates in theses sites:
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/living_abroad/living_in_brazil
http://www.expat-blog.com/en/directory/south-america/brazil/
http://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/brazil/

Good luck!

Edison