Expert: Ken Rapoza Cruz - 4/8/2010

Question
QUESTION: I am very concerned about my daughter.  She has married a Brazilian and they were trying to get a visa for him to stay in the u.s. but were unsuccessful due to his not following INS rules when he was a teenager.  He was sent back in January.  She has a medically needy son who right now is doing well but has a genetic disease that could cause problems later in life.  His doctors are in the u.s.   I am concerned that he would not get the treatment needed in Brazil.  Her husband is residing outside of Sao Paulo right now where he has a house.   My daughter has a great job in hospitality and has worked her way up in a restaurant.  She does not speak Portuguese well at all.   We are working on the INS side but am concerned that she may have to move there.  Please provide me with the pros and cons for living in Brazil as an American...again she will be in the suburbs of Sao Paulo...not sure of the name of the town.  I need more info on the economy there, the chance of job placement, the education for the little one, the medical care, the threats of violence, illness, etc. etc.  Any help you can give...we want her to stay here...she has been raised in the states and her husband would like to come back...but it has been very very difficult for her raising a one year old alone and working primarily nights...of course I realize many mothers do that...we all miss her husband alot.   Any advise would be appreciated.

ANSWER: You have a problem. Are they married? Legally married? And does she live in the US and he lives in Brazil? IF they are legally married, then they should be able to prove that to the INS and Dept of Homeland Sec and that should bring him to the US.  For that, you will need a good immigration lawyer. Otherwise, you can try yourself, but you will be climbing a very steep mountain given that he has committed visa fraud in the past.

There are a lot of questions I have about your story; mainly -- are they still married despite living separate since January? Is the son his? What does he do for a living? Where does he live?
Maybe he is very rich (doubt it) andn lives in Alphaville. There, you can have it all. Best doctors, English language schools if you want. You name it. But if he is living someplace else, and works as a painter or a carpenter or a mechanic, then she will have a more convenient and better life in the US, and so will her son.

I lived in Sao Paulo. I earned 56,000 USD annually and paid around $1700 a month in rent costs to live in a very very nice neighborhood. My kids went to school across the street. It cost me $800 a month to put them there! But my wife worked at the school so I paid nothing after a few months. We had a heated swimming pool in our building (google Edificio Bretagne + Higienopolis). We woke up to small parrots every day. We had a community, organized Halloween parties, easter egg hunts, Christmas parties, I even threw small Thanksgiving parties with people in th ebuilding. It was, by American standards, a very good life. We didnt get around too much because it is expensive and my wife doesnt like to drive in Sao Paulo, a city of 22 million, and the third largest metropolis on the planet, double the size of NYC. Ther eare extremely rich people there. And very poor, but they dont live anywhere near me.  If her husband is me, and she is a school teacher, making a miserable $12,000 a year, she can live extremely well on a mid class USA salary of 56 to 60k a year (over R$90,000 given current exchange rate). If her hubby does not make that kind of money, then she will not live like that. Im 100% Portuguese. I grew up in a Portuguse Brazilian culture, though I was born and raised in the USa, and so were my parents (immigrant kids). Brazil was and is not foreign to me like it is to your typical American. I dont know how adventurous she is. I dont know how easy she can pick up learning a languange.

But if that is not important to her. If her husband makes at least R$60,000 a year -- at LEAST -- then she should be fine, depending on where they live. Brazil has great doctors, depending on the hospitals. I never had a problem.  

If she does not have Portuguese language skills, she wont get a job. She MIGHT find something teaching English. Might. But she will struggle without the language skills to back her up. And the pay will be rotten, barely enough to help her hubby pay the bills. No full time school would hire her without a Masters degree and Brazil teaching experience plus fluency in Portuguese. The best she could do would be an English language school, as in a school that just teaches English. The English Only private schools that teach all courses in English, and not just the language, will require teaching degrees as these are schoolss for the rich and famous and children of foreigners. Avg tuition cost: $25,000 a year. Forget it. My kids go to Sion, a great catholic school next door to my house.

I woudl advise you get an immigration lawyer to get him back. Especially if the son is his, and especially if he actualy WANTS to go back to the US. I cant imagine he is making decent money and unless he is living in Campinas or a nice small city in Sao Paulo state, then he is stuck out hte outskirts of Sao Paulo city, which will be really tough. Not in terms of crime, but just logistics, schools, hospitals. Depends where you live, but it will be nothing at all like the US. Where I live, is as good or better than the US in many regards. But the outskirts of Sao Paulo...not easy. And Sao Paulo is not liveable if you have to commmte and make a crappy pay check.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your response.  It has been very helpful.  In response to your questions. They were married in 2008 and are still married.  Their son is theirs and he is 18 months old..  The husband works in construction and makes fairly good money apparently.  He lives in Anapolis Goias.  He owns his own home there. They filed all the paperwork needed to have him stay here and hired an immigration lawyer that did nothing for them.  They do not necessarily have the $10,000 required to hire another.  If you know of this area please let me know.  We do not want to lose our daughter...from the U.S.   Her husband does want to come back very much...he is teary everytime we speak to him.  Thank goodness for computers though as we are able to see and talk to him via computer cams and facebook, email, etc.  It doesn't make it any easier for my daughter though and frankly she is very depressed and struggling.  To think we all came as immigrants to America and it is so difficult to get GOOD people in while the bad people seem to have no problems...very upsetting.  I am concerned for my grandson, daughter and the family.  Right now it appears as if she will not have much choice if something isn't done soon.  Thanks

Answer
I think you need to HOUND that immigration lawyer. What did he tell you? Did he explain the law to you? All law is open to interpretation. Does his past fraud mean he cannot come to the US on a family reunion visa? When was his past fraud committed? YOu said when he was a teen. How old is he now? From what I understand, once kicked out from visa fraud, it is 10 years from when the fraud was committed, not from when you were kicked out. If it is 10 years from when you were kicked out, what does the law say about someone who is married to an American with an American son? Did the lawyer answer those questions for you? If not you need to call your senator's office.  What state are you in? Call your local senator and ask to speak to someone there who deals with immigration law. Tell them your case. Use them as a reference.

The other option for your daughter is to go to Brazil and immediately start setting up appointments with the consulate to find out how she and her husband can return to the US with their son. This could take a year, or two, but she will get back there.

You said he lived in Sao Paulo, but now you say he lives in Goias. Goias I dont know about. I know as much about Anapolis as you can find out about it on a Google search.

Goaias is home to the state capital and agriculturally rich. It is one of the top six rich states in Brazil, along with Sao Paulo, Rio, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, so you wont have problem finding decent living conditions, IF her husband makes good money. Figure he needs to make R$50,000 to R$60,000 annually at least or I would be suspect. It is not a place where there are lots of foreigners, so your daughter will be a fish out of water. She will hae to learn portuguese and so will your grandchild. IF he has good healthcare and not SUS, she and hour grandson should be fine. Mid sized cities like this in ag powerhouse states are generally in very good shape. I lived in a 500k city in the interior of Brazil and they had everything. My two daughters were born there with zero complications. Top notch medical facilties. I know a guy who had major heart surgery there, saved his life. So...there you have it.

Brazil is modernizing and is very high tech. I dont think you would have any problem finding care for your grandson, unless he has some odd disease that no one has eer heard of. Then in that case, he might also have problems in the deep south, or in the interior of Iowa or Wyoming.

My first thing would be to hound your lawyer. He failed you miserably if he did not answer those questions above. Second, call your senator and ask to speak to their immigration officer. Every senator has one. At least Ted Kennedy and John Kerry do in MA.Maybe if you are in some state that is  not immigrant friendly, they might not bother with it, then youare out of luck and only a lawyer can help you. You will need to spend 10k to get a better one, or your daughter will have to move to Brazil and you will have to work this out with the consulate or better yet, the Embassy, as you will bbe closer to Brasilia, the nation's capital.

I think that if she has to go to Braizl now with a young boy, now is the time. Your grandson will learn another language in a very important country in the Americas. I dont know how old he is. Im guessinng under five and not yet in school, right? A language that is similar to spanish, so when he is a teen and wants to study a language intellectually, Spanish will come easily. If her husband is making a good middle class wage, they WILL be fine in a mid sized city. Id be more cautious in Sao Paulo, where life is VERY expensive (think NYC). But Anapolis is probably like living in a smaller and unpopular city, like Pittsburg or even Memphis -- both have all you need, but are not Boston, NY, LA or San Fran.

Brazil is a good country. In a worst case scenario...she wont be going to a hell hole. IF he earns a middle class wage and can support a family there in his home, they will do fine. And iff it means they are there for a year, or two, your grandson will be bilingual in no time and then, they can return.  Dont panic. Hound that lawyer.

Look, personally, it will be hard. Your grandson probaly does not speak Portuguese. He will not have any affordable english language schoolss. If he is going to school, it will have to be a Portuguese language school, and if he wants a good one, it will probably have to be private (about $150 a month, is my guess.)

I know that you will be very sad if your daughter and grandson leave for Brazil. It is far away. I know. My parents were very sad when I left with their only grandchild to live in Sao Paulo five long years ago. Then I had another one, and she never lived in the US, only visited for about two months a year. My daughters are bilingual. With travel to the US religiously, eery yere, for long periods of time, they have maintained solid relationships with family and friends. They speak two languages fluently, and now, we are moving back to teh US, back near my family. The same can happen to you. Just knoww...youll see her again, if fyou both want to make it happen, y ou will make it happen. I spent at least $5,000 a year in international flights. You make it happen. You pay for part of it, he pays for part of it. It gets done. It works. Ther ear epeople whoh live in Indiana who never see their family in California. I saw my family more than those people, and so did my girls, and they lived 10,000 miles away on the other side of the planet.

I promise you, it's not the end of the world. She will find good doctors in Brazil in a small city. I hope he has a health plan. Now it is up to him to set that stuff up. He needs to find schools. He needs to find a good health plan and doctor for HIS son. And if she moves in July, she comes back from Christmas and stays for a month. Trust me,s he wont be working. And he will be on school vacation if he hs old enough. They can revisit their US doctors. The  Brazil docs probably can communicate in English to his docs p there if need be.  Breath in and breath out and ... hound that damn lawyer will ya?

Good luck.