Expert: Ken Rapoza Cruz - 9/7/2006

Question
I am thinking of marrying a Brazilian woman in Rio de Janeiro.  I figure there are 3 options for permanent visa: 1. retirement visa; 2. by marriage; 3. overstaying on a tourist visa.
What do you recommend as the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to go?  On a retirement visa, do you have to be retired before applying or only show you have the necessary conditions and paperwork?  What are the consequences of overstaying a tourist visa?  Thank you.

Answer
I have neve rheard of a retirement visa so I cant help you with that. If you overstay your tourist visa, you will be requied to pay a fine upwards of $100 to $200 when you leave the country, or when you return the next time. Refusal to pay will have you turned back at your next arrival in Brazil.  

If you are really going to marry a Brazilian girl in Brazil, then you and your new wife have to go to the "cartorio" and register this marriage as legal. Then you take all of those documents and show them to the Federal Police to start the process of applying for your permanent visa.  This will take some time. It is much faster to apply for one at a Brazilian conulate in the U.S., but that might require you to marry her in the US and bring here there for a while.  Now, if you marmry in Brazil and get all your legal documents proving you are married, then go to the Fed Policy immigration dept with those docs to apply for that perm visa, they will then give you this strip of paper taht goes into your passport and serves as your temporary perm visa ID.  DO NOT LOSE THE ORIGINAL!! It will be like losing a green card.  With that ID you can apply for a CPF.  You cannot apply for a RNE card, "Foreign National Resident" until you have your passport stamped perm resident.  This would make it difficult for you to find work, I supppose, but not as difficult as you might think.

K