What do you Wish you Knew Before Moving to Brazil

Great topic I am interested to learn new things I am considering moving to rio

I wish that I had better information about moving my possessions to Brazil. I used a company out of Chicago and my small shipment of limited goods (two large boxes) was stolen en route to me in the northeast of Brazil.

I also wish that I had chosen a better home-banking-solution because my stateside bank really has failed me by providing no support whatsoever - it even blocks web traffic from Brazil due to "safety issues."

I also wish that I had (15 years ago) better sources of practical information for getting basic things up and running rather than having to figure it out by myself - some times not very well figured out - or with the help of people that were poorly informed. My driver's license, for example, took me 4 years to resolve and it isn't such a complicated thing.

There is a lot of experience represented here on these Brazil Forum pages that will make your move easier.

Be prepared before you come and your relocation will be much smoother.

mberigan

@nicegy31 same here because so far, my research hasn’t been very encouraging. lol.

@john8670 I see you have a dog. i have a doodle thats the same size and another that's more medium-sized. What was it like to bring yours with you? I want to bring mine with me, but it seems like a nightmare.

Thank you for your input.

02/22/24 Be prepared before you come and your relocation will be much smoother.mberigan        -@mberigan

Words to live by, and that will make the living much easier and more pleasant!

There are only two ways to do most things in Brazil:  The Brazilian Way, and The Way that Doesn't Work, which is everything else.  Work with the Brazilian Way, and it will usually work with you eventually; work against it or ignore it, and you'll probably deal yourself a ration of grief.

If you're using a mover, use one with Brazil experience.  When I was looking for a mover, my first question was, "Have you ever moved anybody to Brazil?" If they said "no", I thanked them and moved on.   You do NOT want to pay for somebody else's education with your stuff.  When I asked the question and the guy on the other end started laughing and said, "I used to think that China was the hardest move I'd ever managed, but then I moved someone to Brazil!", I knew that I'd found the right people.

Checklists, checklists, checklists!  I had one for my home sale, one for disposing of my household goods in the US, one for travel arrangements, one for the movers, one for establishing residency with the Polícia Federal, one for setting up our house in Brazil.  They were all Word docs, lived on my laptop, and were with me everywhere.  If I was in the middle of doing something else and remembered something, I stopped and added it.  Good checklists save your bacon more often than I can say and besides, checking things off feels so good.

The movers will probably want to use your towels for packing, so let them and don't give them away.  You'll be glad you have them.  I certainly was, and they weren't in my plan.

Know whether the current where you'll be living is 220V or 127V.  Unless they're bivolt, your US and Canadian appliances will work on the second and blow on the first, so plan accordingly.  Transformers are expensive and heavy, and never seem to work really well anyway.

If you're bringing Queen or King size beds, bring the bedspreads and bedclothes, too.  The Brazilian versions tend to be smaller.

In most of Brazil, the only wheat flour you'll be able to get is the equivalent of All-Purpose Flour.  Any baking more ambitious than simple things is a challenge.  What's sold here as "Cake Flour" is made of rice, not a softer wheat, and behaves ... differently.

Dishes are fine here, but bring serving pieces and kitchen gadgets, which are noticeably lacking.  And oddly enough, a drainboard:  that flat tray that goes under the drying rack for the dishes and carries the water back to the sink that, if you're like me, you've barely thought about ever before in your life.  Brazil still hasn't thought of that simple yet brilliant invention.  If you like your flatware, let the movers pack that, too.  It's not necessary, but it's probably better quality than you can get here.

Checklists..........and checklists of your numerous individual checklists.........agree 100% !!!

Start learning Portuguese ASAP as well.......it's never to early.......and it should be priority #1 IMHO.

@Gasparzinho 777 I use 3 different apps and my wife to learn Portuguese.  I am looking into courses here but we will probably be leaving sao paulo after my CRNM arrives for sao carlos.  So I am holding back on the class room courses. I am understand and read/write decent...speaking is harder for me it will come with more practice.  However, learn as much of the language as you can as soon as you can is great advice.

Watch TV......IMHO it's the best thing you can do as you see the action, the object, and hear the words......it took me 10 years to get to the point where I could do anything, anywhere in Rio, without my wife beside me.......

When Cariocas remark about my fluency I say that I have a "sotaque do Rede Globo".......kkkkkkkk

@Gasparzinho 777 I found a streaming site that is in Portuguese.  My wife likes it and since I have seen many of the movies in english I can understand what it is about.

Ruim par cachorro....muito coco, muito xixi. It is a new movie called strays about dogs

@abthree This one also brought me out of hiding.

The EXPAT.COM community needs an almost official list of

"What Documents to Have Before You Move to Brazil"

Since as you probably know by now i am stuck in the USA straining out a document, not to mention someone who has returned to the USA TWICE for the FBI Background Check and Fingerprints, this would be a world of help for those before they get on the plane.

Roddie in Retirement

    Looking back, what do you wish you had known before moving to Brazil, and what advice would you give to expats considering making the move?
   

    -@john8670

Fluent Portuguese... I speak broken Portuguese. Enough to get around just fine, but it limits friendship potential and so forth. That said, sometimes you can't wait for everything to be perfect to make a change.