Student Visa or Tourist Visa?

Hi Sharris,

First of all neither a VITUR Tourist Visa nor a VITEM-IV Student Visa permit remunerated work by the visa holder. The government is quite strict about that and it is also very difficult to find work at any rate unless you have a CPF and you must produce your passport in order to obtain a CPF.

Another thing you should consider, while you may be able to find an "under the table" job teaching English here, it is exactly this that many schools count on in order to pay near slave wages to their foreign teachers.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

Thank you for your reply Mr. Woodward!
So may I ask you then, Is there any way to work legally without getting a "work permit visa?"
What do most people do?? Thank you!!

A very limited number of International Schools will assist qualified teachers in the immigration process, with visa assistance, but they are really in the minority.

A VITUR only permits you to be in the country for a maximum of 180 days per "rolling" one year time block - no exceptions.

A VITEM-IV Student Visa may either be issued for the duration of a (short) qualifying course or more likely 90 day periods which can be extended for longer courses. One must submit proof of enrollment/attendance in order to renew, but this could permit much longer stays. However the cost of the course and renewals of the visa must be factored in.

I'd personally suggest that you find some other kind of work that would allow you to obtain a VITEM-V Work Visa. You can always augment your income by teaching on top of any other job.

Many schools here are quite unscrupulous, they will hire undocumented people with no teaching experience and no qualifications on a "service provider contract" so they aren't employees. It is still an illegal practice, but they use it in order to take advantage of the worker, pay sub-standard wages and give no benefits. If the person is caught working the school then just cuts all ties, they claim they had no knowledge of the lack of documents and leave the worker to face the consequences alone.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

wjwoodward wrote:

Many schools here are quite unscrupulous, they will hire undocumented people with no teaching experience and no qualifications on a "service provider contract" so they aren't employees. It is still an illegal practice, but they use it in order to take advantage of the worker, pay sub-standard wages and give no benefits. If the person is caught working the school then just cuts all ties, they claim they had no knowledge of the lack of documents and leave the worker to face the consequences alone.

Hi James, what type of schools would hire someone that does not speak much Portuguese. I have been thinking about doing this to help kill off some boredom. Don't you think I would need to speak fluent Portuguese to teach English? I am a documented worker so they may not be interested.


Matt-

Hi Matt,

Actually many schools like SKILL, CCAA, CNA, Fisk and others prefer that their teachers don't speak much Portuguese. They want ENGLISH ONLY in the classrooms and they train English speakers in their own methodology, so they don't really even care about previous teaching experience or qualifications.

You do however need SOME Portuguese in order to communicate with the students in out-of-classroom activities, but that should be no big problem.

They don't pay well, but if you pass their (rather infantile) pre-hire test you should have no problem getting offered a job.

Cheers,
James

I am with James on this. Most schools in the big cities will hire undocumented English speakers. Also, you can find a good clientele doing you own business in a lot of areas.

However, there is also an option of a work-study program offered at some few of the major universities in Brazil. Wages are no better though. Paperwork would be a huge hassle too.

Hi Sharris,

Sorry for not answering your question earlier, with everything that has been going on in my life right now it just slipped by me. So here goes, better late than never.

The only way to obtain a Carteira de Trabalho e Previdência Social (CTPS) is to have either a VITEM-V Work Visa or a VIPER Permanent Visa, sorry to tell you.

The only exception to the above that I'm aware of is if you apply for a Permanent Visa based on marriage to a Brazilian or permanent resident, or if you have a Brazilian born child in those cases the right to work is automatic upon application.

Of course anyone being granted asylum/refugee status in Brazil is also entitled to obtain a CTPS too.

Can a student visa be converted into work-visa? And what are the requirements for doing so?

No, they are two entirely different visa categories. You cannot "transform" a VITEM-IV Student Visa into a VITEM-V Work Visa.

You can LOOK for a job, and you can even apply for a VITEM-V Work Visa from within Brazil (through the Ministério de Trabalho e Empregos - MTE), BUT you would still need to return to your homeland to actually receive the visa, you need to pick it up personally at the Consulado-Geral do Brasil in your homeland, because it must be put in your passport by them. This is just part of the crazy bureaucracy of this country.

Cheers,
James          Expat-blog Experts Team