Permanent Visa & Work permit

If you actually were issued the VIPER Permanent Visa then you are permitted to be out of the country for up to two years and still retain permanent status. That will be determined by the exit and entry dates stamped in your passport.

Once you've been issued a VIPER then you can get the Ministério de Trabalho to stamp your Carteira de Trabalho as permanent too.

Unfortunately if you did not receive the VIPER and were only granted Permanência Provisória for 2 years, you should have applied within that two year period to transform it into Permanência Definitiva. If this is the case you are only permitted to be out of the country for up to 90 days at a time. If you stay longer than that permanency is cancelled and you must start all over again.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

I actually have the VIPER permanent status and i am allowed to be out of the country for 2 years.
The thing is to stamp my carteira de trabalho, i need a valid carteira de identidade do estrangeiro and mine is expired as it was a temporary one and i am still waiting for the permanent one to be issued in Brasilia (the process is longer as i changed twice addresses in Brazil and they had to do a second one)
I can not afford to wait in Rio without working waiting for that new card to be issued. I need to renew ( stamp) my carteira de trabalho in 2 days and start working.
Would they, at the Policia Federal of Rio de Janeiro, give me a certidao (certificate) that i could take to the ministerio do trabalho for them to stamp my carteira de trabalho?
I tried to call the DPF in Rio several times but it is very difficult to have them on the phone.
Thank you so much.

When your VIPER was issued, didn't the Federal Police stamp your passport as "PERMANENTE"? I have a stamp in mine! If they didn't you should go back and ask them to do so. This should resolve any problem you have regarding the Carteira de Trabalho, the MTE will accept the stamp in your passport and then issue you a permanent Carteira.

The Federal Police also need to stamp your protocolo with an extension, even that will enough for you to get your Carteira de Trabalho extended for the lenght of the "prorrogação" that the Federal Police give you.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Team

Thank you so much, it helped a lot!