Managing mailboxes or PO boxes in Brazil

Great Question Cheryl,

As I have mentioned before we live in a very small village (we don't have stop signs or traffic lights). We don't receive "regular mail"  Electric Bills are hand-delivered by the Electric Office Staff. Only DHL International delivers and half the time it is to our compound and the other half it is to the Post Office in the much larger town.

Roddie in Retirement😎

I receive US Social Security Administration requests for proof of life every two years or so, and the occasional credit card replacement for an expiring card at my apartment in Ilhéus. There are nine apartments in the building and one mail slot by the front gate. The landlady lives in the building and slides my mail under my door.

I receive US Social Security Administration requests for proof of life every two years or so, and the occasional credit card replacement for an expiring card at my apartment in Ilhéus. There are nine apartments in the building and one mail slot by the front gate. The landlady lives in the building and slides my mail under my door. - @alan279

I am curious, what kind of proof, or evidence does the US Social Security require for "proof of life"? I just applied for mine and will get my first deposit in Feb.

09/25/25  I am curious, what kind of proof, or evidence does the US Social Security require for "proof of life"? I just applied for mine and will get my first deposit in Feb. - @rraypo

It's called Form 7162.  Every several years, the Social Security Administration office in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, will send it to your address of record.  It has to be returned to them regular mail, not registered or certified, within sixty days of the date on the form.   They warn you that if it's not returned by then, they may stop your payments until they get it.

I've had to return it twice so far.  Both times, like @alan279, I returned it through regular mail with no problems. 

*ETA*  As a benchmark, they sent me my first one when I was 72, and my second one two years later.  So you may still have a ways to go.

09/25/25  The Brazilian Post Office, Correios,  is ok.  Like other Post Offices in the world it has financial problems, but the mail gets through.  I live in a condominium with 24/7 staffing, and the lettercarrier  delivers our mail to them, and we pick it up at the front desk.  We live in a major state capital, and there are at least three Post Offices within walking distance of our apartment.  My Brazilian bank sends me my credit card bills and replacement debit and credit cards through the mail and they arrive.  Online purchases often are delivered reliably by Correios.  FBU Lisbon sends me my Social Security SSA-1099 by regular mail, and it always arrives in time for me to prepare my US tax return, although by the time it does I've already downloaded it from the SSA site.

Their "Minhas Importações" feature with the Receita Federal is very useful for tracking international purchases and gifts from family or friends abroad (best avoided because of high import duties!), paying any taxes charged, and getting your shipments on their way, all from your computer.

That said, I still maintain a PO box at a mail forwarding service in the United States, and most mail that I absolutely have to receive, like replacement US credit cards and other sensitive items is delivered there, and I pay to have it delivered to Brazil by US Priority Mail International, or by DHL if it's time-sensitive.

@abthree

Where do I sign-up for "Minhas Importações"?

09/25/25 Where do I sign-up for "Minhas Importações"? - @alan279

Right on the Correios website.

@abthree

Thank you, my friend.

@abthree

I already have a Correios account. Password doesn't work. Request new password requires my mother's maiden name, which may be the problem. I looked up my CPF and verified it, my name and birthdate. But I can't verify my mother's maiden name.

I have a $25 package that's been at Brazil Customs for a week. Do I need to do anything other than patiently wait?

@alan279 My mother's maiden name appears on my birth certificate.

Roddie in Retirement😎

Your parents' names also appear on Brazilian driving licenses...

09/27/25 I already have a Correios account. Password doesn't work. Request new password requires my mother's maiden name, which may be the problem. I looked up my CPF and verified it, my name and birthdate. But I can't verify my mother's maiden name.
I have a $25 package that's been at Brazil Customs for a week. Do I need to do anything other than patiently wait? - @alan279

On the login page for "Minhas Importações" after you click on "I forgot my password", is it asking you for your mother's maiden name? 

If that's the problem and you don't remember how you reported your mother's name when you requested your CPF, you can get a printout of the Receita Federal record, including your mother's name as it appears there,   Here in Amazonas, the RF has representatives at the state's PAC (Pronto Atendimento ao Cidadão) offices during normal business hours; that was how I got a problem with my mother's name resolved.  If Bahia has an equivalent to our PAC, I'd try that first.   If not, you can try to contact the RF office in Ilhéus, or see if you can get a response here:

https://www.gov.br/receitafederal/pt-br … idadao/cpf

@roddiesho

My mother's name is on my RNE. Correios didn't accept that.

09/27/25 My mother's name is on my RNE. Correios didn't accept that. - @alan279

Other agencies now bounce requests off the RF database, and if the names don't match, they go "TILT!".  If you included your mother's middle name when you got your CPF but not on your CRNM (or vice versa), downstream systems will probably be looking for the version the RF has.

That discrepancy messed me up big time when I got my new CIN.

@abthree

My mother's middle name is an initial on my RNE. And my mother's name is above my father's name on my RNE. Both have initials as middle names.

@Peter Itamaraca

Now where did I put my driver's license? Let me get my glasses...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HnRKK4IqRGc

09/28/25 My mother's middle name is an initial on my RNE. And my mother's name is above my father's name on my RNE. Both have initials as middle names. - @alan279

I guess I was unclear.  When I got my CPF, which was a couple of years before any other Brazilian documents, I gave them my mother's name as "First name/Last name" which would have been perfectly ok in the US, although on my Birth Certificate (which I didn't have with me at the time) it appears as "First name/Middle name/Last name".  I promptly forgot about it, and there's no way that I know of to check it with the Receita Federal without asking them, because it doesn't appear on any documents they give you. 

Fast forward nine years, when I go to get my new CIN (ID card for citizens) and have to give them my Brazilian Marriage Certificate, which shows my mother's name "First name/Middle name/Last name".  My request is rejected because "your mother's name doesn't match".  But, I tell them, it matches my naturalization cert, and matches my CIE/RNE before that.  After some confusion, they figure out, "Oh, it doesn't match the Receita Federal!" 

That difference used to just be a warning, but now it's apparently a fatal error.  That's the only reason I can think of for the name that appears on your RNE being rejected as a bad match.

@abthree

Yes, identity and authorization management (IAM) is difficult, yet gov.br has SSO but correios.gov.br hasnt implemented the obvious and simple solution.

@abthree

I checked the "Unknown mother" box and reset my Correios password.

Now I can access "My Coreios" but I can't access "My Imports". I'll go to the post office.

@abthree

My address wasn't in my Correios account. I added my address and then could access my imports. I paid an import fee via Pix (credit cards are no longer accepted).

I received a payment confirmation message in the Correios app in an hour. Delivery in Ilhéus from Curitiba in 15 days.

@roddiesho

Roddie,

I just needed to check the box "I don't know my mother's name" to recover my Correios password.

Alan