Permanent residency

12/14/22  @timhoffnagle.  Congratulations -- what a nice way to celebrate the holidays!

@timhoffnagle Congratulations! Nice start to the holiday. If I may ask, how long did it take you from application to getting the decision?

@Kenny MeSt that's kind of a tough question to answer because of the logistical issues involved and the fact that my attorney did all of the work in Brasil.  I got fingerprinted for the FBI background check last summer (July, I think) and it took a while to get that returned to me and then even longer to get the State Department apostille.  Plus, I was also needing to get the stable union documented before I could get an interview with the Federal Police for the permanent residency.  It looked like everything was lined up to get it all done in October but the first notary that we used was extremely picky - she wanted a copy of my father's death certificate (which I didn't have) because one document that I had listed his middle name and the other didn't....  Also, my Portuguese is rudimentary (can speak and read OK but can't understand spoken very well) and she made no effort to speak slowly, which resulted in not getting the stable union documented in October.  That meant that my FBI background check would be more than 90 days old when I would have my Federal Police appointment.  My girlfriend and I got the stable union documented in November, when I was able to return to Brasil (with a copy of my dad's death certificate, which was not needed by the new notary....and we had a translator there, which mostly wasn't needed, either).  A couple of days later, I got the Federal Police appointment and they didn't seem to care that my FBI background check was more than 90 days old (I had gotten re-fingerprinted and was waiting for the new FBI background check but that took even longer to get the second time - I received it in December) - I don't know if my attorney had talked to them and convinced them to accept it, they understood that everything was taking a long time and were being lenient, or they just didn't really care that much.  So, from the time that I sent my fingerprints to the FBI until I got permanent residency, it took 4-5 months but should have taken only 3 months.

I had this all done in Sao Paulo.  It seemed that my attorney was able to get an appointment with the Federal Police only a few days ahead of time, so, if you have all of the paperwork done and speak Portuguese well enough, you can probably get it done fairly quickly.  I now have a temporary piece of paper showing that I am a permanent resident and have to return 60 days later to get the official card.

On a side note, I had my Federal Police appointment on the morning of Brasil's first World Cup game (later that afternoon).  I worried that the office would be very crowded with people trying to get things done before the game but I was told that it was less crowded than usual, apparently, because a lot of people were taking the entire day off of work, instead of just the afternoon!  LOL

@timhoffnagle Congratulations! Nice start to the holiday. If I may ask, how long did it take you from application to getting the decision?
-@Kenny MeSt

If you qualify for one of the VITEM Visas and can do the process in the USA, followed up with a visit to Brazil and a simple appointment with the PF, it is very fast and easy. I had my VITEM XI Visa in my passport and back to me in under two weeks through the Consulate in San Francisco, they were great to work with.

12/15/22 A couple of days later, I got the Federal Police appointment and they didn't seem to care that my FBI background check was more than 90 days old (I had gotten re-fingerprinted and was waiting for the new FBI background check but that took even longer to get the second time - I received it in December) - I don't know if my attorney had talked to them and convinced them to accept it, they understood that everything was taking a long time and were being lenient, or they just didn't really care that much.
-@timhoffnagle

Oh, they care all right, but they're also pretty reasonable.  They understand paperwork delays and will normally work with anybody who seems cooperative and  to be trying to do it right.  They come down hard when they think that somebody is trying to game the system, or might be presenting an overaged document to blow them off or to hide a more recent record.  Having a Brazilian to vouch for you, whether your partner or a lawyer, helps too.

When scheduling my appointment with the PF in late November of this year, I didn’t get an appointment until mid January next year. No big deal, but the turn around was not in a few days.

@abthree This is exactly what my cousin, who handles alot of immigration cases, especially from mid east countries, said to me.

When scheduling my appointment with the PF in late November of this year, I didn’t get an appointment until mid January next year. No big deal, but the turn around was not in a few days.
-@duzzimenino

We hired a professional facilitator to deal with the PF stuff. It was super easy and fast for us, getting our appointment on the day and time that worked best for us to fly from Seattle and be at. I know it was easy for us, but I am sure it was not for him. One thing I have learned in Brazil, often you should just hire a professional to deal with the bureaucracy.

@rraypo Thanks a lot for the response. I’m actually not American but Swedish. The embassy here in Stockholm says I can actually travel to Brazil (and already planning to fly over in January) without a visa.

I’ve been with my girlfriend for over two years now with a few visits between us to meet her family and we’ve decided to get a união estavel because neither of us believes in Marriage. I plan to fly over at the end of January to sign the união estavel at the notary and then apply for the PR based on that sometime early February so I was wondering how long the process takes from the appointment at PF to when the actual document is out primarily because I’ll only be in Brazil for a week after the PF appointment and will like to know what period I should aim to buy my ticket back to Brazil.

Also, maybe out of curiosity I might just add an extra question about the citizenship. My girlfriend thinks it’s important to get it, I don’t necessarily agree but I’ve also learned in the last 2 years that there’s no winning that discussion with her so I’ve given up on even trying to counter that point (I’m guessing it’ll die down once I put the time to get up to speed in Portuguese). I really haven’t found a Brazilian immigration definition for “continuos residency” unfortunately. I for example have internet, tv and mobile contracts I’ve taken for our apartment, we have a joint company together registered this past November and I’m always in Brazil at least for 2 weeks in every 90 days. Does that count as continuous residency? I know about the language requirement but I’m not really bothered as it’ll take me one intensive course to get up to speed (I speak English as my mother tongue, Swedish as my lingua Franca L2 and Italian as a third language so I believe my love for languages will come in handy if I have to pick up another Latin language)

Sorry for the lengthy reply and tons of questions

@Kenny MeSt

" I was wondering how long the process takes from the appointment at PF to when the actual document is out primarily because I'll only be in Brazil for a week after the PF appointment and will like to know what period I should aim to buy my ticket back to Brazil."

Hey Kenny, I am from Iceland, but a US Citizen as well. You might try your Consulate in Sweden to get your VITEM Visa first, it might be easier.

Upon leaving your PF interview, they will provide you with a temporary document, called a protocol. With this, you can do anything, open bank accounts etc. from what other people post, and from my own experience, your actual CRNM, the plastic card, should be ready to pick up in about 30 days. Mine was ready in exactly thirty days after my interview. I had given a power of attorney to my facilitator to pick my card up and sent it to me in the USA. it was all pretty fast and easy, but my wife is Brazilian with perfect Portuguese. 

Abthree will have much better answers to your other questions than I would.  Best of luck to you

     There is a basic lie promulgated everywhere about marriage that it is a sacrament or pact with God ....but people can actually do that privately if they care to ....what marriage is is a social institution promoted by governments for stability and growth of the populace ... and as such you can think of it as a three-way contract between you, your other, and the state.   There is a huge amount of "fine print" in the contract, and some of it depends upon definitions of legal residency and of domicile, while some  more of it depends a lot on where the contract is signed and sealed.  And for a long time in many jurisdictions, the two protagonists do have a great deal of control in setting some of the language, some of the stipulations, to the contract, although there are still absolutes set by the authorities which cannot be changed.  Marriage can and will affect all sorts of social financial arrangements, and quite a few of them are arranged to be more beneficial to the participants than being single.  Income tax treatment is the best single example, but things like home and car and health insurance and life insurance are also affected strongly.

The sad thing is, nobody ever tells this to young people when they consider marriage.  Its done purely on emotion and passion, when rightfully it should be carefully researched and studied to learn the precise consequences.  In recent decades, the females, at leat in my home society, are greatly favored by the contract and the males need to be exceedingly careful of unintended consequences.  I've known too many cases of single retired men, long since separated from their grown up children and their ex wives, who are still having their backs broken by overdue child support payments that the state insists that they pay, with interest with the result that those men are living in abject poverty with no escape......and I saw that statistically there are more than 200,000 seniors today who have their Social Security checks garnished by the courts for higher education loan payments for their descendants .....

I've been married 5 times and I have consistently been able to use the contract to my advantage, but I chose to have my tubes tied at a young age which makes a huge difference ... I did have an ex wife come after me in court one time for giving her HIV but it was hilarious since I dont have it ......the judge was not kind to her.....

12/18/22 @Kenny MeSt.  Welcome!

I agree completely with rraypo that, now that the PF have their act together on the 2017 Migration Law, the VITEM process through a Consulate is definitely the best and easiest way for foreigners who qualify to obtain permanent residency.  I repeat this mainly for the benefit of people who have that question in the future and read this.  I realize that it doesn't help you much; you've already started down the other path, so let's turn to the specifics of your situation.

União Estável is a perfectly legitimate way to go, but realize that, philosophy aside, in Brazil marriage vs. união estável is increasingly a distinction without much of a difference.  Both have to be completed in a cartório as an official legal act.  Both require a plan for distribution of assets -- the plan's content is at the option of the couple, but its existence and binding legal force is not.  And to end them also requires a judicial act, at a cartório if the breakup is amicable, probably in a court if it is not.

Since your plan is to finalize the união estável as soon as you arrive in Brazil, be sure to check and double-check the list of documents that the cartório is going to require, and be sure to have those documents with you -- every cartório is a little different, so you need to know very specifically what they expect.  Generally, cartórios require a waiting period of two to four weeks between the application for a união estável and its finalization, so your partner will want to find out about that in advance, if she hasn't already.

With respect to permanent residency and citizenship, the Polícia Federal before the pandemic usually accepted a união estável from a cartório without much question as sufficient basis for permanent residency, even if the couple hadn't been living together for very long.  Since then, though, they've become increasingly suspicious, so you can expect some questions, and it's vital that you and your partner go to the PF together.  Even assuming that you can satisfy them with respect to your relationship, if your plan is to continue living mostly, or even half time, in Europe, they probably will not give you permanent residency.

Marriage (or união estável) to a Brazilian does NOT confer any right to Brazilian residency on a foreigner.  Rather the Brazilian partner has the right to bring the foreign partner to live with him/her in Brazil.  The PF will probably conclude that you can live the way you describe on a temporary visa, indefinitely:  thousands of foreign professionals with periodic business in Brazil do just that.  If at some point in the future you decide to live in Brazil, you can apply for residency at that time based on your união estável.

The earliest start date for the period of continuous residence required for naturalization is the issue date of your CRNM; you can start from a later date but not an earlier one, and get no credit for time in Brazil prior to the issuance of your CRNM.  On your Petition for Naturalization, you will have to list and explain every absence from Brazil during the period of continuous residence that you're claiming.  Acceptance of any explanation is at the complete discretion of the PF; if the absence is anything more than 90 days at the very outside, and for any less reason than a major family emergency, rejection is pretty certain.

This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway so that there is absolutely no doubt:  applicants should never, ever lie to the Polícia Federal about anything, anytime, at any step of any process. 

I've written extensively about the actual naturalization process elsewhere:  I'll look up the references, and post the links in this thread.  Best of luck to you.  It seems like you and your partner have some factfinding to do and some decisions to make.

@abthree Thanks a lot for the detailed response. A lot of really vital points highlighted. To clarify my current situation, the união estavel is actually being handled by our lawyer and I was told to give the power of attorney for it to be done in my absence but I declined as I would like to be there in person so we’ve been given an appointment date for January.

I’m fine without the PR and wouldn’t mind not having it, however, there will be times where I’d want to stay for more than 90days i.e. We’re planning on spending August until December 2023 in Brazil and then coming to Sweden for Christmas and new year (the união estavel is primarily to enable my partner get residency in Sweden to stay longer than 90 days)

On the continuous residency point, it surely seems like I wouldn't qualify because the plan for us is to spend the swedish winter season (November to February) in Brazil and then March until June we’ll be in Sweden. The rest of the year is more of a situation where we'll go with the flow so yeah, for the next few years I believe we’ll have pretty much this routine.

My partners father would prefer we live in Brazil and I don't take his daughter away. Becoming Brazilian might be one way to prove that to him according to my partner. I do plan to call Brazil home same way I call Sweden home, however, my partner loves travelling and hasn't really lived a full year in Brazil in the last 8 years l (we met when she visited Sweden and then got stuck during covid, the rest they say is history) so I'm not really sure how that'll work. Thankfully we're still young (39 and 40) so we've got time figure out the rest of it.

Thank you so much for the amazing feedback

12/18/22 @Kenny MeSt.  Glad to help.  Unfortunately, I don't know any way around the 90 days in/90 days out problem.  Some EU members had prior agreements with Brazil that were on the 180 day in 365 basis and were grandfathered, but Sweden is not among the happy few.  😕

Since you're already working with a lawyer that you seem to trust, I'd recommend discussing your plans and the possibility of permanent residency with him/her.  Sometimes there's unexpected flexibility in the system, and an experienced lawyer knows where to find it, and what seems impossible to the layman is not necessarily so. 

Marriage is something you should want to do and as you say you both don't want that route it is also safer regarding assets you can tell the notary that you want to keep your assets separate as in those gained before the Uniao Stavel, I'm, along with you, a marriage prooves little and people survived together as couples well before marriages came along, however many get married and enjoy the process, I've been married a few times and my non-married partnerships have faired much better.  Someone once said I'm probably allergic to wedding cake.

To add to your mention of Sweden check with the border guards there as in the EU you can get family reunification on the grounds of common law, you don't need to prove a commitment in an other country. I have to jump through so many hoops to be here with my partner and if she decided to come to Portugal she has a right to join me as I am a permanent resident within the European Union and indeed Portugal.

@ltoby955 Thanks a lot for the response. Indeed we strongly believe marriage isn’t for everyone and it’s not a determining factor or benchmark for a successful relationship.

Regarding family reunification, it’s a bit tricky in Sweden because although it is possible to just apply for it, it’ll be a lengthy process as one will need to prove with both pictures and other means that we’re really together. The plan is to actually apply for family reunification directly from the embassy of Sweden in Brasilia (always much faster to do it there than to get it done at migrationsverket in Stockholm

@Kenny MeSt If you have WhatsApp conversations or dated photos and any joint hotel bookings that will all help. It's way easier in Europe to be together than it appears to be in Brazil which is outside the bonds of official marriage. Best of luck.