Hello everyone!
My name is Alex and intend to move to Brazil in a few weeks.
Me and my brazilian girlfriend have been working on board cruise ships for the past few years and now decided to try settle on land and have a normal life.
She wants to try a career in tourism and i would try anything. I have been working as a naval engineer for the past 8 years.
My Portuguese is fluent, or ar least this is the feedback I'm receiving from a lot of Brazilians as most of them think I'm Brazilian at first. The only thing i need to improve is my vocabulary as i still miss a lot of words from specific areas of work.
I am fluent in English as well and native in Romanian of course.
My biggest fear is the documents i need to find work there as i saw i need to apply for a work visa outside of the country first and then enter on that visa.
I am going now with a tourist visa and try to find something.
Any of you guys know if i find something in these 3 months that i am allowed to stay there, is there any way to sort out the work visa from within the country or i have to return to my home country and sort it out?
Or is there a way to apply for an extension of my tourist visa without being married yet to my girlfriend?
Any suggestion would be very welcome.
Thank you guys for accepting me in this community!
Apply for a stable union visa
Hi Alex , not sure where you are getting your info from , what happens in your situation is enter as a tourist then apply for a stable union visa (União Estavel) visa which will give you working rights - This is how I've heard it's done but please do you're own research
I worked at a school here with a Romanian girl which had done exactly this and was engaged at the time and I know she had this visa with an RNE card.
You will need a whole lot of documents to apply for this I'm sure, like your unabridged birth certificate all and possibly criminal background checks from countries you have lived in, usually these have to be "apostilled" ( verified for use in Brazil" ) in your home country. Also be aware Brazil places a limit of about 3 months on most certificates from your home country, in other words they have to have been issued within 3 months, definately the police clearances if you need them I'm not sure about birth certificate
I believe the laws were changed last November able now you don't have to leave the country to change your visa status, but please research further.
What I would do in your situation is arrive and head straight to the estrangeiros department of the federal police to get the info, register the relationship as a stable union and then chase up the documents, there are companies/services which can assist you in getting the documents that are difficult to get from Brazil
Thank you so much for the info Steve!
I can't find much about this união estável online and most of what i can find are outdated articles.
Anyway i started gathering all my documents in the meantime and getting them apostilled and as soon as we arrive in Brazil we will apply for this.
Thanks again!
Hello everyone,
Please note that a new topic has been created from your posts on the Brazil forum.
@ Toader_alex1, have you been able to sort things out concerning your visa?
Please do share your experience for the other members, we would like to hear from you 
See you soon,
Alexia
Expat.com Team
Articles to help you in your expat project in Brazil
In this article, we will give you all the information you need to organize your Working Holiday Visa trip to ...
Finding legal work in Brazil can be difficult. But it's possible if you meet certain specific qualifications and ...
Documents – aside from the foregoing information you must remember that this is a police state, you are ...
Brazil is a huge and diverse country just waiting to be explored. But before you book your hotel and flight, check ...
It's much easier these days to get a cell phone in Brazil, and phones and calling plans are inexpensive ...
Brazil can be a romantic country, and you may want to marry here. Perhaps you even want to remain in Brazil ...
