Visas, RNE cards, expiration dates

Brazil requires foreign residents and visitors to acquire Visas prior to entry. There are about five different types of Visas, depending on the travelers individual situation. I have been here in Brazil on a Temporary Visa - V, which is a two year visa permitting the holder to work while in the country. The Visa is pasted right into the holder's passport and adorned with fancy stamps and illegible signatures. To acquire this type of Visa, a company or entity in Brazil must sponsor and assume responsibility for any potential holder. The American school sponsors my Visa and Sierra is granted one due to her being my dependent.

Once you enter the country with this type of Visa--or any Visa for that matter--you are required to register with the Federal Police within 30 days of entry. On the day you register, they take your fingerprints, file several passport sized photos, and document your entry. It is Brazil's way of keeping track of the foreigner population. You also receive what is called a protocolo once you have registered. The protocolo is essentially a strip of paper about an inch wide and four inches long with your passport picture adhered to one end of the strip. This paper serves as the foreigners legal identification in the country while waiting for the RNE, or Brazilian Identification card to be printed. The time between the protocolo and the RNE is supposed to be less than 180 days. When it surpasses the 180 days, the protocolo needs to be sent back to the Federal Police to be stamped for another 180 days. Mine and Sierra's protocolos have been stamped and re-stamped for 180 days 5 times!!

However, yesterday, we were finally scheduled to pick up our RNE cards (the permanent, plastic version of the protocolo) at the Federal Police in a little town outside of Rio called Nova Iguacu. We were on the road by 8:15, in Nova Iguacu by 10:30, and standing in front of the agent at the Federal Police by 10:35 to be handed these:

Our permanent Brazilian ID cards. I know you can't really make out the writing on the card, and that is not important. Actually it's probably better that it is not possible to read them since there is a lot of personal information on them. But, in the top card, I have drawn a black arrow at the section of the card that reads "Validade". (Validade in Portuguese means Valid until or validity--for clarification.) The date below Validade on both of our cards is 27-07-2008. (mo.-date-yr.)!

The cards expired the DAY BEFORE we actually picked them up from the Brazilian Federal Police. And of course they did, they were processed with my first temporary working Visa, two years ago. At the time of filing, the Federal Police had no way of knowing that I would still be here after the initial two year Visa. How could they?

In the meantime, my working Visa has been officially extended another two years. Sierra and I will need to go to the Federal Police to register again, in the the next 25 days or so, be fingerprinted and photographed, and most likely receive ANOTHER protocolo to wait for a valid identification card.

The good news: In the two years I have been here, I only needed to show my protocolo when entering and exiting the country and one time when riding and interstate bus to Paraty, a small beach town between Rio and Sao Paolo. At least the ID isn't something that a person needs to produce regularly. AHHH, politics, government bureaucracy, red tape. I think no matter where you are these things don't function in the way any of the civilians using the services would like.