Investor Visa
The Process to get an Investor Visa for a UK Citizen
20 steps you will need to do
1: At the very outset appoint a suitable consultant and attorney - they will be involved from start to finish, and will do a lot of the running (and waiting) around and paperwork that Brazilian bureauracy demands! Their fees will not include any additional Consulate costs in your own country but you should negotiate a price to include ABSOLUTELY everything else, and you will need to sign a power of attorney, and decide a timeframe
2:Identify type of business opportunity in which you wish to invest, and the approximate size of your investment (in Brazil) (in UK or own country)
3: Identify Brazilian administrator. This will involve trust, as at certain stages he/she will be the only signatory on your bank account, and do far more work than you!
4: Set up and incorporate company (Limitada). Your business attorney can complete this process, and your company's documents will describe the business area in which it can trade; agree a business plan
5: Receive, approve and notarise your company's Social Contract - this document is vital for future use in all sorts of business dealings, although this will only be the first version
6: Obtain CNPJ for your company's Social Contract - register your company for tax purposes
7: Register your company with the Central Bank of Brazil for the receipt of foreign exchange
8: Open a business bank account with a local bank (you cannot be a signatory as you are not yet a resident).
9: Negotiate preferential rates for the receipt of funds, and appoint Central Bank of Brasil Operator to manage your ROF account, set up passwords, and (ultimately) pass control to yourself
10: Transfer the funds into the business bank account (MUST BE DIRECTLY FROM THE APPLICANT'S OWN BANK ACCOUNT IN DOLLARS OR EUROS, not through a 3rd party - it will be exchanged into Reais locally). You should also request a bank reference, and supply documentation to prove the legitimate source of your funds
11: Upon receipt of funds, rewrite all the company's documentation, social contract, etc, to reflect the increased share capital, and resubmit everything again, get it all notarised, registered, approved, etc
12: Submit the whole package to the Ministry of Labour and Employment for approval, and then the National Immigration Council in Brasilia. It is possible to do these steps by post, but postal applications have been known to take a couple of years or more. Best ask your attorney to do this in person, by hand, so he can put yours on top of the pile, answer any questions, make changes, etc, and return to await written approval
13: Approval - nearly there! The ministry will advise the Consulate in the country of your choice who will endorse your passport
14: You will need to have obtained a Certificate of Prosecution/Conviction History (Section 21, Data Protection Act 1998, Subject Access, Person Record) for all primary visa applicants. This document is available from the UK Police, but may take at least 6 weeks to be processed - forward planning is advisable to avoid delays (see 2/ above)
15: Take your Police Certificate, passports, forms, photos, etc and the required fees to the Brazilian Consulate that you stipulated
16: Return not earlier than 5 working days later to collect your passports with visas endorsed in them!
17: You must arrive in Brazil within a 90 day period, and present yourself to the Policia Federal within 30 days
18: Now you can plan family reunion visas (which can already have been started, but count as separate applications)
19: Obtain RNE (Brazilian ID), initially temporary number then permanent, open personal bank account etc, etc, and away you go...