Tips for missionaries going to Brazil

Make sure you have a list of what you are bringing in to the country. The customs people will ask you what each bag or piece of luggage has in it and you had better be spot on or you may be accuse of smuggling. Also important is a moving certificate (aka certo de mudanca).

Within a month of our arrival we will have to report to the Authorities that we are now residing in the country.

Kandi will have to explain why she did not vote the last 7 years and pay a small fine.

When I have to update my visa I will have to get every page of my passport notarized.

Send money down before you get there. Traveler’s checks mean nothing to them.

Be sure you are up to date on all your shots… especially yellow fever. As a foreigner you may need to prove that you have health insurance because everyone else has social medicine.

If you want to get a Brazilian driver’s license you will need to get your American driver license translated and take a 5 day class on rules of the road and pass a psychiatric evaluation.

Take lots of sun screen it is very expensive there.

Make sure no one sends you a package over 40 dollars you will have to pay customs on it which may be the full value of what was sent.