Brazil

Country Information

Age requirement: 15.0-18.0 years
Language requirement:
Health restrictions:
Graduates: Yes.
Smoking:
Dietary Restrictions:
Dress:
Location:
Other: Seeking students with learning-curiosity, creative and open-minded attitudes.

Visa:
Arrival & Orientation: In order to obtain their Brazilian Identity Card, participants must register with the Federal Police within 30 days, counting from the day they arrive in Brazil. Please note: In case they miss this deadline, they have to pay a daily fine charged by the Federal Police. Participants are able to count on their host families and local volunteers to help them to register at the Federal Police but it will be their responsibility to do it. For this purpose, they need to bring with them the following:

original visa application form (usually a yellow document called "Pedido de Visto) filled with theirs and their natural parents´names properly spelled, exactly as it´s shown in their passports;
a copy of the pages that have been used in the passport;
Photos colored (3X4)

- OBS.: It is also quite handy if the participant brings with them a copy of their birth certificate certified by the Brazilian Embassy/consulate where they have requested their visa. This is not a must but a good precaution in case there is a need to clarify doubtful information. This document will be certainly required by the Federal Police when participant's name in the visa application form does not match with the name in the passport (for instance, the federal police will consider a visa application indicating "John D. Smith" totally different than a passport indicating "John David Smith" or "John Smith").
Departure:

Information needed.

Transportation:
Extracurricular: AFS Intercultura Brasil offers four tourist/cultural AFS-organized optional trips available and scheduled to take place during participants´ stay. These tours are specially organized to attend exchange student’s demands by a very experienced agency and chaperoned by AFS volunteers. Participants can only take part in those trips at least three months after their arrival. There are three short trips, to the Iguaçu Falls by the end of May, to the Pantanal Region late October and to the Amazon in the beginning of December. The 4th trip is a long one (30 days) scheduled to happen twice a year, during school vacation, so that it is available to participants of both cycles, SH in July and NH in January. The fees for the optional trips include: bus transportation between cities and for sight-seeing, hotels/hostels, breakfast and one more meal (lunch or dinner). The medical insurance remains valid as long as original receipts are presented for reimbursement.

Transcript/Diploma: Some host schools may be able to provide grades but most of them will only provide a certificate of attendance.
Enrollment: Along with your placement participants will find the “Host School Information”. This placement paper informs whether they will be officially enrolled (only a few schools agree to do this). Students who are to be regularly enrolled will need to bring with them an official transcript of grades certified by the Brazilian Embassy or Consulate notary public. This document is not necessary for visa issuance. Brazilian educational authorities enforce though that schools in Brazil need to have this document translated into Portuguese for their enrollment. Students may have the translation done, by a sworn public translator, after they enter Brazil, but the original documents must be previously certified so that they will have legal effect in Brazil.
Language:
Transportation:

Religion: 73.89% of the population follow Roman Catholicism; 15.41% Protestantism; 0.907% other Christian denominations; 1.332% Kardecist spiritism; 0.309% traditional African religions; 0.010% Amerindian religions; 7.354% Agnosticism, Atheism or without a religion; and 0.806% other religions. Some of the latter are 0.126% Buddhism; 0.051% Judaism and 0.016% Islam.
Population:
Climate: Brazil hosts five major climatic subtypes: equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, and temperate; ranging from equatorial rain forests in the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate coniferous forests in the south and tropical savannas in central Brazil
Language: Portuguese
Government:

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For information, questions or concerns, contact the Program Information Specialist or countryinfo@afs.org.