So, you’re thoroughly conversant with Brazil, the Brazilian culture and the way of life. You of course speak Portuguese fluently and have qualifications and skills that are in short supply and in demand including a prospective employer anxious to hire you. You love your girlfriend and want to marry her and that is totally disconnected from the lure of this life-changing excitement. If all of the above is true I wish you every success and happiness.    

What Esprit in his own way is trying to convey to you is that, unless you speak fluent Portuguese, have some important skill or have an offer lined up, the CTPS is the least of your worries.

You get a temp carteira with a certidao from the federal police that you have indeed applied for permanent residency based on marriage.

Originally posted by sven What Esprit in his own way is trying to convey to you is that, unless you speak fluent Portuguese, have some important skill or have an offer lined up, the CTPS is the least of your worries. You get a temp carteira with a certidao from the federal police that you have indeed applied for permanent residency based on marriage.

I speak Portuguese pretty well, I wouldn't call myself fluent yet, but I can hold a good conversation. We plan on actually getting married and me moving at the beginning of next year, so I'll continue learning and practising until then, but I don't think I'll feel fluent until I've spent at least a good few months there speaking it daily anyway.

About jobs. I have some office experience from a few years ago, then went back to university to gain new skills and just graduated.
So my thinking is this: I am in the situation of having to apply for jobs as a new graduate, I have no directly relevant experience although my job before university should hold weight. Obviously in the UK at the current time finding a job in the career I want is going to be tough. Now, am I wrong to assume that to find a job in Brasil, if I have permanent residency and [near] fluent Portuguese, is going to be about an equal task? If I have a work-card/visa and can speak the language, would Brasilian companies still be less likely to hire me than a local?

The whole reason for the marriage coming quicker than perhaps it would have done is exactly because I don't meet the stringent requirements needed for a company to sponsor me for a visa (namely lack of experience since I'm a new grad). And I know that many companies will be less likely to hire me anyway if they need to go through the paperwork and admin palava of sponsoring me. So if I apply ready-armed with a visa, then I'm giving myself a much higher chance, surely?

Edited by marley - 19 July 2012 at 20:39

Originally posted by marley ...In UK I would accept it is difficult but would expect to find a job in my field within a few months, why should it be different in Brasil, if I have a visa already? (I'm not asking that belligerently, I'm genuinely curious)

[QUOTE=marley]

...Of course it's different, but it's not a different planet.

[QUOTE]

Edited by Esprit - 19 July 2012 at 21:03