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There is 6 month wait for case officer to be assigned in Brazil for PMV

3K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  theskyisblue 
#1 · (Edited)
My fiancee just called the visa information hotline (+1 905 280 1437) to ask if they had received our PMV application (wedding date set for February 25th, 2012), sent on April 28th, 2011.

She was advised that YES they had received our application BUT the current waiting time to be assigned a case officer was AT LEAST 6 months! That's JUST to get a case officer, NOT including the additional time it will take to process the visa.

We submitted our application through the Brazilian embassy in Brasilia. I'm not sure if "6 months" is a canned response for all people that call the visa hotline (it appears to be a large call-centre in Canada, so who knows how accurate the information is?) or if it is specific to all applications currently being filed in Brazil.

Just thought I'd let everyone know. I suppose we can all suffer and reschedule our weddings together :(
 
#2 · (Edited)
Hi KirkyMac

Don't worry -- I'm sure that is just the standard response.

My fiance & I applied for a PMV through Brasilia at the beginning of October 2010. A case officer was assigned within a few days. Our case was not straight forward (it was a little complicated) but it was still approved relatively quickly for a high risk country -- (end of February 2011) -- it took about 4.5 months all up, and some of that was because it took us a while to be able to get all documents (police checks/medicals) to them.

I can't imagine they will have received such a massive intake of applications in the last few months to push out the waiting time for CO to 6 months!

Best wishes & good luck.

 
#3 ·
I was also told about thiss "6 month-wait" for a case officer to be assigned, but it was so much quicker than that,
I've applied for a spouse visa (309) at the Brazilian Embassy (Brasília) on February 2011 and got a case officer assigned 2 weeks later. I had to go through an interview in Brasilia (2 months and a half after application was lodged) and now I have to wait until July/2011 (According to my case officer, there is a certain number of visas that can be granted each month, so that's why I have to wait) - apparently the processing time for 309 visas in Brasília is approximately 5 to 6 months.
So dont worry... it won't take that long! :)
 
#4 ·
Hi Fabiana,

Thanks your sharing your experience. I can confirm that it also only took us 2 weeks to get assigned our case officer. I guess the visa information hotline doesn't have any idea what is happening inside each embassy where the applications are being processed.

Fortunately we have just done the medical and police checks so hopefully we don't have to wait too much longer!

Good luck, I hope your visa is approved soon!
 
#5 ·
Can I ask what sort of police checks are required for Brazilian applicants and which police department they should seek them from, ie local, federal?

Knowing this in advance may help to speed up my partners application.
Or, should we wait until it is requested by the case officer?
 
#6 ·
The "official" advice is to wait until police/medical checks are requested, but they asked us to do it in our application confirmation e-mail when we were assigned a case officer, so you might as well include it all in your application if you have time to do it now. The required police documents for Brazil are mentioned in this document:

w w w .immi.gov.au/allforms/character-requirements/character-penal.pdf

It asks for 2 certificates, both of which you can obtain online from the relevant government department web sites:

BRAZIL
Relevant document - Residents and Non-residents
must provide two different types of penal
certificate('Atestado de Antecedentes Criminais')
Apply in person to the office of the
• Justice Federal and
• Policia Federal
in the state/city of residence for the previous ten
years.

Provide certified copies of National ID card (both
sides), Brazilian tax card (CPF) and passport biodata
page to the departmental processing office. The
original penal clearance must also be professionally
translated
I'm not sure if it is required, but we printed off the certificates and got them officially stamped/authorised at the police station.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Kirky did you need to wait for immigration to assign you a medical practitioner and a time to see them or is this something you can do of your own accord?
We are just trying to have everything prepared for submission with the application but obviously we do not want to do a health check only to find it does not meet immigrations requirements etc.

Also, did you need to have your police or medical certificates translated and if so who in Brazil can do this?

Any other advice you have for those applying through Brasilia?
Thanks
 
#9 · (Edited)
Hi golliwog

Immigration won't assign you a panel doctor, you need to organise all of this yourself. You should do this now, as depending where you are it might take a few weeks to get an appointment. Our doctor in SP was able to do both the exam & xray in one go.

You can go here for the list of panel doctors in Brazil. You can ONLY use these doctors (important!!!). As long as you go to one of these doctors you won't need to worry about it meeting immigration requirements (as they have strict guidelines/procedures to follow & these doctors are selected specifically by Aust Immigration to do health checks). It is not cheap.
Brazil - Panel Doctors

Medical certificates do not need to be translated -- and you won't see these anyway as the doctor will send them direct to Brasilia.

You will need to get police certificates translated, as well as birth certificate, and also military enlistment document (if applicant is male) -- Brasilia specifically asked for the military cert from us, so don't forget it. Translators in Australia are allowed to translate documents that are colour scanned emailed, so I can recommend a translator in Sydney that we used if you like -- he was very prompt, reliable, and reasonably priced, and you could probably organise him to courier this to you in Brasil.

As for advice -- I know our CO seemed to place some significance on me having been to Brasil to spend time in my partners city etc (I've done this 3 times). Also if you've been apart at all, they'll definately want to see emails & phone records -- we had to submit this twice (when we applied, then they asked for more evidence of our contact 4 months in to processing....). I also included phone records from parents showing that they called my partners phone number in Brasil at Christmas/New Year. If you've done any portuguese language courses, include your cert to show that you're making an effort to understand your partners language/culture.

Best wishes!
 
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