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Hi Peter,

Sorry to say that especially in the hospitality industry you're going to have extreme difficulty finding any job without a good command of Portuguese. If you're still in SA then find a course and get studying the language ASAP. You will really need it in any field.

Unless you've got money to invest (R$ 150 thousand) and a business plan which will get you a Permanent Visa for Investors without much problems or unless you're some kind of artisan and can make something useful/decorative to sell earning a living without Portuguese here is restricted to teaching English or some other marketable language and for that the pay is extremely poor.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

I hear you, thanks.....

150 thousand reais ou dollar its no clear

Harmandeep,

R$ 150 thousand - means one hundred and fifty thousand reais

Good question, hermandeep, and thanks for the answer, wjwoodward, because I was left wondering that too. And I like that answer because of the exchange rate right now which is constantly hovering around $2 per reais. So right now that 150,000 reais would be about $75,000 U.S. dollars.

But time will tell what that exchange rate will be in the near future.

Yes, for an investment of somewhere around USD $75,000 you can get a Permanent Visa for Investors. All it requires is a business plan, statement of where you intend to set up the business, how many Brazilians it will provide employment for (if any) and verification that in the three years following issue of the visa the initial investment hasn't been repatriated and you're in. I understand that the Federal Government has put pressure on to grant all of these applications where the paperwork is in order.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Peter.. imagine, I am 55 year old, not speaking english and I want to apply for a hotel manager job in SA. Do you think I have got an opportunity?

Fluency in Portuguese is absolutely essential in order to secure employment in Brazil. English IS NOT widely spoken even in the business world you will find few people who are fluent enough to carry on a basic conversation.

In the hospitality industry you would be completely unable to communicate with your guests, customers, superiors and co-workers without speaking Portuguese.

Trust me, I've been living here for over 12 years now. The single largest difficulty for expats here and the greatest reason for many going back home quickly is the language barrier.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team