Rio de Janeiro Interview

[Kayl&Natch 7]

Hi all - I wanted to provide an update with information on the week of the interview. This may be useful for anyone doing medical and everything in Rio. I am the petitioner and was already in Brazil when we got our interview appointment so I extended my stay a couple of days to be there.

 

Arrived in Rio - Jan 4th

Blood exams - Jan 4th

Chest X-Ray - Jan 4th

Fingerprint/Photo - Jan 5th

Medical - Jan 9th

Interview - Jan 10th

 

Arrival - Blood Exams - Chest X-Ray (Jan 4)

Our plane from Palmas was delayed so we went straight to get the blood exam done from the airport (bags and all). We used the Leblon location (you can choose between Leblon and Barra) and it was really lovely. Leblon in general is cute as a button. There was no wait on the blood exams, they were extremely well staffed and so nice offering us all drinks and snacks. Since my son is 15, he didn't have to blood or urine, and my wife (35) only had to do blood. We were in and out in 30 minutes and it cost r$65, if I remember correctly and they take card. The hotel the doctor recommends when you schedule your medical appointment is literally around the corner.

 

We had the chest X-Rays that evening, also in Leblon and it was fine. The building is on a side street and you need to take the elevator to the 3rd floor and it's in the corner. The people were nice enough, but it's quieter. It took awhile on this one because I think they may have been behind. But the actual appointments for my wife and son were about 10 minutes. It was was a bit pricey at r$190 each, but they also take card. They will tell you, but make sure to schedule this early because it can take 4 business days to get to the doctor.

 

In both cases as the petitioner I just sat in the waiting room.

 

Fingerprint and Photo (Jan 5)

This was in the new location at the Bossa Nova Shopping mall. From the entrance you just walk in and go down the escalator and it's right there. We arrived about 45 minutes early as we heard the wait time can be a lot. However, they queue a bunch of people up and then let them in in groups. You have to turn off phones and smart watches. Only the people with the appointment can enter. So I was left outside. I was holding all of the phones but I wish we would have left one with them so I could walk around the mall while waiting. You can't sit down in the open area and there are no chairs. There is a radio station right there and they do play music, which is nice. Both tourist visa and immigrant are lumped together and it gets really busy in waves, however it seems to be a relatively smooth process.

 

It took maybe 45 minutes in total. They queued for the fingerprint, then queued again for photo. The person at the photo just asked a couple of verification questions and then they took the photo. There was no charge for this since we were CR1/2 visa type.

 

Medical Appointment (Jan 9)

When you make the medical appointment (by email and in Portuguese only), they will send you a list of vaccines that may or may not apply and who is required. I recommend going through that and matching to your vaccine records. They tell you how much the vaccine will cost of you have to get it. It was expensive. So we went and got the missing vaccines in Palmas where half were free and the rest were 40-80 reais cheaper. My son didn't have the varicella vaccine or Hep A. We got both right away, but both are 2 dose shots. We talked with the medical people ahead and they let us know that he'd finish Hep A in the US since there needs to be 6 months in between. We got the 1st varicella dose early and there only needs to be a month between doses so we got the 2nd dose the day before we left for Rio.  

 

We got there early because we weren't sure where to go. At first we went to the mall because the Centro Medico is there, but that was the wrong spot. You have to go to the corporate park next to the mall. There's a little walkway between if you go to the wrong spot. We checked in with reception and they call up to the doctor's office. There is a waiting area on the first floor and the security guard calls your name and gives you access through the turnstiles. There was an issue with our appointment where the reception recorded our appointment at the wrong time, and we had to push for them to honor it. But the doctor made him honor it since it was his mistake and we had the email confirmation. This was another appointment I had to wait downstairs in the lobby.

 

The doctor verifies your shot records before you see him. He fills out a sheet with everything on it with the photo taken earlier attached. My wife said he was incredibly nice and kind. The actual appointment was 20 minutes for both my wife and son. It was r$800 each and can only be paid in Pix or Cash.

 

FYI - Make sure you are current with your Covid vaccine. My wife had 3 shots (2 initial and a booster) and they made her go get another booster since hers was from 2022. It was free and the clinic was down the street and very quick. I think we were back in under 45 minutes and it was during the doctor's lunch hour anyway. Once we returned, they were sent straight up to the reception who had the document waiting once she showed the vaccine receipt. 

 

Interview (Jan 10)

Our interview appointment was at 7:40am. After reading how busy it gets, we got there at 6:30am. There was already a long line. This was the tourist visa line. We weren't sure if we should stand in that line too since it hadn't opened and there was no one on the immigrant side yet. That was actually the right side to be on. We realized at 7am when they started calling the 7am appointments for tourist. We moved over to that side and they let us in in the first group, there was maybe 10 of us total. They take you in around back and upstairs to the second floor. It's a smallish room. They hand out a paper with the list of documents they need in that order. Once you organize yourself, you show it to the person who guides you up and hands out the paper. He spot checks it and then you get seated in the number chairs. You go up to the windows in number order, scootching chairs until you're in the first set. All 3 of us went to the window together. They take and review the documents and have you validate information from what was submitted in the application. They ask maybe 3-4 questions. Once that's done you go and wait again.

 

Despite letting the group of us in together, they seemed to call people up to do the interview part by appointment time regardless of who did the document validation first. There are no clocks in the room and you cannot wear smart watches or have your phones (there are storage places across the street and it's r$40 per phone). When we got called, we went to another window all together and the person reviewed the documents and application and asked 3-4 questions each to my wife and son. She then told us we were approved and we left. 

 

We were done by 9am.

 

End note: We paid for expedited shipping of the passports and received them on Monday, Jan 15 and they come home Feb 11. (I am super nervous about the customs part so going to have to look into that)

 

Thanks for all of the help!