I have lived in Brasil 8 years now on a business investment visa issued in 2007. Due to a total lack of advice by the lawyer who formed my company and discovering that the local prefeitura wanted bribes to get the company running it never traded and when my first 5 year RNE card ran out I discovered what a potential problem I had. This had also not been helped by a lawyer "friend" who worked in the Policia Federal and 6 months before the expiry of the RNE told me there was nothing to worry about, he would sort it all out, the man who would sign my visa was a personal friend, etc., etc. of course that was a pack of lies and he did nothing.
Although my original company did not trade I had opened another micro empresa, a restaurant, in 2008, and a third, a shop in 2010, which both had employees, paid taxes, etc. The PF told me that these companies would not help in the business investment visa process, but nevertheless on the last day of my 5 year period I was able to transfer one employee to the company which was the vehicle for the visa, and since then I have been on extensions to the RNE, the last of which expired on December 16. I made an appointment on the PF site 5 weeks in advance for the last day of the visa but found when I got there that I was not on the list of appointments. After a long wait I received a piece of paper and was told to come back in January, no date specified. On this paper it saya my visa is "prone to rejection".
Various questions-
1. Can I still argue the case for my original visa company ? Say that it is functioning now, and has future plans ?
2. Is it still possible to use the companies that I still have, which are genuine functioning entities ? I have invested around R$350,000 in these companies, or would I have to start from zero with a new application ?
3. I have made another PF appointment for February 10, which was the first available date. If we assume that they are going to cancel my visa, what will happen next if I wait till then ? Will they give me 8-10 days to exit and then re-enter as a tourist ? Is it possible they would let me stay 90 days as a tourist without exit and re-entry ?
4. If I assume that is going to happen, would it be better to exit and re-enter now ? Am I technically illegal now, bearing in mind my last extension expired on December 16 ? This way perhaps I could minimize the Multa.
5. If I exit and re-enter as a tourist do I not need a ticket to leave the country within the 90 days ?
6. If the business visa is cancelled my next step is to apply for permanency on the basis of my civil union and religious marriage here, for which I believe I tick all the necessary boxes. Could I apply for that at the same time as they are refusing my business visa, or would they make me re-enter a tourist ? I assume it is not a problem to apply for this while you only have tourist status.
Many thanks to anyone who can help me on this excellent blog.