Working Holiday Kiwi: November 2011

Friday 25 November 2011

Video of the week - II

Obs: The following video has way too much truth. Viewer discretion is advised! =)

One of the best videos I have ever seen. I really would like to give a trophy that means something for the person who made it. =)

Here are my favorite quotations:

1) "(...) In fact they (the monkeys) love to list all the things that they think separate them from the animals."
2) "The monkeys worry about everything but mostly about what all the other monkeys think.
Because the monkeys desperately want to fit in with the other monkeys."
3) "(...) Then the monkeys start to argue over whose made up god is better."
4) "Some of the monkeys think they've got it all figured out."
5) "The monkeys like to pretend that everything is just fine."
6) "Some of the monkeys actually believe that the entire universe was created for their benefit."

Hope you like it! ;)

Quote of the week - III

"If I didn't say anything, people always assume the worst."
Narrator, Fight Club

Monday 21 November 2011

Visa - Part II

So you have been reading my blog and became interested in applying for the Brazilian Working Holiday schema? You've come to the right place! Here you will find everything you need to know to apply for this visa. So, without further delay, let's get started!

As you probably already know, the Brazilian Working Holiday schema opens up every year in September 1st. The first thing you have to pay attention to is the date. It opens up in September 1st in the New Zealand time zone, that means August, 31st in Brazil. In 2011, it opened precisely at 7:00pm, Brasília time zone, but it's always best to check if this time will continue to be the same in the next years.

With that in mind, there are some things you can already work on in advance:

1) Sign up in the Immigration website¹ - In order to apply for any type of visa you need to sign up in the official immigration website². So, why don't do it in advance?

2) Have an INTERNATIONAL credit card - After you submit the form, a little pop up will appear asking for your credit card number, so you can pay the application's fee. The credit card MUST be international and there is no other way to pay that fee. In 2011, I payed NZ$ 140,00. The holder of the credit card can be anyone, it doesn't need to be the person that is applying for the visa.

3) Check out your passport expiry date - I have seen some people that hadn't paid attention to this and were unable to complete their submissions. You passport must be valid for at least three months after your planned departure from New Zealand. If your passport will be or is already out of date, go to the nearest federal police department and check what you need to do in order to get a brand new passport (with a new expire date). If you have another nationality you cannot use the passport of that nationality to apply for the Brazilian Working Holiday Schema. You must use the Brazilian one.

Actually, there are quite a few more requirements than these, but those were the most relevant ones for me. You can find the complete list here³.

That's everything you need to have/do to be able to apply for the Brazilian Working Holiday schema. Now, let me give you some valuable tips for when the so expected day arrives:

1) Be ON TIME - Last Sepembet 1st, 2011, all the places have been filled up in about 20 minutes. How do I know that? Because I managed to fill out all the form in about 26 minutes after the schema opened and, in the last button (the submit one) this was the message I got:

"Scheme unavailable because: Unfortunately the available places for this Working Holiday Scheme have been filled and there is no longer a place available for you. You could check back on our website for details of when places reopen."

This was kind of my fault, because I failed to quickly find the place to click on to apply. It took me about 10 minutes to find it. I was looking it up on the main Brazilian Working Holiday Schema webpage... The right place to go actually appears on the right of the webpage AFTER YOU LOG-IN INTO THE IMMIGRATION WEBSITE .

That information was very crisp in the Brazilian Working Holiday Schema page³(but I completely missed it!):

"To apply online, go to the Online Services Login page, where you can register for online services; if you have already registered you can log in and access the Working Holiday Scheme online application system."

Be advice, though, that the immigration website have changed now (at least its layout is completely reformulated), and the exact places to click on might have changed already.

So, don't make the same mistake I made and find the application link quickly! You are probably wondering: how were you able to submit your application if all the places had been taken? The answer to that question is in this post. =)

2) Have your data ready - Write all your information (passport number, last name, given name, credit card number) in a text editor and triple check all of them! That way, when the day comes, you will only need to copy and paste those information into the forms, which is way faster and error-saving than to type everything on-the-fly. A little piece of advice: do not use huge software editors like Word. Use small ones like Notepad. That way, you avoid having problems with different character encodings.

3) Check out your broadband Internet connection - I know this is very rare, but if I were you I would consider borrowing a 3G modem in addition to your ADSL/Cable/Wireless connection. You never know when your main connection might blackout, and, if it does, the 3G modem can save your application.

That's all! Hope you found the information useful. If you have questions, I'll be happy in helping you. Just use the comments session bellow.

In the next post, I'll tell you a little bit about what you need to do after your visa gets approved.

See ya!!

Sources:

1) https://www.immigration.govt.nz/registration/CreateAccount.aspx
2) http://www.immigration.govt.nz/
3) http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/workingholiday/brazilwhs.htm

Thursday 10 November 2011

Quote of the week - II

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
George Bernard Shaw

Sunday 6 November 2011

Video of the week - I

No words can describe this video... Just see it for yourself (if you haven't already).

PS: Make sure to have your stereo on! =D

Visa - Part I

How I got to know the Working Holiday Scheme

I was browsing through my daily list of language websites I visit every day and, in one of them, I found a interesting post¹ written by a Brazilian that had just arrived from Auckland, New Zealand. On the comments session of that post, I came across an amazing kind of visa called "Working Holiday Visa" (WHV):

"Mais uma coisa que eu gostaria de citar é que todo ano a NZ disponibiliza 300 oportunidades para Brasileiros trabalharem legalmente aqui. Um visto chamado Working Holiday Visa. Todo ano, 1o de Setembro a você pode ir no site da imigracao e aplicar esse visto. Nao é dificil de consegui-lo, basta ser rapido e aplicar cedo. Pois so sao 300 vistos."

Mind you, I had no idea that type of visa existed! I said "Wow! That's just the opportunity I have been looking for for years!". The bad thing about it is that the post was published in October 17th, 2010, that is, September had just passed! =(

During the rest of that year, and in most of 2011, I kept looking for some opportunity like that in almost all English-speaking countries. Turns out, however, that I wasn't able to find anything similar. The closest thing I found was a program in Canada that allows you to study for a certain period (usually 6 months) and work for another period (also usually 6 months). The problem was its cost and that you don't have permission to work while studying. Once I planned to stay in the country from 6 months to 1 year, being able to work from the beginning was essential for me in order to pay all the expenses I would have in a foreign nation.

One thing I find interesting (and that really upsets me at the same time), however, is that Working Holiday Visas are available in most English speakers countries. For instance, Australia also has a Working Holiday Visa, as well as Canada. However, they only allow a small set of nations to participate in such a program. And Brazil, unfortunately, wasn't on their lists. In this day and age, the only English speaker nation that have Brazil in their Working Holiday "list of allowed countries" is New Zealand.

Currently New Zealand's Working Holiday Schema only allows up to 300 Brazilians to go to their land per year². Argentinians have 1000 places available³. Countries such as Canada, US, Japan and the main ones in Europe have unlimited places available all over the year.

In exchange for those 300 visas provided to Brazilians, Kiwis are also provided with 300 visas that allow them to visit and to work in Brazil, under pretty much the same conditions⁴.

I'd like to take the opportunity and thank the New Zealand government for being the first one to have this Working Holiday interchange program held with Brazil. Those 300 places are really just a itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny fraction of the Brazilian population (currently going to 191 million people⁵), but it's definitely a start.

In the next post of this series, I'll tell you everything you need to know to apply for the WHV. See you there!

Sources:

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Quote of the week - I

"A man needs to travel. By his means, not by stories, images, books or TV. By his own, with his eyes and feet (...). To plant one day his own trees and give them some value. To know the cold for enjoying the heat. To feel the distance and lack of shelter for being well under his own roof. A man needs to travel to places he doesn't know for breaking this arrogance that causes us to see the world as we imagine it, and not simply as it is or may be. That makes us teachers and doctors of what we have never seen, when we should just be learners, and simply... go see it."
Amyr Klink