RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The issuing of visas is suspended and the consulate says that passports may be withdrawn despite work permits.
In 2020, Vitor Barreiros managed to get a dream internship position in one of the largest German companies. His time as a trainee at Bosch was scheduled to begin in May that year. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
First, German consulates in Brazil, an obligatory stop for issuing work visas, reduced their shifts and stopped accepting new applications for non-emergency visas. Then Germany closed its doors to travelers from Brazil, with very few exceptions. Brazilians with a work contract in the European country, but still living in Brazil, can not enter.
Since then, Vitor – a mechanical engineering student – had to take time off from the federal university where he studies and move back to his parents’ home. “I quit my job in January thinking that everything would work out, but it didn’t,” he says.
Germany is one of the countries with the strictest restrictions on the entry of travelers coming from Brazil. The ban is complete, with German citizens and people with residence in Germany and their spouses among the few exceptions. But to have residency, a rental contract is not enough.
“You have to present the Anmeldung and Aufenthaltstitel, which are the registration and residence permit,” explains attorney Delaine Kühn, who specializes in migration law and works in Hanover, Germany. Both documents are only issued in Germany.
The solution for Brazilians needing to travel there seems to be, in practice, not to come from Brazil. In other words, to travel to a third country and quarantine there, a practice that became quite common among Brazilians traveling to the United States during the pandemic.
This is what Milton Neto did when, packed and ready to depart from Rio de Janeiro on February 4 this year, he saw Germany closing itself almost completely to Brazil. “The German government imposed restrictions due to the uncontrolled pandemic in our country, so I had to give up my apartment and my husband and I went to Minas Gerais, where we have family, to wait,” he says.
“One day, I sent an email to the border police at the Frankfurt airport,” says the advertising executive, now in Berlin to do his master’s degree in Digital Marketing. The German authority advised that were he to quarantine in a third country that was not on the list of nations with coronavirus variants, he could enter Germany with his acceptance letter to the university.
On February 18, he and his husband went to Chile, where they spent 10 days in isolation in a hotel, and from where they left with university documents, travel registration on the official German website, a negative PCR test, and a passport to Berlin.
Milton has now applied for a student visa with family reunion, which will allow him to work up to 20 hours a week as a student and his husband full-time as an accompanying person. “We have already had the first vaccine shot and the second will be on June 14,” adds Milton, happy in his new home.
Study or work visa
But Milton and other Brazilian students’ case was a very lucky break. According to German immigration law, as Attorney Kühn explains, Brazilians apply for a study visa directly in the country. In other words, they would not need to wait for a visa approval to come from the closed (or in reduced activity) consulates in Brazil.
“Work visas can only be obtained through a German consular mission in the country of origin,” explains Kühn. Anyone with a work contract and waiting for a visa, like Vitor and many others, are unable to resort to this quarantine option.
Vitor left his passport at the German consulate in São Paulo in December and, in March, he received a reply that the process was approved, but that the consular authorities were “waiting for the restrictions on entering Germany to be lifted” to issue the document. After quitting his job in January because of the prospect at Bosch, Vitor considered quarantining.
In May, he emailed the consulate asking if it would be possible to get his visa to then enter Germany through a third country – following all security protocols.
The answer was straightforward: “just because Mexico still allows people from Brazil to enter the country – although most countries ban travelers from Brazil – does not mean that this should be done.”
The email from the consulate further asks Vitor to take into consideration that “we are all experiencing a global pandemic” and that the necessary visa would not be issued at this time. “So even if you travel to Germany through Mexico, you will still not be allowed to do your internship in Germany,” the email summarizes.
This challenge is not only faced by those who need work visas for internships. Leandro F., who asked not to be identified so as not to hinder future job opportunities, was set to leave for Germany with his wife for a postdoctoral position in one of the world’s most renowned laboratories.
“My wife and I prepared for the trip. She quit her job and I turned down post-doc offers here in Brazil because I was sure of a place in Germany. When April came, we found ourselves still stuck in Brazil and without a visa,” he says.
“My German boss was very helpful and accepted to extend the beginning of my contract for when I could go, but I fear that they will not wait for me any longer,” he said.
His boss suggested that he should quarantine in another country, but without a visa, it is no use. “I would still not be allowed to work,” he explains. The consulate holding his passport to this day says the visa will be issued only when Germany authorizes it.
“It is painful to realize that many Brazilians are unable to pursue their plans in Germany for the time being and are strongly affected by the situation,” says Patrick Hansen, consul for political affairs at São Paulo’s German Consulate General. The consulate explains that the priority is to prevent the spread of dangerous variants of the virus, citing the Gamma variant, or P.1, circulating in Brazil.
Hansen reiterated that it is not possible to foresee when the measures taken because of the pandemic will be relaxed. “The development of the situation is unpredictable,” the consul said. He stated, however, that contrary to what many Brazilians believe, there are no passports “held up” at the consulate.
“Applicants can pick up their passports after filing the visa application at the Consulate General. This must be done with a signed letter, in which a request is also made to continue the visa process. The passport can then be presented again at a later time for the visa to be issued,” he explained.
Despite holding a passport, working is not possible without the visa. And for some, this is the last year to be able to work in Germany.
For many young people with a work visa as an au pair, a kind of paid exchange program in which youths from different countries take care of children from families in another country, the situation may be even more complex. There is an age limit to participate in the program and be allowed to spend up to one year working in Germany.
Only Brazilians up to 26 years of age can apply for an au pair job in Germany. Even youths far from reaching this age are seeing families waiving their contracts and looking for au pairs from countries with less limitations.
In Marcelle Gripi’s case, she will soon be alone in Brazil. The plan was to go to Germany as an au pair. Her mother, married to a German and therefore one of the people entitled to enter the country, has bought tickets for July. Marcelle left her internship, studied German to pass the mandatory language test, and found a family willing to hire her.
With the restrictions, and because she is now of legal age, she is no longer allowed go with her mother and stepsister: “Besides losing my contract, I won’t have a place to live anymore. I live with my mother. And I haven’t found a job yet, I’m looking for one, but I haven’t found one. My whole plan was to be an au pair,” says the 22-year old.
The situation for many Brazilians is one of great loss. Vitor, who is still in contact with his future boss at Bosch, but losing hope of fulfilling his dream of an internship in Germany, is disappointed: “standing still with nothing is difficult. I see no prospect of the situation changing and I wonder if I should give up and look for a job in Brazil.”