Work Visa in Sight!!!!

Last week, I sat down with Mindset Institute, a successful Business English School in Sao Paulo who has already given me 5 students (all amazing people by the way).  They have offered to sponsor me, which is something that was starting to seem close to impossible.  This process is somewhat complicated for two reasons.  One, so many people want to come to Brazil right now, so the country is attempting to protect jobs belonging to natives.  Secondly, Brazil believes in Reciprocity, meaning that they reciprocate the same policies that a country enforces on Brazilians traveling abroad.  The US is very hard on Brazilians in regards to work visas, so Brazil is very hard on US citizens.  Currently the company, in order to sponsor, must have at least 2/3 Brazilian employees, proof that the US citizen has skills that cannot be found locally, and they must be 100% responsible for the employee (salary, health insurance, the employee's whereabouts in the case of a problem).  Mindset has agreed to sponsor me for a work visa!!!  Without a work visa, my 180 days permitted per year as a tourist expire at the end of April, so I was coming up on a deadline that would really hinder my life here in Brazil.

The best part is that I'm going to teach part of the time, but the other half I'm going to be working with a prominent Marketing Director from the telecommunications industry who has offered his services to help Mindset attack this rapidly growing market.  I will be working in Sales/Marketing to expand Mindset's client base.  I will get to do a little bit of everything while also having a very flexible schedule.  The job involves lots of walking, talking to people, and building relationships, so I think for the next year I will be very happy:))