note: location is santiago, chile

since i’m considering staying here for a while, and my case is a bit unique, i thought that the us embassy might be able to help me out. turns out the woman i spoke to over there was pretty incompetent. i explained my unique case, and her response was….well, if you ignore all the externalities (switching visa from brazilian passport to american passport, dealing with car, etc.), you can try this option. that was like when i was asking around for the best bakery in santiago…’well, if you just want a piece of bread, you can try the supermarket’. great. thanks.

but, i did end up finding a good bakery in santiago. and i also found some answers to my questions. the man i spoke with at the chilean dept of visas was really helpful. turns out i just need to mail in a form. well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. if i’m just going to have one job, i fill out one form. if i’m going to have two or more, i fill out another. and if i want a professional job, i also need to mail in an original copy of my university certrificate. the last option seemed a bit strange…and maybe unnecessary…so the middle option is probably the one to go for.

one annoying thing is that many government offices are closed to the public after 2pm. tomorrow i will see about transferring from a brazilian tourist visa to an american work visa. another interesting thing is that a tourist visa for americans costs $100, but the work visa is free. It’s the exact opposite for brazilians.