I am often asked if there is a Portuguese language requirement in order to obtain Brazilian citizenship. The answer is yes, but you may be surprised at just how easy it is to obtain satisfy this requirement.
General background
First, as I detailed already in the Frequently Asked Questions page, there are multiple ways to satisfy the requirement, and (thankfully) there is at least one very low barrier “life hack”: a way to satisfy the Portuguese requirement with minimal effort. This “life hack” (as I refer to it) is to take a class or two designed for non-native speakers at a Brazilian institution. This could be a semester or two.
For those that have never taken university-level foreign language classes before or who despise formal classroom learning, maybe this seems like a lot of work. But if you are accustomed to university-level foreign language classes and don’t mind the study time, the effort is very minimal – especially considering the alternatives. For example, you can satisfy the language requirement by completing an entire university degree within Brazil, or by passing the Brazilian government’s Celpe-Bras certification, but if your only goal is to meet the language requirement for citizenship, you don’t have to go through all of that extra work!
For myself, I met the Portuguese language requirement (as a native English speaker) by showing the translated (from EN to PT), apostilled transcript issued by the American institution that organized a study abroad that I had conducted in Brazil many years prior. But you don’t have to go through some foreign (non-Brazilian) institution that sends you to Brazil. If you are already in Brazil, you can just enroll in a course within Brazil – such as this one, just for example.
Your Face-to-face meeting with the Brazilian Polícia Federal
But no matter which path you choose to satisfy the language requirement, you will have one very minor additional barrier: you will need to be able to communicate with a local Polícia Federal official as they check (in-person) to make sure the hard copies of your documents match the electronic versions you previously submitted in your citizenship application.
In my own case, when I met with the Polícia Federal to show all my documents, the representative asked me for one document after another as he checked everything. There were quite a few documents, and a number of them had similar names to one another, so when he asked for one or two (out of several, with similar names), I just handed over all the forms that had similar names and asked (of course, in Portuguese), “Was it one of these you were looking for?”
That was it. At no point did I feel like the Polícia Federal representative was “testing” my Portuguese. However, I did ask him what happens when an occasional gringo comes in that seems to be struggling in the language. He replied that in this case, he would write a note on the application before sending it on for final approval. Note that this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. There is no formal “test” that the Polícia Federal will give you.
But that’s it. Each case may vary, but in general, most applicants just need to be able to walk in for their appointment, hand over a few documents for verification, and show that they are not completely lost. Given that the quickest way to Brazilian citizenship for applicants holding passports from non-Lusophone (non-Portuguese-speaking) countries requires you remain in Brazil for a full year before you can apply, you have PLENTY of time to acquire the minimal proficiency necessary merely to hand over requested documents to a Polícia Federal representative at the end of your citizenship application process. You will have more fun in Brazil if you learn some minimal level of Portuguese anyway, so if you put forward at least a little effort while you are in country, you should have no problems obtaining citizenship!
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