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Brazilians in London
Eat with us
By month
Last Updated 26th Sept 26
Eat and shop
A bakery, a butcher or a restaurant, and the part of London you are in.
Open
Price a head
Hours and prices checked on 26th Sept 26.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Dance
London has learned to dance what is ours. There is forró in Camden, zouk in Exmouth Market, capoeira in Woolwich and a samba school that wins prizes at Notting Hill Carnival.
When
By dance, by area, or the whole week. Today is marked.
The timetable moves. Who posts the class each week is on Going out.
Updated 26th Sept 26
The walk
Five walking routes, all free, each telling a different part of the story. Do them in your own time, alone, with someone, or with the whole crowd.
Select a path
You cannot do these on foot on the same day, but each one is a stop in its own right.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Community
Sunday: Mass in Portuguese at 9am in Bayswater, at 3pm in Fulham, and on most Sundays at 5pm in Camden. The Brazilian chaplaincy runs from 8.30am in Crystal Palace to 7pm in Brixton. Saturday has a chaplaincy Mass in Bayswater, Whitechapel and Willesden, and Portuguese class at BREACC and Clube dos Brasileirinhos.
Brazil does not have one religion. In the 2022 Census, 56.7% declared themselves Catholic, 26.9% evangelical, 9.3% no religion, and 1% umbanda and candomblé, a rise of 233% on 2010. The list above reflects what we were able to confirm in London, and it is far from covering everything. If your community is not here, write to us.
The dates from all 32 boroughs and the City, together, and how they fit the Brazilian summer.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Going out
A class, a room every week, or a match. The rest of the dates go up on Instagram.
Church, live music, pastel and pagode.
A named show goes up months ahead. A party goes up two or three weeks ahead, on Instagram.
Who holds the rights, and which kickoff actually fits a bar.
DanceLondon learned our steps
Eat and shopEat in Portuguese, all the way across London
HomeThe week, on one page.
Updated 26th Sept 26
History
In 2001 the Census found fifteen thousand Brazilians in the whole UK. Today the consulate talks about more than two hundred thousand. Everything that exists now, the bakeries, the samba schools, the churches, the butchers, the Saturday Portuguese class, was built in that gap, by people who arrived and found none of it here.
There is no official data on state of origin: neither the British census nor the Brazilian foreign ministry asks. What exists is academic research with small samples, which gives the order of the states that send most people to London, not the percentage each one contributes. So that is what is here: the order, and not a chart with numbers we do not have. The list shows the largest groups in that research, not every state represented in London.
Beyond the census numbers, these are the areas named repeatedly in studies of the community.
The usual picture is Harlesden, Willesden and central London. But a 2026 survey catalogued Brazilian businesses and organisations across 17 different boroughs, and it spreads much further than the reputation suggests: Lambeth, Haringey, Newham, Hackney, Brent, Islington, Waltham Forest, Greenwich, Barnet, Richmond, Wandsworth, Merton. Central London shows up heavily on a list like that because of universities, associations and restaurant chains, not because it is where the community lives.
Brazilian food here runs on two different economies. One is the destination churrascaria in the centre, where you go to celebrate. The other is the network of neighbourhood butchers, grocers and cafes in the east, north east, north and south, where the same people go every week. If what you want is to find Brazilians, the second is worth far more than the first. A neighbourhood butcher and a Saturday Portuguese school gather more Brazilian families than any fashionable rodízio. And the east is no longer only food: Hackney has grocers and Mass, Tower Hamlets has the chaplaincy base and a university Brazilian society, Newham has food and two salons that work with Afro hair.
The Itamaraty estimate for 2023, 230,000, is almost exactly double the 116,000 in the census. A difference of nearly 114,000 people, and neither one is wrong. The census counts people born in Brazil who live here. The consular estimate tries to count the Brazilian community, which includes children born here, people with dual nationality and people the census does not reach. There is no point averaging the two: they answer different questions.
After 2021 there is no yearly population count by country of birth. The Itamaraty estimate rose from 220,000 in 2022 to 230,000 in 2023.
People born in Brazil living in London, across the three censuses. It is worth looking at the two decades separately, because they say different things. Between 2001 and 2011 the counted community grew by 284%, close to quadrupling. Between 2011 and 2021 it grew by another 78%. So the explosion was in the first decade, and after that growth stayed strong but at a different pace.
In 2001 there were 8,175 Brazilians in the whole of London. Anyone who arrived then arrived to almost nothing: no Brazilian butcher on the High Road, no Portuguese school on Saturdays, no Mass in Portuguese across eight neighbourhoods, no forró class every week. Everything listed on this site was built in twenty years, by people who arrived with none of it and made it. The list of places on this site is, in the end, the list of what our generation and the one before it built.
And the map moved. In 2001 the two largest groups of Brazilians in London were in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, the two most expensive boroughs in the city. By 2021 the four largest are Brent, Lambeth, Wandsworth and Haringey. The places that grew most over those twenty years were not central: Greenwich seventeenfold, Croydon sixteen, Sutton fifteen, Newham fourteen. Kensington and Chelsea grew least of all, barely doubling. In other words: from a small central community it became a large and dispersed one, and it went to the places where you can actually live. And the spreading was not only within London. In 2011, London held 62% of everyone born in Brazil living in England and Wales. By 2021 it was exactly half. The community grew in London and grew faster still outside it.
How many times over the counted community multiplied between 2011 and 2021, looking only at boroughs above 500 people so small numbers do not distort it.
Notice what that means in practice. The places growing fastest today are Croydon, Greenwich, Harrow, Bromley, Merton and Kingston, all outside the centre. Meanwhile Kensington and Chelsea grew by only 17% in ten years, Southwark 23%, Hackney 25%, Camden 28% and Westminster 30%. So anyone arriving today and hearing "go to Willesden" is hearing where the community has been, not where it is going. Rent explains a good part of it.
Boroughs with more than fourteen hundred Brazilians in the census and not one address on our list. It is not that nothing is there: it is that we did not find it.
People born in Brazil and resident in each borough, in the count published by the GLA from ONS data. It counts people born in Brazil, so a child born here is not included. The British census has no Latin American category, so country of birth is the breakdown that exists. Community organisations campaign for a category of their own. The table covers the 32 boroughs and the City of London.
This is not a celebrity list. It is people who came through here and left something, in both directions: those who built something in London and stayed, and those who came to study, learned, and went back to do it in Brazil. There is physics, law, literature, design, music, food and football. Some from two hundred years ago, some very recent. Where there is a source, it is at the end of the block.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Brasil Londres First 90 days checklist, to print and tick off. Always check the official source before acting: rules and figures change. Content checked on 26th Sept 26
First 90 days
Thousands of Brazilians have done exactly this, and it has an order. Here it is: what to sort first, what to take with you, and the official link for each step.
0 of 10 done. Tick what you have sorted. It is saved only on this device, and nothing is sent.
Enter the rent you were offered. The sum adds what comes with it: deposit, first rent, council tax and travel, at the official figures. Food, phone and the rest depend on you, so you type them. Nothing leaves this page.
Enter the rent to see the sum.
This is a rough sum, using the most the law allows and the official prices. A landlord can ask for less. Council tax is the borough average: the exact figure is on the council’s bill. The bill is usually split into 10 monthly payments, and the council can spread it over 12 if you ask.
Figures checked on 27th Sept 26: council tax by borough, MHCLG, council tax discounts, who pays in a shared house, deposits, deposit protection, rent in advance, TfL fares, bus and tram, Ofgem price cap, TV licence.
Situations where your right is written on an official page. The English is for showing; the Portuguese is so you know what you are showing. Tap Show to open it in large type, or Send to paste it into WhatsApp with the date and the link.
I would like to register with this GP surgery. The NHS says: “You do not need ID, proof of address or proof of immigration status.”
Quero me cadastrar neste GP. O NHS diz: “Você não precisa de documento de identidade, comprovante de endereço nem comprovação de situação migratória.”
I need a professional Portuguese (Brazilian) interpreter for this appointment, please. I am not able to do this in English.
Preciso de um intérprete profissional de português do Brasil para esta consulta, por favor. Não consigo fazer isso em inglês.
Can the pharmacist see me under Pharmacy First, please?
O farmacêutico pode me atender pelo Pharmacy First, por favor?
Please tell me in writing which government-approved scheme my deposit is protected in. It has to be protected within 30 days of payment.
Por favor, me diga por escrito em qual esquema aprovado pelo governo o meu depósito está protegido. A proteção tem que ser feita em até 30 dias do pagamento.
Please give me a payslip on or before each payday. GOV.UK says: “Your employer must give you a payslip on or before payday.”
Por favor, me dê um payslip até o dia de cada pagamento. O GOV.UK diz: “O seu empregador tem que te dar um payslip até o dia do pagamento.”
I live on my own. I would like to apply for the 25% single person discount on my council tax.
Moro só. Quero pedir o desconto de 25% no council tax para quem mora sem outro adulto.
Please pay me at least the National Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage for my age. The current rates are published on GOV.UK.
Por favor, me pague pelo menos o National Minimum Wage ou o National Living Wage da minha idade. As taxas de hoje estão publicadas no GOV.UK.
Please confirm my CIS deduction before you pay me. The rate, 20%, 30% or nothing, is on the GOV.UK page I am showing you.
Por favor, confirme o desconto do CIS antes de me pagar. A alíquota, 20%, 30% ou zero, está na página do GOV.UK que estou mostrando.
Applications for a primary school place close on 15 January. I am applying through my home council.
O pedido de vaga no primário fecha em 15 de janeiro. Estou pedindo pelo council onde moro.
Things that work one way here and another way in Brazil. Not that either is better: they are different systems, and nobody tells you which is which. Here we do.
On election night the difference is glaring. Brazil is one of the few countries in the world that runs its entire national election by electronic vote.
On election night the difference is glaring.
Brazil is one of the few countries in the world that runs its entire national election by electronic vote. More than 150 million voters, in a country the size of a continent, and the result comes in two or three hours after the polls close.
In 2018 the winner was announced 2 hours and 16 minutes after closing, with 96.7% of votes counted.
Here the count is by hand, on paper, all night. A British general election result usually arrives in the small hours and drags into the next morning.
And the machine is not a black box, whatever gets said. It is built in Brazil, by Positivo, runs disconnected from the internet, with no wifi or bluetooth, and the source code is audited before every election by the parties, the public prosecutor, the bar association and the armed forces.
Each polling station prints a boletim de urna on paper that anyone can check at the door.
Being honest about the debate: Germany banned paperless e-voting in 2009, India pairs every machine with a paper receipt, and the United States counts mostly on paper. There is a legitimate argument about paper trails. What is not in argument is the engineering: 150 million votes counted in hours, on a system the country built itself.
Almost everything on this page is about something that works differently here. This one is about something where Brazil is ahead, and which other central banks study as a model.
Almost everything on this page is about something that works differently here. This one is about something where Brazil is ahead, and which other central banks study as a model.
Pix, built by Brazil’s central bank, launched in November 2020. It settles in under three seconds, runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and is free for individuals.
By 2025 it had 148 million people and 16 million companies using it, around 80% of the adult population, including some 71.5 million people who had not made an electronic transfer before it.
Within three years Pix overtook credit and debit cards by number of transactions in Brazil. For a shopkeeper the gap is stark: taking payment by Pix costs a shop 0.33% on average, against 2.3% by card, as the table below shows.
The equivalent here is Faster Payments, also quick and free between accounts. The difference is the key: in the UK you transfer by account number and sort code, not by CPF, phone number or email. Worth remembering when anyone talks about modernising payments: the standard you already used is studied abroad as a model.
| In Brazil | Here | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to arrive | Under 3 seconds | Seconds, via Faster Payments |
| Available | 24 hours, every day | 24 hours, though some banks delay a first payment |
| How you identify the recipient | A key: CPF, phone, email | Account number and sort code |
| Cost to a shop receiving it | 0.33% on average, 2025 | Free by transfer; card costs more |
| Card cost, for comparison | 2.3% on average, Visa and Mastercard | Varies by acquirer |
In England, living together gives no spouse’s rights however many years it lasts: without a will, you inherit nothing under the automatic rules.
If you keep only one legal difference from this entire page, make it this one. In Brazil união estável is recognised in the Constitution and the Civil Code: living together on a lasting basis builds rights to a share of property, to inheritance and to a survivor’s pension, without marrying on paper.
In England and Wales that simply does not exist. There is no marriage by length of cohabitation, and there never has been, however many years you have lived together, however many children you have had, however much you have shared the bills.
You have no automatic right over a property in his name, no right to maintenance for yourself, no claim on his pension, and if he dies without leaving a will you inherit nothing under the automatic rules. The home goes to his blood relatives, unless it is in both names as joint tenants.
What remains is a court claim under the Inheritance Act 1975, open to someone who had lived with him for at least two years: it is litigation, with costs and no guarantee, not an automatic right.
This falls hardest on whoever spent years caring for children and a home rather than building assets in their own name, and that is almost always a woman.
The good part is that nearly all of this can be fixed with paperwork, and cheaply compared with the risk.
The good part is that nearly all of this can be fixed with paperwork, and cheaply compared with the risk. Having your name on the title deeds changes everything. There is the cohabitation agreement, which records what belongs to whom and what happens if it ends.
There is the declaration of trust, to make clear how much of a property is yours when the mortgage is in one name. And there is a will, which is what makes sure the person you live with inherits, since the law alone does not. Marrying also resolves it, and is the most complete route.
On change: in June 2026 the government opened a public consultation proposing to give unmarried couples some financial protection and some inheritance rights. The consultation closed on 14 August 2026. It is a proposal, not law, and even if it proceeds it is unlikely to apply before 2027 or 2028.
You cannot rely on it today. This is information, not legal advice: for your own situation, speak to a family solicitor.
The Equality Act 2010 lists sexual orientation and gender reassignment among the protected characteristics, alongside race, religion or belief, disability, age, sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity.
The Equality Act 2010 lists sexual orientation and gender reassignment among the protected characteristics, alongside race, religion or belief, disability, age, sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity.
Discrimination at work, in housing or in services is unlawful, and the route depends on where it happened. At work: an internal complaint first, then ACAS, then an employment tribunal. In housing, a shop or a service: the case goes to the county court, and the free EASS helpline advises first.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in England and Wales since 2014, and in Brazil since 2013, by resolution of the CNJ.
A difference that catches every family arriving out of term. Here a place at the local school is not an automatic right of the neighbourhood:
A difference that catches every family arriving out of term. Here a place at the local school is not an automatic right of the neighbourhood: you make an application, and depending on the school the council or the school itself decides, since many are academies with their own admissions.
Arriving mid-year, the process is called in-year admission, and your borough council’s website says where to apply for each school. School is free and your immigration status does not prevent enrolment.
Worth starting as soon as you have an address, because the nearest school may be full and the alternative is usually further away. The application deadlines and the steps are on the Children page.
We grew up with one prefeitura per city, answerable for everything. Here London is split into 32 boroughs and the City of London, each working like a separate town hall with its own rules, fees and services.
We grew up with one prefeitura per city, answerable for everything. Here London is split into 32 boroughs and the City of London, each working like a separate town hall with its own rules, fees and services.
Council tax, licences for working from home, bin day, schools: it changes from borough to borough, sometimes across a single street. So when someone says "check the council website", they mean your borough, not London.
At home you join the queue, wait, and get it done the same day. Here the doctor, the bank, the council and the consulate all work by appointment, and turning up unbooked usually achieves nothing. It is how the whole system is built.
At home, if your knee hurts you find an orthopaedist. Here the route is the GP, the family doctor, and the GP is who refers you on. Registering is free, and the best moment is when you move in, not the day you fall ill.
Since 2024 a pharmacist treats seven common conditions without a GP, antibiotics included. You pay only the standard prescription charge, or nothing if exempt.
Anyone arriving from Brazil notices it at the first sore throat: back home the pharmacy sorts it out. Here, for a long time, almost everything went through the GP, and the GP has a queue.
That has changed, and it is worth using. On 31 January 2024 NHS England launched Pharmacy First: the pharmacist assesses and, where appropriate, prescribes, for seven conditions, with no appointment and no GP.
They are sore throat, earache, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, infected insect bite, and urinary tract infection in women aged 16 to 64. Each condition has its own age range: earache, for example, is only for ages 1 to 17. The ranges are on the Health page.
It includes antibiotics where clinically indicated. You pay only the standard prescription charge, £9.90 an item, and nothing at all if you are exempt.
Notice what that is. NHS England projected it would free up around 10 million GP appointments a year by sending to the pharmacy counter what has always gone to the pharmacy counter in Brazil. It is the second time this site has recorded the NHS moving towards a model Brazil was already using, after the Family Health Strategy.
There is still a gap in Brazil’s favour: there the pharmacy gives injections, takes your blood pressure and checks your glucose at the counter, and the pharmacist handles more without a prescription. But the distance has closed a long way, and it closed in our direction.
In practice, look for the pharmacy with the Pharmacy First sign. No booking, no referral, and most have a private room to talk in.
At home you find a fiador and it is done. Here the landlord wants a deposit, references and a credit check, and sometimes a guarantor living in the UK.
At home you find a fiador and it is done. Here the landlord wants a deposit, references and a credit check, and sometimes a guarantor living in the UK. If you have just arrived you have no credit history.
The system knows nothing about you yet, and that takes time to build. The old workaround of paying several months up front instead of a guarantor ended on 1 May 2026: under the Renters’ Rights Act, a landlord in England cannot take rent before the tenancy is signed, or require more than one month in advance.
Paid guarantor companies exist, charging a fee to play that role.
This one catches nearly everyone. At home the property tax is the owner’s. Here whoever lives there pays the council tax, and gas and electricity sit on top.
Renting a whole home, it is almost never included in the rent. The exception is a room let on its own in a shared house: there, under the government’s guidance, it is usually the owner who pays. The real monthly cost lands well above the figure in the listing.
At home almost everything starts with your CPF. Here a bank usually wants photo ID and proof of address, and the proof is often a bill you do not have yet. MoneyHelper lists what usually works: a council tax bill, an HMRC letter or tax statement, a letter from your employer, college or training provider.
Without the right documents, it points to a prepaid card account, which usually needs no ID.
At home you can sort things out after work and eat at ten. Here shops close at six, pubs at eleven, and on Sundays large shops are limited by law to six hours. It is worth rearranging your week around it.
At home nobody argues with the 10%. Here many restaurants add a service charge, often 12.5%. When the bill or the menu says it is discretionary or optional, paying it is your choice: you can ask for it to come off the bill, and doing so is normal.
GOV.UK separates that voluntary charge from a mandatory one: if the bill does not say it is optional, check with the staff first.
At home the day is the day. Here, in winter, the sun disappears mid-afternoon and does not properly return until March. The first winter is usually the hardest, and the NHS has a name and a service for the effect of the lack of daylight: seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.
If it is getting in the way of the day to day, you can raise it with your GP.
Cold, damp housing in winter is a common complaint here, and it is neither normal nor something to put up with quietly: the landlord has legal duties about it. Always complain in writing, keep photos, and if it is not fixed, your borough council is who handles it.
The fixed deadline, where one exists, is for social housing, not a private tenancy: the Housing page separates the two, with the date it was checked.
Talk it through, then the same day send an email confirming what was agreed: here the system only recognises what was recorded.
Sorting things out face to face is a skill of ours and it still counts: someone who knows how to talk to people gets a long way anywhere in the world. The difference is that here the system only recognises what was recorded.
A conversation at the counter can solve the problem and leave no trace at all, and without a trace there is no proof later. So do both: talk the way you already know how, and the same day send a polite, firm email confirming what was agreed, with a copy kept.
Companies, landlords, councils, banks: that is how being right turns into something that moves.
Paying at the door sometimes works, but most dance schools here expect you to book through their site or Eventbrite, and some sell out during the week.
London gets wet more than it gets cold, and clothing sizes are a different system. The sum and the fitting-room line are here.
What's this in a UK 12? And do you have it in a 14 to try as well?
I'm a UK 6. Could I try a 6 and a 6 and a half?
Could I have a fitting? I think I'm around a 36, but I'd like to be measured.
In the parts of Brazil that get genuinely cold, the cold is dry: a thick wool coat does the job in Curitiba or Campos do Jordão. London rarely gets near those temperatures and still manages to feel worse, because it is 8 degrees with rain coming sideways and wind behind it. Thick wet wool warms nobody.
What works here is an outer layer that blocks wind and water, even a thin one, with lighter layers underneath.
In Brazil you put on one warm thing and that is that, because indoors and outdoors are at roughly the same temperature. Not here: buildings, buses, the Tube and shops all run the heating high, sometimes far too high. Leave the house in one thick thing and you are cold on the street and cooking on the Tube.
Three thin layers adjust through the day. One thick layer adjusts to nothing.
In Brazil this difference barely appears on a label, because it rarely matters. Here it matters and it costs money. Water-resistant handles drizzle for a few minutes and then soaks through.
Waterproof handles actual rain. Plenty of things sold as winter coats are only resistant, and the label does not always make it obvious. If you are buying one piece to cover the whole winter, that is the word to look for.
You walk far more here than in most Brazilian cities: house to station, inside the station, station to work. With frequent rain, shoes that let water in fall apart quickly, and a wet foot in winter ruins the day. Rubber sole, closed, and ideally something that takes a thick sock.
In Brazil you can buy something warm when the cold arrives. Here shop calendars run ahead of the season. Good coats appear from September and vanish around the end of December, when shops are already setting out spring stock.
Anyone who only realises they need a coat in January pays more and finds much less. If you arrived mid-year, it is worth sorting this in September or October.
In Brazil a brechó carries a social reading. Here the charity shop is used by people across every income bracket, including people with plenty of money, and hunting for something good in one is close to a national hobby. Good-brand winter coats turn up regularly at a fraction of the price.
It is worth it especially in the first year, when money is tight and a whole wardrobe needs replacing.
A British office tends to be more informal than its Brazilian equivalent, and going out at night tends to be considerably less dressed-up than what we are used to seeing. This is neither better nor worse, it is a different convention.
It is worth noticing what people wear at your workplace and at the place you are going before deciding, because it varies a lot by sector and by area.
A neighbourhood shop on Harlesden High Street, and Brazilian brands with their own door in the centre. A bra fitting, which the size chart does not settle, is at the end. This is what we found, not every shop.
226 High Street, NW10 4TD
Mon-Fri 8am-6pm. That is when they ask you to get in touch, on WhatsApp.
On Harlesden High Street. It sells clothes, Havaianas and Brazilian hair product, and collection is from this address.
84-86 King's Road, SW3 4TZ
Mon-Sat 10am-7pm. Sun 12-6pm.
A Rio brand, with its own shop. This is the Chelsea address. The other two are on Carnaby Street and on Marylebone High Street. The phone number is not on that page.
1 Carnaby Street, W1F 9QG
Mon-Sat 10am-7pm. Sun 12-6pm.
The same brand, at this address in Soho.
26 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4PJ
Mon-Sat 10am-7pm. Sun 11am-6pm.
The same brand, at this address.
69 Broadwick Street, W1F 9QY
Mon-Wed 10am-7pm. Thu 10am-8pm. Fri-Sat 10am-7pm. Sun 12-6pm.
A Brazilian sandal brand, with its own shop in Soho.
20 Tavistock Street, WC2E 7PH
Mon-Sat 10am-7pm. Sun 12-6pm.
A free bra fitting, at the address. The shop says the focus is a D cup and up. You can go without a booking, and there can be a wait.
A free fitting at the store you choose. The link is the official booking page, not one address.
Sorting a bank, a flat, a doctor and a job is work enough in our own language. In English, in a system nobody explains, it is a great deal more.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Housing
In Brazil a fiador settles it, the IPTU belongs to the owner and the deposit sits with them. Here each of those has another name and another rule. This page gathers the order and the official link. If our sentence and the government page disagree, theirs is the one that counts.
The postcode is used to find the borough. We do not keep it.
The deposit sentence, to show the agency
The Renters’ Rights Act changed private renting in England. It applies to people renting from a landlord who does not live in the property. Renting a room in the owner’s home has other rules, set out in the fourth item.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Work
Most of these rights apply from your first day, with no minimum service. Here are the official figures, the rules, and where to find people who understand them. Figures checked in Aug 26: they change every 1 April, and this is information, not legal advice.
This is just arithmetic, done here in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and we store nothing. Rates in force since 1 April 2026.
April 2026, at 37.5 hours a week
Of the £975, £273 does not arrive, 28% of the rise. The tax-free band has been frozen at £12,570 since April 2021. Our calculation, at 37.5 hours, checked in Aug 26. GOV.UK.
Every year the UK changes eight or nine numbers on separate GOV.UK pages, none referring to the others. Here they are together, with the sum nobody publishes.
Paid holiday applies from day one, zero-hours included. Here is the sum, what a payslip must show and where to complain. Checked in Sept 26, on Acas and GOV.UK.
Sites and apps pay another way. Here is the official name of each deduction, and the page that publishes today’s rate.
In Brazil the MEI folds tax and social security into one bill. Here they are two conversations with HMRC, on different dates. The deadlines below are the ones on the government page the day we checked. The link is the year that is in force.
Around half of Latin Americans in London hold a university education, above the city average. Even so, plenty of people work below what they can do. What holds people back at the start is almost always the same three things: the language, a qualification not recognised straight away, and no track record here.
A job title does not translate word for word. The literal translation is a name a British employer does not use, and a search for it comes back empty.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Money
Sending it home, what that really costs, and what happens to what you already paid here.
If you send money to Brazil, or know someone who does, this is the check before you send. This is the text to send them.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Health
Mostly the things that work completely differently from Brazil.
English phrases to show at the GP and the pharmacy
Updated 26th Sept 26
Children
In Brazil you enrol at the neighbourhood school, and a child of a Brazilian is Brazilian. Here a place is applied for, with a date, and being born here does not by itself answer either the British passport or the Brazilian one. The order is below. Each deadline lives on the official page, with the date we read it.
Saturday Portuguese, on the Community page
Updated 26th Sept 26
Documents
This is the part that appears in no expat guide, because it only exists if you are Brazilian. Apostille, sworn translation, consular registration, power of attorney, and pensions on both sides. Every mistake here costs money and time.
A note for anyone planning to go back, whether in a year or in twenty. Much of what makes that return easy gets settled while you are still here, not afterwards. Apostilling a British certificate is simpler to do in London than from Brazil, because an apostille can only be issued by the country that produced the document. Registering a child at the consulate is easier now than as a legal process later. A British degree is easier to gather paperwork for now, with the university nearby. And time contributed here does not transfer to the Brazilian pension system, so knowing that early changes what you do with the money. This page holds all three: what you owe Brazil while living abroad, what to do with your degree from here, and what is best settled before you fly.
Living here does not switch everything off there. Tax, voter registration, military enlistment, CPF, registering a child and your driving licence all still exist, and three of them can block your passport. No British guide will tell you this because it is not their subject. Position as at Aug 26: confirm with the Brazilian body before acting, because these rules change.
The deadlines that come round every year, from both governments, in one place. No guide puts the two together because each one only handles its own side. Dates checked in Aug 26: each has its source in the corresponding section of the site.
This part is about your Brazilian qualification counting here. If what you want is the reverse, a British qualification counting in Brazil, that is just below, under A degree from here, valid in Brazil. Nine professions, with the body that decides, whether your qualification is assessed directly or there is an exam, the English required and the published cost. Position as at Aug 26: fees and timelines change often, so check the link before spending.
In three professions the Brazilian qualification is assessed directly, with no compulsory conversion exam: physiotherapy, psychology and engineering. In those, your training and experience are compared against the standard here, and good documentation can be enough. In the others there is an exam, but none of them makes you repeat an entire degree.
One thing applies to all of them: whoever decides your case decides by looking at paper. A detailed curriculum, placement and clinical hours, module descriptions, proof of registration with your professional council and a certificate of good standing, all with certified translation. The quality of the documentation changes the outcome. It is worth reading the apostille and sworn translation section on this same page before you start. And if you work in beauty or aesthetics, this is not your route: it is borough licensing, and it is on the Beauty page.
This applies to most people: if your profession is not regulated here, nobody needs to recognise your qualification. Marketing, technology, administration, accountancy, design, logistics, sales, human resources, hospitality. In those fields there is no council, no conversion exam and no compulsory registration. You simply apply for the job, like anyone from here.
What does exist, and helps, is UK ENIC: a paid service that compares your Brazilian qualification against the equivalent British level and issues a statement. That is not professional recognition and it is not a licence: it is a translation of level, useful for job applications, for university and for some borough licence applications. Plenty of people spend money on a course here believing they have to start again, when what was missing was an explanation of what their qualification already is.
Regulator fees only, so you can see the difference in scale before choosing a route. It excludes the English test, sworn translation, preparation courses, travel and course fees, which in pharmacy and law are the larger expense. Figures checked in Aug and Sept 26.
A planning estimate, not anyone’s promise. It counts from the point where you already have documents, translations and English in hand. Exam availability, incomplete paperwork and resits all stretch it.
The exit declaration, INSS and what you already paid here are further up and on the Money page. This is the rest of the week: FGTS, who to tell on this side, and the visa for whoever is going with you. We do not pick a visa. The consulate publishes the list.
Consular registration is one line of the paperwork, further up. The week itself has another order, and it is written on GOV.UK and at the consulate. This page points at both. It recommends no funeral director and gives no repatriation price.
If you came here to study and intend to go back, a British degree is not automatically valid in Brazil: depending on what you plan to do, it has to go through revalidação or reconhecimento. If your case is the reverse, a Brazilian qualification for working here, that is just above, under Regulated professions. Position as at Aug 26, with the official link on each item.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Links
Every official link cited on this site, gathered here with the date we checked it. The idea is simple: rules and figures can change at any time, and it is always the official body that decides, not us. If it matters to you, open the source and check today’s version.
Glossary
NI number, council tax, GP, UTR, AST. Words that turn up in every letter and every job interview. Here is what each one means.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Where to get help
There is a whole network built for this, much of it by Latin American women, and several of them work in Portuguese. These are the right doors to knock on.
If you are in danger right now, call 999. Speak if you can, even in a whisper.
What follows are the words of the Metropolitan Police, on their own page about making a silent 999 call. The link is at the end of the block.
“If you’re in danger, call 999 and try to speak to the operator if you can, even by whispering.”
“If you don’t speak or answer questions, press 55 or tap when prompted and your call will be transferred to the police.”
“The police will usually be able to find your location.”
“If you don’t press 55 or respond, your call could be ended.”
Press 55 when prompted, not before: it is not a shortcut, it is the answer to the automated message. And staying silent and doing nothing else does not guarantee that police will come to you: correcting that misconception is why the IOPC ran the national Make Yourself Heard campaign.
For non-emergencies the police number is 101. The national domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247, 24 hours. LAWRS, in Portuguese, is 0808 145 4909, Tuesday to Friday, 11am to 1pm, free to call.
Checked and updated on 26th Sept 26. Quotations above are verbatim from the official page. Guidance can change: check the original. met.police.uk
First of all, about the device you are using. The red button above leaves this page immediately and replaces the address, but it does not erase your browser history. If there is any chance someone checks your phone or computer, it is worth using a private window, or a friend’s device, or a library computer. This site asks for no account and sends nothing about you to anyone. But the browser keeps your history and, for this site, a copy of the pages so they open offline, plus anything you save here, such as the hours notebook. In a private window, none of that stays once you close it.
Rights that already exist in law, each with its official source. This site gives no immigration advice and says nothing about anyone’s situation: what is here is only what the rule already guarantees to any person.
If you came here to study, start with your own university, because it is the closest and fastest support there is. Almost every large London university has free counselling, mental health support, visa guidance and sometimes emergency financial help, all already paid for inside your fees. And there are Brazilian student societies at Queen Mary, King’s College, the LSE and Imperial, listed below: they generally welcome people from outside the university at events, and it is the quickest way to meet other Brazilians who arrived when you did.
How to find your people, without depending on this list. Student societies change committee every year, change Instagram account, and sometimes vanish for a year and come back the next, so any list of handles ages fast, including ours. What does not change is the route: look on your university’s students’ union website, which lists societies officially and keeps the page up between one committee and the next; go to the freshers’ fair in the first fortnight of the academic year, which is when they recruit; and search Instagram for brazilian society plus your university name. If your university does not have one, many welcome people from outside at events, so it is worth writing to the nearest. Found one that is not here, or one that has died? Write to us.
The scams that most often catch people who have just arrived: rooms, jobs with a visa, agencies, fake messages and borrowed accounts. Each item says what the official body says, and who to call.
Control of money is among the factors in abuse most often named by organisations serving Brazilian women in London, and the argument is always the same: you cannot manage without me. This does not answer whether you should leave. It only answers what the state pays a woman living on her own, with or without children, so you have a real number instead of his.
We do not keep a list of professionals and we recommend nobody. What we can do, and it is worth more, is show you where to check the person you have already found. Every one of these registers is public, free, and takes under a minute.
Ask for the full name and the registration number, and check it yourself. Anyone serious gives you both without hesitating. Someone who stalls on the number has already answered your question.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Beauty and aesthetics
We take nothing to be listed.
What are you booking?
Premises licence: pick your borough
Updated 26th Sept 26
About
Brazilians have been in London for decades, but the growth is recent: in 2001 the Census pointed to just over fifteen thousand Brazilian-born people in the whole UK, and today the consulate talks about more than two hundred thousand Brazilians. Which means almost everything here today, the bakeries, the samba schools, the churches, the butchers, the Portuguese school on a Saturday morning, was built by this generation, from nothing, in a foreign language. Brasil Londres is simply an attempt to put all of it in one place.
Right now we charge nobody to appear here, and if that ever changes we will say so on this page. We are not lawyers, accountants or doctors, and we do not give advice. When something matters, we point you to people qualified to deal with it.
This is not the complete list, and it does not try to be. What we need already exists, scattered: a council page, a samba school’s Instagram, an NHS site, a consulate form. Nearly every line here links out, on purpose: their page stays right after ours goes stale.
If you run events and want to be listed, or you have found a link that is wrong or out of date, write to us.
This site has no connection whatsoever to the Brazilian government, the consulate, the embassy, the British government or the NHS. We represent nobody and we provide no consular service. When we quote or link an official body, it is only so you can reach the source: whoever decides anything about your case is that body, not this site.
We ask for no registration, use no tracking cookies and have no visitor analytics. What happens when the map opens, or when you search for a postcode, is on Privacy.
If you own a business or organisation named here and the information is wrong, out of date, or you simply do not want to appear, write to us and we will correct it or remove it. No argument and no bureaucracy. The same goes for any link, figure or date.
