Brazilians in London
We’re already here
Eat with us
Upcoming London Events
By month
Last Updated 26th Sept 26
Test your Brazilian side
Where to go from here
Eat and shop
Where to find food from home
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
Where to dance in London
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
The week
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 walks through Brazilian London
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
Off the route, but worth the trip
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
Where the community meets
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.
Taking the children to Brazil
The dates from all 32 boroughs and the City, together, and how they fit the Brazilian summer.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Going out
A Brazilian week in London
A class, a room every week, or a match. The rest of the dates go up on Instagram.
Step 1 of 3: Build your social routine
Consider signing up to one of these two regular events
1 of 2 Regular dance classes Forró, zouk, samba and capoeira
Friday to Sunday
Church, live music, pastel and pagode.
The Brazilian year in London
Step 2 of 3: Stay up to date with what’s going on
A named show goes up months ahead. A party goes up two or three weeks ahead, on Instagram.
Step 3 of 3: From rodízio to the roda
Watching Brazilian football here
Who holds the rights, and which kickoff actually fits a bar.
Where to go from here
DanceLondon learned our steps
Eat and shopEat in Portuguese, all the way across London
HomeThe week, on one page.
Updated 26th Sept 26
History
How we got here
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.
Who we are here
Where we come from
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.
The areas the research names
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.
Twenty years in three numbers
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.
Where it is growing now
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.
Where we have nothing listed
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.
Born in Brazil, by borough
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.
Where the community is moving
Brazilians who left a mark here
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.
First 90 days
The order to do things in
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.
Phrases to show at the counter
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.
Here and in Brazil
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.
The first winter
London gets wet more than it gets cold, and clothing sizes are a different system. The sum and the fitting-room line are here.
Where to buy
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.
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
The rent, the council and the damp
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 new renting law, since May 2026
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
What you are entitled to be paid
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.
What changed in April, and what is left for you
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.
Holiday, payslips and tax codes
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, apps and whoever pays you
Sites and apps pay another way. Here is the official name of each deduction, and the page that publishes today’s rate.
Working for yourself
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.
What your job is called 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
Money between the two countries
Sending it home, what that really costs, and what happens to what you already paid here.
Sending money home
Pensions, INSS and qualifications
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
How healthcare works here
Mostly the things that work completely differently from Brazil.
English phrases to show at the GP and the pharmacy
Updated 26th Sept 26
Children
School, and registration in both countries
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
Paperwork between the two countries
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.
For use in Brazil, the apostille is issued in the UK, by the FCDO. A Brazilian cartório cannot apostille a British document, and neither can the consulate here.
If an apostille is asked for, it is issued in Brazil, at a cartório authorised by the CNJ. It cannot be done from here: only the issuing country can apostille.
This is the most expensive and most common mistake. A British document is apostilled in the UK, by the FCDO.
This is the most expensive and most common mistake. A British document is apostilled in the UK, by the FCDO. A Brazilian document is apostilled in Brazil, at a cartório authorised by the CNJ.
A Brazilian cartório cannot apostille a British certificate, and the consulate here does not do it either. Anyone who takes an English birth certificate to Brazil without an apostille usually has to send the document back, apostille it, and send it again.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: MRE, Consulate-General of Brazil in London; GOV.UK.Since 14 August 2016, when Brazil joined the Apostille Convention, the British embassy and consulates in Brazil stopped legalising documents, and the same applies in the other direction.
Since 14 August 2016, when Brazil joined the Apostille Convention, the British embassy and consulates in Brazil stopped legalising documents, and the same applies in the other direction. For anyone with old paperwork: a document the consulate legalised before 14 August 2016 remains valid in Brazil without an apostille.
Brazil’s National Council of Justice once set a deadline for this, and revoked it in 2018. A document issued after that date needs an apostille.
Checked on 25th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, change in legalisation services in Brazil, 2016; CNJ Resolution 228/2016, article 20 revoked by Resolution 247/2018.Another one that costs money twice. In Brazil a tradução juramentada is done by a sworn public translator registered with a junta comercial.
Another one that costs money twice. In Brazil a tradução juramentada is done by a sworn public translator registered with a junta comercial. A certified translation bought in the UK may not be accepted by the Brazilian body.
One important exception: for revalidating a degree, the current rule waives translation for documents in English, explained further down this page. Before paying, ask the body that will receive the document whether the translation has to be done in Brazil or whether one done here is accepted.
The consulate itself advises checking this first.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Consulate-General of Brazil in London.You can apostille the British certificate, have it translated and transcribed in Brazil.
You can apostille the British certificate, have it translated and transcribed in Brazil. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself strongly recommends consular registration, because the procedure is simpler and avoids trouble later.
Without consular registration or a Brazilian certificate, you cannot obtain other Brazilian documents, including a passport. A child born here, a marriage held here: worth sorting early, not the week before a trip.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: MRE, apostille and legalisation.Procuração: getting things done in Brazil without flying back
If someone needs to sell, sign, receive or represent you in Brazil, a power of attorney is the instrument. It is done at the consulate, by appointment, and is one of the most common reasons a Brazilian here needs to go in person. Worth knowing it exists before buying a flight to sort something out yourself.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Consulate-General of Brazil in London, appointment system.A Brazilian visits for up to six months with an ETA, not a visa. The ETA costs £20, lasts two years, and the visit is to see family: work, benefits and living here through repeated visits are outside it.
Brazilians do not need a visa to visit the UK for up to six months. Since January 2025 they need an ETA, the electronic travel authorisation.
It is applied for through the UK ETA app or on GOV.UK, with the passport for the trip, costs £20, usually comes back within three working days, and lasts two years for multiple trips, or until the passport expires. The passport has to be valid for the whole stay.
On 27th Sept 26 the Standard Visitor page listed, among what a visit allows, seeing family or friends.
The same page lists what sits outside it: paid or unpaid work for a UK company, or self-employment; public funds, meaning benefits; and living in the UK for long periods through frequent or successive visits, or making the UK your main home. Someone coming to help in the weeks after a birth comes through this door.
The door for someone who will live here because they need long-term care is a different one, in the next item.
The person has to be able to show they will leave at the end, that they can support themselves on the trip, or that someone else will, and that the return journey is paid for. An ETA does not guarantee entry: the border officer decides on arrival.
The page says someone who has previously been refused entry, or has a criminal record, may want to apply for a Standard Visitor visa even though they are not required to. Someone who has had a visa refused, been refused entry or had immigration trouble here can be refused an ETA.
In that case, the route is one of the free immigration organisations on the Help page. This site describes the two doors. It does not pick which one fits a family.
Checked on 27th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, Electronic Travel Authorisation; GOV.UK, Standard Visitor. Next review due 10 April 2027.Moving here to be cared for is the Adult Dependent Relative route, applied for from abroad. The rule requires long-term care, and that this care cannot be obtained in the country where the person lives, even with financial help from the sponsor here.
In Brazil, a parent moving in with their child is a matter of a cartório and a plane ticket. Here, moving in order to be cared for has a name: Adult Dependent Relative. A visit, in the item above, is a different thing.
On 27th Sept 26 the application page said the following. The person who needs the care applies, they are 18 or over, and an entry application is made from outside the UK. An extension is what is applied for from inside.
The person here, who will provide the care, is a parent, grandchild, brother, sister, son or daughter, living here permanently, and is one of these: a British or Irish citizen; settled, such as indefinite leave to remain; pre-settled, if they started living here before 1 January 2021; or has protection status, as a refugee or with humanitarian protection.
A decision, applying from outside, usually comes within 12 weeks. If the person here is British, Irish or settled, the stay granted is unlimited: there is no extension to apply for.
The test is in the Immigration Rules, Appendix Adult Dependent Relative, read the same day. Their sentence:
"ADR 5.1. The applicant, or if the applicant is applying as a parent or grandparent, the applicant’s partner, must as a result of age, illness or disability require long term personal care to perform everyday tasks."
"ADR 5.2.
Where the application is for entry clearance, the applicant, or if the applicant is applying as a parent or grandparent, the applicant’s partner, must be unable to obtain the required level of care in the country where they are living, even with the financial help of the sponsor because either: (a) the care is not available and there is no person in that country who can reasonably provide it: or (b) the care is not affordable."
The sponsor has to maintain, house and care for the person without public funds, and signs an undertaking to that effect. Rule ADR 6.5 says that if the person receives public funds during the period covered by the undertaking, the government may recover that money from the person who signed.
The same appendix provides for Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: if refusal would produce unjustifiably harsh consequences for the person or their family, the Article 8 requirement can be met. The Home Office applies that.
A registered Immigration Advice Authority adviser is who reads a case with the family. The search is on the Help page. This site publishes the test.
It does not say whether a case succeeds.
Checked on 27th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, family visa, adult dependent relative; Immigration Rules, Appendix Adult Dependent Relative. Next review due 1 April 2027.Brazil is not on the list of countries with the shorter rule. Microchip before the rabies vaccine, a blood test, and a 3-month wait from the date of the sample. A dog also needs worming between 24 hours and 5 days before arrival.
In Brazil a dog travels with its vaccination card. To enter England, Wales or Scotland from Brazil, GOV.UK asks for a sequence, and the order is what avoids quarantine. On 27th Sept 26 Brazil did not appear on the listed-countries table on the page for which document the pet needs.
A country off that table needs a Great Britain pet health certificate and a rabies blood test. If Brazil is added to the table one day, the table wins, not this paragraph.
Birds, rabbits and other animals have a different page. A banned breed of dog can only enter if it already has a valid Certificate of Exemption: the breed list is on the banned dogs page, and we are not copying the list onto here.
Getting the sequence wrong can put the animal in quarantine for up to 4 months, and the fees belong to the traveller. Someone arriving by sea who does not meet the rule can be refused entry.
Selling the animal, it arriving more than 5 days before or after you, or bringing more than 5 other than for a competition, falls under the Balai rules, on a separate link on the same page.
Once here, asking to keep the animal in a private tenancy is a different rule, from 1 May 2026, on the Housing page: the landlord has to consider the request.
- 1An approved routeThe animal enters on a pet-travel route GOV.UK lists. The list changes. Open it on the day.
- 2Microchip, and only then the vaccineThe chip comes before the rabies vaccination. A vaccine given before the chip falls outside the order on the page.
- 3Vaccine, a wait, a blood testAfter the first vaccination, the minimum wait on the general page is 21 full days. For a country off the table, the blood test is required: the sample at least 30 days after the vaccine, at an EU-approved laboratory, with a result of at least 0.5 IU/ml. Then it is 3 months counted from the date of the sample, before travel. The test stays valid as long as the booster vaccinations are kept up to date.
- 4A Great Britain pet health certificateA country off the table does not use a European pet passport. The document is the Great Britain pet health certificate, issued by the vet. What the certificate has to say is on its own page.
- 5A dog: worming in the right windowA dog needs tapeworm treatment on every entry, except someone arriving directly from Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta or Norway. Brazil is none of those. The product has to contain praziquantel, or an equivalent, and be given no less than 24 hours and no more than 5 days, 120 hours, before arrival. Miss the window and it is treated again.
- 6A declaration, if you are not sellingSomeone who is not going to sell or transfer the animal fills in the declaration for a non-commercial movement. The form is in the same family of pages.
Checked on 27th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, bringing a dog, cat or ferret; travel document; rabies blood test; tapeworm treatment. Next review due 1 April 2027.- 1
Something worth knowing, even if it is not your situation
Here, coercive control is a crime, with up to 5 years in prison: when someone repeatedly controls your money, your phone, where you go and who you speak to, or threatens and humiliates you, even with no hand laid on you. Threatening to report you to immigration counts too. Nobody needs anyone’s permission to call 999.
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.
What you still owe Brazil
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.
For someone who left for good, or has been away 12 months in a row: the Comunicação by the end of February the following year, then the Declaração. Without the Comunicação, you stay tax resident there for your first 12 months away.
First, check whether this applies to you. The exit declaration is for someone leaving Brazil permanently. Someone who left planning to return, for an exchange or a course, stays resident, but only until they have been away 12 months in a row.
From the next day they become non-resident, and the communication becomes compulsory for them too, counted from that date. If you are unsure, speak to an accountant in Brazil first.
If it does apply, there are two steps. The Comunicação de Saída, by the end of February in the year after you leave. Then the Declaração de Saída, at the normal tax time, covering what you earned up to the date you left.
Without the Comunicação, the Receita treats you as resident for your first 12 months away, and in that period income from abroad, including the salary you earn here, is taxable there too.
From the 13th month you become non-resident either way, but the Declaração de Saída is still compulsory, and so are the returns for earlier years. The bill usually turns up years later, when you go to sell a property: late returns all at once.
Anyone who became non-resident more than six years ago and never filed the communication sends the documents to cpf.residente.exterior@rfb.gov.br.
It is done once, online, free. It is tedious, it is not expensive, and it does not come back.
Checked on 27th Sept 26 Source: Receita Federal, Comunicar saída definitiva do país. Next review due 1 March 2027.Having an account or a property in Brazil does not make you a tax resident again, provided the departure was declared.
Having an account or a property in Brazil does not make you a tax resident again, provided the departure was declared. What happens is that Brazilian-source income such as rent, interest and dividends becomes taxed at source, and you no longer declare foreign income to Brazil.
Selling a property in Brazil still generates capital gains tax, declared exit or not. If the exit was never declared, for your first 12 months away the Receita still treats you as resident, and all of it goes into your annual return. After that you are taxed as a non-resident, but the returns left behind are still owed.
Checked on 27th Sept 26 Source: Receita Federal, taxation of non-residents. Next review due 1 March 2027.You do not lose your vote by living abroad. Brazilians overseas vote in the presidential election, at a consulate, here in London.
You do not lose your vote by living abroad. Brazilians overseas vote in the presidential election, at a consulate, here in London. The right comes with an obligation, and it has an end point most people only discover in the consulate queue.
- 1Transfer your electoral domicileDone at a consulate. Living abroad, you vote only in the presidential election.
- 2Vote, or justify within 60 daysCompulsory from 18 to 70. If you did not vote, justify within sixty days of each round, through e-Título or the TSE system.
- 3Three consecutive rounds with neitherYour título is cancelled automatically.
- 4A cancelled título blocks documentsAnyone in debt to the Electoral Court can have a passport refused or not renewed.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Superior Electoral Court; Brazilian Electoral Code. Next review due 1 January 2027.- 1
A Brazilian man has to enlist at 18, including from abroad. Anyone overseas does it at the consulate, in the first half of the year he turns 18.
A Brazilian man has to enlist at 18, including from abroad. Anyone overseas does it at the consulate, in the first half of the year he turns 18. If the deadline is missed it can be sorted out later, but with a fine.
And, as with voting, being in debt with military service prevents a passport being issued or renewed. If you have a son approaching that age and living here, it is worth putting in the calendar: it is one of the few Brazilian deadlines that does not wait.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Consulate-General of Brazil in London. Next review due 1 January 2027.If your CPF is suspended, it is usually out-of-date information, and if it is pending regularisation, it is usually a missing tax return.
If your CPF is suspended, it is usually out-of-date information, and if it is pending regularisation, it is usually a missing tax return. In both cases it can be sorted online, without going to the consulate, through the Receita Federal service for people living abroad, and without paying anything.
Worth checking before you need it, because since the CPF became Brazil’s single identification number it is required for practically everything, including documents at the consulate.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Receita Federal, services for residents abroad. Next review due 1 March 2027.A child of a Brazilian born abroad is Brazilian by birth, and the Constitution says so, but with one condition: they must be registered at a Brazilian consular office.
A child of a Brazilian born abroad is Brazilian by birth, and the Constitution says so, but with one condition: they must be registered at a Brazilian consular office. Consular registration of birth is the act that confirms that nationality and produces the Brazilian certificate.
There is no fatal deadline, but it is worth doing in childhood, because without it the child cannot get a Brazilian passport or a CPF, and sorting it out later is more work. Anyone reaching adulthood without it can still opt for the nationality, but that route involves residing in Brazil.
The step by step for consular registration is further up this same page, in the apostille and documents section. The British side, the register-office deadline here and the British citizenship rule, is on the Children page, with the GOV.UK link.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Brazilian Constitution, art. 12; Consulate-General of Brazil in London. Next review due 1 June 2027.Plenty of people count on an exchange that does not exist: Brazil and the UK have no licence exchange agreement.
Plenty of people count on an exchange that does not exist: Brazil and the UK have no licence exchange agreement. The good side is that your Brazilian licence covers your entire first year here, which tends to be the busiest year, so you can drive while you sort out everything else.
Your Brazilian licence works here for up to twelve months after you become resident, and after that the route is the same as for someone who has never driven: a provisional licence, the theory test and the practical test.
In the other direction, a British licence can be used in Brazil for a limited period after entry, and after that you need to obtain the Brazilian CNH. Confirm the time limits on both sides before relying on them.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: GOV.UK, driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence. Next review due 1 January 2027.Dipirona, which we know as Novalgina and use for everything, is not licensed in the UK: it simply does not exist on the market here, and the practical equivalent is paracetamol or ibuprofen.
Dipirona, which we know as Novalgina and use for everything, is not licensed in the UK: it simply does not exist on the market here, and the practical equivalent is paracetamol or ibuprofen. Medicine containing codeine or tramadol is controlled here and needs a prescription to travel with, or it can be seized.
The rule of thumb for travel is to carry no more than a personal supply, in its original packaging, with a prescription or a letter from your doctor. And if you depend on a continuing Brazilian medicine, it is worth talking to your GP about the equivalent here as soon as you arrive, rather than relying on parcels.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: GOV.UK, travelling with controlled medicines; ANVISA. Next review due 1 January 2027.In May 2026 Brazil formalised zero import tax on purchases up to 50 dollars, with a higher rate above that.
In May 2026 Brazil formalised zero import tax on purchases up to 50 dollars, with a higher rate above that. For anyone sending a gift or medicine to family, that matters.
Medicine for personal use has its own rules and goes through ANVISA control: it cannot be a commercial order and cannot contain substances subject to special control. Narcotics and psychotropics do not go by post without specific authorisation.
Confirm the current threshold and rate with the Receita before sending, because this is a rule that has already changed several times.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Receita Federal; ANVISA. Next review due 1 December 2026.
The year in both countries
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.
UK
Winter coats appear in the shops, and disappear around the end of December. Anyone who only looks in January pays more and finds less.
Brazil has no deadline this month.
Regulated professions: the route for each one
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.
Marketing, technology, administration, accountancy, design, logistics, sales, HR, hospitality. Nobody needs to recognise your qualification: you apply for the job. UK ENIC can translate the level of your degree if asked.
Then a body decides, and the route depends on which profession.
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.
The official cost, side by side
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.
The time, side by side
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 week of leaving
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.
Caixa says leaving, even for good, is not itself a reason to withdraw. The request is in the app, and the credit lands in an account in Brazil.
Anyone who worked with a signed contract in Brazil may have an FGTS balance. On 26th Sept 26 the Caixa page for withdrawal from abroad said, in short, three things.
Withdrawal for someone living abroad follows the same grounds as for someone living in Brazil: dismissal without just cause, retirement, inactivity, and the others in article 20 of Law 8.036/90. Leaving the country, even for good, is not a ground for withdrawal.
The request is through the FGTS app, no longer at the consulate. The credit lands in an account in Brazil. Someone who filed the saída definitiva can name another person’s Brazilian account. The Caixa page has the steps and the document list. We are not copying either: they change the app.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: FGTS, withdrawal from abroad. Next review due 1 March 2027.The council, the GP and, if you file Self Assessment, HMRC. The National Insurance record does not delete itself: the page for people leaving the country is on GOV.UK.
Four notices, each with the page of the body that handles it.
Council. Council tax belongs to whoever lives there. When you leave, the council needs the date. The GOV.UK council tax page is the start, and your borough’s site is where the form lives.
GP. The NHS asks you to tell the surgery if you change address. Without that, appointment letters and test results keep going to the old address. The page on how to register, which includes changing surgery, is this one. Leaving the list without registering somewhere else is a different procedure, and this page does not describe it.
HMRC. Someone who files Self Assessment and stops needing to has to say so. Until HMRC confirms, a return is still expected, and so is the penalty for not filing. The route is in the Self Assessment family of pages, not on the deadlines page alone.
National Insurance. What happens to what you already paid is on the GOV.UK page for people leaving the country. Contributing from abroad tightened on 6 April 2026: Class 2 from overseas ended, and the detail is in the pension block on the Money page. If the block and the government page disagree, the government page wins.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, National Insurance if you leave the country. Next review due 6 April 2027.The consulate publishes the visa types. This site does not pick one.
A spouse, a partner, a British child. The route for each one is on the visa pages of Itamaraty and of the Consulate-General in London. Visa type, documents and fees change, and the wrong visa is a real problem.
That is why this page does not describe the visa. It describes where the official list is. Read the consulate page on the day you apply, not an old translation.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: Consulate-General of Brazil in London. Next review due 1 March 2027.
If someone dies
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.
Wait for the medical examiner to confirm you can register. Then it is 5 days, in England, including the weekend. If it will take longer, tell the register office at once.
On 26th Sept 26 the GOV.UK page, What to do after someone dies, gave this order.
The doctor confirms the death and speaks to the medical examiner, who is a different doctor, and who was not involved in the person’s care. The medical examiner’s office gets in touch to explain the cause. That conversation is voluntary. Registration only starts once they confirm you can register.
In England, register within 5 days of that confirmation, including weekends and bank holidays. If you need longer, tell the register office immediately. The same page has a separate path if the death was reported to a coroner. We are not rewriting that path: it depends on the case, and the page is the instruction.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, what to do after someone dies. Next review due 1 June 2027.After registration, Tell Us Once tells government departments in one go. Banks, employers and private pensions are outside it: you tell those.
The second step of the same GOV.UK page is Tell Us Once. It tells government departments. The page also says who is outside it: an employer, a private pension, a bank, a utility account. Those remain yours to tell.
If your right to live here depended on the person who died, the same page points at what to look at on immigration. That is a case for a registered adviser, on the Help page, not for a paragraph of ours.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: GOV.UK, what to do after someone dies. Next review due 1 June 2027.The consulate registers a Brazilian’s death with the British certificate, through e-consular. The consular certificate still has to be transcribed at a registry office in Brazil.
On 26th Sept 26 the Consulate-General in London’s page said the death of a Brazilian in the United Kingdom can be registered at the consulate, by a relative or, with authorisation, by a funeral director. The request is through e-consular.
They ask for the British certificate, the death certificate or the interim one, the deceased’s identification and the declarant’s identification. The full list is on their page, and theirs is the one that counts if our sentence ages.
The consular certificate is then transcribed at a civil registry office in Brazil, at the person’s home town or in the Federal District. The consulate page says so.
Bringing the body home is an arrangement between the funeral director, the airline and the consulate. This site recommends no funeral director and publishes no price. The papers the consulate asks for are on the link.
Checked on 26th Sept 26 Source: Consulate-General of Brazil in London, death registration. Next review due 1 March 2027.
A degree from here, valid in Brazil
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.
There are networks of Brazilian alumni from British universities, and they are the fastest way to speak to someone who has already done exactly what you are doing.
There are networks of Brazilian alumni from British universities, and they are the fastest way to speak to someone who has already done exactly what you are doing. The British Council runs the Alumni UK network for anyone who studied here, and by 2024 more than nine hundred Brazilians had registered.
Cambridge and Oxford both have Brazilian alumni chapters, including activity in São Paulo. And Ciência sem Fronteiras, which between 2011 and 2017 sent thousands of Brazilians to universities here, left a whole generation of people who took this path before you.
If you are thinking of going home and working in Brazil with a degree from here, those people have already taken this path.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: British Council, Alumni UK network. Next review due 1 June 2027.Check first whether your case requires it. Revalidation is compulsory for a profession regulated by a professional council:
Check first whether your case requires it. Revalidation is compulsory for a profession regulated by a professional council: a lawyer has to revalidate and then pass the OAB exam, a doctor goes through the Revalida, and the same applies to health fields generally.
It is also required for public-sector competitions that ask for a recognised qualification. Beyond that, to work for a private company in a role that does not require council registration, your British degree counts as education and experience without revalidation.
Plenty of people revalidate by reflex when they did not need to. Check what your profession actually requires first.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Carolina Bori Portal, Brazilian Ministry of Education. Next review due 1 June 2027.Good news for anyone here doing a master’s, which is most people: the postgraduate route is the easier of the two.
Good news for anyone here doing a master’s, which is most people: the postgraduate route is the easier of the two. These are two processes with different names, and confusing them costs time.
An undergraduate degree goes through revalidação, and only a Brazilian public university with a recognised course at the same level and in an equivalent field can do it.
A master’s or doctorate goes through reconhecimento, and there any university, public or private, with a CAPES-assessed postgraduate programme in the same field at an equal or higher level can process it.
Notice the difference: for postgraduate degrees the range of universities that can process it is much wider, which usually means more choice of places and timescales. Both enter by the same door: the Carolina Bori Platform, run by the Ministry of Education.
That is where you see which universities accept applications, how many places each has and what each charges, and choose.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Carolina Bori Platform; CNE/CES Resolution 2 of 19 December 2024. Next review due 1 June 2027.The current rule says the university may request translation of the documentation, except where the documents are in the lingua francas of academic life, which are English, French and Spanish.
The current rule says the university may request translation of the documentation, except where the documents are in the lingua francas of academic life, which are English, French and Spanish. So a British degree and transcript, already in English, normally need no sworn translation.
What is still required is the Hague apostille on the original document, done here in the UK, because an apostille can only be issued by the country that produced the document. Confirm with your chosen university before ordering any translation.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Carolina Bori Portal, information for applicants; CNE/CES Resolution 2/2024. Next review due 1 June 2027.Each university sets its own fee, many between one and three thousand reais, and in practice it takes six to twelve months.
Each university charges its own fee and publishes it on the platform, so you can compare before choosing. For a sense of scale, UnB was charging around R$2,242 and USP around R$2,840 plus R$200 on approval, and many fees sit in the one to three thousand reais range. A recognised refugee is normally exempt by rule.
On timing, the law allows around six months across the stages, but in practice many universities quote six to twelve months. There is a faster simplified route for degrees from courses on specific Ministry of Education lists, and it is worth checking whether yours is on one before entering by the ordinary route.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Carolina Bori Portal; UnB and USP revalidation pages. Next review due 1 June 2027.The Ministry of Education confirms there is no automatic recognition of degrees from any country. Each case is assessed by a Brazilian university with an equivalent course.
Worth reading what the Ministry of Education itself says, in these words, on the Carolina Bori portal’s FAQ page:
"Informamos que o Brasil não possui acordo de revalidação/reconhecimento automático de diplomas de nível superior." (We advise that Brazil has no automatic revalidation or recognition agreement for higher education degrees. Our translation.)
It is the same for a degree from any country, not just the UK. The reason sits in Brazilian law itself, which gives each university academic autonomy to assess equivalence rather than having the government decide for them. Each case is assessed individually, by a Brazilian university with an equivalent course.
There is no shortcut for being a British degree, however well known the university. Ciência sem Fronteiras, which sent many people here, has ended, and some of its former scholars appear on the simplified-route lists, but the programme itself no longer exists.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Carolina Bori Portal, frequently asked questions. Next review due 1 June 2027.Two good things here. The first is that Brazil backs its own: CAPES and CNPq are Brazilian agencies that have funded Brazilians studying abroad for decades, with postgraduate awards and the sandwich doctorate.
Two good things here. The first is that Brazil backs its own: CAPES and CNPq are Brazilian agencies that have funded Brazilians studying abroad for decades, with postgraduate awards and the sandwich doctorate.
The second is that Chevening, run by the British government, funds one-year master’s degrees and has its own selection round for Brazil, meaning you compete against other Brazilians rather than the entire world.
On the Brazilian side, CAPES and CNPq run postgraduate funding and the sandwich doctorate, which allows a period abroad during a doctorate based in Brazil, but there is no Brazil-UK specific programme at present.
Calls open by field and by period, so the route is to follow the calls from the agency in your own field rather than wait for a general scheme.
Checked on 22nd Aug 26 Source: Chevening; CAPES; CNPq. Next review due 1 June 2027.
Updated 26th Sept 26
Links
The official sources behind this site, in one place
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
The words in the letter and the interview
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
People who can actually 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.
Domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation
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.
What does not depend on your visa
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.
Scams: how to spot them and where to report
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.
Where to look
If I leave, can I support myself?
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.
Checking a Brazilian professional
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
Beauty and aesthetics in London
We take nothing to be listed.
What are you booking?
Premises licence: pick your borough
Updated 26th Sept 26
About
By Brazilians, for Brazilians
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.
We are not official
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.
Your data
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.
Something wrong?
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.