Licensing Requirements for Professional Services
Many professions in Brazil are regulated or inspected by councils. Councils are public authorities that regulate, supervise, direct, and discipline certain professional categories. Certain workers are required to register at corresponding councils to work in their profession. In professions requiring a registration, anyone that works without a registration is subject to penalties according to Brazilian law.
The basic requirement to be licensed by a professional council is to have a valid graduation certificate in the chosen area. Since there are several different professional councils, registration requirements may vary. The most common procedure is to visit a regional council or send the necessary documents. This registration has an expiration date, and needs to be renewed periodically, according to the council’s rules.
The registration of a foreigner in a Brazilian professional council varies according to each profession. Some, like the Council of Psychology and the Council of Administration, allow foreigners to be registered. The main conditions for this are the revalidation of the foreign diploma and a proficiency test in the Portuguese language. Other councils have stricter rules, allowing foreigners to register only in exceptional cases, like a lack of registered professionals, or only providing temporary permits for the realization of a specific project in Brazil. This is the case in the Council of Engineering and Agronomy.
Web Resources:
Contacts of main Standards organizations in Brazil can be found on the following web sites:
Contact Information:
Catherine Muth Murray is CS Brazil’s Standards Attaché based in São Paulo. She can be reached at Catherine.MuthMurray@trade.gov