It’s just so good to wake up after a quiet night of sleep. I got to Sao Paulo on time (learn SingAir, learn!), got my luggage and proceeded to customs where I was already expecting to have some sort of ‘delay’. The officer was this not so friendly guy, dresses in a worn out suite and chewing gum. Geez, could it be any more typical? I was proceeding to “goods to declare” but he kept signaling for me to move to the “nothing to declare” row, so I did.

When I approached and handed him my declaration form, filled as “non resident” and with the most expensive items I was carrying (i.e. my laptop, my video camera and my digital camera) he didn’t bother to check. Just lifted my case to check the weight and pointed to the luggage check tables. Fair enough, I was expecting that and had been instructed by a friend who also works for the Inland Revenue/Federal Police.

At the desk, another officer, a woman, was very nice and polite. She asked me the contents of the bags and if I would mind showing her. Also, she check the form I filled in and realized I was a non resident. She started small talk asking me where I was coming from, how was it like to live in Singapore, how long I had been living there, those kind of things. She said everything seemed fine but I guess she could not simply dismiss me as “Mr. Fat Domino” would probably want to ask questions himself.

The guys came back (I have his name, but I’m not telling) and started saying: - So, you know you’re entitled to bring in just US500, right? I told him I was a non resident and those goods were not to stay in the country. He looked surprised and asked why I filled the form for residents. Well, I didn’t! I he had checked he would know so. The lady was a bit quiet now. He was probably her superior and she was maybe a trainee? Anyway, he opened my passport in the first page and said “your visa for Singapore was just for 14 days”. I told him he was looking in the wrong place. That was my entry with the new passport, as the old one had no pages left. I showed him the actual visa, my ‘green card’ and ticket back. He wasn’t very happy. Then he proceeded:

- If you are here on vacation, why did you bring the laptop?
- Because I need to check my emails.
- But you can do that from any computer…
- Yes, that’s true but it’s my company’s email and most of the time sensitive material I don’t want to leave bits and pieces scattered. Besides, I will need the computer to download pictures taken during the trip.
- I am not sure you do not have to pay tax for these.
- I am! I checked with a friend here in Brazil that used to do the same work you do before being promoted…
- What’s your friend’s name?
- It’s Mr. Here goes his name.

He stopped to think a bit… Checked my stuff… Looked at my passport again… Then, without looking either at me or his colleague, the lady, said while walking away: “Yeah, all’s fine. Let him go…”

I was very, VERY tired from the long flight but I felt triumphant I did not have to ‘pay’ anything to them. Last time I was in Brazil I wasn’t well coached and in the end the so called “brazilian way” cost me US$100, which it’s a lot of money…