u/SnooRevelations979

Hi all,

I'm trying to rent an apartment on Quinto Andar and they require either a CRNM or a "protocolo de solicitação" for foreigners.

I have applied for a renewal of my Digital Nomad visa through an attorney's office, it has been approved, but it hasn't yet been printed on the Official Registry.

How do I get a this protocolo? Is this what I receive after I have the appointment with Policia Federal, in which case I'm screwed. Or is it some other kind of receipt?

When making a proposal for a rental property on Quinto Andar, how much lower do you usually go than the asking price?

The first time I did this we really wanted the property and were at the point when we had to move, so we offered the full price. Now, I have a lot more relaxed timeline and don't "have to have" any particular rental property.

Any experience or advice?

(Note my partner has a young kid and so does her brother, so this is a factor for consideration.) In the US, I maybe see my family once every month or two for two or three hours at a time. By contrast, my partner will be with her family for eight hours at a time. Going to a SESC event, a park, or over someone's house. It's generally low pressure. One can take a nap with no offense taken. I even sometimes bring a book. But this is a looooot of time for an introvert like me to spend with people, especially in a language I'm not fluent in.

Also, when I was going on dates with Brazilians, I almost always was the one to end the date, whether it was a good or blah one. It seemed like there was an expectation to hang out for hours.

Are my observations correct?

I should have added this to my original post, instead of a new post, but it in a lot of ways, it's a separate topic to the frequency and duration of hanging out with family.

The first is chores. While somebody brings a dish they made to a family event is extremely common and at least an offer to help with dishes is expected, the degree that Brazilian guests chip in to help with chores just doesn't happen that often in the US.

The second, and more complicated, is paying for things. Generally, in the US, whoever the host is pays for everything except for whatever token dish or bottle of wine or whatever the guest brings. When it comes to going out for restaurant meals, my friends and family there tend to practice a sort of socialism: whoever makes the most money, generally pays the most often. And it's usually one or two people paying for the whole thing, rather than splitting the bill.

While I grew up solidly middle-class, all my immediate relatives are now comfortably upper middle-class and I tend to be the most "poor," so rarely pay in family situations.

Also, when I go out with friends to a bar in the States, very often it's just one person who pays, and there's an informal rotating basis on paying.

I must admit I found it really odd, after spending a few days at the pousada of my partner's cousin, to be effectively presented with a bill. The expenses were added up and divided.

(Note my partner has a young kid and so does her brother, so this is a factor for consideration.) In the US, I maybe see my family once every month or two for two or three hours at a time. By contrast, my partner will be with her family for eight hours at a time. Going to a SESC event, a park, or over someone's house. It's generally low pressure. One can take a nap with no offense taken. I even sometimes bring a book. But this is a looooot of time for an introvert like me to spend with people, especially in a language I'm not fluent in.

Also, when I was going on dates with Brazilians, I almost always was the one to end the date, whether it was a good or blah one. It seemed like there was an expectation to hang out for hours.

Are my observations correct?

The Baltimore City Public Safety Dashboard is indeed new and improved. (Link at the bottom.) You can now do a lot of things that were tough to do before, like see victims by race and access other more minor crimes. Unlike the old version though, I can’t say when it was last updated. But I’ll assume it’s more or less up to date.

As last time, I'll start with the caveat that of those listed on the dashboard, I really only look at three major crimes: homicide, non-fatal shootings, and carjackings. But, because it’s accessible now, I’ll add car theft. This is because these tend to have extremely high reporting rates, whereas things like rape, total violent and property crimes depend on reporting rates, with most not being reported. So, it's tough to find a signal in the noise.

With that said, here's how Baltimore City is doing so far this year on those four crimes. I'll also note the projected difference between this year and 2022, the year before violent crime start falling precipitously in our City by the Bay.

Homicide -- The City is down 24.62% this year compared to last year. This City is on pace to record about 100 homicides this year compared to 323 in 2022. This would be a 69% decrease in four years. This would put the city at roughly 17.86 homicides per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate since 1965.

Non-fatal Shootings -- The City is down 4.94% this year compared to last year. The City is on pace to record about 293 non-fatal shootings this year compared 649 in 2022. This would be a 54.8% decrease in four years.

Carjackings -- The City is down 46.78% this year compared to last year. The City is on pace to record about 148 carjackings this year compared to 703 in 2022. This would be a 78.94% decrease in four years.

Car Theft – The City is down .13% this year compared to last year. The City is on pace to record 4,443 car thefts this year compared to 3,583 in 2022. This would be a 24% increase in four years.

 https://www.baltimorecity.gov/monse/baltimore-public-safety-accountability-dashboard

I bought my house in Highlandtown in 2008 for $165k. It's worth maybe $240k today and, over the years, I've sunk maybe $60k in it.

So, mine wasn't the best investment from a financial point of view. (Of course, there's a hell of a lot more return in buying a house than just financials, and I'm not trying to suggest otherwise.)

Homeowners, what about you and yours?

Up until recently, I was always really confused at the options when I went to throw out trash, either recyclable or organic trash. I was amazed that everything fit into either category.

Ditto home recycling. My partner will put everything from a candy wrapper to a soiled pizza box to styrofoam in the recycling container. It's far from my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure there's no scientific way to recycle styrofoam.

A few years ago in the US, there was a big story that it turned out that only a small fraction of consumer plastic was recycled. People were led to believe by beverage and food companies that they could be rest assured, that plastic water bottle would be recycled.

So, two questions:

First, what doesn't belong in the recycling container or can?

Second, what actually does get recycled in Brazil?

The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Engagement just changed the format of the Crime Dashboard to make it able or easier to sort victims by race. So, I thought it would be interesting to look at homicide victims last year; the disparity is obvious without commentary. One big caveat here: while I have a decent degree of trust in the total number of homicides count, I have a lot less in whether victims' race was collected correctly.

For reference, the FBI homicide rate last year for the country as a whole was about 4 per 100,000, depending on who you talk to this is either the lowest rate on record or since the late 1950s. (I should note there is good evidence, for wonky reasons I won't get into, that the FBI methodology understates the number of homicides and the CDC report is much better.)

Baltimore City as a whole -- In 2025, Baltimore City recorded 134 homicides last year, a rate of 22.7 per 100,000 residents (the lowest since 1977).

Black victims -- 126 (94%) of the victims were reported as Black. That means Black people were murdered at about a rate of 34.7 per 100,000.

Hispanic victims -- Three (2.2%) of the victims were reported as Hispanic. That means Hispanics were murdered at about a rate of 6.41 per 100,000.

White non-Hispanic -- Two (1.4%) of the victims were reported a white non-Hispanic. That means whites were murdered at about a rate of 1.35 per 100,000.

Others -- There was one listed as Pacific Islander, and a couple of unknown race.

Anybody do it?

For background, I tried to do my digital nomad renewal myself, and was rejected because my formulario and criminal background check were wrong. Although I'm a fan of Kafka, I don't know why they were wrong.

So, because I'm now out of status, my only option is to apply as if this is a new DN visa. I did my own from the States, which was less complicated. I have two primary questions:

First, how do I get the FBI background check from abroad?

Second, how do I pay the fine for being out of status? I understand that I will need to do this?

Other option is I could pay $1,500 to have a law firm do it for me.

Hi all,

I'm still doing the back and forth with the Policia Federal on renewing my year-long visa. It's a confusing process.

In the meantime, would I be allowed to board an internal flight even though my visa expired a month ago?

Thanks.