Visas for Brazil

Hi Guys,

Just thought I would give the Aussies a heads up if cruising or flying to Brazil.

We need a E Visa, which you need to do on line, before you get there.

We have just spent 3 hours getting our visa's organised & payment organised @ USD45.00 Per Person

They are very precise with the Photo & Passport Request

Regards

Woody666

Woddy666, excellent information.

There is a board for Aussies and New Zealanders and I would also suggest posting this on that board.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=197

Keith

I think Brazil is going to ease up on their requirements for other countries too. US might see a Brazil e-visa by mid year. Too late for us as we are going there in Feb.

Good info. Thanks for posting.

E-Visa for US would be great, we're headed to Brazil pre-cruise in Jan/2019

In over fifty years of international travel, Brazil remains the worst country we have ever had the displeasure of dealing with...when it comes to obtaining a Visa. We are US Citizens and Brazil thought it was appropriate to have a retaliatory Visa program to get back at the US Government for being somewhat difficult when it came to granting Visas to Brazilians who wanted to come to the US. We did get Visas (after spending 2 days in Washington DC)...but the Consul jerked us around. If it was not for the fact we had 2 cruises booked that involved Brazil we would have told the counsul where he could put his Visas :(. After 3 visits to Brazil we have no desire to ever return.

Hank

E visas and lower price of $44.24 for Australian, Japanese, Canadian and US nationals. [emoji106] http://vfsglobal.com/brazil-evisa/

Sent from my iPad using Forums

In over fifty years of international travel, Brazil remains the worst country we have ever had the displeasure of dealing with...when it comes to obtaining a Visa. We are US Citizens and Brazil thought it was appropriate to have a retaliatory Visa program to get back at the US Government for being somewhat difficult when it came to granting Visas to Brazilians who wanted to come to the US. We did get Visas (after spending 2 days in Washington DC)...but the Consul jerked us around. If it was not for the fact we had 2 cruises booked that involved Brazil we would have told the counsul where he could put his Visas :(. After 3 visits to Brazil we have no desire to ever return.

 

Hank

We had heard what a pain it was and how a minor slip up could send you to the end of the line, so we paid a visa service to handle it for us. About doubled the cost but at least we didn't have to deal with the Brazilian embassy staff.

In over fifty years of international travel, Brazil remains the worst country we have ever had the displeasure of dealing with...when it comes to obtaining a Visa. We are US Citizens and Brazil thought it was appropriate to have a retaliatory Visa program to get back at the US Government for being somewhat difficult when it came to granting Visas to Brazilians who wanted to come to the US. We did get Visas (after spending 2 days in Washington DC)...but the Consul jerked us around. If it was not for the fact we had 2 cruises booked that involved Brazil we would have told the counsul where he could put his Visas :(. After 3 visits to Brazil we have no desire to ever return.

 

Hank

There are worse countries.

But so what if you are a US citizen? We put, what the Brazilians thought were unreasonable requirements. So they did exactly what we did. Sounds reasonable to me.

There are worse countries.

 

But so what if you are a US citizen? We put, what the Brazilians thought were unreasonable requirements. So they did exactly what we did. Sounds reasonable to me.

'Yep, real reasonable. And they will not be seeing any more of our business (or dollars). That is their choice. But the "unreasonableness of the Deputy Counsel is what totally turned us off. We had no issue with the cost. We had booked a Celebrity cruise that went round trip from Buenos Aires to Brazil and spent 3 nights in Rio for Carnival (it was a fabulous cruise). We happened to be in DC and stopped at the counsel's office to request a Visa. They accepted our paperwork (at the counter) and told us to return the following day to pick up our Passports...with Visas. The following day, the Deputy Counsel came out from behind the counter and told us they would not approve the Visa unless we could prove we had round trip air. His reasoning was that if we didnt' have a return air ticket we might overstay our Visa in Brazil. We showed him all the cruise documentation (which they already had) indicating that we were both entering and leaving Brasil by ship...not air. At that point he said he did not care and wanted to see our round trip air tickets from Buenos Aires (which is in Argentina). Not only did this make no sense, but we did not any air ticket because it was a cruise air and Celebrity had yet to actually issue tickets.

So while on the steps of the Consulate we called Celebrity and got our call elevated to a pretty high level to a person who was also incensed and could not figure what was going on. We actually put the Deputy Counsel on the phone with Celebrity and I suspect he soon had Celebrity pulling out their hair. The Celebrity person then told me to give them two hours, they would get evidence of airline tickets (round trip to and from Argentina) and fax it to the Counsel. We returned later to the Consulate and the Deputy said he did get the fax documents but still was not satisfied. At that point I had had it.....and asked him if I could please speak with his supervisor (who was the Consul). He turned red, disappeared for about 10 minutes and finally returned with our Passports stamped with 5 year Visas (we had not even requested this. I could not resist and said, since they were unlimited entry Visas good for 5 years, how would he know we had airline tickets for future visits. He had no answer other then to tell me that we would now have some idea of how Brazilians are treated by the US Authorities.

But this is not the end of our tales of Brazil. Two years later we were again in Brazil (on that same Visa) on a Azamara Journey cruise. While we were docked in Rio the Brazilian local police came on the ship (in force) and seized all the precious jewelry from the ship's jewelry store. They told the manager that the store (which was a franchise operation like on most ships) had not properly itemized their inventory. The strange thing was that they did not even look at the inventory so they had no way to know whether or not the list was correct. As of the end of our cruise (2 weeks later) we heard (from the store manager) that Brazil was still refusing to give back the gems (worth 10s of thousands of dollars). (we do not know if that jewelry company ever got their gems back or if the Police simply kept the gems.

We are active world travelers (been to over 100 countries) and Brazil is the only country that has totally turned us off. To be totally candid, I do not trust their government and would no longer feel comfortable on their soil. And that from a guy who has enjoyed places like Tunesia, Egypt (where we spent 2 weeks on our own) and Senegal....and lives in Mexico for part of the year :).

Hank

Again, you seem to think that being a US citizen should make you special.

And Brazil did what they did in response to what the US did first. So why is Brazil doing to you, what your government was doing to their citizens unreasonable?

E visas and lower price of $44.24 for Australian, Japanese, Canadian and US nationals. [emoji106] http://vfsglobal.com/brazil-evisa/

From what I can tell, it's currently available for US citizens.

Again, you seem to think that being a US citizen should make you special.

 

And Brazil did what they did in response to what the US did first. So why is Brazil doing to you, what your government was doing to their citizens unreasonable?

You have stated this twice and that is not what Hlitner is saying. Yes, the US requires a visa of Brazilian citizens. So yes Brazil requires a visa of US citizens.

The way I read it, this is not a problem. It was the way they were treated by personnel at the consulate.

Do you personally know of Brazilian citizens who were treated so rudely by US personnel? If yes, then you are correct in saying what you have. If not, then you are way off base.

Do you personally know of Brazilian citizens who were treated so rudely by US personnel? If yes, then you are correct in saying what you have. If not, then you are way off base.

'Yep, real reasonable. And they will not be seeing any more of our business (or dollars). That is their choice. But the "unreasonableness of the Deputy Counsel is what totally turned us off. We had no issue with the cost. We had booked a Celebrity cruise that went round trip from Buenos Aires to Brazil and spent 3 nights in Rio for Carnival (it was a fabulous cruise). We happened to be in DC and stopped at the counsel's office to request a Visa. They accepted our paperwork (at the counter) and told us to return the following day to pick up our Passports...with Visas. The following day, the Deputy Counsel came out from behind the counter and told us they would not approve the Visa unless we could prove we had round trip air. His reasoning was that if we didnt' have a return air ticket we might overstay our Visa in Brazil. We showed him all the cruise documentation (which they already had) indicating that we were both entering and leaving Brasil by ship...not air. At that point he said he did not care and wanted to see our round trip air tickets from Buenos Aires (which is in Argentina). Not only did this make no sense, but we did not any air ticket because it was a cruise air and Celebrity had yet to actually issue tickets.

 

So while on the steps of the Consulate we called Celebrity and got our call elevated to a pretty high level to a person who was also incensed and could not figure what was going on. We actually put the Deputy Counsel on the phone with Celebrity and I suspect he soon had Celebrity pulling out their hair. The Celebrity person then told me to give them two hours, they would get evidence of airline tickets (round trip to and from Argentina) and fax it to the Counsel. We returned later to the Consulate and the Deputy said he did get the fax documents but still was not satisfied. At that point I had had it.....and asked him if I could please speak with his supervisor (who was the Consul). He turned red, disappeared for about 10 minutes and finally returned with our Passports stamped with 5 year Visas (we had not even requested this. I could not resist and said, since they were unlimited entry Visas good for 5 years, how would he know we had airline tickets for future visits. He had no answer other then to tell me that we would now have some idea of how Brazilians are treated by the US Authorities.

 

But this is not the end of our tales of Brazil. Two years later we were again in Brazil (on that same Visa) on a Azamara Journey cruise. While we were docked in Rio the Brazilian local police came on the ship (in force) and seized all the precious jewelry from the ship's jewelry store. They told the manager that the store (which was a franchise operation like on most ships) had not properly itemized their inventory. The strange thing was that they did not even look at the inventory so they had no way to know whether or not the list was correct. As of the end of our cruise (2 weeks later) we heard (from the store manager) that Brazil was still refusing to give back the gems (worth 10s of thousands of dollars). (we do not know if that jewelry company ever got their gems back or if the Police simply kept the gems.

 

We are active world travelers (been to over 100 countries) and Brazil is the only country that has totally turned us off. To be totally candid, I do not trust their government and would no longer feel comfortable on their soil. And that from a guy who has enjoyed places like Tunesia, Egypt (where we spent 2 weeks on our own) and Senegal....and lives in Mexico for part of the year :).

 

Hank

In addition to the roundtrip flight info, we had to provide a copy of a bank statement showing we had sufficient funds to purchase a ticket in case we missed the flight. Just crazy.

Do you personally know of Brazilian citizens who were treated so rudely by US personnel? If yes, then you are correct in saying what you have. If not, then you are way off base.

Brazil started this in about 2005 in response to heightened scrutiny to ALL travelers to the US. Both in getting the visa (all visa applicants MUST appear in person at a US Embassy or Consulate), and also the fingerprinting and photo collection, both for the visa and when arriving in the US.

Brazil was very upset about the fingerprinting and photo.

So Brazil upped their process for US citizens.

Tit for tat is how they saw it.

They settled down after a while, but initially it was nasty. US citizens traveling to Brazil were told to expect several HOURS to clear immigration.

But then again, I have met two friends in the past month of so flying into Dulles from outside the US. Both, were over two hours to get through immigration.

One has visited several times, has several visas (different types for different trips), never overstayed their visa, had a letter of invitation, and was questioned for a long time about what they were doing, where they were going, how they were going to pay for the visit, etc.

In addition to the roundtrip flight info, we had to provide a copy of a bank statement showing we had sufficient funds to purchase a ticket in case we missed the flight. Just crazy.

Because the US does that to visitors to our country.

They also want to know that you brought enough money for your stay when you arrive.

Because the US does that to visitors to our country.

 

They also want to know that you brought enough money for your stay when you arrive.

I was not asked how much cash I was bringing. They only asked for a copy of a bank statement as part of the visa issuance process. I have the visa now, thankfully.

This was someone who had been several times. Had a round trip booking.

And a letter of invitation that stated that all costs for the visit were covered.

And the CBP person still wanted to know how much cash they had and what credit cards they held, and what the credit limits were on the cards.

Considering what we put people, WITH VISAS, through, I am surprised that more countries do not make it more difficult on Americans traveling.

This was someone who had been several times. Had a round trip booking.

 

And a letter of invitation that stated that all costs for the visit were covered.

 

And the CBP person still wanted to know how much cash they had and what credit cards they held, and what the credit limits were on the cards.

 

Considering what we put people, WITH VISAS, through, I am surprised that more countries do not make it more difficult on Americans traveling.

I am asked all kinds of questions at customs/border crossings. I thought we were talking about the process of obtaining a visa.

We all understand you are saying this is a reciprocal action.

Amazingly quick e Visa for Brazil. Really impressed. A few issues with the Passport page - only the part with the photo needs to be uploaded. Very helpful online / telephone support from the Canadian staff. And way less money than anyone else.

http://vfsglobal.com/brazil-evisa/

 

Considering what we put people, WITH VISAS, through, I am surprised that more countries do not make it more difficult on Americans traveling.

Do you think it's possible that problems with people overstaying is more common for visitors to the US, than US citizens visiting other countries?

Do you think they may need US dollars?

Do you think it's possible that problems with people overstaying is more common for visitors to the US, than US citizens visiting other countries?

Do you think they may need US dollars?

Yes, and yes.

But the people who make the rules do not always think that way.

I know of people coming to the US, who have been several times, never overstayed, with a letter of financial responsibility (letter saying the X person in the US will pay all their expenses), being given a grilling over how much money they have in cash, why they are coming (stated in letter), and so forth, for more than 30 minutes.

Good to see Brazil and the UK on good terms, no Visas required for British tourists, just a valid passport with 6 months remaining.