Visa for Brazil and Amazon

I understand that residents of Canada need a visa to visit Brazil. Was wondering, though, if the ship takes out a blanket visa or if we need to apply individually. We will be on Viking Sea in December, so have lots of time.

Thanks.

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IMHO, this is one of those questions you should ask Viking directly (tellus@vikingcruises.com). I'm not sure if Viking did any cruises to Brazil this past winter; I don't think they are starting them until their 2017-2018 Caribbean season. In any case,it is one bit of information you might want to hear directly from Viking.

Short answer-YOU NEED A VISA. No blankets

We are on the same trip. This will be Viking's first Amazon trip.....so far no future trips on their schedule.

From all the research I have done, we will need Visas.....all the cruise lines who go to Brazil have their passengers get visas.....we have had blankets Visas in other countries during cruises, but Brazil does not appear to be one of those countries who allow this.

We will be taking private excursions most likely and will absolutely need them....but as Peregrina suggested, it sure won't hurt to double check directly with Viking.

The woman who booked on the phone said that they were getting a blanket visa. I will check again by email.

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Just sent off an email to Viking. Will let you know as soon as I have an answer.

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Well that would sure be amazing good news if they are. Brazil Visas run $300/USD per person, and is a bit complex in the application. Please do let us know! If they do this, I do wonder if we would be able to walk around independently or would only be able to be on a Viking tour in ports......

Hope this works. This was under 'resources' on their page, so We will likely need something.

http://www.vikingcruisescanada.com/oceans/frequently-asked-questions.html#cMYDOCUMENT-FAQ-LIST3

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Heard from Viking today and we all need visas for Brazil.

Addendum: Viking has a blanket visa, but if you want to tour on your own you must apply for a visa of your own.

We will be sticking with whatever Viking offers. With the cr@ppy Canadian exchange rate this trip is already expensive enough.

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Thanks for this information....

Hopefully Viking will come out with their excursion prices with enough advance notice to allow people to determine what will work best for them.....but saving $600 for two Visas does skew my original thinking!

I think the roll call will be interested in your update. Thanks much!!

Thanks for this information....

Hopefully Viking will come out with their excursion prices with enough advance notice to allow people to determine what will work best for them.....but saving $600 for two Visas does skew my original thinking!

I think the roll call will be interested in your update. Thanks much!!

I'm not sure how to get to the roll call from my iPad, so would you mind letting people know?

I'm not sure how to get to the roll call from my iPad, so would you mind letting people know?

Hi Canadian Sunset,

This should get you to the roll call.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2368586

Please come and join us.

Thanks for the visa information. I was going to apply when I returned from my cruise in March but I'll deal with Viking tours if they manage to get the blanket visa. Hopefully they will let us know officially soon.

Cynthia

we've received wrong info from Viking Oceans before on visas.

get it in writing, including a promise to refund all expenses if your boarding is denied.

we've received wrong info from Viking Oceans before on visas.

 

get it in writing, including a promise to refund all expenses if your boarding is denied.

Thanks for the word of caution. I did quite a bit of Googling last night and found no mention of any cruise line getting a blanket visa for Brazil. I found this for all Royal Caribbean Cruises

Brazilian visas, regardless of the length of validity, must initially be used within 90 days of the issuance date or will no longer be valid. (The visa issuance date to the date the guest enters Brazil cannot exceed 90 days.) Immigration authorities will not allow entry into Brazil without a valid visa. Travelers coming from infested areas must present an inoculation certificate indicating they had a yellow fever immunization.

Under Russia they talked about taking ship sponsored excursions and not needing one.

I also saw a lot of stories about being denied boarding.

Cynthia

Speaking from our own experience. The Visa for Brazil was a requirement for boarding our ship in Miami. When the ship entered the mouth of the Amazon Brazilian Officials came on board to review all of our passports (they had been collected by the cruise line) and those Officials remained on board for the entire time that we were in Brazilian waters. I don't imagine that things have changed so I would think that each passenger will require that extremely expensive visa from Brazil (it is unique in our experience as it actually incorporates a photo of the visa holder when it is attached to your passport!)

My previous research showed that individual Visas for Brazil were obtained with cruise lines as well. Holland America also cruises the Amazon and I noted the discussions of the pricy Visas.

To your point 2onboard, we have a port stop in Macapa for 2 hours at the mouth of the Amazon - I assumed it was for clearances to enter Brazil/the river and checking for required paperwork of the ship and her passengers.....

Maybe Viking could respond to this issue please?

What is really new news to me here is the initial 90 day usage window that LunaSea has uncovered......I have not seen this discussed on any threads on CC nor TA......that is really important to know......from what I read the application process can be a bit lengthy.....

I will add that I have been communicating with a few private tour companies in a couple Amazon ports. I posed the question of blanket Visas being covered by tour operators (such as Russia operators do) yesterday and they responded that they have never heard of a blanket visa being issued to cruise passengers......for what that is worth.

Good thing we have time to clarify all of this!!

As to the question of the requirement that the Brazilian visa be used within 90 days of it being obtained I really do not recall the timing issue in detail. We had gotten the visa on a prior cruise which originated in Rio and the cruise line did contact us (I presume with that timeframe in mind) directly advising that they had made arrangements with a Visa processing service to "expedite" our approvals so the exact requirement was transparent to us. The Visa is good for 10 years (or until the expiration of the Passport which contains the Visa) so we did make certain to get more value out of ours by subsequently taking the Amazon cruise while our Visas were still current! Totally enjoyed that trip!

PS

I couldn't rest on the question about 90 days so I finally pulled out my passport to see if I could reconstruct our application experience. It looks like the process was fairly efficient as it looks like we received the Visa within two weeks of our application. The only mention of a 90 day period that I can find is on the Visa itself as stamped in my Passport and that states that any one visit to Brazil cannot exceed 90 days. I don't know if that helps at all but I wanted to share what information I could provide. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks 2Onboard. It bears looking into - but I have just not read that requirement before. Better to be forewarned and know the answer than be surprised!!

Expired passport, with a valid visa is acceptable. Of course you also need a valid passport. US-Brazil visa is 10 years.

Canadian-Brazil 5 years.

 

 

What is really new news to me here is the initial 90 day usage window that LunaSea has uncovered......I have not seen this discussed on any threads on CC nor TA......that is really important to know......from what I read the application process can be a bit lengthy.....

 

 

Good thing we have time to clarify all of this!!

This is my main concern too since we need our passports in the fall and won't be back until early November. I wanted to apply in early summer. I downloaded the form from the visa company and it asked for a complete itinerary (and much more) so maybe they date the visa for that time period. I hope so.

Cynthia

If you're a Canadian, don't bother calling the 800 number for information. It's a visa centre for more than one country and the woman who answered didn't know anything. It's probably best to check with the Brazilian embassy itself, although they might try to sell you the visa whether you need it or not. Our TA is checking and I have asked Viking yet again, but don't have an answer.

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Expired passport, with a valid visa is acceptable. Of course you also need a valid passport. US-Brazil visa is 10 years.

Canadian-Brazil 5 years.

Thanks for that clarification as it is applicable to my wife's visa since her passport expires next year but her Brazilian Visa will run beyond that point! (not that we are planning to return to Brazil but it is good to know in any case!)

For those interested the following web pages are good sources of info https://brazil.travisa.com

Dear Canadian Sunset,

We regret any confusion we may have caused regarding the visas for Brazil and are happy to take a moment to clarify.

Please note that the Brazil visa is not covered by Viking's visa exemption, or "blanket visa," meaning that guests must obtain a visa prior to traveling. This applies to all U.S. and Canadian guests.

Canadian Sunset, we hope this information is helpful to you and the rest of the Cruise Critic community. Should you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to your Viking contact, or TellUs@vikingcruises.com, for assistance.

Thank you, and have a beautiful Thursday!

Best regards,

Viking Cruises

If you're a Canadian, don't bother calling the 800 number for information. It's a visa centre for more than one country and the woman who answered didn't know anything. It's probably best to check with the Brazilian embassy itself, although they might try to sell you the visa whether you need it or not. Our TA is checking and I have asked Viking yet again, but don't have an answer.

 

 

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