Brazil Visas

[Keith1010]

We are looking at a South America cruise in March that goes to Brazil. While the visa process seems tedious, it certainly doesn't seem too bad and worth it to me to get to see Brazil. We live in SC, so we will be processed through the Brazilian consulate in Atlanta. I did a lot of research yesterday, and it seems fairly straight forward. While we are only about four hours from Atlanta, I'm still thinking of doing it by mail. My only hesitation is having to send our passports. Does anyone have any experience with the Atlanta office? Has anyone ever done the mail service as opposed to in-person?

 

I also noted in one of the posts in this thread something about Argentina perhaps now requiring something. Is that accurate? When I spoke to the cruise line yesterday they only said that a visa was necessary for Brazil.

 

I would use a service unless you can actually go to the consulate yourself. Just my opinion.

 

Sometimes getting a Brazil Visa is so very easy. Our last one arrived back home in less than two weeks and that included the back and forth with a service. A few years earlier it took much longer and another time it was also fast.

 

A few years ago they were intentionally slow rolling it and a few years ago you had to enter the country within 90 days of its issuance so it was much harder to time this. Then a couple of years ago they eliminated the 90 day requirement (it is good for 10 years with no requirement as to when you have to enter). This latest problem seems to be isolated to San Francisco and does not appear to be intentional as it was a couple of years ago.

 

They better get their act together as they have the World Cup and then the Olympics.

 

Keith

[Kooolmomma]

Just got our Brazilian visas yesterday. It took 15 business days. I was concerned about sending our passports to the service (VisaHQInc), but they were very professional and you could track the progress daily if you prefer. I would say all my fears did not come to fruition.

[Shorex]

We are among the fortunate -- our Brazilian visas will be delivered tomorrow morning via UPS next day air after having been received by CIBT (Visa Central) on Nov 12. That's about three weeks. Hope this one is for ten years -- really don't want to go through this again. Best of luck to everyone still waiting.

[Keith1010]

We are among the fortunate -- our Brazilian visas will be delivered tomorrow morning via UPS next day air after having been received by CIBT (Visa Central) on Nov 12. That's about three weeks. Hope this one is for ten years -- really don't want to go through this again. Best of luck to everyone still waiting.

 

I am glad this worked out.

 

Yes, the one good thing about the Brazilian Visas is that they are good for 10 years. When your passport expires you can still use the visa as you would bring both your new passport and your old passport.

 

Glad this worked out well for you. :)

 

Keith

[doglover214]

Well, the unthinkable has happened! After more than 4 months, Brazil still did not release our visas. Because we had decided to visit Iguazu Falls prior to our cruise, we were supposed to leave tonight. We gave the consulate our itinerary showing the flights 3 weeks ago hoping that would move the process quicker.

 

We are now a group of 9, where only 3 are leaving. We have had to cancel our flight, tour,hotel, etc. If they release the visas today or tomorrow, we are hoping to fly out to board the ship and at least make the cruise.

 

The additional costs are staggering, but the one bright note in all of this is that Crystal has stepped up and promised reimbursement for nonrefundable portions of our trip.

 

We truly appreciate their help in this. They have been wonderful.

 

But, the Brazilian consulate has ruined this vacation for us. Every day has been met with anxiety about whether they would release the papers. The time wasted calling Pinnacle over and over to find out what was happening. The calls to our TA and to Crystal have taken over our lives. and no one or nothing could make this people move any faster. They have had our paper work for 4 months. How long could it possibly take to issue a visa?

 

We can only speculate as to their reasons. I now see it as perhaps a spiteful act, for something we know nothing about. I do know that I will make sure to advise others to avoid Brazil. It is not worth seeing if they do not want us to travel there.

 

We will not know if we can salvage a portion of the trip we planned for more than a year, until Friday evening. At that point, since consulates do not work on the weekends, and we have to leave on Sunday to board the ship, we will have two more days in limbo, calling, and waiting.

 

I would never believe this could have happened, but it did.We are so angry, and so sad at the same time.

[katetim]

Doglover214, so sorry to hear about your rotten experience!

 

I must say that my recent experience with the Boston consulate was completely different than yours, though! I arrived at the consulate on a Monday morning with my family's documents, and spent a very pleasant 9 minutes with the staff there. Less than three weeks later, our visas arrived in the mail, earlier than they promised!

 

So, I'm not sure whether your bad experience is typical, but I wonder if it had more to do with the visa processing company than with the Brazilian government?

[VidaNaPraia]

Doglover214, so sorry to hear about your rotten experience.

 

So, I'm not sure whether your bad experience is typical, but I wonder if it had more to do with the visa processing company than with the Brazilian government?

 

Also sorry to hear this.

But it does sound like the visa agency wasn't doing their job effectively. Even at the highest peak times and with computer problems, I've never heard of a Consular delay like that, and I'm sure more reports would be appearing online if the Consulate were the holdup.

[brazilgirl]

I don't know the requirements of other South American country's in detail, but Brazil appears to be the only one requiring US citizens to obtain an advance Visa. None of the other South American country's visited by cruise ships indicate a visa requirement in the cruise itineraries except ones that include Brazil. I don't know, perhaps the others make exceptions for cruise passengers? In addition, Brazil does not have to worry about terrorists trying to gain entry to their country as does the US, thus more likely the reason it is a little more difficult to enter the US?

 

You are also correct that Brazil has a fairly thriving economy that is not tourist based, so they probably could care less about US tourism. I also doubt that many Brazilians ever travel to the US as tourists and spend much money in the USA. Regardless, the appearance that US tourists are not desired in Brazil leaves me with the attitude that I will not spend any of my money there and does not change my position with regard to cruising there, sorry to say.

 

 

I would highly recommend reading up on this subject as your statements are way , way off base.

 

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2075717,00.html

 

http://www.worldcrunch.com/eyes-on-the-u.s./how-brazilians-help-to-keep-miami-afloat/brazil-miami-tourism/c5s11825/#.UuxgYn-9KK0

[donaldsc]

We used a Visa service. It was pricy but it was really very easy and only took a few weeks after we filled out our forms. You can do most of the paperwork on line.

 

DON

Edited February 1, 2014 by donaldsc

[AZFUNNYGRL]

We used a Visa service. It was pricy but it was really very easy and only took a few weeks after we filled out our forms. You can do most of the paperwork on line.

 

DON

 

We just received our visas for an upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise out of Sao Paulo next spring . The application was mostly done online and then we printed everything out and sent them along with our Passports to the Visa Service RC recommends . IT was pricey but it only took a couple of weeks and we received 10 year visas ...so we plan to go back again to justify the cost . We used VISA CENTRAL to apply ....they were very good and answered questions when I called them a couple of times.