Visas for Brazil: easy or not to get?

[jocelysue]

Tomorrow DH & I have todrive 100 miles to the Brazilian consulate in order to request our visas for Brazil before flying out to Santiago on February 11 to start our SA Explorer cruise which begins February 16 and ends in Rio.

 

Why so late? Because we only received our new passports today although we requested them over a month ago. With new regulations coming into force on January 23 re the necessity of having a passport for entry into the USA by air, the passport office has been unindated. ERGO: delay.

 

I am curious as to whether those of who have taken or plan on taking a similar cruise (out of or into Brazil) have requested the visa yourself or have gone through your TA. or a middleman? Since we planned the cruise ourselves and used an online TA situated in the USA, we have to go through the whole process ourselves.

 

HAL did send us a not re the fact that this visa is obligatory and that we won't be allowed to board without it. The consul told me over the phone to expect a 10 day delay before receiving the visa although the recorded message states 5 days. What is your experience with this? How long did it take? Did you have to know the name of the hotel where you planned on staying at the end of your tour? Which prrof of solvency did you have to give? Does it bother you to have to hand over your passport to the Brazilian authorities?

 

Would appreciate hearing from you on this question. Thanks.

[Aussie Gal]

I can only speak from an Australian point of view. We have had to get two visas in the past 12 months for Brazil as we have been on two different cruises both going to Brazil at different times and our visa is only good for 30 days at a cost of $100p.p. each time.

 

We had to send our passports together with a form to the Brazilian Consulate here in Australia together with proof that we had enough money in our bank account, the name of the ship we were sailing on, the hotel we were staying in Brazil at either the beginning or end of the cruise and a lot of other pertinent questions including if you worked and for whom, plus the reason for the visit and a photo of ourselves. We sent all these along and luckily our Consulate here is very efficient and within 10 working days we had our passports back together with the required visa in passport. I did enclose an overnight post paid envelope which did expediate the delivery.

 

You have a very short time to get this visa and I would take it personally to the nearest consulate to your city so that you can have it back as soon as possible. I would not be risking any other way of getting the visa.

 

HAL are very strict with the visas, as you will need the Brazilian visa when you disembark in Rio, otherwise you may have to stay on the ship and return to Argentina or Chile to fly home.

 

Good luck.

 

Jennie

[COLGATE]

We have always used an expediter to get the required visas for Brazil - it will cost some money, but is much more secure and much faster. As noted, Brazil (and therefore HAL) is very strict about the visas, and you should note that the visa MUST be used for the first time within 6 months of issuance, otherwise it expires and you have to go through the whole process again. If memory serves, the visa itself costs around $100.00.

[kakalina]

We chose to drive to LA and make a short vacation out of getting our visa for Brazil. It took three days from the time we filled out the paperwork at the Embassy to the time we went back and picked up our visas. They were quick and efficient. We enjoyed the experience.

[xpcdoojk]

My wife got ours for us in Chicago last year. I think she visited the Embassey on a Thursday morninng and we received them in the mail about a week later. So, you have time if you do it now yourself. They were very friendly she said. However, if you don't want to take the time and effort an expediting service can be a simple way of doing it, of course, it will cost you a bit more.

 

jc

[traveller123]

I had no problems receiving my visa before my SA cruise last year. I couriered my passport and application (including a copy of my itinerary) to Ottawa and enclosed a pre-paid courier envelope (UPS, as they won't accept FedEx) and received my passport and visa within 6 days. Hopefully you'll have no problems, especially since you say you are going to the Consulate in person.

[Bill S]

We used a passport/visa expediter service, Zierer, to obtain our Brazilian passports. It took about 2 weeks total. We mailed them our passports along with a copy of our cruise and airline bookings (to show were not staying over in Brazil postc-cruise). We were pleased with Zierer and found to be responsive and prompt in keeping us informed of the status of our documents.

[Druke I]

HAL is quite likely to deny boarding if you do not have the proper Visas.

 

Way back in 3-98, Royal Princess, Buenos Aires to Barcelona, a party of 5 was denied boarding as they did not have Brazilian Visas. The ship was making two in-transit stops in Brazil.

 

A ship's officer later told me that had Princess allowed the passengers on board, the Brazilian authorities might have fined Princess heavily, and not allowed to the ship to dock. The fact that the ship was in-transit had no bearing on the issue - visitors to Brazil had to have Visas!

 

The ship sailed, and those 5 were left on the dock in Argentina!

[hammybee]

I would listen to traveler 123 who lives in Canada. Experiences in the U.S and Austrailia may be very different than what may occur in Canada.

If it were me, I would pay up and use an expediting service rather than risk further delay and not being able to board. You really are running short of time here.

[jocelysue]

Thanks to all of you who posted on this thread.

 

The point of my question was to see how folks went about getting a visa to Brazil because, years ago, my TA took care of all visa arrangements. But now with TAs' commissions being cut, apparently not many of them seem to offer this service any more ...... even for a fee.

 

No matter where you are from, Australia, USA or Canada, from your answers all of you seem to have had to take matters into your own hands and go about getting your visa to Brazil on your own, whether you presented your request in person, couriered it in, or used a middleman or a service.

 

When DH and I drove up to Montreal today, we were extremely well received at the BarazilConsulate. Our forms were examined (including a bank statement and a credit card, our airline tickets, our cruise tickets), we had to furnish the address of the hotel where we planned on staying following our tour and hand them our passport, our new passport size picture plus the requisite amount of cash ($72.00 Cdn) per person. Also had to furnish a prepaid preaddressed Priority Post envelope (only one for the two of us) so that they can mail us our visas. Were told that we should expect our documents on February 5 and were furnished a hotline number to contact the Consulate should the documents not arrive on that date. We offered to drive up to get them in person but were told that that was unnecessary.

 

All in all, the process seems to be the same everywhere. That is what particularly intrigued me. No different strokes for different folks.

 

I do wish that when web travel agents sell cruises that include Brazil they would mention the fact that such visas are necessary when we purchase the tickets. (I'm presuming here that one has booked the cruise far ahead of time.) Perhaps this was merely an oversight on our TA'S part but it could have been costly. Had we not done any research on our own and not gone ahead and had our photos taken, downloaded the forms and filled them out etc. we sure would have been surprised to find out about this as our TA never even mentioned the fact.

 

It was only when we received our HAL documents that this was made abundantly clear.

 

I can't help but wonder if there are many other countries that require a visa. I remember getting one for Roumania, one for Russia, one for Myanmar, but that's about all. Other countrieswho required one merely issued them at the border. All that was required was the necessary funds.

 

Once again, thanks for your informative answers. CC sure is a gem ,...as are you all.

[xpcdoojk]

I always check with the embassey of any country I am thinking of visiting before I book a trip. Although, regular reading of these forums and in particular the ports sections will give you a heads up in advance.

 

Check out the SA ports section for a lot more tips.

 

jc

[Grumpy1]

We downloaded the applications from the embassy website and read all of the instructions. We filled out everything, went to the post office and got two $100 money orders and an express mail envelope and stamp. We drove to Miami, about 110 miles, presented evrything they needed and drove home. We received our passports with visas the next day.

[JayS]

I found every consulate to be different:confused: . The NY one would NOT mail or send back your paperwork. I had to make 2 trips to NYC. Luckily trains to NYC were some what convienient for me.

 

BTW you may have to pay to enter Chile. Check on the embassy web site. $100 US for American citizens.

[CELEBREW]

I use the following link to check all countries on my itinerary:

 

http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/brochures/brochures_1229.html

[xpcdoojk]

I found every consulate to be different:confused: . The NY one would NOT mail or send back your paperwork. I had to make 2 trips to NYC. Luckily trains to NYC were some what convienient for me.

 

BTW you may have to pay to enter Chile. Check on the embassy web site. $100 US for American citizens.

 

Chilean rules seem somewhat arbitrary in the way they enforce them. We were not hit with the cost for this even though I kept a pair or $100 bills for this purpose. In Peru, I was charged airport taxes once, but not the other trips there. Wierd.

 

jc

[Aussie Gal]

Chilean rules seem somewhat arbitrary in the way they enforce them. We were not hit with the cost for this even though I kept a pair or $100 bills for this purpose. In Peru, I was charged airport taxes once, but not the other trips there. Wierd.

 

jc

 

When we left Chile last January we didn't have to pay the $100 in tax though we were prepared with the correct dollar bills just in case.

 

When we left Lima for Cusco we had to pay an airport tax which I think at the time was around 30US p.p. The first time we were not prepared and had to change our money into Pesos before going through to the aircraft. The second time was when we left Lima for Quito but we were prepared and had it ready. I think it may only happen in Lima as we certainly didn't pay any tax to leave Cusco.

 

Jennie

[xpcdoojk]

Jennie, we were only hit in Lima when we flew to Cusco, but not from Cusco and not from Lima when we flew to the USA. Very strange. Plus the airport tax they charged us was about $10 each. One of those moments when you know you are in South America.:D

 

jc

[MI-DI]

Will you need yellow fever shots ???

[xpcdoojk]

I don't think she will because she is doing the around the horn cruise, I think. If she is going to the amazon in Brazil she will or if she is going to the Amazon in Peru she should. Yellow fever was not required for Rio.

 

jc

[Love Cruises]

We had no problem getting our Brazilian visa years ago ... about a 2 week turn-around time. At that time we took a CRYSTAL cruise with a pre-cruise 3 day land tour... but here is our horror story that is a little off the subject.

 

On that trip we flew to Buenos Aires and spent a day touring. The next morning we flew to Iguazu Falls. There were 3 bus loads (approx. 150 passengers) who were doing this CRYSTAL land tour. When we got to the Brazilian border, we all had to disembark the bus. This was the time when the "Mad Cow" disease was going around. The Brazillian border guards made us clean our shoes on the mat used for preventing this disease. While doing this our tour guides took all our passports into Customs to be cleared and stamped. After about a 20 minute wait, we were on on way to the Brazilian side of the falls. After a day and a half there we flew back to Buenos Aires and boarded the ship the next day for our 15 day cruise. We had a wonderful time and met many nice people.

 

Now fast forward to 3 years later. We fly to Fort Lauderdale to board a CRYSTAL ship to go from there to Buenos Aires with two stops in Brazil. The ship had early embarkation so we went to our cabin and then went up to the LIDO and had a leisurely lunch. We returned to our cabin and there was our luggage and so we started to unpack. Then the horror sets in... our telephone rings and the Purser says that we have to leave the ship immediately since our Visa were never stamped when we were in Brazil three years prior. My husband flew down to the Pursers office and was showen how the visa was there in our passport with the date noted we were in Brazil but the border people NEVER actually stamped the visa. We couldn't believe it. We had to get off the ship since they would be heavily fined if we were still on the ship when it left Ft. Lauderdale. My husbands brother lives in Boca Raton but he had actually come up north to New York to stay with his elderly mother so we could go on this cruise. We are her caretakers. So we went to his condo ... a neighbor let us in. The next day we had to take the public transportation from Deerfield Beach to downtown Miami (a bus ride, train ride, then a taxi ride to elevated train to the Brazilian consulate). It was not as easy to get to as we were told. When we got to the Consulate early the next morning there were about 20 other CRYSTAL passengers there who were kicked off the ship for the same reason. Of those 20, there were about 8 that were on the very same tour we were on three years prior when this big error happened. We all had to get new visas (which, of course, the Brazilian authorities refused to issue in the same day). We had to go back again the next day and then later that night fly down to St. Thomas to catch the ship. Two guys from LA were furious and they just didn't go on to St.Thomas. We had to, of course, pay for our own airfares. CRYSTAL did give us $50.00 each onboard credit (big deal). Now, if we are ever in a foreign country, we surely check our visas and make sure they are stamped by the proper authorities.

[xpcdoojk]

Great story! OMG!

 

I would have been so unhappy!

 

jc:D

[Aussie Gal]

Love Cruises,

 

What an incredible story. I am so glad you were able to sort it all out. We have never checked our visas and whether they are stamped or not. I will definitely do so in future.

 

When we went to Iguazu last January we flew from Rio and stayed on the Argentinan side where of course you don't need a visa to visit, so we didn't have that worry. We also returned back to Rio before boarding our ship.

 

I know that the ship's are very particularly with visas. When we boarded the Veendam in Vancouver in September for our cruise up the Amazon, quite a few passengers who didn't have visas, (due to their T.A's not telling them that they were not needed) were told that the ship would organize their visas in the days before we got to Brazil at a price. There was time to do this as it took about 14 days or more before we were started our journey up the Amazon.

 

Jennie