Brazilian Visa

[PAGO]

HI All

 

I just booked a cruise tour that will require I get a Brazilian Visa, does anyone have any experience with this? How do I go about it?

 

Thanks in advance

Pago

[dforeigner]

HI All

 

I just booked a cruise tour that will require I get a Brazilian Visa, does anyone have any experience with this? How do I go about it?

 

Thanks in advance

Pago

 

http://www.brasilemb.org/consulado/consular1.shtml

[Blackrobe]

You can go to a Brazilian consulate to apply for the Visa. It is $100.00 and the consulate in Chicago does not accept credit cards. You must leave your passport and it normally takes 3 days before you can return to pick it up. Alternatively, if you provide a self-addressed stamp envelope they will mail it to you. No UPS, Fedex, or DHL just regular United States mail and it cannot be registered, insured or restricted delivery - just plain old United States mail.

 

Or you can hire a visa service to do this for you. The charges for the visa service begin at about $40.00 or higher on top of the cost of the Visa.

 

Don't forget your innoculations. The exact shots depend on where you will be going in Brazil. We just returned from an Amazon cruise and if you did not have the yellow fever shot and the original paperwork to prove it you were not allowed to board.

[Knickerbocker]

I would recommend you have a Visa service do this for you. Brazil is extremely picky with their applications. You must go to the correct consulate and you must use the correct color ink or they won't take it. No lie.

[Fblack]

So if you take a cruise with a one day stop in Brazil, do you need a $100 visa? Or is it like Russia, where cruise passengers do not need a Visa?

[Pam in CA]

Princess makes it easy to get the visa. They will send you a pre-filled out form and you complete and send it along with your visa to a visa service. If there is a Brazilian consulate near you, you can do it yourself without going through the service but having done that, it's a lot easier and less stress to use the service.

 

The first Brazilian visa I got, I went into Boston, waited in line for almost 2 hours, dropped off the application, passport and money (cash only). Then, a week later, I again waited for almost 2 hours and picked up my passport. The posted times the office was open apparently didn't mean much to them: they opened when they wanted, chatted with others in the room behind them, and generally ignored the people waiting in line. I spent over a full day between the two visits to the Consulate before I finally got my visa and I live only half an hour from Boston.

 

The second time, I used the service, paid my money, and received my passport and visa back via FedEx. A lot saner.

 

You will also need a yellow fever Certificate of Vaccination. Make sure your doctor knows about this well in advance because they don't stock this vaccination and have to order it or send you to a clinic that does stock or will order it.

 

As for the 1-day stop on a cruise ship, I'm not sure. I've taken two cruises embarking in Manaus, Brazil, so I've gotten the visas. However, I know that people on our recent Golden cruise who went to Iguasu Falls and wanted to stay overnight on the Brazilian side, had to get a visa.

 

Brazil is VERY particular about getting a visa and deliberately keeps the price high for Americans.

[shellbeachjim]

So if you take a cruise with a one day stop in Brazil, do you need a $100 visa? Or is it like Russia, where cruise passengers do not need a Visa?

 

Yes, you are required to obtain a visa even for a 1 day visit. This isn't necessarily unusual as other countries have similar requirements. You will not be allowed to board your cruise without the visa.

 

As someone else already pointed out, the visa requirements are quite specific for Brazil and there are a couple of gotchas if you're not careful. There were a couple of recent threads in the South America forum about Brazilian visas.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=457853

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=449647

[Druke I]

Fblack

 

Shellbeachjim is absolutely correct. You must have a Brazilian Visa.

 

Way back in 3-00, late great Royal Princess, a party of five was denied boarding in Buenos Aires Argentina for a cruise to Barcelona Spain. They did not have Visas for Brazil, and the ship was scheduled to make two in-transit stops in Brazil (Rio de Janiero and Recife).

 

I later asked a ship's officer about it, and he stated that Brazil could have fined Princess Cruises for bringing undocumented passengers into the country; Brazil could have forbidden documented passengers going ashore, and that perhaps they would not have allowed the ship to tie up at the pier!

 

Our pre-cruise documents had been quite clear that a Brazilian Visa was required for the cruise.

 

I doubt that those five's insurance (if they had any) would have covered their missing the ship.

[Smiles3usa]

Yes, you will need a visa, even if you visit the country for only a portion of one day.

 

I found the visa very easy to procure. I called up the consulate (2 blocks from my office) and asked when was the least busy time for applying for a visa. I was told Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. Wednesday I took a late lunch, walked over to the consulate, dropped off my & hubby's applications and was back at the office in less than 45 minutes. I picked up the visa the following Wednesday afternoon, with no wait whatsoever. The visa is good for 5 years.

 

BTW, if you go get shots for your trip, bring along a copy of your cruise itinerary. While only yellow fever was required for our trip, based on the itinerary, my hubby ended up getting 4 different shots (since I have an aversion to needles, I only took the required one--even after much prodding!)

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Blackrobe]

Hey, Pam, I loved your story about the Boston consulate. We traveled to Chicago to get ours. After getting the paperwork we were in the elevator of this massive skyscraper. My wife and I were talking about how rude and nasty the people were in the consulate. A gentleman who had gotten on the elevator at a different floor looked at us and stated we must be talking about the Brazilian consulate! I asked if they were that well known in the building. He stated that everyone talks about the nastiness of the Brazilian consulate. I too would use a service in the future.

 

Having spoken of the nastiness of the Brazilian consulate workers, I have to say the two trips to Brazil that I have taken (Iguazu Falls and 1,000 miles up the Amazon River to Manaus) have introduced me to some very nice and interesting people.

[Nana G]

Blackrobe, We too are planning the Amazon trip and leaving from Chicago! Of course we live here so, we are used to the skyscrappers. How soon do you need to apply? Where would we locate a visa service? Is there one here in the city or should I look under visa service online?

[shellbeachjim]

Blackrobe, We too are planning the Amazon trip and leaving from Chicago! Of course we live here so, we are used to the skyscrappers. How soon do you need to apply? Where would we locate a visa service? Is there one here in the city or should I look under visa service online?

You must use your visa within 90 days of it being issued, so you need to time your application appropriately.

 

Some of the gotcha's - you must provide your specific travel plans on your application, including flight numbers if you are travelling to or from Brazil by air. Also, you must provide a copy of your trip itinerary with your application. This has to be from your travel agent or the cruiseline. This is the one which catches a lot of people. For documentation, I actually used 2 documents from Princess. The first was a copy of our booking confirmation (with all prices obscured). The second was our "Flight Choice" form. This had the specific flight information on it (we used Princess Air).

 

Jim

[Pam in CA]

Fblack

 

Shellbeachjim is absolutely correct. You must have a Brazilian Visa.

 

Way back in 3-00, late great Royal Princess, a party of five was denied boarding in Buenos Aires Argentina for a cruise to Barcelona Spain. They did not have Visas for Brazil, and the ship was scheduled to make two in-transit stops in Brazil (Rio de Janiero and Recife).

 

I later asked a ship's officer about it, and he stated that Brazil could have fined Princess Cruises for bringing undocumented passengers into the country; Brazil could have forbidden documented passengers going ashore, and that perhaps they would not have allowed the ship to tie up at the pier!

 

Our pre-cruise documents had been quite clear that a Brazilian Visa was required for the cruise.

 

I doubt that those five's insurance (if they had any) would have covered their missing the ship.

On our cruise from Manaus (the one Shellbeachjim was also on), there were at least 9 or 10 people who checked in for the cruise at the FLL hotel but didn't have valid visas. They were rushed the next morning to the Brazilian Consulate and I understand they got them on the afternoon flight to Manaus. (For our cruise, we were checked in FLL and even got our cruise cards then. The next morning, we were flown to Brazil on charter flights and taken directly to the ship.)

 

Also as Jim said, there are time constrictions (you must travel within 90 days of the date of issue) and you have to provide the Consulate with your exact (including flight #, hotel, cruise, etc.) travel plans, date of entry and date of departure or ship boarding date. The form from Princess has a lot of this information pre-populated. I would wait until you receive the visa info from Princess before filling out the form. You can, however, get your yellow fever shot at any time since the certificate is good for 10 years.

[Blackrobe]

NanaG, as stated in the other posts, the first use of the Visa must be within 90 days of issue. I would check online for a Visa service. My memory is that there is one located in Chicago.

[Pam in CA]

I've used two different visa services. The one recommended by Princess is Zierer (http://www.zvs.com/), which I used for my Brazilian visa. The one recommended by Viking is Generations (http://www.genvisa.com/) which I used for my Russian visa and will use for my China visa. I believe they're both in Washington, DC.

[A Sixth?]

.......

Brazil is VERY particular about getting a visa and deliberately keeps the price high for Americans.

 

 

Is it cheaper for other nationalities? Brits, Canadians or Australians don't pay as much? Why are they punishing just the Americans?:confused:

 

seems odd in light of the ongoing war Brazil and Canada have over their respective Aerospace and Beef industries

[shellbeachjim]

Is it cheaper for other nationalities? Brits, Canadians or Australians don't pay as much? Why are they punishing just the Americans?:confused:

There are a number of countries which Brazil exempts the tourist visa requirement. Here's a list from the San Francisco consulate's website:

http://www.brazilsf.org/visa_by_country.htm

 

Great Britain is on the list but Canada and Australia are not. After poking around a bit, the fees are A$90 for Australians and CDN$72 for Canadians. Interestingly enough, the cost of the visa for US citizens is $0. Yes, the visa is free, but they add a $100 processing fee "based on reciprocity". In other words, the US charges Brazilians $100 for visas, so Brazil matches the fee. Tit-for-tat...

 

Jim