Visa for Brazil

[cruiserus]

Whatever you do, make sure that your visa is stamped upon your visit to Brazil!! My parents did the 3 continents TA last year on the Grand, stopping at Forteleza, Brazil. The ship kept their passports (with visas of course) and returned them before disembarkation.

 

This year they did a South America cruise on Princess. Since Brazilian visas are good for 5 years they should have been fine. Unfortunately, they were told before one stop (prior to Brazil) that they didn't have valid visas for Brazil and would have to spend their day in Uraguay getting visas for Brazil or get off in Argentina. The pursar's office said that their visas weren't valid because they weren't used to enter Brazil within 90 days of issue. Apparently when the Grand stopped on their TA last year their visas were not stamped to show entry. The explained to that they had sailed the Grand TA last year (gave the exact date) and had even taken a Princess shore excursion in Forteleza. After being told this, they were told that it was going to be taken care of and they wouldn't have to spend the day at the embassy getting visas. The morning of disembarkation a charge of $400 for Brazilian visas showed up on their statement, but they were able to disembark in Brazil.

 

We were on the same 3-Continents Trans-Atlantic on the Grand last year. When we checked in for our cruise to the Amazon in March, Princess told us not to worry, because our name was on the manifest from that cruise and that Princess would fight for us to enter if we had a problem. All visas on that cruise had been scanned by Brazilian authorities, but not stamped. Well, being me, I did worry a bit going down. We stopped at the entry on the Amazon for immigration officials to board, did our entire cruise up the Amazon and back to Ft. Lauderdale and never had to even speak to the autorities. They went ahead and stamped the passport, no questions asked and no extra fee. Princess gave us a letter, at our request, to varify our appropriate entry the first time, within the 90-day period after getting the visa, and said the visa had been scanned on that cruise, but never stamped by Brazil. We were told that Brazil and Princess can pull up that cruise's manifest as proof we had entered in a timely manner.

 

BTW, if you are going to Senegal, as we did on that itinerary, we needed the yellow fever shot documentation to enter that country too, in addition to being required after visiting Devil's Island.

[wander]

I would NOT cancel, and DID NOT cancel under very similar circumstances. The Visa service sent them overnight (Fed Ex), we got the about 3:00 pm the next day and we left the at 5:00 am next morning for a flight to LA to board the ship.

 

Now, did I sweat alot - Yes. Did I lose sleep - Yes, but all worked out OK for my husband and I AND our two friends in the same circumstance. I had great faith in both the Visa Service (used them numerous times) and Fed Ex, which I used multiple times a week from my home office.

 

Why were we so late in our request for the Visas? Our original cruise was cancelled due to the newbuild (Rotterdam) not being ready. While we had a month's notice of the cancellation, the cruise we selected as an alternative left in three weeks and we needed 3 visas for the new cruise. (to Asia)

[Pam in CA]

Thanks Pam, but who did you call...the airline, the cruise line, or ?? So if I go this route, the ship will have to keep a handle on 2 passports for me as I know they take them for immigration purposes at all the ports. I sent an email to a Brazilian Consulate office listed on the website, but never got a response. Any additional suggestions will be appreciated.

I called the Brazilian Consulate directly, whatever the 800# was on the website where the FAQs are. As soon as I said I had a visa dated XYZ and stamped ABC, they said, "Just bring it." And that was that. I was on a HAL cruise in January and they just tucked one passport into the other and gave me a receipt. It wasn't any problem. A suggestion is to put a sticker on the outside of both passports with your name, ship, sailing # and cabin #.

[shellbeachjim]

Here are the faq's for Brazilian visa from the San Francisco consulate's website.

 

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

 

Question 17 answers the question about yellow fever vaccinations. Question 20 answers the question about expired passports with still valid Brazilian visas.

[saevans]

We will be going on a BtB that sails from Chile to Rio and then Rio to Fort Lauderdale. We will be flying from Miami to Columbia and then on to Chile. From there we sail on to eventually reach Argentina just before we sail into Rio.

 

Do we need a Yellow Fever shot?

 

Many thanks!