Visas

I will be on the Regal Princess in March and understand my husband and I will need Visas for Brazil. Since we have never had to get a visa before, can some of you help me out on where to acquire them? Is one visa service better than another etc.? Thanks a lot.

I will be on the Regal Princess in March and understand my husband and I will need Visas for Brazil. Since we have never had to get a visa before, can some of you help me out on where to acquire them? Is one visa service better than another etc.? Thanks a lot.

Here's a thread that might answer some of your questions.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=193147

It really depends on where you live. If there is an embassy near you, use it. If not use one of the many services. My experience in Los Angeles was less than pleasant and I had to make 3 trips to get the visa. However, I was assured that nothing was "lost in the mail"

You need to apply to the correct consulate (each consulate has a geographical responsibility). You cannot pick up your visa the same day you apply for it. If you do not want to return for your visa, they will send it to you by regular mail. You have to supply the self-addressed envelope and they will only send it by regular mail. You will be leaving your passport with them and it will be returned by regular mail if you use this method. The alternative is using a passport/visa service. The Brazilian consulates and their jurisdictions follow:

Brazilian Consulate General in Boston

The Statler Building

20 Park Plaza, suite 810

Boston, MA 02116

Phone: (617) 542-4000

Fax: (617) 542-4318

E-mail: cgbos@ma.ultranet.com

Jurisdiction: States of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Brazilian Consulate General in Chicago

401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3050

Chicago, IL 60611

Phone: (312) 464-0244

Fax: (312) 464-0299

E-mail: central@brazilconsulatechicago.org

Jurisdiction: States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Brazilian Consulate General in Houston

1233 West Loop South

Park Tower North, Suite 1150

Houston, TX 77027

Phones: (713) 961-3063

Fax: (713) 961-3070

E-mail: consbras@brazilhouston.org

Jurisdiction: States of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Brazilian Consulate General in Los Angeles

8484 Wilshire Blvd., suites 730-711

Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Phone: (323) 651-2664

Fax: (323) 651-1274

E-mail: info@brazilian-consulate.org

Jurisdiction: States of Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and in California, the counties of Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Brazilian Consulate General in Miami

80 SW 8th Street, 26th Floor

Miami, FL 33130-3004

Phone: (305) 285-6200

Fax: (305) 285-6240

Fax on demand for information and forms: (305) 285-6259

E-mail: consbras@brazilmiami.org

Jurisdiction: States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Brazilian Consulate General in New York

1185 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), 21st Floor

New York, NY 10036

Phone: (917) 777-7777

Fax: (212) 827-0225

E-mail: consulado@brazilny.org

Jurisdiction: States of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the Bermuda Islands.

Brazilian Consulate General in San Francisco

300 Montgomery Street, suite 900

San Francisco, CA, 94104

Phone: (415) 981-8170

Fax: (415) 981-3628

E-mail: brazilsf@brazilsf.org - General

consular@brazilsf.org - Consular Sector

cultural@brazilsf.org - Cultural Sector

Jurisdiction: States of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and in the state of California, the counties of Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba.

Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

3006 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20008

Phone: (202) 745-2837

Fax: (202) 745-2827

Please click here for e-mail addresses

Jurisdiction: District of Columbia, states of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

When booking through a travel agency, we normally just let them take care of any visas we might need. They tell us what they need, like copies of passports and such, and they do it all for us. It is a great benefit not to have to hassle with doing them all ourselves.

Thank you everyone. Your information is very helpful.

Toto2kansas:

Did I understand you correctly--that you were able to send COPIES of your passports rather than the actual passport?

That would be great, as we need ours during the time we'd need to apply!

Thanks,

Mary-Lou/"DrFUN"

P.S. BLACKROBE--Thanks so much for all this info, which was extremely helpful. (I thought we could do it in person ANYWHERE, but I see we must use the LA office--and that you can't get it while you wait....)

For Brazilian visas you need to give the consulate (or visa service) your passport. The visa is stamped onto a full page of your passport.

Here are the FAQs from the San Francisco consulate's website. Please note the answers to questions 14 and 16.

As Trey noted, the Brazilians are very particular about the visa applications. The biggest gotcha is not including a copy of the itinerary with the application. We included a copy of the booking summary where we obscured the payment and pricing information with a yellow sticky before making copies.

For us, we had to wait a week before returning to the consulate to pick up our passports. Some consulates accept mail in applications, San Francisco does not.

Thanks for the helpful info, shellbeachjim.

Having gotten a visa to visit China 3 years ago, I was surprised to read the post above that mentioned a "copy" of the passport, but I thought I'd check it out anyway. I must have misunderstood Toto2kansas' post. (Perhaps they had to include copies in ADDITION to the original passport...??)

I thought you could use ANY office, but apparently we can only use the office with jurisdiction over our state. (Is that right?) We're in Arizona, so we must use the LA office, which ONLY accepts mail applications and return--a bit of a scary prospect in case of improper delivery either way. (I wonder how you can check if they GOT it!?):confused:

And I guess we'll need the Yellow Fever shot if we're cruising from Valparaiso to Rio, with ports along the way in countries mentioned in your link. :(

Hope they drop the retributional $100 fee in time for our Dec. 6 sailing....

I thought you could use ANY office, but apparently we can only use the office with jurisdiction over our state. (Is that right?) We're in Arizona, so we must use the LA office, which ONLY accepts mail applications and return--a bit of a scary prospect in case of improper delivery either way. (I wonder how you can check if they GOT it!?):confused:

Yes you are restricted to which office you use. We did ours in person, so I can't answer about making sure they receive it. Perhaps "return receipt requested"???

And I guess we'll need the Yellow Fever shot if we're cruising from Valparaiso to Rio, with ports along the way in countries mentioned in your link. :(

 

Hope they drop the retributional $100 fee in time for our Dec. 6 sailing....

The funny thing is that Brazil itself doesn't require the Yellow Fever shot, unless you've been to certain countries. However, Princess is requiring the shot. My advice is to get the shot and be done with it. It's good for 10 years. Oh yes, don't forget the vaccination record when you pack. Just slip it into your passport.

I think you're stuck with the $100 fee. This is what we charge Brazilians for visas to visit the US, and I doubt we're going to decrease the amount. Retributional is such a harsh word. How about "reciprocal"? :rolleyes:

Since your cruise is on Dec. 6th, you should look at the calendar to figure out when to deal with the visa. You must first use it within 90 days of issue, so you can't get it before early September. If it's the only visa you need, I would think starting the process in October should do it.

As an aside most of the responses regarding Brazilian visas on this and other threads are from people who were on the recent Manaus-Rome cruise on the Royal Princess. We all had to go through this, so I guess we're the "experts".

Apparently, the Visa fee won't be lowered UNLESS United States drops the visa fee for Brazilians.

It's a nice reciprocal thing.

Also, US citizens need to go through the finger prints process in Brazil, which is another nice reciprocal thing.

There are several advantages to using a visa service. A couple of them are that you do not have to personally appear at the consulate; the service makes sure all of the paperwork is in proper order; and, they are responsible for your passport and will return it to you in a more secure manner than regular mail.

After deciding to save the cost of a visa service by doing it myself, I would probably use the service in the future.

For those of you needing yellow fever shots - you cannot simply go to your doctor or local health department and get the shot. There are certain locations where the shots are given. The prices very greatly (usually as a result of additional fees imposed by the individual clinics). Be prepared for it to be a costly shot. While you are at it make sure you get a hepatitus A & B shot. All of these shots need some advance time to become effective so do not wait until the last minute.

Also, US citizens need to go through the finger prints process in Brazil, which is another nice reciprocal thing.

On the Royal Princess Manaus-Rome cruise this April we were not fingerprinted nor were we photographed. We did fly in on a Princess charter flight and not a regularly scheduled commercial flight and our documents were checked thoroughly before we boarded. Also we had to surrender our passports to Princess. I believe there were Brazilian authorities on board checking paperwork.

Thanks, everyone!

We're actually on the Dec. 6-22 (2005) Holland Rotteram--Valparaiso to Rio--then staying in Rio on our own for 4 days to experience Christmas there. Flying home to USA on our own air (AA) from Rio on the 26th.

Anyone know any other problems we might experience at the airport?

Visas, yellow fever & hepatitis shots, etc.-- :eek: If we'd known, we probably wouldn't have booked, so I'm kinda glad I didn't know. It's a great-looking trip!

We surely do appreciate you all!

BTW: How was Manaus? Is it worth a trip-on-our-own when we're in Rio?

I think Manaus is worth it because there are actually quite a few things to see and do. BUT, if you're coming from Rio, that's kind of like saying, "While we're in NYC, we should check out Salt Lake City." Yes, they're in the same country but they're thousands of miles apart and I don't know what the airline schedule would be.

Thanks, Pam! Great analogy. I keep forgetting how huge Brazil is.... Guess that's another cruise.

You do not need yellow fever shots for Valpriso to Rio. We did the opposite and no shots are required of any kind. We flew into Rio early for a few days before boarding the ship and ended a few days in Santiago. The only place shots are required is in the more tropical areas of Brazil. If you go to the US CDC site they list the areas if you visit they recommend you have the shots. They also tell the 3 types of presctiption medicine you can use and the Dr. can make a choice.

If you fly into Santiago you have to have $100 US cash to get past immagration. No credit cards, checks, money orders, travelers checks, US cash only. If you fly out of Santiago that is not required.

My Dr. would not give me a Yellow Fever shot. I got it at the local county health dept. and it was $130. $45 for office visit and $85 for the shot

The trip around the Horn is wonderful. Some wonderful and colorful little cities. You start out in warm weather, get cold and end up in warm weather. Going around the Horn for us was calm, and cold; no wind do speak of except for what the ship created. The Falklands were windy and cold. Check the Ports-of-Call board if you haven't for some ideas.

When we sailed on the Grand out of Istanbul Turkey Princess obtained our visa for us automatically and collected the visa fee as part of the booking payment.

When we sailed on the Grand out of Istanbul Turkey Princess obtained our visa for us automatically and collected the visa fee as part of the booking payment.

Not to belabor the point too much, this is comparing apples and oranges. Turkey's visa process is much easier than Brazil's. If I'm not mistaken you can actually pay for your visa in Turkey upon your arrival. When we took a cruise starting in Istanbul, the cruise line simply sent us the visa with our travel documents. We weren't required to submit any visa application. It was a peel and stick label which went into the passport.

Brazil on the otherhand will not even allow you to board a flight to there without you already having the visa. Brazil's visa is rubber-stamped into your passport by the Brazilian consulate. I posted a link earlier in this thread for the FAQs regarding Brazilian visas. It's their country, so they get to make the rules!

Jim

It's pretty much reciprocal.

Airliners also check US visa before allowing a passenger to board. And US visa is also "rubber-stamped" into a passport. It's quite a standard process for many countries, including United States.

One good thing - your Brazilian visa is good for 5 years so make sure to go again and get your money's worth!!