Brazil visa

[Cruise New York]

On 12/22/2023 at 8:12 AM, millybess said:

@Cruise New York  There was a huge visa release this morning and DH has received his.

Hello! I received my visa on 12/22! My travel partner, however, still has not received any approval. She applied the day after me. They asked her to re-upload her financial documents, which she did immediately, and for the past two weeks her status has remained “pending document uploaded” or something similar. Our flight is on January 2 and only one of us has a visa so far. Yikes! We may be missing the cruise after all 😞

[millybess]

3 minutes ago, Cruise New York said:

Hello! I received my visa on 12/22! My travel partner, however, still has not received any approval. She applied the day after me. They asked her to re-upload her financial documents, which she did immediately, and for the past two weeks her status has remained “pending document uploaded” or something similar. Our flight is on January 2 and only one of us has a visa so far. Yikes! We may be missing the cruise after all 😞

@Cruise New York Sorry to hear that. It might be the case that your travel partner didn’t upload exactly what they were looking for. I know that they want the December statement, but many people don’t have their December statement as yet and they are just copying and attaching their December transactions to date along with their November statement. You might ask your travel partner to try again. We had some success with the chat function when DH was in the same “pending document upload” state.  A person on our roll call had success with this phone number +1 (877) 668-4546. 
 

i know that VFS has been working over Christmas, as there are some people who had their visas issued on Christmas Day and yesterday. 
 

Please post back here whatever the outcome. Best of luck to you and your partner. 

[PRH]

We are struggling.  My application has gone to immigration but my husband’s is still pending.  Got the third email asking for another reload but the link does not work—takes you to the login/status tracking page instead of the reload/upload page.  We called yesterday for help and after being disconnected four times, were on hold for ove4 an hour. The person couldn’t understand the issue (that the link in the email does not work so we could not update/reload) and kept telling us to call back in a few days.  Well, we are traveling next week through January so doing all this will be impossible.  What is interesting, we both loaded the exact same documents except for photo and passport—which were edited exactly the same way.  Why did mine pass and his did not?  Now when I go to check his status, I get an error—no application found!  Viking told us (verbally) that no visa was required—at least to board.  We might have to test that at this rate!

[VanLee]

24 minutes ago, PRH said:

We are struggling.  My application has gone to immigration but my husband’s is still pending.  Got the third email asking for another reload but the link does not work—takes you to the login/status tracking page instead of the reload/upload page.  We called yesterday for help and after being disconnected four times, were on hold for ove4 an hour. The person couldn’t understand the issue (that the link in the email does not work so we could not update/reload) and kept telling us to call back in a few days.  Well, we are traveling next week through January so doing all this will be impossible.  What is interesting, we both loaded the exact same documents except for photo and passport—which were edited exactly the same way.  Why did mine pass and his did not?  Now when I go to check his status, I get an error—no application found!  Viking told us (verbally) that no visa was required—at least to board.  We might have to test that at this rate!

Keep us updated. Hoping for the best for you.

[SEA DOGY]

On 12/28/2023 at 6:05 AM, VanLee said:

Keep us updated. Hoping for the best for you.

Following 

[PRH]

On 12/30/2023 at 1:37 AM, SEA DOGY said:

Following 

Just got email that my visa is ready to print!  Only took a month.  But my husba d"s status is "no active application found."  Therd has been no reply to my emails for help.  Not sure what to do now.  Money wasted?

[bobecus]

We’ve sent our documents to GenVisa on 12/14.  We’ve yet to receive anything back.. whether a request for further information or an eVisa.  Several phone calls later all we can ascertain is that they have our information and they’re working on it. From what I can see here Viking is if NO help.

[Reaniel]

35 minutes ago, bobecus said:

We’ve sent our documents to GenVisa on 12/14.  We’ve yet to receive anything back.. whether a request for further information or an eVisa.  Several phone calls later all we can ascertain is that they have our information and they’re working on it. From what I can see here Viking is if NO help.

 

Viking doesn't handle any of the Visa application work...  

[millybess]

10 minutes ago, Reaniel said:

 

Viking doesn't handle any of the Visa application work...  

Believe me we all know that.  The problem is that this visa application process is very, very difficult.  The company handling it, VFS, is very unresponsive.  On our roll call there are only 4 people who have it (that would include my husband and I).  At the moment you can't board without it and rightly so, as our cruise ends in Manaus.

 

All the cruise lines are having problems with it.  HAL has arranged for someone to board at Macapa for their World Cruise and as long as you have an application number, the government officials will assist in processing it.

 

It would be nice for the have-nots to hear something from Viking.  At the moment, we'll be sailing on a half-empty ship in 2 weeks.  

[VanLee]

7 minutes ago, millybess said:

Believe me we all know that.  The problem is that this visa application process is very, very difficult.  The company handling it, VFS, is very unresponsive.  On our roll call there are only 4 people who have it (that would include my husband and I).  At the moment you can't board without it and rightly so, as our cruise ends in Manaus.

 

All the cruise lines are having problems with it.  HAL has arranged for someone to board at Macapa for their World Cruise and as long as you have an application number, the government officials will assist in processing it.

 

It would be nice for the have-nots to hear something from Viking.  At the moment, we'll be sailing on a half-empty ship in 2 weeks.  

I suggested to Viking that they should contact all the passengers on the cruise to see who has a visa and who doesn’t. 
 

It’s important that everyone continue to call and email Viking to make them understand the magnitude of the problem. I have emailed the Brazilian Consulate in Houston, TX and waiting to hear their response. 

[PRH]

36 minutes ago, VanLee said:

I suggested to Viking that they should contact all the passengers on the cruise to see who has a visa and who doesn’t. 
 

It’s important that everyone continue to call and email Viking to make them understand the magnitude of the problem. I have emailed the Brazilian Consulate in Houston, TX and waiting to hear their response. 

Good idea!  I just sent an email to Tellus@vikingcruises.com.  Given all this, they may need to abandon Brazilian ports (I realize probably impossible for Amazon) but this visa situation has made Brazil untenable.

[millybess]

On the Regent board:

 

Quick update for everyone following this closely - we were just notified from the Brazilian government that they have postponed the date the eVisa goes into effect to April 10th, so for any of you on a sailing between now and then, you can rest easy as the eVisa is no longer necessary!

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2977251-brazil-evisa/page/4/#comment-66685545

[millybess]

Also on the HAL WC board.

 

 

[millybess]

I'm trying to independently verify it, but no luck so far.  If anyone has a link to official information, it would be much appreciated.

[millybess]

Just posted in a Brazilian newspaper:

 

https://www.thebrasilians.com/visa-requirement-for-americans-entering-brazil-extended-to-april/

[slewis7]

Thank goodness.  Their visa system has been a total clown show. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

[millybess]

Seems to be official:

 

https://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/decreto-n-11.875-de-4-de-janeiro-de-2024-535758664

[coolhandluke]

Hot off the press.  Brazil evisa requirement POSTPONED!

https://agenciagov.ebc.com.br/noticias/202401/exigencia-de-vistos-para-cidadaos-de-australia-canada-e-eua-e-adiada-para-abril-de-2024

 

We will be visiting in March and wont need one.  Anyone visiting on or after April 10 will still need to get one.

Edited January 5 by coolhandluke

[Iloveketo]

Cost me $488 to have expedited service with GenVisa to find out now that it’s postponed. Hopefully, Brazil will still send us one so we can use it next year for the Amazon, but who knows… We don’t have it yet, but Genvisa already did their part… it is in Brazil’s hand now…

I wish I had waited, but who would anticipate Brazil sending out Visas and then postponing again!?

[VanLee]

2 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

Cost me $488 to have expedited service with GenVisa to find out now that it’s postponed. Hopefully, Brazil will still send us one so we can use it next year for the Amazon, but who knows… We don’t have it yet, but Genvisa already did their part… it is in Brazil’s hand now…

I wish I had waited, but who would anticipate Brazil sending out Visas and then postponing again!?

We spent over $200 initially with ivisa only to upgrade to expedited status for another $500. Still don’t have the visa.

[Iloveketo]

1 hour ago, VanLee said:

We spent over $200 initially with ivisa only to upgrade to expedited status for another $500. Still don’t have the visa.

It blows my mind that Brazil started this process, issued some people visas and now has postponed it again!

[slewis7]

34 minutes ago, Iloveketo said:

It blows my mind that Brazil started this process, issued some people visas and now has postponed it again!

It is pretty amazing but given how incompetently the processing of applications has been, it is hardly surprising that they had to postpone things to avoid significantly damaging their tourism business.  Many of us are upset that a lot of effort and expense was wasted making applications but folks who had to alter or cancel travel plans due to an inability to obtain Visas would be even more angry.

Edited January 6 by slewis7

[PRH]

Update to our visa application.  Got an 3mail saying “sorry for the delayed response” and then proceeded to give the same “need to reload” and “name, date of birth does not match passport” and again with no link to upload.  Next day, email with same bra# and ticket number addressed to someone else altogether with exactly the same text!  Obviously they combined two applications into one so our money and time is totally wasted.  No way to resolve.

[millybess]

25 minutes ago, PRH said:

Update to our visa application.  Got an 3mail saying “sorry for the delayed response” and then proceeded to give the same “need to reload” and “name, date of birth does not match passport” and again with no link to upload.  Next day, email with same bra# and ticket number addressed to someone else altogether with exactly the same text!  Obviously they combined two applications into one so our money and time is totally wasted.  No way to resolve.

Astounding!

 

Our cruise starts in 2 days. We’ve set up an E-Visa Survivors party (EVS for short)😊

[Iloveketo]

5 hours ago, PRH said:

Update to our visa application.  Got an 3mail saying “sorry for the delayed response” and then proceeded to give the same “need to reload” and “name, date of birth does not match passport” and again with no link to upload.  Next day, email with same bra# and ticket number addressed to someone else altogether with exactly the same text!  Obviously they combined two applications into one so our money and time is totally wasted.  No way to resolve.

Same here! Out so much money and got nothing. We had GenVisa submit ours and even paid to have it expedited! We could have used it for our next cruise even though we don’t need it now…