Brazilian Visas

[Keith1010]

I know this comes up from time to time so I thought I would provide a post as we have just recently gotten our visas for Brazil.

 

All United States and Canadian citizens require visas for entry into Brazil. Those from other countries need to check the requirements for their specific country. We are USA citizens.

 

When you fill out the form, be sure to complete all information. Do not leave anything blank.

 

If you are using a visa service give them sufficient lead time. Our visas took approximately 19 days from the time they were submitted to the and the visa was provided. The long wait was two-fold. First the turn around is longer than most for obtaining a Brazilian visa and a good part of the reason because the United States makes it equally difficult when providing visas. Second, as many passenger's are traveling on the same cruise the visa service submitted a large number of visas at the same time.

 

We were told up front that it would take a while so this was not a surprise.

 

If you have the ability to drop off the visa yourself I would recommend that as the turn around time would be quicker.

 

One final note, you must use your visa within 90 days of issuance meaning you must enter the country within 90 days from the timet the visa is issued. The visa company did not submit them at the 90 day time frame and instead submitted them around 87 days out to allow time should the cruise be delayed. Of course, given that the visas were not issued for another few weeks we were well below the 90 day limit.

 

At the same time the visa service company requested a visa for one other country on our behalf and the visa turn around time was one day.

 

Keith

[crazy4cruisn]

I couldn't believe the timing turn around on ours! I sent it off on a Monday and received it back on Thursday by priority mail! This was this past November.

[shellbeachjim]

We went through this process early in 2005. We're fortunate to live close to a Brazilian consulate so we did ours in person. While watching others in the waiting room, the main reason people were rejected for their visas was that they didn't include a copy of their itinerary with the application. I used my Princess booking confirmation which also had my flight arrival information on it.

 

Jim

[Hlitner]

A few weeks ago I posted some info on our recent experience at the DC consulate. They were real insistent on written proof of your return flights, even if those flights are not from Brazil (as on a cruise that ends in BA). Even an invoice from the TA that showed the cruise included air was not good enough! They had to have the actual flight numbers.

 

Hank

[Keith1010]

As is the case with most things peoples experiences will vary. I was only trying to share my experience with this. I'm sure others have had quicker turn arounds and others slower ones.

 

As I mentioned we had to go through a service as we were getting multiple visas and could not travel to get this done ourselves. If that is an option, I would always recommend doing it yourself as you avoid things such as possibly having to mail your passport. And, since ours were dropped off along with 200 others I'm sure that slowed things down a bit.

 

Ours was processed in Washington, DC.

 

Bottom line though is to play it safe do submit it sooner rather than later but be sure you know the rules such as the fact that you must enter Brazil within 90 days of the time of the Visa.

 

Fill out all information completely. Do not leave any blanks on the form.

 

And, provide whatever documentation is required. Since our service was handling many passenger's on our criuse we didn't have to provide any letters or copies of airline tickets, etc. as they took care of this for us but I do know from friends the necessity of providing the requested documentation.

 

As I mentioned, Brazil does exactly what the US does to those outside of the United States. They make it difficult since the US makes it difficult.

 

Anyway, the key is to submit it in a timely manner since you never know what the turn around will be (the agency did tell me that sometimes the turn around is quick but other times it is slow and that you never know) and secondly to make sure that all information on the form is filled out and that you provide whatever backup documentation is requested.

 

Keith

[shellbeachjim]

Keith,

All very good observations.

 

While I didn't use a visa service, obtaining our visas from the Brazilian Consulate directly was not done in a single day. We dropped them off one day and came back 10 days later to pick it up. If I recall correctly we could have picked them up after a week but couldn't because of our schedules. You have to factor the cost of your time into the equation to determine whether or not to use a visa service.

 

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.

 

Jim

[Keith1010]

Thanks, Jim. I'm glad to know that even applying individually can take a wile. In our case, since the visa service submitted over 200 visa applications that likely added to the length of time. The good news is that we got the visas back in plenty of time. I would have prefered doing all of this myself as I was nervous with the mailing of the passports back and forth. But, that's over with.

 

Keith

[lisaandrich]

My wife and I will need Brazilian visas for our upcoming Insignia cruise. Can I go there by myself with the required documentation, or do both of us have to be present in person?

 

Thanks,

 

Rich

[rnewste]

We just went through the process last week. Decided to go to the local office in San Francisco. My wife took the paperwork in while I drove around. Took her about 30 minutes and she was out.

 

Make sure you completely fill out the necessary Brazilian Visa forms from their website, bring your cruise itinerary on the TA letterheaad (or HAL's), bring hotel reservations if you are staying post-cruise, your flight E-ticket confirmation, and most important, you need Post Office Money Orders for $100 per person (they will not accept Bank Money Orders).

 

You then need to come back 7 days later to pick them up.

 

Ray

[cruisenfever]

We are doing a cruise on March 22 of 2008 on Splendour of the Seas. We are sailing from Valpariso, Chile to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We are then staying on the ship and doing the Transatlantic and ending up in Lisbon, Portugal.

 

How does the visa apply to our situation since we will not be flying into Brazil, nor will we be getting off the ship in Sao Paulo.

[rnewste]

The cruise line will NOT allow you to board if the ship makes a stop in any port in Brazil during its cruise - - even if you do not intend to get off the ship.

 

Get the Visa, it wasn't that much of a hassle, and enjoy Rio for the day that you are in port!!

 

Ray

[cruisenfever]

The cruise line will NOT allow you to board if the ship makes a stop in any port in Brazil during its cruise - - even if you do not intend to get off the ship.

 

Get the Visa, it wasn't that much of a hassle, and enjoy Rio for the day that you are in port!!

 

Ray

Thanks for the info. That's what we kind of thought, but just wanted to make sure.