Brazil Visa

How long did it take you to get your Brazilian visa?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Each Brazilian consulate has different instructions and different processing times - read your applicable Consulate's website carefully. I see you are in Florida. We had our visas processed by the Brazilian consulate in Maimi last fall and this was my write-up:

• 
  
  • The on-line application is much more complex than the one we completed in 2009. Make sure you make copies of everything you attach on line (visa photo, signature, passport, drivers license, letter of credit, arrival/departure reservations, hotel reservations, etc.) and bring them with you. The consulate's on-line instructions were thorough and the step by step instruction on completing the on-line application were sufficient.
    
    
  • You also need to bring your completed on-line receipt signed and with photo attached, your passport (duh!), a $160 US Postal Money order (we saw 3 people turned away for not having that), and a signed letter requesting a visa. We also brought a Priority Mail envelope for returning the visas by mail since one trip of 1 hour each way is enough for us!
    
    
  • The consulate is open for visa processing from 2 pm to 4 pm but we heard the guard say he opens the doors at 1:30 so people don't need to wait outside in the heat. You are given a number denoting visa application or visa pickup. We arrived at 2 pm and had number 14 for visa applications. We waited a half hour and the interview took 10 minutes (5 minutes each). The staffer said they would mail us our passports in 14 days. We were done by 2:45.
    
    
  • There is little public parking nearby but the building has valet parking for $8 up to 4 hours.
    
    
  • We made a day of it and spent the morning and early afternoon at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens - a 100 year old house on Biscayne Bay (and only 4 miles from the consulate) with lovely gardens. I highly recommend it if you are driving some distance to get to the consulate!
    
    
  • When we were interviewed on October 12, the staffer and the official receipt said that our passports with the visas would be mailed on October 26. We were surprised to receive them in today's (the 20th) mail. They have a processed date of yesterday (the 19th) and, with our priority mail envelope, they were delivered today. As much as I dreaded the entire process, it went very smoothly.
    
    

Personally, I would rather have a tooth pulled then deal with the Brazilian authorities. Our experience obtaining a Visa from the Washington DC Brazilian Consulate (for a cruise) was among the worst experiences in more then fifty years of travel. We did use that Visa for several trips...which was the only good thing.

Good luck. My advice is that if you can use a professional Visa service.....then spend the extra money and let somebody else deal with these folks. Otherwise, read all their policies, do exactly what they say....and then pray that they haven't changed all the rules in the hour before you go to the Consul. Then again, you might get a Deputy Consul who does not even know the rules :(.

Hank

Personally, I would rather have a tooth pulled then deal with the Brazilian authorities. Our experience obtaining a Visa from the Washington DC Brazilian Consulate (for a cruise) was among the worst experiences in more then fifty years of travel.

 

Hank

The DC consulate has gotten better if my sister's and brother-in-law's dealing with them last fall are indicative. BIL had to renew his US passport last summer in anticipation of our South American cruise. He brought all the paperwork in for his Brazilian visa but the consulate staff told him they couldn't issue one because the US State Department had invalidated his brand new passport before returning his old and new one to him during the summer! BIL had not even noticed (the US passport agency is supposed to notch or punch a hole in the old passport - they did it to his new passport!). The US passport agency apologized and expidited the replacement wiht no additional fees. When my BIL returned to the consulate a couple of days later, he was recognized and didn't have to wait for his interview. He was grateful the consulate staff had noticed. Imagine if he was going somewhere that didn't require a visa and he just shown up at an aiport with a US passport with valid dates but an invalid cover.

I used CIBT for our Chinese and Indian Visas. We were on a limited time schedule due to another trip with the Indian Visa so I paid the big bucks for the hand holding service and that went relatively easy.....unlike the mess on board at every India stop!! Anyway, I did regular service with CIBT for Chinese Visa and that about drove me crazy. I am not looking forward to the Brazilian Visa.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I used CIBT for our Chinese and Indian Visas. We were on a limited time schedule due to another trip with the Indian Visa so I paid the big bucks for the hand holding service and that went relatively easy.....unlike the mess on board at every India stop!! Anyway, I did regular service with CIBT for Chinese Visa and that about drove me crazy. I am not looking forward to the Brazilian Visa.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Will you be able to drive to Miami to drop off the application? If so, do it yourself - just follow the directions closely - and save yourself the additional visa company charges.

You might also ask this question and do research on the South American Ports of Call board - it is very useful and there are a number of locals and recent SA cruisers offering assistance. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

Thanks. I won't be able to drive to Miami to drop it off myself - I live 9.5hours from Miami in the panhandle of FL. I'll check out the other boards.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It's not only that each consulate is different but it varies month to month and year to year.

Keith

Thanks. I won't be able to drive to Miami to drop it off myself - I live 9.5hours from Miami in the panhandle of FL. I'll check out the other boards.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I live midway up the west coast of FL, and I used CIBT too because traipsing down to Miami was not something I was willing to do.. It was the visa service suggested by Princess, and it was worth EVERY penny to let them do it. Their staff was very helpful and basically walked me thru my end of the process via phone, and were always willing to give me status reports.

As it happened, the Embassy in Miami was so backlogged, that the visa service ended up pulling some strings and running mine and some others thru the embassy in DC!! That's not something one can do for themselves.

Getting a Brazilian visa was a real PITA! and took a total of a couple of months.

I was tremendously relieved when it finally arrived in the mail.

Mine took two weeks which included mail time. I lived in Nashville at the time. Mailed in the application with my passport. It was returned to me with the visa two weeks later.