Brazil - anyone get a 5 year visa recently?

[CHK]

DH and I will be in Brazil for a mere 6 hours as part of a Trans-Atlantic cruise this coming April. We've got all of the info on applying for the visa in late January or early February, BUT we'd really like to get a 5 year visa because we hope to do an Amazon River cruise in 2009 or 2010.

 

The visa services are all telling us the same thing: they have no control over the length of the visa that the Consulate authorizes. Several services have told me outright that the Consulate they deal with (Houston is one) will absolutely not give us a visa for longer than 90 days--even if we had the Amazon Cruise booked already.

 

It seems that maybe each Consulate does things a bit differently. If anyone out there has obtained a 5 year visa recently, maybe you could tell me which Consulate and/or service you went through (apparently, even though we live in Florida, some of the Consulates accept applications from Florida residents when submitted through a service)

 

:confused:

[Keith1010]

I think there is some confustion here so let me try to clear this up for you.

 

You will apply for a tourist visa.

 

You need to enter the country within three months of its issuance.

 

You can stay in the country for up to six months at a time, but the visa is good for five years. This means that you could go to Brazil, stay up to six months, go back home, and then go back again another time and keep doing this over the course of five years.

 

But again if you do not arrive in Brazil the first time within three months of the visas issuance the visa becomes invalid.

 

Keith

[bobnsandi]

Having just received our Brazil visas, we understand how confusing this all can be. We have 5 year visas, but we MUST enter Brazil within 90 days of issuance. This works for us, because our cruise leaves January 3rd, and we enter Brazil February 15th. We could not have had a visa issued before November 17th.

 

It is my understanding that you can get a visa that does not expire within 90 days of issuance, but it is only good for 90 days after you enter Brazil. We did not try to get this kind.

 

Also, citizens of other countries are treated differently. For instance Aussiegal, who posts on CC, is Australian (of course) and could only secure 90-day visas. For a recent cruise, she had to request two (!) visas to match the cruise itinerary.

 

Check our discussion for the Prinsendam to see that some folks in Florida applied for their visas in Miami at the consulate. Direct contact might help.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=544941&page=6

 

Hope this helps, rather than adds confusion.

 

 

Bob

[CHK]

Thank you Keith and Bob for your input. Yes, I already knew about the 90 day period. It's just that the service I planned to use insists that they no longer give our 5 year visa. We do live in Florida but about a 7 or 8 hour drive one way from Miami, so going to the Consulate was not in our plans, although maybe we should reconsider.

 

When you dropped off your documents, did you have to supply a separate return envelope for each application?

[Keith1010]

Thank you Keith and Bob for your input. Yes, I already knew about the 90 day period. It's just that the service I planned to use insists that they no longer give our 5 year visa. We do live in Florida but about a 7 or 8 hour drive one way from Miami, so going to the Consulate was not in our plans, although maybe we should reconsider.

 

When you dropped off your documents, did you have to supply a separate return envelope for each application?

 

CHK, in my case I used a visa service which was the one recommended by our cruise line. I have now used them a couple of times. Here is their web site if you want to look up their number to call them.

 

http://www.traveldocs.com/index.htm

 

Keith

[shaq]

Here is a link to the visa service we used. They were great, we had them back in less than a week. I think it cost $165.00 complete. On of the best things about this service is that you can follow the process of you visa on line. This company only offered a 5 year visa.

 

A link to them: http://travisa.com/

 

Hope this helps.

[Mary Ellen]

The Houston consulate ONLY issues the 90-day tourist visas. :mad: Another CC'er on our cruise did her visa through the DC Embassy (using a DC based visa service) and was issued a 5-year visa for the same $ as we paid for our lousy 90-day visa.

[Fatfish]

The Houston consulate ONLY issues the 90-day tourist visas. :mad: Another CC'er on our cruise did her visa through the DC Embassy (using a DC based visa service) and was issued a 5-year visa for the same $ as we paid for our lousy 90-day visa.

 

We got our visa from DC in 2/06 and it's a 5 year visa and will be using it again this April for the Royal Princess..Another couple from I believe the west coast only got a 90 day and were not happy as they were going again later that year..If my memory serves me, he got a 90 day and his wife was given a 5 year; they applied at the same time so it appears to be a crap shoot.

[BCB]

CHK,

 

In November, we applied directly to the Brazilain Consulate in Miami using the instructions and forms on their website.

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/visas.php

 

You can fill out the form online and then print it out and mail it in. There is no choice there for the length of time on the tourist visa. All 3 of us automatically just received the 5 year visas from Miami. You do have to read about 2-4 pages to find all the instructions but they are all on the website. Along with our passports, we mailed photocopies of our YFV certificates and our state issued drivers licenses (to prove your state of residency). They wanted tickets to prove date and place of arrival and departure. We had not gotten our cruise documents yet, so we mailed copies of our ship's itinerary and copies of our paid invoices with dates of embarkation and embarkation. On the form we entered the first Brazilian port and date of arrival and the last Brazilian port and date of departure. We all got our passports back with 5-year visas within 2 weeks.

 

Good luck, Debbie

[CHK]

I sure have learned a lot--esp. that we will NOT use the passport services in Houston. I originally thought about mailing the application directly to the consulate in Miami--and maybe that's what we'll do. I'll just hope for that 5 year visa.

 

Thanks again!

[jdr93]

- snip - You do have to read about 2-4 pages to find all the instructions but they are all on the website. Along with our passports, we mailed photocopies of our YFV certificates and our state issued drivers licenses (to prove your state of residency). - snip -

Good luck, Debbie

thanks for the clear information on what you did to obtain your visas. i don't see anything on the pages you supplied the link for about a certificate of prior yellow fever vaccination being required. i believe a certificate is required if the traveler is coming to brazil following a visit of a certain length to another south american country. were you supplying the certificates for that reason?

also, i did not see a requirement for a drivers license photo or other proof of residency for a 'tourist' visa, though one is apparently required from someone applying for a permanent visa.

and finally, i don't see a place on the form where you can enter the place of 'departure'. did you put the final visited city into question 22, where 'destination' is required?

thank you very much for any assistance you can give us.

 

and happy new year.

[jdr93]

I sure have learned a lot--esp. that we will NOT use the passport services in Houston. I originally thought about mailing the application directly to the consulate in Miami--and maybe that's what we'll do. I'll just hope for that 5 year visa.

 

Thanks again!

i believe the different consulates in the us are responsible for issuing visas to residents of states within a certain radius of the consulate. the consulate in boston for instance will issue visas only to residents of certain new england states. see the link below.

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

[Mary Ellen]

i believe the different consulates in the us are responsible for issuing visas to residents of states within a certain radius of the consulate. the consulate in boston for instance will issue visas only to residents of certain new england states. see the link below.

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

Right. It is because we live in Colorado that we had to use the Houston consulate - or use a DC based visa service. Since the OP lives in Florida, Miami will the consulate for them.

[CHK]

In the visa application form, page 2, it asks for your address and phone number in Brazil. What the heck do you put when you're arriving and leaving on a cruise ship??

[dfb]

Hi,

Sorry, I previously posted as BCB (not!) because I am on a borrowed computer out of town! Since we are leaving for our SA trip in the morning and I am clearly far from home and have our visas in our passports, I no longer have the photocopies of what we mailed out. I will try to answer from memory because our visa application experience through the Miami Consulate of Brazil was really painless and flawless. You do have to have ONLY a US Postal Money Order. Ours were for $110 each, I believe. The $100 visa fee and a Miami $10 processing fee. (I recall finding this fee information on 2 separate web pages, not in one place together!) You can only put one application in each envelope! We used Express Mail so we could track our passports online! So, we filled out our forms online, printed and signed them and carried all required forms/photos to the Post Office, where we got the Express Mail Stamps placed on all Express Mail envelopes (outbound and return) along with the Money Orders (one for each outbound envelope!) and then properly filled each envelope and turned them in the the Postal Clerk.

 

To answer specific questions, yes, we are arriving from other SA countries and Brazil requires us to have a YFV certificate so we did send them photocopies as proof.

 

Each Consulate will only issue visas to residents of certain states and requires proof of residency in those states. Thus, the drivers license photocopy. See the website:

"The Consulate-General of Brazil in Miami issues visas only for residents in its jurisdiction : Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands; Bahamas. The applicant must present proof of residence (driver's license) when applying by mail or through a third party." from the web page below

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/visas.php

 

Yes, we did enter the final Brazilian port as the "destination."

 

For the address and phone number in Brazil, our TA provided 2 phone numbers and the name of the ship and told us to put that info in that slot and we did.

 

Good luck, Debbie

[dfb]

Back again. Below are all the links I recall reading to get all the information we used to apply for our visas from MIAMI. Again, we got them within 2 weeks of sending them out and had no problems, so we must have done everything right.

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/visas.php (general instructions for Miami ONLY)

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/pdf/visa_form.pdf (application form)

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/visas_vitur.php (fees)

http://brazilmiami.org/eng/faq.php (Frequently Asked Questions)

 

Debbie

[Keith1010]

In the visa application form, page 2, it asks for your address and phone number in Brazil. What the heck do you put when you're arriving and leaving on a cruise ship??

 

We were given the address to use from the Visa Service that we used. If you are doing this on your own, if you have a TA ask her to get the address for you. Otherwise you may want to contact the cruise line directly.

 

Keith

[zogrand]

We got our visas directly from the Boston Consulate. We paid $100 cash for each. If you wished, the consulate would provide forms and collect credit card charges for arranging to fed ex the visa back. We weren't required to provide proof of yellow fever inoculation. There was a long wait and they will only accept applications from 20 people per day but the whole thing was relatively painless and the visa was ready for pick up in 5 days. I put Manaus as our initial destination and Fort Lauderdale as the final destination. I put the name of the cruise line and the ship name as contact info with no phone number and that was also fine. Our visas are for 5 years. They never asked what we wanted nor did they offer one with a different expiration date. We chose not to use a service (which we had done for our Russian visas) because my DH needed his passport for other travel and didn't want to take any chances.

[Mparis184]

I applied from a Visa Service on-line. Wouldn't you know it - it's the one that uses the Houston Brazilian Consulate to get the Visas processed! I requested a 5 year Visa and am eager to see what I get.

 

The cost of the Visas all went up. We paid $358 for the two of us that included their processing fee and shipping charges.

 

The Visa service received my application on December 31. I have not gotten the Visas yet.

 

Marion

[aTLANTA gAL]

We call the office in Miami and they told me I could send both applications, ship itinerary, booking info and passports in the same package and include one postage paid return envelope. They did require a USPS money order for the fee. We each paid $110 as stated earlier by someone else in their post. All of the info needed was on line and did not have to pay anyone else to process the request. The whole process took only one week from the time I mailed the info and forms

 

Martha and Cliff (Marietta GA Cliff)

[Mparis184]

Because we live in New York State we had to apply in person in New York City for the Visa or use a Visa Service. NYC is an 8 hour drive and it's more of a pain to fly...so, I decided to use the Visa Service. The one in Houston asked for the fewest pieces of documentation so I selected them.

 

Hopeful that I get a 5 year visa but after reading this board I will be surprised if I get one.

[aneka]

We applied for our Visas by mail to the Chicago office. Although I specifically asked for a 5 Year Visa, we were given Visas good for one year only. Not sure if all the consulates operate the same way!

[CHK]

We call the office in Miami and they told me I could send both applications, ship itinerary, booking info and passports in the same package and include one postage paid return envelope. They did require a USPS money order for the fee. We each paid $110 as stated earlier by someone else in their post. All of the info needed was on line and did not have to pay anyone else to process the request. The whole process took only one week from the time I mailed the info and forms

 

Martha and Cliff (Marietta GA Cliff)

I think the rules may have changed since 2006 since the Brazilian Consulate

of Miami website is very specific that only one application is permitted per envelope--and if more than one is in the envelope, they will be returned.

 

Before you start thinking how unreasonable the Brazilians are, remember that their rules are only a reflection of what the USA requires of Brazilian citizens.

[Mparis184]

I didn't know there were 1 year visas, no one ever mentioned that there was a choice of 90 day, one year and 5 year visas.

 

I have still not received my visas back from Houston, their website tells me that my Visa is "In Process"...I didn't think it woud take this long. Glad I still have 7 weeks left before our cruise.

 

Marion

[chica]

We used a Visa service out of LA that was listed on the Consulate site. We received great service and 5 year visas. My sister did hers on her own through the mail at the Chicago embassy and received a one year visa.