Brazilian Visa Info

This posting should help anyone traveling with an American passport from the United States acquire a visa to enter Brazil. Any person who wishes to travel to Brazil using an American passport (among a few other countries) must apply for a visa before entering the country.

Different Brazilian embassies and consulates in the US have jurisdictions over different states, and in some cases, counties, they represent. Confirm which embassy or consulate has jurisdiction over your area of residence before applying. Also confirm with the respective embassy or consulate their preferred method of application as the application process can vary.

Here is the website for the embassy in Washington D.C.

This portion of the D.C. embassy website lists the jurisdictions of each consulate or embassy in the US.

Since the majority of my family and friends reading this post live in the State of Oregon, we'll focus on the consulate in San Francisco.

Very likely all people planning on attending the wedding will be visiting Brazil as a tourist. Therefore, you'll be applying for a tourist visa. Here is the detailed information on how to apply for a tourist visa.

The SF consulate has jurisdiction over the state of Oregon and does not allow mail-in visa applications. So you need to do one of three things to submit your application:

1) travel to SF to submit your application yourself,
2) ask a trusted friend or relative to represent you in SF, or
3) pay to utilize a visa processing service that will submit your application for you.

I assume options 1 and 2 above might not be possible for most readers. Therefore, we'll concentrate on option 3. There are a few different visa processing companies with offices in San Francisco that will submit your application for you in exchange for some dollars. The consulate has a list of these companies on their website here.

I've looked into a few of these companies and Travisa was the most responsive to my email enquiries, however, my mom sent them an email last week and hasn't received a reply. Choose the company as you see fit. Most, however, follow similar processes and fees seem to be about the same.

Using Travisa a person will pay $50 per passport to have them represent you and submit your application in San Francisco on your behalf. This is in addition to the $130.00 reciprocity fee (AKA, visa fee). Also, any application not submitted in person by the applicant will incure a processing fee of $20.00. So the total cost for a Brazilian visa using a processing service will be about $200.00 per passport.

In case you missed it above, this page on the SF consulate website is very helpful. It lists all the requirements and steps to acquire a Brazilian tourist visa.

It's a hassle, I know, but Brazil is a beautiful country with a rich culture and well worth the extra effort to visit. Good luck and see you in Brazil!

Important Notes:
--When completing your application you might need to provide contact information of the people you're visiting in Brazil. Please email me if you need this information.

--New visa holders must enter Brazil within 90 days of the date the visa was issued. This means you should plan to submit your visa application no more than 90 days before you travel, but allow plenty of time for processing and issue of the visa.

--Depending in the expiration date of your passport, your Brazilian visa will likely be valid for 5 years.

--Upon immigration clearance entry, a person is usually granted 90 days leave to stay in Brazil using a tourist visa. This can be extended another 90 days by applying with the Policia Federal (Federal Police) within Brazil.

--A person holding a tourist visa cannot legally stay in Brazil longer than 180 days in any 12 month period.