Planning a Trip to Brazil Soon?
Update: As of June 17th, 2019, Brazil will start waiving the visa process entirely for citizens of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Japan who are visiting the country for 60 days or less.
The e-visa measure (written about below) was successful in increasing the number of tourists in Brazil by 35%. The Brazilian government is hoping to push those numbers further by making access even easier in mid-2019.
You can read more about the changes here.
Brazil has long been one of the most expensive places for Americans to travel to. Along with countries like China, Russia, and Bolivia, many potential visitors have been discouraged from visiting due to high visa fees and difficult application processes.
In the past, Brazilian visa applications came with a hefty $160 fee and required an in-person visit to a local consulate (unless you’re willing to pay even more to have a visa service do this for you). The costs were unusually expensive for U.S. citizens because the Brazilian government practices reciprocity when it comes to tourism; if a country charges Brazilian citizens high fees, then visitors from that country will, in turn, need to pay a similar entrance cost to come to Brazil.
Due to the current political environment, economic recession, and public health concerns, Brazil’s tourism numbers are shrinking, even after hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016.
In a fight to revive the tourism industry and bring back visitors to the country, the government has decided to lighten the visa load on citizens from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Australia. As of January 28th, you can now apply for a visa onlineand, if approved, receive your documents within the week.
The best part? It now costs just $40 (in addition to a $4.24 service fee) to apply. That’s nearly $120 back in your pocket to spend on more important things, like pão de queijo and acai bowls. 😉
Conditions & How to Apply
It takes about 10 minutes to apply (I just submitted mine!). You’ll need a digital scan of your main passport page and passport photo on hand. Payments can be made by credit card. The visa is valid upon approval for 2 years, of which you can legally spend up to 90 days a year in the country. You will need to print out the visa and bring it with you to the airport on the day of your flight
Again, the website can be found here: https://vfsglobal.com/brazil-evisa/
(this is the official site—any other sites offering the same thing are visa assistance services and will charge you more to handle the process for you)
Joel and
Before you go…
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