Brazil has different visa policies for different countries. For example, if you come from South America or most countries in Europe, you don’t need a visa to enter Brazil, but if you come from Canada, USA and other countries that require a visa entry, you need to be prepared because the process may take up to 60 days.
My husband recently needed to renew his visa, which means getting a brand new one and the consulate in NYC only allows you to obtain a visa in person or through a Courier, no mailing options and the in-person option only offered a date 60 days from the day we checked the consulate website. Keep in mind that you need your plane ticket to get a VISA (proof of travel), so you might want to buy the ticket with travel insurance or make sure it’s fully refundable.
We actively looked for couriers, but they had pretty much the same deadline for a Brazilian Visa, only giving you the comfort of not having to go there. This is the best website we’ve found with the best reviews, we did not use their services though, since we decided to postpone the trip to late summer:
Here is a great PAGE with a lot of information!
And a Map with Visa Requirements:
If you are not a US resident, check the visa requirements by clicking HERE
But even before you think about getting a VISA, you need a passport, right? Check your local government for passport requirements and time frames.
In the US, passports can take up to 60 days and 35 days for expedited service with an additional fee. For more information click HERE.
Children of Brazilian Citizens need their passport to return to their country but need a Brazilian passport to visit Brazil, so you will need to legalize your marriage in Brazil, obtain a birth certificate for the child at the consulate and apply for the passport. The process can take up to 50 days or longer and it may require more than one trip to the consulate. Here is the information for those of you who are in the US and married to a Brazilian Citizen: click HERE.
You can also hire a courier for expedited service. Some couriers guarantee passports 3 days. I can’t guarantee any of the courier services we’ve found when we were looking to expedite the process so, I will not be sharing info. But I’d suggest that if you are looking for an expedited service that you go with a local service, where you can stop by in case something goes wrong.
So my advice is that you should start the process early to avoid what happened to us – we had to delay our trip due to lack of time for the processing of our documents!
Good Luck! Boa Sorte!
Foto Credit for the map: Wikipedia.
