Hi All,
I am hoping that FTers can help me with this question. The question (or related circumstances) has been (somewhat) tackled in another closed thread
here. That was a disaster and people were flaming and got rude to each other. If you are gonna do that, please do not answer and just move on along. The FT community does not need that.
Okay, here it is. In 2004, I crossed the border from Argentina to Brazil at the Foz de Iguazu crossing. I was travelling on a visa free-eligible passport, stopped by immigration, got my stamp and immigration card, and went my merry way. At some point in the trip, I lost the immigration card and got fined some amount by the Brazilian immigration authorities when I stopped by immigration in the same border crossing on my way back into Argentina. As a poor college kid, I figured (I regret this now) that I would probably never go back to Brazil and if I do then I'll take care of it then. So I never paid the fine.
Now, fast forward 11 years. I wanna go back to Brazil and take advantage of the visa free access my passport is eligible for. But then, of course, the fine. What do I do with that fine?
* Can I pay it from here in the US?
* Can I pay it upon arrival in a Brazilian airport?
* Does the Brazilian Immigration Police really have a long memory or is that somehow expunged after a certain number of years? It's been 11 years - which may not matter if they don't expunge it.
* I have since renewed my passport and gotten a new passport number. Are they gonna be able to identify me based on my other information and know to still levy the fine?
* When I get my US passport (my old one is not from the US) and try to get a Brazilian visa, is this likely to become an issue?
Let me be clear, if I have to pay it then I will. I am not justifying my actions as a college kid. That was dumb and in hindsight I should have just taken cared of it while I was still there.
One other piece of potentially relevant information. I don't have the physical passport anymore and do not have copies of either the passport or the page with the fine since my passport (along with most of my valuables) was taken during a home invasion we had in Buenos Aires. This is also why I never really got around to taking care of it. I got a my passport reissued.
Thanks in advance!