This is great news, but does anyone know if this 10-day turnaround is realistically being honored for Carnival? My girlfriend is traveling internationally until 1/19, and we have a flight to GIG that departs at night on 2/4. I applied for my visa at the NY consulate a few weeks ago, and my processing time was 12 business days. Any experience with people who have gone there recently?
I'm happy to report a successful trip to the NYC consulate today for anyone who's looking for a last-minute visa to Brazil! Once again, today is the first day that they're processing walk-ins, so things were understandably pretty hectic. We got there at 8:50AM today, and apparently there were already over 100 people ahead of us. We still got into the building though, which is luckier than anyone who came after 9:30AM or so. While we were waiting in line, we were assured that anyone currently in the building would be seen today and issued a visa within 5 business days. I imagine that they prioritize based on date of travel, since when they saw our 2/4 flight, they gave us a date 7 business days from now, which is more than fine. They said a few times that they would only be able to process ~150 visas, but I think that might have just been scare tactics to create some space in the building. We were given #119 and waited almost 2 hours. If you have time to spare, you will definitely get a visa in NYC within 5-10 business days. You just need to get there by 8:30AM or so, and you'll be fine.