Brasil - Visa and entry fee.
 

As I understand it US citizens need a visa to enter Brasil and are photographed and fingerprinted upon entry, in addition are required to pay the $100 reciprocity fee ( or is it for the visa? ) .
Is that for every entry or is the visa/fee and the photograph/fingerprinting good for a period.
I may have to enter the country twice in an 10 day span in Nov.

Also if I am flying say from BA connecting onward in GRU do I have to go through the above?
Thanks.
mike

The $100 for the visa is collected when you submit your visa application. That fee for the visa covers me for a 5-year multi-entry tourist visa as long as I entered within 90 days of it being issued. [It's a use it or lose it entry permit, in effect.] [The visas for more official travel are priced differently.]

If you are connecting, then you don't need a visa as you don't have to clear immigration to make an onward connection to say EZE; however, if you get stuck in GRU due to some issue of flights being cancelled and the like, then you may or may not come to regret not having a visa. But if you, as an American, don't use the visa, you've just wasted the money.

Thanks for the quick reply.
I am redeeming a C class award on SAA GRU/CPT but flying AA to Brasil or EZE hoped to incorporate a 3 day stop over in either GIG or EZE at the end,
am working out the mechanics since the wife is travelling with me 3 days in GIG might not be enough we have been to BA before so that layover may be more relaxing.

One thing though you did not mention if the photo/fingerprinting is done at every entry or just once?
Thanks,
mike

Friends of mine (both US citizens) who flew to GIG last August were not fingerprinted. I'm wondering if maybe that was just a temporary tit-for-tat thing that has been quietly dropped.

The photo - print thing seems to vary, maybe a face-saver thing, a kind of reciprocity different than the $100 fee. As GUWonder says, BE SURE to request a multiple-entry visa stamped into your passport, which is good for five years (or until your passport expires, if it has less than five eyars "life" left on it.) Even if you think you'll never be back - Brasil has ways of getting us to return! :D

Ok this brings up another question :) My passport expires in March 06 and my Brasil trip ( whether I stay instransit on the way to EZE or not) is in late Nov 05, I read somewhere on these boards that some countries may not permit you to enter if the passport expiration date is relatively close to the arrival. Anybody has any idea whether it applies to Brasil, Argentina or South Africa for that matter or what the allowable periods might be?

mike

The fingerprinting and photographing is for EVERY entry. Sometimes when the queue is busy, the officer will just waive you past or will wave every third or so person past with only a passport check. But if you're an American, you get in line, then about halfway through you are shunted over to a different line, get fingerprinted, then kind of get back in line and get called over to the next passport officer. It's a real pain in the butt and seems clearly designed to make it a pain in the butt. But hey - it's their country and I won't complain about it. But yes - if you're an American, you go through this EVERY time you enter. Period.

As for passport expiration, most countries on the planet will require that your passport have at least six months left before it expires for you to enter the country. Places that require you to get a visa beforehand will deny your visa if you don't have at least X months validity remaining (usually 6 months). Other countries that give you a visa stamp upon entry (lots of people don't realize that you get a visa everywhere - that's what the stamp in your passport is, unless you have a pre-arranged one) will usually also require this, and if you don't have 6 months left, they may make you turn around and go back home. If you are going to be close with your passport expiry, then go ahead and renew it now.

Thanks for the replies, looks like a new passport is in order.
Perhaps I will skip the stopover in Brasil this time not sure I want to go through that twice in under two weeks. If I was going to spend more time in the country OK but looks like BA here I come again. :D
mike

I don't think that's actually true. If you enter the US without a visa, for instance, you are entering under a visa waiver, which is sort of by definition the absence of a visa.

Also: the US has a reciprocal arrangement with many countries waiving the six-months-of-validity rule. Technically this is done by agreeing that, for some purposes, the passport is valid for six months beyond the expiration date printed in it.

The visa is good for 5 years even if your passport expires way before then. This is actually the way that many visas work for many countries, its just that US citizens in general are so unaccustomed to Visas or long term visas that many posters here do not realize this (to explain it in extraordinarily long verbiage, let's pretend that you receive your 5 year Brazil tourist visa tomorrow - Jan 20, and let's pretend that you passport expires on July 1st. Your visa is still valid even after you get a new passport and your old old is Cancelled, you just bring along the old passport with the visa inside it and it works, for the full five year term that it was issued for. Incidentally it works the EXACT same way for foreign citizens and their US visas.

Yeah,

I was told this by the Brasiliero Consulado in DC when I needed to replace a 'damages' passport. They just said to bring the new one and the 'damaged' one and the visa would be good until the stamped date of expiry. I couldn't see paying another $100 when I still had 4 years left.

HTH.

My stop in GIG last March the fingerprint and photo were relatively painless an quick. Just a thumbpress on an electronic reader and a quick snap from a webcam connected to a PC. Not really worth missing out on Brazil over an extra 5-10 minutes in the immigration line. I think if you are on the late flight from MIA on AA the lines are pretty painless.

The most painful thing for us was leaving. There was a police strike and the security line was ridiculous. We waited for HOURS. Surely that must be over now, but I dont know.

Don't misunderstand my previous post - it's a pain in the butt that Americans are singled out for the fingerprint/photo treatment, but this shouldn't preclude you from visiting, even if you have only a short time and have to enter twice. Any opportunity you have to visit another country, you should absolutely take it. You won't be disappointed. Try Florianopolis (FLN), by the way, if you want to relax for a couple of days.

When I went to RIO this past September, we weren't fingerprinted or a photo taken. I don't even remember seeing the equipment. The immigration entry was painless. I expected to get fingerprinted and a photo taken.

Multiple Entry?
 

Okay, I got my Visa last June and entered the country at GIG in July. I mad eno mention of multiple entry and was not asked about it either at GIG or by the Visa service that got me the visa. Is the five year thing automatic or did I need to do/request something else? I am going again over Presidents Day weekend and need to act fast if I need a new visa.

Thanks!

Have you checked your passport? On mine the actual wording on the visa that was stamped in my passport states that it is valid for multiple entries (although it is pretty fine print).

IF i have a US and UK passport will I get in any trouble using my UK passport to avoid the fee? (i live in the US, normally use my US passport)

I chgecked and indeed it does, although it is in fine print and the stamp was pretty weak (i.e. it needed more ink). The problem is that I have no stamp to show that I actually entered Brazil. Without that stamp, it looks like I got the visa in June and am now trying to enter on it for the first time. I'm going to call to see if that is a problem.

Yes, that will likely be a problem. Unless things have recently changed, the
the visa has to be used within 90 days of issue or it's not valid. A friend of mine found out that they are very strict about this when he tried to re-enter and his first entry stamp was so light that it was almost illegible (they finally agreed that he had originally entered within 90 days and let him in after several hours of waiting and talking with officials).

Thanks. That was what I was afraid of.

I flew JFK-GIG in October and was neither fingerprinted nor photographed. The visa application process was very easy: I went to the Brazilian consulate in Boston with my application and $100 and was able to pick up my visa the next day.

Well, Brazil screwed itself out of my visit (a real tragedy, I know ;) ).

My call to the Consulte in NY confirmed that I would need a new visa. As I live in the Hartford, CT area, I would have to use a visa service and, as I am about to start a rotation at a client's site that will require an ID badge, I cannot spare my Passport at this time as it is my proof of citizenship.

I actually have my boarding pass for my SCL-GIG flight, but that will not fly as proof that I had entered on the Visa. I would have thought the fingerprint and photograph would have been retained, but apparently it is entirely for show.

Their Immigration Officer f-ed up and I refuse to pay the consequence of someone else's mistake.

If it were me (Mr. Vegas) I would go anyway. Most likely the officer at GIG wouldn't care. And if he did he would find 50 Real stuck in the back of the passport. Bribery has never failed me in south America.

With my luck, it would fail and I'd get to experience the pleasures of the Brazilian penal system. When I travel overseas, I always stick to the straight and narrow, but I tend to be risk averse (blame it on law school).