Obtaining a Visa for Brazil

One of the obstacles in preparing for the portion of my trip in Brazil was actually being allowed in the country. Brazil, and other Latin American countries like Bolivia and Paraguay require US citizens to file for a visa in advance. They do it as retaliation to the U.S. policy of charging foreigners hundred if not thousands of dollars in fees to apply for a visa that they are not guaranteed. This may seem unfair at first, but the U.S. has more people wanting to visit/move there and the costs of doing almost anything are more in the United States. This makes it difficult for the average Bolivian to spend what may be equivalent to their monthly/yearly income on a visa application. But in reality, a country like Bolivia needs the income from tourism and for Brazil and Bolivia, charging tourists money is just retaliation to the U.S. policy.

In order for me to get a Brazilian Tourist Visa, i had to:

-Either visit the New York City Brazilian consulate in person to submit everything or find a company to go there on my behalf. I chose a company to do it for me. I still had to send the company, VisaRite my documents and payment.

– Actual passport, signed, valid at least 6 month beyond stay with blank visa page
– One visa application form per person, completely filled-out and signed One recent
– passport-type photograph (please glue or staple the photo to the application form)
-Copy of round trip ticket, or itinerary showing flight information and dates of departure to and from Brazil.
-submit my yellow fever certificate
-$190.00

Before i could apply, i had to purchase tickets with no guarantee that i could use them. I also did not want to bother booking any domestic flights in Brazil either. The visa is only valid within 90 days of when it was issued, so i had to wait to submit my application until a few weeks ago.

As of two days ago, the fedex tracking numbers shows that the visa was delivered to my home address. Now i just need to see if they granted me a visa that they granted me is valid for a 5 year time period or for 90 days in total.