Traveling to Brazil

Posted on May 30, 2007
Filed Under Expat Tips, Immigration | 12 Comments

If you move to Uruguay, sooner or later you will be tempted to travel to the big neighbors, Argentina and Brazil. If you come from Europe and North America, you’ll find going to Argentina easy and convenient. After all, Argentina is close and you won’t need a visa to enter as a tourist. Brazil however is quite another story. Depending on the country you come from, obtaining a tourist visa can be pricey and cumbersome.

If you have a passport from any country in South America, you don’t need a visa. For nationals from the Mercosur countries (plus a few other countries, like Chile) the national id (cédula de identidad) can be used instead of a passport. At the border entry point, you are issued a visa valid for a 90 day stay.

Brazil adopts a reciprocity principle for visa requirements. This means that if the country you come from requires a visa for Brazilian tourists and it does not have a special treaty with Brazil, you’ll need a visa to get into Brazil. Also Brazil sets the fees to match the tourist’s country of origin. See this link for a list of countries that need visa. Unfortunately for Americans, Brazil matches the US visa requirements and it is therefore more expensive and complicated than for tourists of other countries. You can see the visa costs for each country here.

For this reason, if you need to leave Uruguay to extend your legal stay in Uruguay, it makes much more sense to go to Buenos Aires than to Brazil. It is cheaper, quicker and has fewer hassles.

Please note that in principle, even if you have a Uruguayan permanent resident cédula, you’ll still need a visa to travel to Brazil. However if you arrive at the border by car, with your passport, the cédula and no visa, it is unlikely that they will prevent you from entering the country, especially if you say you are only going to XYZ town just for the day.

To visit border towns such as Chuy-Chuí, Rio Branco-Jaguarão, Rivera-Livramento, etc, you don’t need a visa. These towns are special zones and the immigration/customs are located outside the cities. So you can cross back and forth between both cities without entering Brazil from an immigration point of view.

If you hail from one of the countries that need a visa, here’s what you’ll need:

Passport, valid for at least six more months.

Recent photo 3×4cm;

Round trip ticket to Brazil

Proof of means; the following documents may be used: international credit card, travelers checks, bank statement or similar documents at the discretion of consulate officials.

You can download the visa application form from here.

The visa costs are as follows: Americans UY$3500, Australians UY$1225, Canada and Nigeria UY$1400, Japan UY$1750, Russia UY$1750, Mexico UY$1050, all other countries UY$700 in local currency and can be obtained in two working days. For more details consult the site of the Brazilian Consulate in Montevideo.

The consulate is open from 9Am to 3pm Monday through Friday. Convención 1343, 6th floor.

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12 Responses to “Traveling to Brazil”

urufish on May 30th, 2007 3:33 pm

thanks for the explanation brazzie.. I’ve been to chuy a few times and you’re right.. no one asks you anything… had no idea there were duanas on the other side of town….. I guess we wont be driving to Rio in the near future
Brazzie on May 30th, 2007 3:40 pm

Yeah, this reciprocity thing is a pity!

Here’s a view of Chuy. I framed it so you can see the immigration from both countries clearly outside of town.
http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=-33689853&x=-53459301&z=14&l=0&m=a&v=2
Pio on May 30th, 2007 6:43 pm

I know a European couple who live in Brazil near Chuí with an Uruguayan Cédula, as there is an special agreement between Uruguay and Brazil that pepple can reside about 20 km on both sides of the border?
Brazzie on May 30th, 2007 6:47 pm

Yes. I heard about that too. It is a special deal for people that live near the border. They have special privileges recognized by both sides.
Pio on June 1st, 2007 12:14 pm

There is so-called Uruguayanlaw Fronteira: If an Uruguayan lives within 25 km of the border in Brazil (and this also can prove e.g. house, electricity bills etc..) then he gets the Fronteira documents. Thus he can also work here in Brazil etc.. Applies also in reverse (Brazilians in Uruguay). Realestate tax for a simple house US$20. Health insurance in Uruguay, because of the better service. You may drive with your car from Uruguay without large formalities over the border: If you say that you want to visit friends in the borderzone, saves you the whole paper stuff.
Jim on June 2nd, 2007 7:01 am

Athough they say it is reciprocity, there are a few differences. The Brazilan visa will cost on the order of 3,000 Uruguayan pesos (more like US$150). It will be good for 90 days.

A US Visa for Brazillians will cost US$100 and likely be good for 10 years!

Apparently if you are an Uruguayan resident Brazil will issue a 5 year visa.

It might be expensive and a pain in the butt, but it is nice to see someone stand up against the policies of the USA.

Remember, Brazillians used to be able to pass through the USA intransit without a visa. Now they need to pony up the non-refundable $100 fee to apply for a visa. Why should they treat Americans any better?
Brazzie on June 2nd, 2007 7:33 am

Hi Jim,
It is true that reciprocity is not always symmetric. Lately the visa issued to Brazilians is often good for the duration of the trip, far less than the 90 days. Sometimes 10 year visas are issued, but this also happens with Brazil. My wife (an American by birth) for example got a 10 year tourist visa last time she went to the Brazilian consulate.

I personally think that Brazil is wrong in taking this approach. In the 80’s Brazilians could go just about anywhere in the world without a visa. But that changed when 10 years of recession caused Brazilians emigrate in large numbers for the first time.

Today there are large numbers of Brazilian illegal immigrants in Europe, US and Canada. Given that reality, it is not reasonable to expect that these countries would allow Brazilians in without a visa.

On the other hand, Brazil does not receive many illegals from those countries, therefore I think the diplomatic reciprocity principle does not apply here. All they are likely to achieve is a reduction in tourism. Cheers
JP on June 3rd, 2007 2:29 am

Brazzie,

Did you have to give up your Brazilian citizenship when applying to US nationality?

How ’bout your children born outside Brazil, they need visa to go there, or they are treated as nationals?
Brazzie on June 3rd, 2007 6:53 am

JP, up to 1994 Brazilians could lose their nationality after becoming a citizen of another country. For this reason I delayed getting mine. In 1992, I decided to call the Brazilian consulate in NY to get the story right and the conversation went like this:

Me: I am thinking of becoming an American Citizen, will I lose my Brazilian citizenship?
Friendly Consulate Woman (FCW): Yes you will.
Me: How does that work? Is that automatic?
FCW: Oh no. First you become an American citizen. After that, you need to come in person to the consulate. Write a request to relinquish your citizenship. Pay a fee and then wait about two years until it is published in the “Diario Oficial” in Brasilia.
Me: What happens in between?
FCW: Until then you are citizen of both countries and later you can always request your Brazilian citizen back, it is easy.
Me: What if I never make it to the consulate?
FCW: –a long pause –
FCW: But you should!
Me: I will, I will, don’t worry. Thanks.

I became an American citizen and needless to say, never went to NY. Two year later, Brazil changed the law.

Now, you no longer lose your Brazilian citizenship. Children of Brazilians born abroad need to be registered and receive a temporary Brazilian citizenship. If at the age of 18, they reside in Brazil, they can apply for a permanent citizenship. If a boy, he may need to serve in the army for a year. There’s some lobbying going on right now to change this law, so that children born abroad get a permanent citizenship automatically.
JP on June 4th, 2007 5:37 am

Interesting. Brazzie I just saw a couple of links (explaining citizenship for children born outside Brazil to Brazilian parents after 1994, very bad!
http://groups.msn.com/RegistroCivil/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=55307

Also the new measures from Washington to impose visas to EU nationals in the future http://euobserver.com/9/24181/?rk=1

What Brazil does in terms of reciprocity is fine. I wish more countries would follow such a policy : )
Ant on June 4th, 2007 10:16 am

Thanks for converting the thread from the forum into a complete blog entry. Very useful information as usual.
Brazzie on June 13th, 2007 2:19 pm

Below is the answer I got from the Brazilian consulate in MVD regarding the visa costs. I updated the main post to reflect the new values.

Em resposta à sua consulta de 30 de maio, o Consulado-Geral do Brasil em Montevidéu informa que o valor dos vistos de turista é, como regra, de $ 700 (setecentos) pesos uruguaios (ou cerca de U$ 29 ) que devem ser pagos à vista e em moeda local. Não obstante, os vistos de turista para nacionais dos seguintes países têm preços diferentes:

Austrália $ 1.225 (mil duzentos e vinte e cinco) pesos uruguaios;
Canadá $ 1.400 (mil e quatrocentos) pesos uruguaios;
Japão $ 1.750 (mil setecentos e cinqüenta) pesos uruguaios;
México $ 1.050 (mil e cinqüenta) pesos uruguaios;
Nigéria $ 1.400 (mil e quatrocentos) pesos uruguaios;
Rússia $ 1.750 (mil setecentos e cinqüenta) pesos uruguaios.

Como informado por este Consulado-Geral, em 11 de maio, o custo pelo processamento do visto em passaportes norte-americanos é de $U 3.500,00 (três mil e quinhentos pesos uruguaios), que deverão ser pagos à vista, e em moeda local.

Por oportuno, informo que o erro de digitação já foi consertado. Agradecemos o cuidado de nos ter avisado sobre esse inconveniente.

Atenciosamente,

Setor de Vistos
Consulado-Geral do Brasil em Montevidéu
Convención 1343, 6 piso
Tel. 901 20 21 / 901 14 60 int. 13, 14, 19

Traveling to Brazil

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