http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/5676/53/

Brazil Congress Votes this Month on Eliminating Visas for US Tourists
Written by Roberta Lopes
Thursday, 02 March 2006

Brazil's Minister of Tourism, Walfrido dos Mares Guia, speaking at the São Paulo Industrial Federation (Federação das Indústrias do Estado de São Paulo) (Fiesp), said he was in favor of eliminating the visa requirement for US tourists.

Mares Guia said the visa and a mandatory payment of US$ 100 was holding back the development of tourism in Brazil.

The Minister suggested that the visa could be issued when the US tourist arrives in Brazil, rather than beforehand (which would reduce red tape), and that the US$ 100 tax could be eliminated.

Spokespersons at the ministry said the proposed changes had gotten a favorable reception in Congress where a bill dealing with the subject is expected to be voted on by the end of March.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Relations says it is against eliminating the visa requirement based on the principle of reciprocity. In South America, only Brazil and Paraguay require US tourists to have visas, and only Brazil charges the US$100 tax.

I don't think dropping the fee will increase the US tourists in Brasil... And if it does, I agree with it, just because of the fact of US tourists will bring money to my country. But seems the Real is not helping to invite US tourists.
However, Brasil just ask visas from countries that asks visas for Brazilians... What about US NOT ask visas for Brazilians??? That would be great!!!

Carol

I disagree. I think dropping the fee/visa requirement will greatly increase toursim. It is a complete pain the @ss for a USC to get a visa for Brazil, and most just say "forget it" and spend their money somewhere else.

The US visa restriciton will never be lifted for Brazilians. Brazilians are second only to Mexicans in the amount of illegals here in the US.

I dont know if they will do it someday!

Mas será que a gente pode falar em portugês?? só Brasil aqui... auahuaha

Pode falar..

Eu morava no brasil 4 anos.. Mas mesmo assim.. Eu falo melhor q eu teclo..

Claro que eles nao vao parar de pedir vistos pros brasileiros... Eu sei, tem muitos ilegais... E a gente acaba pagando por isso...
E por causa disso, eu acho que o Brasil deve continuar pedindo tambem... Really, nao acho q o turismo vai aumentar por causa disso, at all!!! O que ajudaria, seria SE o Real perdesse seu valor, o que nao estah acontecendo agora... E espero que o Real continue melhorando...(ganhando valor)
US100 nao eh nada para um americano, mesmo tendo q preencher os formularios... O Marc recebeu o visto dele em casa em 10 dias... Nao tem nem entrevista... Bem diferente da papelada interminavel que vc tem q apresentar e ainda sair da sua cidade pra atender a uma entrevista.
Acho que nao temos privilegio pro visto americano, e nao acho q americanos devam ter algum privilegio...

Uma mao lava a outra... Got it???

Carol

Concordo!

Ainda mais pq eles tem é a idéia de que aqui é "A" festa.
Acho que deveria ser igual, mas fazer o que se as autoridades brasileiras são burras ?? ahhhaa

When I go to Peru I am granted a tourist visa when I arrive: a week to 90 days depending on your stay. Also there is no fee--until you leave. Yeah it cost money to leave Peru $27.52 per head. But still those fees/tax are way less than you pay here in the USA even for domestic travel.

I am sorry but I disagree... it is not a pain in the ### to get a visa to come here....it is really easy... you just send your passport with the fee and the flight itinerary to the Brazilian consulate and after one or 2 weeks.. there it is... knocking on your door... if you think it is a pain in the ### try to get a tourist visa here to go to the USA...you get to pay 100 dollars (remember it is not garanted to get a visa and yet you won't get your money back in case you don't), have to prove that you have enough ties to your country (aka you have to bring your entire life in documents to the consulate), wait 4 hours to get an interview... and most of the time you get A NO just because the CO was in a bad mood...

Talk about pain in the ###

and I agree... we should just go with the reciprocity... when the US drop it for us.. we do for them

Why is it a pain in the @ss for americans to get a visa for Brazil?

Because we don't need one for just about anywhere else. Just that fact that we need a visa makes it a pain in the ###.

Trust me, when I lived in Rio for 4 years it was like pulling teeth trying to get friends and family to come visit me, all because of the visa issue.

Well.. the same goes for us... we don't need a visa for just about anywhere else also... I went to Europe a ton of times... with just my tickets and money to spend there.. no harrasment

Now... when I tried to go to the US... of course I got a BIG NO

And I think you better get used to it, because if the US consulates around the world keeps denying 50% or more of the visas, more and more countries will start to ask visas for americans...

Carol


Just on the point Lisz!!!

I'm sorry, flipside, but we are going to have the same situation ('pulling teeth') or probably worse when we go to get our families and friends here... Most of people are being denied to the B-2 visa and I wont probably see any of my relatives or friends coming to visit me one day... So, if we dont get visas, at least we MUST charge it for the americans... AND I cannot blame it... I understand the situation here... But, americans needs to understand our situation too...

Carol

It was not a pain for Dave to get his visa to come visit me. And that was not an issue to any of his friends either...
It only took 2 weeks for him to get his and he just had to send his passport in the mail and wait.
Yeah just the fact you need a visa to go anywhere is a pain but what about the amount of pain we're going through right now not being able to live with the person we love? I think that's a lot more impotant than just going somewhere to have fun, isn't it?
What about when my family wants to visit me in the US??
Reciprocity is the word!

Yes... I know there are tons of illegal brazilians in the USA, but there are a lot of people that have a good financial condition and show all evidence that they only want to visit their relatives up there, and they have their visa denied after a tiring waiting for an interview and money spent! Some of them live far from the Consulate and need to travel for hours to have their interview too! I've heard that it's even too difficult for moms to get their visas to stay for some days with their pregnant daughters in the USA!
I don't know if things will be fair someday, but charging this fee for the visa is the minnimum our country can do!

I would only be favour to eliminate the visa fee if our government did a good research on it and was sure that this procedure would be able to increase tourism in Brazil! But actually, I also don't think it would!

Well, unfortunatly for the Brazilian people, a few bad apples ruined it for the rest of you. It's a shame really.

My Finace's sisters 7 year old daughter was turned down for a tourist visa trying to go to Disney. The craziest part is both of her parents have 10 year tourist visas!

Im curious to know if it was voted already or not... Anyone knows???

Carol

No...there was somebody there that didn't agree (don't remember the name of the guy now) and they said it ain't going to happen

It´s a law that we have about reciprocity, if a country asks for visa from us, we do the exact same thing. That´s it, simple as that.

But I agree with those who said it´s easy to get a visa to come here, Americans do it by mail, you only have to pay the fee.
I think it´s a good thing to help prevent the exploration of prostitution here in Brasil, young americans looking for easy, cheap drugs, etc.

in my view, the $100 visa was not a big deal. what was hell was spending about 2 hours in a freaking line in sao paulo to go thru a line to get my passport stamped when i wanted a cigarette after 12 hour flight! after that, on to find my luggage, catch the next flight, etc etc. barely made it due to all the hoops i had to jump thru. and that is with almost 3 hours between flights!
now if they could get more people working on stamping passports that would reduce the wait time and frustration and do more for any tourism.
and didn't get to have a cigarette till i got to curitiba, i'm sure nessa thought i was a chain smoker when she first met me

Eu acho que se os americanos tivessem que pagar ''x'' somente para acessar o site para pedir o visto, mais ''x'' para a entrevista, esperar 70 dias para uma entrevista, ter que viajar e gastar mais ''x'' porque a entrevista eles só fazem em 1 cidade e a menos que você por sorte more nesta cidade, vai gastar mais dinheiro, ser humilhado na hora da entrevista, porque eu sei que eles humilham muitas pessoas nestas entrevistas, com uma grande chance de receber um NO, porque depende basicamente do humor da pessoa que te atender para vir visitar o Brasil, acredite, ninguém viria para cá. Luis&Laura citaram acima que é recíproco, eu conversei com uma pessoa aqui um dia que disse que se a gente tem que pagar para tirar o visto para os Estados Unidos e se eles dificultam a nossa entrada lá, o mesmo a gente faz com eles, ou seja o Brasil também cobra para eles entrarem aqui etc. Não é bem isso que acontece, como vocês podem ver, o Charles nem precisou sair de casa para conseguir o visto, fácil, fácil, e a taxa de US$ 100.00 com certeza de que você vai conseguir o visto, porque eles raramente dizem não, não é nada, porque você tem certeza que vai conseguir o visto, e o que são US$ 100.00 para entrar no Brasil?
Eu não acho que faria nenhuma diferença tirar a taxa de US$ 100.00.

É. O luis também fez tudo pelo correio, pagou os 100 dólares e em uma semana estava com o visto, no questions asked. Eu paguei o agendamento, levei uma pilha de documentos comprovando minha situação financeira, etc, esperei das 7:30 às 1:30 pra ser atendida, fui SUPER maltratada, e quando recebi meu visto em casa era só pra UMA entrada, válido por 3 meses, com uma anotação que era só pra eu visitar Porto Rico, ou seja, se eu trocasse minha viagem pra NY, não podia, eu teria que tirar o visto de novo.
É injusto, verdade, mas também, pergunta quantos americanos vêm viver ilegalmente no Brasil, e quantos brasileiros estão lá?

Não acho que tenha muito americano vivendo aqui no Brasil ilegalmente, é tão fácil para eles entrarem aqui legally, pra que arriscar né?

É justamente isso que estou falando. As leis são mais severas pra gente porque tem um mundo de brasileiros ilegais lá, mas pra eles é fácil porque poucos vêm ilegalmente.

Tem tanto brasileiro assim ilegal lá? Eles falam tanto dos mexicanos, mas não muito de brasileiros.

Alguem me falou outro dia que os brasileiros estao em segundo lugar, depois dos mexicanos, em ilegais aki!!!
Pudera tanta gente sendo negada nos consulados!!! Eu mesma fui negada twice!!!

Carol

PS (Afinal, alguem tem noticias do q foi votado???????????)

nossa. não tinha idéia que era tanto. É tão difícil entrar nos Estados Unidos.
Não sei o que foi votado, gostaria de saber se alguém tiver alguma informação

E com aquela novelinha América a situação só piorou. Eu conheço pelo menos 10 pessoas que foram ilegais pra lá, e olha que moro numa cidade pequena. Tem MUITO brasileiro preso no Arizona!

Eu não assisto novela. Mas pelo que minha mãe me contou, eles exageraram bastante.

hola!
espero que estien bien. perdoname que no entiendo el portugues. aunque si lo pude leer un poco.

so, in order notto make you guys read spanish, i will continue on in english.

essentially i wanted to add that yes, it seems fair that the brazilian gov't require americans to apply a visitor's visa to visit brazil. also, i can see why many ppl/brazilians are denied a visa at the embassy: it is an unfortunate response to the fact that many ppl get visas and eventuall stay in the usa illegally. i wish it wasn't so. i love to travel and just hate all of the legalities involved.

ok, back to the regular programming and getting ready to watch some futbol!


Daniel

I can read spanish so, yeah, hope you´re fine too.

Anyone read anything new about all this?
Btw, did you guys see the increase in tourist visa applications? The wait line for an interview is now at least 3 months. I´m glad our cases go through different offices.

Maybe this would just be the start for them to apply as a VWP? I dunno..

I didn't find getting a Brazil visa a hassle, but some people would, and it does send the message that Brazil is not tourist friendly.

There is little chance of recipricol visa waiver program with Brazil. We have it with European countries, Japan and maybe a few others. The government says right on one of it's websites (state dept. or immigration, I forget which) that someone applying for a visa is presumed to be someone seeking immigration. It is very hit or miss for a Brazilian to get a visa. The US is concerned about people coming as a tourist and overstaying.

I didn't find getting a Brazil visa a hassle, but some people would, and it does send the message that Brazil is not tourist friendly.

There is little chance of recipricol visa waiver program with Brazil. We have it with European countries, Japan and maybe a few others. The government says right on one of it's websites (state dept. or immigration, I forget which) that someone applying for a visa is presumed to be someone seeking immigration. It is very hit or miss for a Brazilian to get a visa. The US is concerned about people coming as a tourist and overstaying.

Bill

I think thats because there're a lot of brazilians there, i think after mexicans the brazilians are the second in illegal immigration.