Travel Tuesday - Getting a Visa to Brazil

I have not yet traveled to Brazil but I am going this summer. Now, you may be thinking, then why are you writing a post about going to Brazil when you haven't gone yet? Well, if you want to go to Brazil you need a visa to get in to the country! That becomes a bit of a hassle because there are plenty of companies that want to get your visa for you but you have to pay them $250+ depending on who you use. I stumbled across a secret so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Now, this will only work if you're an American, Canadian, Australian, or Japanese citizen. So if none of those apply to you, I'm sorry you're out of luck when it comes to reading this post. If you head over to this consulate page you can read all the different conditions for applying for the visa. It's good for business and tourism and lasts for two years! The best part is that it only costs $40! That's a steal if I've ever heard of one. The last time I had to apply for a visa it was to China and I paid more than $500. Yeah, trust me, I'm still kicking myself over that one but I was a travel newbie.

After you read the conditions you can head on over to the Brazil e-Visa page where you need to register an account. Make sure you use a real email address and can mark a captcha that you're not a robot. The system will send you an email to confirm that you're the one applying with a special link that works only for you to activate it.

Now here's what you're going to need:

• a scanned passport photo 
• a scanned copy of the first page of your passport (the one with all your info)
• your passport

That's literally it. You fill out the form with your information, upload your passport page along with your passport photo, and then you click to submit. Be smart and double check that you entered all your information correctly though. You will pay $40 on the next screen and then you wait.

I'm not joking when I say that within 24 hours they emailed me saying that I was approved and sent me a copy of my Brazilian visa. I have to print it off and carry it with me when I travel but that's easy enough. It even states that in the email saying that I was approved so there's no surprises. Now if for whatever reason I got magically lucky in the timing of submitting my visa application they also email you stating how you can check the progress of your visa and see how it's going.

Anyone else heading to Brazil anytime soon? What are you planning to do while there? I hope this helped you if you're considering going and are in need of getting a visa! If it did maybe consider buying me a coffee? I'd appreciate it.