Brazil Visa

[fewings85]

Ok needing a visa for brazil, will be there 9th-18th November.

I know i should of done this earlier but did not expect there to be such a mission to get one. I expected it to be maybe a form online i would have to submit. But upon only checking up on it this week i realise what need to be done. I searched this forum found a few threads that gave me abit of help but a few more questions i have

who has done this?

im a little bit nervours about sending my passport to canberra (im from perth)
The webiste says 20 day processing, but anyone from perth who has done it, how long did it take you to get your passport back?
I am travelling to singapore 21st sept til 24th, so im thinking of waiting til i get back from that before sending as i dont want to be sweating on a return of my passport for singapore.
i leave for santiago on the 30th of october. so if im able to send the package off on sept 25th surely that will be enough time for me to get my passport back with my visa right?

next one is, my friend travelling with me, can i submit two visa applications in the one envelope? with all our details in one, put two seperate money orders in there, and as we are on the same itinerary as well (flights, hotel bookings)

with regards to bank statements, website really says its for people who are self employed, contract workers, un-employed and students. Should i just send my bank statement to play it safe? as i dont want to send them my application without it only for the process to be delayed by them wanting a bank statement.

Seems really silly the way they do this, why isnt a photocopy of your passport sufficient, they can always check your passport upon arrival at immigration in brazil!

any other advice about applying from perth is appreciated!

 

[TonyHancock]

Personally I'd use Visalink. It costs a bit more than doing it yourself, but they know what they are doing and get things done quickly. They are currently quoting 10 days turnaround time.

Visas are usually added to a page in your passport which is why they want your passport and not a copy. It is a common thing.

 

[casanovawa]

I'd make sure to try and give it the full 30 days... Back in 2011 when i travelled there, i forget the date i sent it over to Canberra but think it was mid Aprilish and I was due to fly out to Sydney on the Thursday 19th May and then on to Argentina on the 21st and i didn't get my registered post item with my passport back in it until the afternoon of the 19th, by which time I had had to call up Qantas and change my ticket to fly out the following week... It might have been a a couple of days shorter than the 30 day period but certinaly wasn't 20 days so leave yourself a bit of time to spare as they don't joke about not offering any expedited service for people wanting Visas, certainly not from this side of the country anyway, and couldn't call or contact anyone to try and find out where it was at or how it was progressing, had to contact a friend in Canberra to go to the embassy and see what was happening...

And nervous or not, they want your actual passport and it comes back with a page in it with your visa glued in... Also not sure about the two applications in the one thing although they do want you to have a reurn evenlope enclosed don't they so make sure you provide everything they need and that Australia Post will accept... Not sure if I remember about the bank statement or not but i obviously passed muster...

Also make sure you check about vaccinations (yellow fever) if you need any, i think it was an issue maybe for me as i went to a few countries in South America first and Brazil was my last stop, may not be an issue if flying there directly from Australia...

 

[fewings85]

Sounds like i will need to get it off asap when i get back from singapore. ill do registered express post so if i send it 25th theyll have it 26th sept, gives them 34 days to get it back to me in time, should be enough.

 

[drron]

Wish this thread was a few days ago as our applications were posted off today-we will also be there mid November.Had we known we would certainly have used THs link-trust him implicitly!

 

[casanovawa]

Look I'm sure its fine doing it yourself, and saves a few bucks (I haven't looked at the site to see exactly how much), it just seems an extraordinarily long time to have your passport away on the other side of the country, but maybe its a very popular destination, they are short staffed in the visa processing department, or just work at a rather leisurely pace... It was sort of my fault for leaving it as close as i did, but if you send it over prior to 30 days you should be pretty right and if you send it registered post you should be able to confirm it arrived or didn't and what you need to do from there to get it back on track...

 

[fewings85]

im consdiering using that visalink page posted too, its more then double the price, but for peace of mind and it seems to be abit more efficient might be worth it. Id rather rest easy then be stressing over that month before i go.

 

[drron]

We were actually going to drop the application in at the Sydney consulate on the way back from our last trip but they were on strike and also will only accept applications from NSW.

 

[TonyHancock]

I use Visalink because the staff know what they are doing. It means the paperwork is checked over before it is sent off to the embassy/consulate and they have much better contacts at the embassies/consulates than I ever will. When time is of the essence I'm not going to trust myself to get everything correct when dealing with a bureaucracy.

 

[aikman]

I applied for a visa myself a couple of years ago. Used registered post envelopes. It took a couple weeks from memory to get my passport back but there were no issues. It worked exactly as the instructions said. I don't think there's any need to use visalink unless you have the extra cash.

 

[casanovawa]

Maybe if its close to Carnivale time and they're getting a cough load of applications you may want to think twice about how long you leave it...

 

[Mwenenzi]

....i leave for Santiago on the 30th of October. so if I'im able to send the package off on Sept 25th surely that will be enough time for me to get my passport back with my visa right?!

in 2003 I got a Brazilian visa in Santiago in under 24 hrs. That was the normal turnaround. If I have be there at 10:00am would have got is back 16:00. From memory they were only interested in if I had an air ticket out of Basil and a Visa or Amex credit card. And the fee for the Visa. NZ passport at the time but there were guys with Aussie passports doing the same. Not many (5?) in the que

 

[casanovawa]

Well its like a US$61 or so fee for Australians to get into Chile and then like a $70-80 fee for us to get the visa for Brazil... Think its nothing for NZers... So probably just as cheap to do it here first and probably a lot safer if things have changed since good old 2003...

Because i screwed up the calculations slightly i got charged the $61 fee in Santiago for basically walking from one end of the airport to the other... Which pissed me off just slightly!