When I set off on my backpacking trip to South America, Brazil was not really on my list. My reasons hovered around three factors. One – It was just humongous and would need me to backpack for a year or so. Two – It was too expensive and I was a budget traveler. Three – I had learnt a great deal of Spanish and I wanted to continue that.

In any case, when I was in Ecuador, I decided to go for it for a variety of reasons which ranged from having an option for long-term travel since the  Brazil Tourist Visa was a multiple-entry visa valid for 1 year from the date of issuance, with a 90 days limit. If you ask me to come with a straight answer, Brazil was my fallback plan. A resort if I wouldn’t be able to extend my visa in another country. So I went and got my Brazil tourist visa at the Brazilian embassy in Quito, Ecuador. The process is same for other nationalities although the requirements might vary a little.

Are You Visa Exempt for Brazil?

Citizens of all the countries in EU, North & South America, Australia and many other Asian countries can enter Brazil without a visa for 90 days stay. You can check whether you need a visa or you are eligible for a visa waiver on this list.

What do You Need for Brazil Tourist Visa?

For a Brazil tourist visa, you need the following documents.

1. Brazil visa application form
   
   Application form that you need to fill on the Portal of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.
2. 2X2 inches photo
   
   For digital upload as well as to paste. You can find the specifications here.
   
3. Valid passport with at least 2 contiguous blank pages & 6 months of validity.
   
4. Round-trip tickets
   
   You can either get an onward ticket from Brazil to another country or a return ticket to your home country (Safer option). There are many ways to do both for free.
   
   I booked flight tickets from Quito to Rio de Janeiro & then a return ticket from Rio de Janeiro to New Delhi after 80 days.
   
5. Accommodation proof
   
   For this, I made reservations on booking.com for the first month in a couple of cities in Brazil and printed out the tickets in Portuguese to give it a nice touch.
   
6. Proof of financial stability
   
   They need bank statements for the last 6 months. They don’t say how much money is good enough. As per my assumption, 3000$ is a good bet. The more, the merrier.
   
   I showed my bank statements as well as the statements of a couple of credit cards for the last 6 months.

Yellow Fever Vaccination while entering Brazil

Applicants who have visited certain countries and territories within 90 days prior to entering Brazil are recommended to present a Yellow Fever International Certificate of Vaccination (ICV), known as the Yellow Card, upon entering Brazil.

You can find the list of countries here : http://chicago.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/yellow_fever_certificate.xml

Fill in Brazil Tourist Visa Application Online

So the first thing you gotta do is to complete the application form online on the portal of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. It’s a simple application and they ask for some personal information.

Tips to fill in the application:

1. Your date of arrival and the date you would be exiting Brazil should not be more than 90 days apart.
   
2. The digital pic and signature need to uploaded in PNG, JPEG, JPG & GIF formats only. Make sure that the size doesn’t exceed 300 KBs. If you have a Macbook, you can open the file in Preview app and go to Tools > Adjust Size and decrease the resolution to make it smaller. There are many online programs to do this as well.
   
3. You would need to upload the bio page of your passport as a PDF.

Visit the Embassy & Pay the Visa Fees

When you visit the embassy, carry the printouts of all the documents needed( flight ticket etc.) and the Brazil tourist visa application receipt with you. Make sure to paste the same pic that you uploaded in the portal and sign the receipt.

I went to the Brazil embassy in Quito around 9 am or so. It is on Av. Río Amazonas. There is no need to schedule an appointment. Working hours are :

Monday to Thursday – 8.30 am to 12 pm / 2 pm to 4 pm
Friday – 9. 30 am to 2.30 pm
Website : http://quito.itamaraty.gov.br/es-es/visas_-_english.xml

I was a little sceptical about the whole thing since I was in Ecuador as a tourist. Getting a tourist visa for a country when you are not in your home country is always tricky- and it’s common for embassies to ask that you are a resident or have a resident visa.

The officer who received the application was very friendly and she asked me what I had been doing in Ecuador and why I wanted to visit Brazil. They rarely got any Indians wanting Brazil tourist visas in Ecuador, so she was really curious. The whole conversation happened in Spanish and it felt like a chat.

Then she examined my documents. She asked me when I entered Ecuador and verified that I still hadn’t crossed my 90 day stay limit in Ecuador. After this she asked me to make the payment at Banco Produbanco to account number 1001326018, and bring in the original receipt.

There is a branch of Produbanco pretty close to the embassy on Avenida de Los Shyris. I went to the branch and deposited 80$ in the account and came back with the receipt.

Then they asked me to leave the passport and come back after 3 days.

Brazil Tourist Visa Fees

After 3 days, I went to pick up the passport and came back with a shiny new Brazil tourist visa.

How to Extend Brazil Tourist Visa?

If you fall in love with Brazil and want to stay there for a longer duration, you can extend it by 90 additional days once in any 12-month period at a Federal Police (Polícia Federal) office. The thing to remember here is that you can’t stay for more than 180 days in one Calendar Year.