Subscribe to our RSS FeedI decided that like a lot of porteños, I would try and escape the heat of Buenos Aires in the summer, so next week, I’m off to explore Florianópolis, Brazil. Floripa has been rated as “best place to live in Brazil” and is also known for its beaches, surfing, and nightlife. It’s also supposedly full of Argentine tourists over the summer – in fact, I only found out about the island from my Argentine friends. I’ll be sure to report on my experiences there.
US citizens need a tourist visa in order to enter Brazil. This requirement is in direct reciprocity for the US requiring a visa for Brazilian citizens – even the prices are fixed identically. Luckily, I have a 5-year visa from a previous trip to Rio that is still valid, but we had to get a visa for Mersal as well as get all the paperwork together to bring Delilah (another post will be coming about this bureaucratic process).
Obtaining a tourist visa is not that complicated. We found a good blog post from either/or on the process of applying for a Brazilian visa in Buenos Aires, as well as looked over the instructions at the Brazilian Consulate of Buenos Aires. You will need to go to the consulate to apply and it takes 2 business days to process the application (they do speak English). Here is what you will need to bring:
- Your passport. It must be valid for at least another 6 months and have enough pages left for the visa stamp, which takes at least 2 pages.
- (1) passport size photo.
- A round trip ticket to Brazil. We simply brought a print-out of our e-ticket confirmation. You may also need a confirmation of your accommodations in Brazil. Since we did all of ours through email, I just typed something up that looked like a valid reservation confirmation and included the address, phone, check-in and check-out dates, etc. They did not look closely at these documents.
- A bank statement identifying the account holder with current and previous months, as well as a valid credit card. They say you may also have to present proof of work from your employer and a pay check. We brought a copy of our bank statement, but they did not ask for it. They also asked what credit card we had, but did not ask to see it. They did not ask for any proof of work.
- A visa application form, which you can fill out on the computers at the consulate, but you’ll save some time if you download and print it at home. This form requires you to list your address in Argentina as well as your accommodations in Brazil. We did not have the phone number filled in as we did not have it, but when she asked us for it, we simply gave her the mobile number of the agent who booked it for us.
With all this in hand, we arrived at the consulate at about 8:50am (their hours for foreigners are 9am – 1pm). There was already a line of about 15 people in front of us. At 9am, they let us all in and we went up to the 5th floor. Those people who didn’t have the visa form queued up at the 4 or 5 computers to fill it out, while we walked up to window #5. The woman looked over the paperwork and flight confirmation, took Mersal’s passport, photo and visa form, and then gave us a payment slip. They told us to come back in 2 days from 12pm to 1pm to pick up the passport and bring confirmation of payment.
To pay the fee, there were two banks in Buenos Aires that accepted the payments. We walked over to one, Banco Itau (Santa Fe and Esmeralda), which was a short walk from the consulate. The bank didn’t open until 10am, so we had to wait for a bit, but when they opened, we went up to a teller, paid the fee and were given a receipt of payment.
We returned to the consulate two days later, gave them the payment receipt and picked up the passport with the completed visa. Unfortunately, the Brazilian consulates in Argentina will only give US citizens a 30 day visa (the US embassy in New York gave me a 5 year visa). You must enter Brazil withing 90 days of receiving the visa and you can only stay a maximum of 180 days at a time. The consulate told us that to extend the visa, we would need to go to the local police station in Brazil and ask for a 30 day extension. It is up to their discretion as to whether they grant it or not. The penalty for overstaying your visa is $8 reais per day (about U$S 3.50). We will just opt for that approach if the police station does not extend the visa.
As I said, the process was pretty easy and we’re now ready to head out! Look for more updates soon.
Consulado-Geral do Brasil em Buenos Aires
Carlos Pellegrini 1363, Piso 5
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11 responses so far ↓
1 Evan // Jan 9, 2009 at 11:12 am
Be sure to check out “Dos Irmaos” in Barra de Lagoa while in Florianópolis, I just got back from 10 days on the island and they have great seafood there!
2 Tom // Jan 12, 2009 at 10:25 pm
How timely. I was just reading about Florianópolis in the NY Times this weekend. In their estimation, it’s the “Party Destination of the Year”!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/travel/11party.html
I’m curious to see what you think of it. Be sure to write up your impressions!
3 Fred // Jan 14, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Hi
I’m an American Citizen living in BsAs. I got into Brazil near the border with Argentina in Misiones Province, we simply just walked right over the bridge, no checks nothing.
I was wondering, if I have an Argentine DNI, or Cedula, can I enter and stay without a Visa?
My take on the Visa situation is 2 wrongs don’t make a right, Brazil has gone too far to charge this. I’m wondering if Argentina’s fee has kicked in yet?
Fred
http://www.fourpointreport.blogspot.com
4 Cassidy // Feb 8, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Oi!!! So what do you guys think of Floripa? My boyfriend & I have been researching moving out of the country to BsAs for months & have been in touch with Jackson & Erika asking lots of questions… but just recently decided we want to shoot for Florianópolis instead because of the beaches. Was curious if you have seen many locals with dogs/pets? I hear there are strays but we have a lhasa apso mix, Moby who’s about 25lbs we will be bringing him along… I wanted to check to see if you’ve seen parks or beaches that are dog friendly. Excited to hear your feedback!
obrigado!
Cassidy
5 DaVe // Feb 9, 2009 at 10:51 am
Cassidy – Hey Cassidy,
Glad that you liked the blog and are considering a move. We’ve had a great time so far and pretty much did exactly what you’re thinking about doing…sell things, pack up and move. We’ve had a great time and love Buenos Aires as well as Floripa. We’re only in Florianopolis for 2 months and then we go back to Buenos Aires, so this is much more of a vacation for us.
Floripa has been a blast, but I personally do not think I could live here year round. I need a bigger city! But, it is beautiful here – the people, the clubs, the beaches, etc are amazing. If you come next November, that would probably be a great time since it would be the start of summer.
One thing you’ll have to research is how to get a visa to live here. The Brazilian tourist visa only allows you a maximum of 180 days in the country. Argentina has a much more relaxed tourist visa, which can be renewed easily.
There are a lot of dogs here – both strays and owned dogs. They all seem very friendly. I think people treat dogs more like animals here than family members though. (In BsAs, they are treated more like we do in the US.) Seeing the number of strays can be sad, but for the most part, they seem happy and fed.
Let me know if I can help answer anything else.
6 rosana // Mar 14, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Me and my husband moved from Boston to Florianopolis, we have a poodle, he is loving Florianopolis, The government is controlling strays dogs, i am sure the this problem will be resold soon.
Rosana
7 mon // Apr 22, 2009 at 1:16 pm
can you give me info that do i need visa to go to buenos aires argentina..pls respond
8 Steve // Sep 12, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Hi there,
Glad I found this post. We're actually about to head to Buenos Aires and would like to visit Brazil after but my friend will need a tourist visa. I was wondering if there were any specific requirements for the bank statement. I read on another blog that if you print out a statement from online banking it must have your name on all pages. He is self-employed so I was wondering if you had any experience with this and know specifically what they want from that.
Thanks
9 meredith // Dec 5, 2009 at 6:46 am
http://meraedith.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/how-to-...
I just received my visa for Brazil Yesterday and it is valid for 5 years and up to 180 day. I don't know why your friend was only granted 30 days.
10 DaVe // Dec 5, 2009 at 11:06 am
You're the first person I've heard of to get a 5 year visa in Buenos Aires. So far, everyone has said they do not give Americans 5 year visas here. Maybe this is a new policy?
11 heather // Jan 25, 2010 at 10:33 pm
hi i have a question..i currently am in brasil on a tourist visa but would like to change it for a student visa. i read on the brasilian consulate (buenos aires) that i need to be a resident in b.a. for the past year. is this something they really are strict on or if i go in there will i be able to get around that? thanks a million!
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