The new deadline, 10 April 2024, also applies to Australia; It’s the 2nd postponement. The decision was published in the DOU this Thursday
A lack of government planning forced President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to postpone the visa requirement for travelers from the United States, Canada and Australia this Thursday (4 January 2024). Read what it looks like below:
- when it would come into force – 10 January 2024;
- How did the 2nd postponement go? – 10 April 2024.
The decree was published this Thursday in an extraordinary edition of the Official Journal of the Union. Read the full text (PDF – 1 MB).
The justification for the postponement put forward by the government is that it does not jeopardize Brazilian tourist activity, especially in a high season.
However, what happens is that consulates in the United States, Canada and Australia are unable to meet the demand. Thousands of Americans and Canadians are having trouble getting visas in time to travel to Brazil.
In the current system, a third-party company creates an online system to receive travelers who wish to come to Brazil with required photos and documents. Brazilian consulates in the countries receive everything ready and only have to validate it or not. They cannot contest inaccuracies or ask for additional documents, such as, for example, a photo that meets the standard required by Itamaraty.
The Brazilian government’s planning did not take into account the demand and the need to quickly provide visas.
OR Poder360 discovered that there were problems with the online system that collects documents from Brazilian visa applicants. The government, however, denies any instability. The tender would have followed all the rules and deadlines foreseen, and the system would have worked “without problems” from December 2023.
“The extension is intended to complete the system implementation process and avoid starting the implementation in a period close to the peak travel season at the end and beginning of the year. The intention is to guarantee a safe introduction of the measure, without consequences for the tourism sector”Planalto specifies in a note.
UNDERSTAND
The government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) had unilaterally revoked in 2019, through decree 9.731, the visa requirement for travelers from the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, saying that this would help increase international tourism in Brazil .
The Lula government’s decision to require visas for the USA, Canada and Australia should have come into force on 1 October 2023. The deadline has been postponed to 10 January. Reason: Brazilian bureaucrats were unable to comply with this request. It is now scheduled for April 10th.
The decision does not apply to Japan.
The Japanese government announced in May 2023 that it was considering eliminating visa requirements for Brazilians. Tokyo confirmed the decision in August 2023, valid from September 30 and only for travel up to 90 days. Reciprocally, Brazil no longer requires visas for Japanese.
Company hired
The Brazilian government, through the Consulate General of Brazil in Miami, commissioned, on October 31, 2023, the company VFS Global to “develop and operate an online platform for processing electronic visitor visas for citizens of the United States, Canada and Australia”.
In other words, the company that was supposed to create and manage the website for foreigners to apply for Brazilian visas was hired on the day the requirement was supposed to go into effect for the first time.
According to the contract extract published in the Official Journal of the Union, on October 31 the company will receive $184,000 per year, for a period of 5 years. Until 2028. The cost estimate is calculated with a unit cost of US$0.90 per visa issued and an expected issuance of 205,000 visas per year.
Brazilian visa requests can be made on the site controlled by the company at this link. Although the contract provides for the construction of a “Communication center to serve candidates in English, Spanish and French”until January 4, 2024, only the English version was available.
According to the platform, applying for a visa is done in 3 steps: submitting documents, paying a fee of $80.90, and downloading the digital visa. The corporate fee is $0.90.
2024-01-04 23:00:55
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