Brazil visa info?

Question

I plan to take a year of to travel for a year in brazil. I live in canada and i am wondering how the whole visa thing works and how much it costs. Is it possibe to get a visa for a year? i no you can get a visa for 90 days and then extend it for another 90 but is that were it stops? Will i have to leave the country for a day and then comeback for another 6 months? Any information would be great.

Answer 1

Actually having dual citizenship solves the problem for wanting to stay for a year! I've been in Brazil several times (you can see some cool videos I made on my travel blog http://www.irishpolyglot.com/en ) and I can tell you that you will enjoy the country so much!

If you have enough money saved to not need to work for that year then apply for a visa with your Canadian passport for your first 3 months and then renew it after those 3 months. All visa info you will need is here: http://www.brasembottawa.org/en/consular...

Renewal is a simple process, but I had problems with it myself; just make sure you go to any Federal Police station but the one in Rio or São Paulo; they're packed full of foreigners and some of the officers are quite impatient with them. I was rude to the police officer so she refused my renewal visa. It almost never happens.

Then when your 6 months expires, leave Brazil (check out Argentina for example) and then go back using your BRITISH passport. You don't need a visa for European passports (I also have dual citizenship and I have left with one and come back the second time with another before). So they will stamp your British passport (no need to show the Canadian one) and then you renew it after 3 months.

Someone else may offer a simpler solution, but I'm just saying that you CAN be in Brazil for a year with two passports because it's as good as being two people for two separate 6 month stays.

I hope that info has helped a little. Make sure you learn some Portuguese before you go to fully enjoy the experience of meeting some amazing people in your travels!

Edit: In answering the point brought up in the answer after mine, IF you require a round-trip ticket, then look for an OPEN ticket option from the airlines. You might have to pay a little bit more for it (I first went to Brazil with Air France from Europe and paid €80 more for an open ticket; I don't know what options you have from Canada, but there could be something similar) and then the ticket DOES have a date set to return based on your visa expiry, but you can change that date by a simple phone call to a much later one when they extend your visa and it's completely free. Otherwise pay the change-fee, which is quite small for some airlines. Restrictions for Canadians are not as harsh as for Americans (because Brazil has a reciprocal visa system, so since it's so expensive and annoying for a Brazilian to visit America it's equally annoying for an American to visit Brazil, and the same for all countries; Brazilians don't need visas in Europe so Europeans don't need visas in Brazil).

Answer 2

Irish Dragon is correct.

With the British visa (my hubby) he has gone to Brazil with me ( citizen) and can stay up to 3 months in brazil. However, I am not totally sure about my Canadian visa...

All I know is that for Americans they need visa and you will have to have your round trip ticket bought since they are going to give you only the dates that your ticket will cover.