• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Street Smart Brazil

We teach smart Portuguese

  • Contact
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Disclaimer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Speak Portuguese With Ease
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop for Lessons
  • Starter Kit
  • Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Blog

Bye Bye Tourist Visa?

posted on May 27, 2011

In as little time as one year, the US may add Brazil to their Visa Waiver Program (VWP), meaning Brazilians wouldn’t need a tourist visa to enter the US. As part of the visa reciprocity rules between the two countries, this would mean that Americans wouldn’t need a tourist visa to enter Brazil.

The applying country’s total nonimmigrant visa refusal rate for becoming eligible is set at 3%, though other criteria exist. Nonmember countries who want to join are required to give biometric passports to their citizens and every individual traveler needs to fill out a travel authorization form prior to travel. A few other requirements are needed as well but they aren’t much different from the current stipulations.

Thirty-six countries (mostly European) make up most of the current list and 11 more have been in talks with the US on their potential entry. Brazil is one of four among those in South America and news reports in the last 6 months are saying that Brazil is quickly closing in on reaching that 3% line for inclusion.

This past May 25th, the largest event for the tourism industry in the US ended in San Francisco. The main theme? Waiving the visa requirement. Many influential attendees were specifically rooting for Brazilian inclusion and some said they have inside knowledge that the Obama administration is seriously studying such an agreement.

While the current tourist visa process is fairly simple, it does require a non-refundable fee of $140 and that the applicant travel to the nearest Brazilian consulate. If the visa requirement does go away, the travel limit of 90 days will remain the same (though I’m not sure on possible extensions). With big sporting events to occur in Brazil in the coming years and the Brazilian economy going strong, it seems that the visa requirements may disappear by 2012.

—————-

Schedule your Portuguese Demo Lesson.

Street Smart Brazil offers one-on-one and group classes online via webcam. We have a fantastic team of tutors, exclusive class materials, and complete programs from absolute beginner to fluent.  See what our customers are saying.

Related Posts:

  • 12 Ways to Say You are Welcome in Brazil - Portuguese lesson
  • Brazilian New Year’s Traditions and Superstitions
  • Articles in Portuguese - Portuguese lesson

About Adam Lee

Adam is a writer and a researcher who has studied Brazilian culture for over a decade and created several Brazil-themed blogs going back to 2008. Having taught himself Portuguese, he put it to practical use by spending three years doing Brazil on a budget (and living in favelas), from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon.

He now resides in Lisbon, Portugal, developing a startup and dreaming about having a beachside B&B in the Northeast of Brazil.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Adam Lee

    June 5, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Imagine if the US visa process was really difficult and it were better to fly to the UK in order to go to Brazil from there, lol.

    Reply
  2. Carl Spanoghe

    May 31, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    That means I might not have to travel with both my US and UK passports to Brazil anymore (UK citizens don’t need the visa currently due to reciprocity).   

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Want to see your pic by your comment? Get a free custom avatar at Gravatar.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Brazil
  • Brazilian music
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Business Culture
  • Culture and History
  • Flashcards
  • Food
  • Grammar
  • Idiomatic Expressions
  • Learning Languages
  • Pronunciation
  • Resources
  • Video lessons
  • Visiting Brazil
  • Vocabulary

Schedule a Trial Session

Testimonials

I highly recommend Street Smart Brazil. They’ll have you speaking Portuguese in surprisingly little time and you’ll learn a lot about Brazil and its people and culture.
Kenneth
If you can’t move to Brazil to learn Portuguese, the next best thing is to join the classes at Street Smart Brazil. Years ago, I started out with Luciana for one hour a week. It seemed a long tim… Read more
Gary
Street Smart Brazil has been incredible. As someone who is focused on international business as a profession and a passion, learning languages has always been critical in helping me bridge cultures an… Read more
Jessica
I started traveling to Brazil 3 years ago for business and used Pimsleur to give me some basic proficiency. My employees in Brazil were always impressed with my willingness to learn their language and… Read more
Richard

Find Resources

Make your learning fun and easy with good resources.
Learn More

Recent Posts

  • Brazilian Portuguese Idiom: Não é a minha praia
  • Brazilian Books You Need on Your Bookshelf
  • How to use ONDE and AONDE in Portuguese
  • Master Question Words in Portuguese: O que, Que, Qual
  • Meio or Meia? How to say KIND OF in Portuguese

Search

Cart

Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil

Footer Subscribe

Footer Full CTA

Book a Trial Lesson today to get started.

Get Started Now

Footer CTA

Street Smart Brazil

  • About
  • Shop For a Portuguese Class
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

Portuguese Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil


Street Smart Brazil, LLC

phone 415.573.8180
email info@streetsmartbrazil.com
Oakland, California

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap

© 2014–2023 Street Smart Brazil, All Rights Reserved.