Brazil, which in March announced the reinstatement of an e-visa requirement for visitors from the United States, Canada and Australia, has pushed back the effective date from October 1, 2023, to January 10, 2024.
In practice, this means that until the new date established by the Brazilian government, citizens of these countries will be able to travel to Brazil for tourism and business purposes without the need for short-stay visitor visas (up to 90 days). Once the new regulations go into effect, the visas, according to the Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur), will be issued through a completely electronic process, quickly and easily.
The Brazilian government is still defining the procedures and all the details regarding the visa process will be provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the near future.
E-visas were required for travel to Brazil until 2019 when then-president Jair Bolsonaro suspended the regulation in order to facilitate tourism; however, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shortly followed, the lifted visa requirements did not prove to boost travel.
When the move to reinstate the e-visas was announced earlier this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil said Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reverted to the “old way” because the visa exemption was a "breach of the pattern of Brazil's migration policy, historically based on the principles of reciprocity and equal treatment.” As the U.S., Canada and Australia continued to require visas for travelers from Brazil, the 2019 decision to lift visa requirements weakened Brazil's ability to negotiate with those countries.
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