Brazil Visa drama (did you think there would be none?)
Yesterday I went to the Brazilian Embassy here in Buenos Aires to start my Visa application so that I can enter properly on the 19th of this month. When I got there, it looked like a half empty building. I asked the guard about getting a visa and he said to cross to the other side of the street, and gave me a handout that had the address of the building I was supposed to go on it.
I crossed the street and realized the building he wanted me to enter was the Colombian embassy. When I entered that building, I realized the 5th floor was the Brazilian consulate general´s office for people who needs Visas. I guess they decided to compress their visa processes to the same building for efficiency.
I asked the information office about what to do and the lady told me to fill out the application form on the computer screens first, then go to window 5. I finished the computer part in about 10 minutes, and stepped to the window. After about 10 minutes of waiting the lady asked for my passport and flipped through it. She then told me that I had no more room in my passport. I definitely had 4 pages on the back, so I pointed them out to her, and she replied with ¨no, those pages are not for visa. no good.¨ I looked at those pages carefully as they read ¨for additions or explanations¨. gah how annoying. Like anyone would ever know that the visa was placed on an "explanations" page once it was on there. But nope, the lady running the visa office refused to take it.
Right in front of me, an American guy I had been chatting with in line had already gotten rejected because they said his passport was "unreadable". His passport was *not* unreadable. It did have some water stain type stuff around the edges and the covers were a bit wrinkled looking, but that was it. Every word was completely legible.
Nevertheless, we both had to go to the US embassy to get our passports sorted, so we headed off together. The American guy, Luke, had a German friend with him, Andreas, so the 3 of us walked across the city together.
The walk was long and in the heat and humidity of the day, I felt like I was going to get dehydrated. We stopped once for a drink of water at a cafe and we swallowed our respective 20ml bottles quickly.
We got to the US embassy, and after an hour I had filled out the application to get a pages added and my passport was about twice as fat as a result. All they did was carefully remove the binding and then add a couple pages to the middle and then rebind it. It seemed like a pretty easy task but I was still amazed when they told me it cost me nothing, because well, it´s government work, and you know how much bureaucracy costs these days in the states. Well, I know at least :)
The guards at the US embassy were obviously Argentinian, though they were extremely strict about our stuff in our pockets and the security machine. I wonder how that business works with foreign security at your embassy, especially during times of crisis.
I went back to the Brazilian embassy today and gave her the fatter passport. She seemed in a better mood today. At least she was smiling. She printed out my application from the computer, asked me to provide an address and a phone number of the place in Brazil where I´d be staying. I made something up by searching the web for a hostel in Sao Paolo.
She gave me a piece of paper that had the name of a bank on it and told me I had to pay it by 3pm today at that bank. The total was $150!! Yeah I pretty much got shafted to get into Brazil. She told me to return on Monday between 12pm and 1pm (seriously, they give me a 1 hour window, good thing I don´t have anything else to do) to pick up my passport after paying today. I rushed myself to the bank they specified (using google maps mini) just in case another hiccup might occur on the way and quickly paid off the bill. I had literally JUST enough in my savings account for the ATM card I had in my wallet to pay it off. I only had about $10 left over in my pocket by the time that was over.
The subway had some kind of fire problem and all lines were shut down, so I quickly took a cab back to the hostel and picked up my other ATM card to pull out some more money. The cab ride was $3. So now I wait until Monday to see if any more drama occurs, or if they give me my passport back with a Visa peacefully.
I crossed the street and realized the building he wanted me to enter was the Colombian embassy. When I entered that building, I realized the 5th floor was the Brazilian consulate general´s office for people who needs Visas. I guess they decided to compress their visa processes to the same building for efficiency.
I asked the information office about what to do and the lady told me to fill out the application form on the computer screens first, then go to window 5. I finished the computer part in about 10 minutes, and stepped to the window. After about 10 minutes of waiting the lady asked for my passport and flipped through it. She then told me that I had no more room in my passport. I definitely had 4 pages on the back, so I pointed them out to her, and she replied with ¨no, those pages are not for visa. no good.¨ I looked at those pages carefully as they read ¨for additions or explanations¨. gah how annoying. Like anyone would ever know that the visa was placed on an "explanations" page once it was on there. But nope, the lady running the visa office refused to take it.
Right in front of me, an American guy I had been chatting with in line had already gotten rejected because they said his passport was "unreadable". His passport was *not* unreadable. It did have some water stain type stuff around the edges and the covers were a bit wrinkled looking, but that was it. Every word was completely legible.
Nevertheless, we both had to go to the US embassy to get our passports sorted, so we headed off together. The American guy, Luke, had a German friend with him, Andreas, so the 3 of us walked across the city together.
The walk was long and in the heat and humidity of the day, I felt like I was going to get dehydrated. We stopped once for a drink of water at a cafe and we swallowed our respective 20ml bottles quickly.
We got to the US embassy, and after an hour I had filled out the application to get a pages added and my passport was about twice as fat as a result. All they did was carefully remove the binding and then add a couple pages to the middle and then rebind it. It seemed like a pretty easy task but I was still amazed when they told me it cost me nothing, because well, it´s government work, and you know how much bureaucracy costs these days in the states. Well, I know at least :)
The guards at the US embassy were obviously Argentinian, though they were extremely strict about our stuff in our pockets and the security machine. I wonder how that business works with foreign security at your embassy, especially during times of crisis.
I went back to the Brazilian embassy today and gave her the fatter passport. She seemed in a better mood today. At least she was smiling. She printed out my application from the computer, asked me to provide an address and a phone number of the place in Brazil where I´d be staying. I made something up by searching the web for a hostel in Sao Paolo.
She gave me a piece of paper that had the name of a bank on it and told me I had to pay it by 3pm today at that bank. The total was $150!! Yeah I pretty much got shafted to get into Brazil. She told me to return on Monday between 12pm and 1pm (seriously, they give me a 1 hour window, good thing I don´t have anything else to do) to pick up my passport after paying today. I rushed myself to the bank they specified (using google maps mini) just in case another hiccup might occur on the way and quickly paid off the bill. I had literally JUST enough in my savings account for the ATM card I had in my wallet to pay it off. I only had about $10 left over in my pocket by the time that was over.
The subway had some kind of fire problem and all lines were shut down, so I quickly took a cab back to the hostel and picked up my other ATM card to pull out some more money. The cab ride was $3. So now I wait until Monday to see if any more drama occurs, or if they give me my passport back with a Visa peacefully.
posted by Jimmy at
3:22 PM
3 Comments:
i agree - getting a brazilian visa in san francisco was a pain, too - it cost $100 in 2006, so i guess the price has gone up 50 dollars in the past four years.
That is what I told you how they keep running their foreign embassy or consulate.
Some country ask stamp or sign of their consulate for all merchandise shipped to their country. It is called consular Invoice. Of course they charge for that too.
2006 would be 3 years ago, not 4. hahaha sorry i corrected you :)
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