Last year, I found out that, once again, I would need a visa for future trips to Brazil.

The new Lula government announced it would reintroduce visa requirements for Australian, American, Japanese, and Canadian citizens in 2023.

I sighed. I’m not a big fan of things getting more complicated.

No more visa exemption for Canadians

We had stopped worrying about visas in 2019 when the Bolsonaro government lifted visa requirements to boost tourism. However, visa exemptions are usually based on reciprocity. Australia, the USA, Japan and Canada had never granted Brazilian citizens visa-free travel, so Lula decided it was time to bring back the requirement.

The effective date was supposed to be October 2023. I was following the developments closely because I was already planning another trip to Brazil—I just wanted to know when and how to apply.

The newly announced requirement was in limbo for a while. Brazil seemed to be giving affected countries enough time to negotiate reciprocal visa waivers.

Japan did and the visa requirement was lifted for Japanese citizens.

Canada didn’t.

Then, in early December 2023, I discovered that the new effective date was January 10. Feng and Mark wouldn’t be affected since we were entering Brazil on December 17. However, since I was taking a side trip to Argentina to avoid maxing out my 90-day stay in Brazil, I would need a visa to re-enter Brazil in January.

The new e-visa and VFS Global

This was my second time applying for a visa to Brazil. In 2002 and 2009, I was travelling with my French passport and French citizens don’t need a visa for Brazil. And yes, using my French passport this winter was an option if I didn’t get the visa but I was going to try anyway because Feng may need it later on.

In 2016, Feng and I applied for a visa to Brazil at the embassy in Ottawa. It had been a straightforward process, no question asked.

This time, I discovered Brazil had moved on to an e-visa and online application system operated by VFS Global—basically, it was outsourcing the process to a third-party company founded in India and based in Dubai. Huh.

On the plus side, no more trips to the Brazilian Embassy.

On the downside, well…

The application process

I went to the Brazil e-visa page.

The requirements were simple enough:

• Visa application form (completed online).
• Passport (signed, valid up to end of Brazil trip, 2 visa pages free)
• Passport-style photo (color photo with a white background, sized 3.5 x 4.5 cm [413 x 531 pixels])
• Itinerary, including plane tickets out of Brazil
• Proof of funds (bank statement showing transactions for the last 30 days and showing a balance of more than USD $2,000, proof of income)

I created an account with VFS Global—or at least, I managed to because I had no idea what was the mandatory OTP field. Turns out that it means “One Time Password”, i.e. a PIN code sent to your email account.

Uploading the pictures took forever. They kept on being rejected despite meeting the technical requirements. And then, at one point, it worked.

I also had to combine all my plane tickets into a single PDF document and compress it because otherwise, I wasn’t able to upload it. The size limit was ridiculously low.

I attached my most recent bank statement as proof of funds. I didn’t have my November statement yet so I used the October statement.

I paid the $80.90 fee and submitted my application.

Dealing with VFS Global

I received the first email two days later, in the middle of the night. Clearly, it wasn’t from Brazil, roughly in the same time zone as Ottawa.

I started to freak out because I only had 12 hours to fix the issue—what time zone were we talking about here?

I contact VFS Global’s help Desk. I asked what the problem was with the pictures and I explained I didn’t have a bank statement covering November 5 to December 5—I’d get my November statement eventually but it wasn’t going to cover December, anyway. I offered a screenshot of my account balance as additional proof.

The reply wasn’t exactly helpful.

I rushed to the bank, explained the situation, and got an official letter with my account balance.

I started to hate VFS Global.

In the first place, I wasn’t very comfortable sharing personal information with a third-party service provider—passport, bank statements, etc. But now I felt I was dealing with a random soulless call centre halfway around the world. They had a checklist and no common sense.

I have some visa application experience—China, Australia, Canada, Brazil… Embassies are usually helpful and flexible. They know how it works locally.

VFS Global didn’t give a shit.

Visa processing times

The expected processing time was five business days.

Eventually, I received a “quality control completed” email on December 14. At this stage, I assumed the proof of funds had been accepted.

Visa ready

I kept on checking my application status. I only got news from it on December 22—so much for the five-day processing time…

But hey, my visa was ready!

Turned out I didn’t need it to re-enter Brazil. Given the VFS Global visa management fiasco, it was pushed back to April 10.

Whatever. I have my five-year visa now.

And if you ever have to deal with VFS Global, good luck.