Brazil will Resume Entry Visa for US, Canada and Australis on April 10, 2025

This post was originally published on March 10, 2023. Nevertheless, Brazilian government has published Decree 11.515/2023 on May 3. This decree, that would entry into force on October 2023, revokes the one that exempted citizens from USA, Canada, Australia and Japan from visit or tourist visa. The Brazilian government has postponed the entry into force of Decree 11.515/2023 three times. According to the latest change, the visa requirement will begin on April 10, 2025. Concerning Japanese citizens, Brazil and Japan have negotiated mutual exemption for up to 90 days as tourist or visitor (short-term stay) in August 2023 and the new rules entered into force on September 30, 2023. Nevertheless, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns that "visas are not required only for holders of ePassport in compliance with ICAO standards. Those who do not hold such ePassport are requested to obtain a visa in advance, otherwise will be refused to enter Japan."

The Brazilian government has recently announced that it will again require an entry visa for North American, Canadian, Australian and Japanese citizens. Reciprocity is an international relations basic principle and traditionally Brazil adopts mutual visa exemption.

Nevertheless, in the last years, national norms admitted the unilateral visa exemption as a measure to facilitate and stimulate transnational tourism. This measure was originally adopted a little before the Rio Olympic Games.

The current Brazilian Migration Law (13.445/2017) also recognizes the unilateral exemption. So Brazil granted this benefit to US, Canada, Australia and Japan citizens for an indefinite period in 2019 March. The government intends to revoke Decree 9.731/2019 and resume visitor visa requirements as these countries don’t grant the same favor to Brazilian citizens and, according to the authorities, the tourists flow keeps lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

So far, Decree 9.731/2019 exemption keeps valid. Some have criticized the government’s decision fearing that it could reduce even more the number of tourists or have negative side effects concerning the real estate market or the presence of digital nomads.

It’s hard to imagine the Brazilian consulate denying a visa for a tourist from the USA, Canada, Australia or Japan. Still, the old bureaucracy is (almost) back. It means to pay a fee, schedule an interview with the consular authorities and wait for the visa before coming to Brazil just like Brazilian citizens need to do when they want to visit these countries.