Understand the new visa rules to visit and film in Brazil

Beginning in 2024, citizens from the United States, Canada and Australia will once again need a visa to enter Brazil. This change will impact tourism and all businesses between these countries and Brazil.

Who will be impacted and when it will be implemented

The new rules will go in force on January 10, 2024, affecting American, Canadian and Australian citizens — all of them will need to ask for a tourist visa before travelling to Brazil. 

The new rule will affect both visitors who travel for tourism and those who travel for business — including audiovisual productions in Brazil. Requests for visas will be made by an online system (E-visa). The expectancy for the visas is around 30 days before the end of the visa exemption.

It is important to highlight that until January 9, no one would need to have a visa — even if their trip happened after January 10.

Changes in the rules

In 2019 travellers from the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan had no need for visas — the rule had been suspended. This way, citizens from these countries could enter Brazil without tourist visas and remain in the country for a length of 90 days, extendable to another 90 days.

However, the dispensation ended up unilateral, and all the time, Brazilian tourists remain at the mercy of visas to enter the countries in question.

A survey from the Brazilian government showed that not having the document had no impact on the growing number of tourists of these countries — and that was the reason that the requirement came back.

The rule doesn’t work for Japan

Visitors from Japan to Brazil don’t need a visa — this will remain, thanks to a bilateral agreement between the two countries. Voyages between Brazil and Japan allow travellers to remain in both countries for 90 days.

The Brazilian government is open to celebrating agreements to exempt visas with other countries (United States, Canada and Australia), “based on the principle of reciprocity and equality with the United States”.

For more information about visas for foreigners travelling to Brazil, as well as a list of countries that are exempt from travel authorization, visit the website of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.