The Rio de Janeiro trip was starting to take shape.
The flights were booked. After a lot of back and forth with potential airbnb landlords, I had FINALLY found and secured an affordable apartment in Leblon Beach. (Heads up: Rio is really expensive.) Now there was nothing to do but research all the local dive bars and figure out how to get to the Christ the Redeemer statue.
I cuddled up with my Lonely Planet city guide, ready to take notes. And then I noticed something interesting in the introduction:
How had I completely missed this?
“Before dashing off to Brazil, find out whether you need a visa. Many nationalities require them, including citizens from the US.”
WHAT?
A hasty Google search revealed that Brazil visas can only be obtained at the consulate or by mail. (Some countries, like Argentina, allow you to get a visa at the airport upon arrival.) Mail applications take anywhere from 10 days to six weeks to process – time you’d be without your passport.
Officials recommend you wait until your visa is secured to book your flight and hotel.
ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME?
I had already spent hours researching this trip but somehow I had completely missed this tiny detail. The closest Brazilian consulate is a four-hour drive away and I have zero vacation time to spare. There might be enough time to get the visa by mail, but I need my passport for an upcoming conference in Toronto.
I got a sneaking suspicion that this visa would cost me significantly more than the $180 embassy fee.
After some desperate pleas for recommendations for a visa expedition service on Twitter, Google + and Facebook, two friends pointed me to ItsEasy.com, a visa and passport agency based in New York. They offer a rush Brazil visa service for $99.
I hit up their chat and asked them every single question I could imagine before trusting them with my passport and hundreds of dollars.
- How fast is the rush service? About 12 business days.
- Do those 12 business days start the day I send or the day they receive the passport and application? Day they receive.
- Does that estimate include shipping time? Yes.
- Do I have to also pay for shipping? Yes.
- Ugh. How much? $25.
- Each way? Yes.
- Are you kidding me? No. Perhaps you should make it a habit to check the State Department’s international travel page BEFORE booking a flight.
(Alright, they didn’t say the last part. That’s what I was thinking.)
Monday night I gathered the required paperwork and posed for some unflattering passport-sized photos at Walgreens. Tuesday I filled out the online Brazil visa application. (Warning: You can’t save your progress along the way and the site apparently gets squirrely when accessed from anything but Internet Explorer on a PC.)
And then I sent ItsEasy.com $618 (!!!!) for two expedited Brazil visas, including shipping and processing fees.
Wednesday I received confirmation that ItsEasy.com received my application packet. They already took the money out of my credit card account. We’ll see what happens….
[Update: The Brazil visa arrived safe and sound less than two weeks after I sent my information to ItsEasy. I’m very happy with their services. I just wish I hadn’t had to use them!]
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Wow, that looks totally rich and satisfying. I’ve never eaten Feijoada before but I sure wish there was such a thing as smell-a-vision! Watching your video without smelling or tasting the final dish was a bit painful because my eyes were eating it all up!
I love Feijoada! I discovered it when we were in Brazil and it was a amazing. I didn’t realize how time consuming it was to make. Makes me appreciate it even more now.
We’re embarrassed that we’ve never heard of this dish before. Great recipe too. It will probably be rightly considered as sacrilege, but we’re going to attempt to adapt it for vegetarians.
That sounds delicious! We were thinking of trying a vegetarian version ourselves. Let us know how it goes!