RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s authorities has postponed till April 2025 vacationer visa exemptions for residents of the U.S., Australia, and Canada that had been scheduled to finish on Wednesday.
The choice, issued by Brazilian presidency and the Ministry of International Relations late Tuesday, marks the third time Brazil has delayed the visa requirement since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took workplace in 2023. His predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, exempted the international locations from visas as a method to spice up tourism — though all three international locations continued to demand visas from Brazilians.
That went towards the South American nation’s custom of requiring visas from vacationers based mostly on the precept of reciprocity and equal therapy, and prompted Lula’s International Ministry to say it will scrap the exemptions.
“Brazil doesn’t grant unilateral exemption from visiting visas, with out reciprocity, to different international locations,” the ministry stated on the time, whereas noting that the federal government stood prepared to barter visa waiver agreements on a reciprocal foundation. It did attain a cope with Japan to ease journey provisions.
The choice to take care of exemptions for the three international locations is essential for reinforcing tourism in Brazil, notably from the U.S., Brazil’s official tourism board Embratur stated in a press release Tuesday. Official information reveals that almost 670,000 People visited Brazil in 2023, making the U.S. the second largest nation of origin after neighboring Argentina.
The federal government initially postponed the reinstatement of the visa requirement in October, then once more in January. On the time, the federal government stated it was nonetheless finalizing a brand new visa system and wished to keep away from implementing it near the excessive season, primarily throughout the New Yr’s celebrations and Carnival festivities in February, which magnetize tens of hundreds of vacationers.
