Has Brazil been on your bucket list? If so, I hope you heeded our recurring advice the past couple of years and already made the trip. A big South America visa change is just became official, the first one in many years. Brazil is going to start charging you a significant sum for the pleasure of spending your money there—though it could have been worse…
When the former president of Brazil saw the tourism numbers spike in Argentina and Chile after they dropped their reciprocal visa fee, he rightly assumed the same thing would happen in Brazil if they dropped their expensive entry visa. It was only in place for a year before the pandemic hit, however, so there was no time to really see an impact from this South America visa change, especially since Brazil’s Covid-19 deaths numbers were among the highest in the world per capita. Nobody wanted to visit Brazil at that time.
Eventually Jair Bolsonaro got defeated at the ballot box and tried to stage a coup to stay in office. He escaped the country when it became clear that wasn’t going to succeed. He was formerly charged for his crimes in February of 2025 and Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled he must stand trial.
The New Visa Charge to Visit Brazil
The new president Lulu wanted to make his mark when entering office and took action to roll back this visa decision and return to the old ways. Citing fairness as the reason, he announced that travelers coming to Brazil on vacation would pay the same amount Brazilians pay to go the other direction. (Never mind that some Brazilians stay in the U.S. or Canada illegally but that almost never happens in reverse.)
The measure got delayed several times, however, with discussion about whether potential vacationers would have to visit a consulate office in their own country or not. At the first announcement, the Brazil visa fee was supposed to be a whopping $160 per person for Americans, or $640 shelled out before arriving for a family of four. “Family travel in Brazil” would probably become an oxymoron.
Pressure from the travel industry, who feared a massive drop-off in foreign visitors from the affected countries, must have helped influence a compromise. The fee will now be $81 per person for Americans, the same as for Canadians and Australians. My guess is that this made the implementation easier to not have three rates for three countries. All of them can use the same sign-up site here:
It looks like Australians got a raw deal out of this. As best I can tell, it’s now going to cost them more to visit Brazil than they charge the Brazilians. The number of Aussies making that long flight is quite low anyway though, so it probably won’t have much impact.
This visa change was originally supposed to happen in October of 2023, but the government couldn’t get its act together in time (remember the Rio Olympics?) and it was pushed back to January of, 2024. Then April, then a year later. They’re apparently now ready for you to get your travel visa online and start pumping up the government revenue.
What This Means for Your Brazil Vacation
For most of the countries of South America, you can just show up at the airport with a ticket and passport and you’ll sail through immigration without opening your wallet. There may be some taxes built into your plane ticket, but you don’t see them or have to do anything special in advance.
There are a few exceptions in Latin America, however, usually countries that have political tiffs with the USA going on or they’re trying desperately to get more foreign currency. So Brazil is joining Paraguay, Bolivia, and Venezuela as countries where you need to cough up extra money at the airport so you can go spend money in their country.
This visa is especially galling for two groups of travelers: families and cruise ship passengers. That’s because nobody is exempt from the $81 fee: not someone stepping off in Rio for one day nor the two-year-old tagging along with you. For the latter you have to show an original birth certificate and a document signed by the parents. See the onerous requirements here.
The rules for business visa applicants are on there too and you’ll need to come up with even more documents for that.
The good news is, unless Trump completely tanks the dollar with his moves that are causing capital flight from the USA, Brazil should remain a good value for a while. Prices have come down quite a bit in recent years as the Brazilian currency has declined against most others, putting it on par with Argentina the first quarter of this year, sometimes a better value for luxury hotels in Brazil.
More flight options have opened up too from the USA, Canada, and Europe. Increased competition usually leads to better airfares, so you might be able to snag a better flight price this year than previously.
Check flight prices from your airport here.
Where this visa change could make things complicated and more expensive is if you want to visit both sides of the largest waterfalls in the Americas. For the past five years that it was easy to visit Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side and Iguassu / Iguaçu Falls on the Brazilian side. There was no extra charge beyond admission since both countries were visa-free, but now it’s going to mean a very expensive crossover. So I imagine we’ll go back to the situation where Argentina is getting 3X the number of foreign visitors on their side that Brazil is getting on theirs.
If you’re wondering whether this is the most expensive South America visa, the answer is no. Bolivia has a tit-for-tat reciprocal visa scheme, which is one reason why it gets only a trickle of visitors compared to its neighbors. Plus Bolivia has even fewer arrangements with other nations than Brazil does, so it’s more than just Americans, Canadians, and Australians who will pay to enter there.
Who Has the Most Generous Visas in Latin America?
While Brazil is going backwards on attracting more American and Canadian tourists, other countries in Latin America make it quite easy. In most of them you can stay three months upon arrival with a developed-country passport. In countries like Colombia and Ecuador you can usually extend that if you go through the right process.
Costa Rica announced last year that they are extending the time that visitors can stay in their country with a tourist visa obtained on arrival, from 90 days to 180 days. This applies to all “group one” countries that only need a passport to enter Costa Rica. There are a lot of countries on this list including the USA, Canada, most European countries, most South American countries, Japan, and South Africa.
This is especially great news for snowbirds who escape the cold up north and come down to Costa Rica for the winter. Previously, if they wanted to stay more than 90 days, they had to do a border run to a neighboring country and return with a new passport stamp. Now they can stay for nearly six months.
This is also great news for remote workers and nomads who want to explore Costa Rica in depth while still getting their work done when needed. And hey, that’s good for the planet too since Costa Rica gets most of its power from renewable energy. Last, it’s good news for those who want to invest in Costa Rica real estate and don’t want to rush the process.
Who else lets you stay that long? Mexico’s “permission to stay” visa on arrival is now electronic instead of being in paper form and most visitors get 180 days for the asking. If you really need that long though, it would be smart to have a return ticket and proof that you have a place to stay.
See where to stay when you get there with our extensive reviews of luxury Mexico hotels throughout the country.
Peru will let you stay for 180 days as well, though there’s a bit of a twist. If you leave Tijuana, have lunch in San Diego, then return to Mexico, you’ll likely get another half a year in your passport. That’s not true for Peru: once you leave the country after that long you’ll need to stay away for six months before doing it all over again.
Many countries popular with expats, such as Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador, will let you stay for six months or even permanently if you go through an application process and meet the requirements. In general through, assume you’re good for a few months without visiting immigration, including in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.
Starting now though, plan ahead if Brazil is high on your list.
