Sistema de agendamento: no appointments available

@Kurterino

Hi,

I suggest you telephone that PF agency to tell them in advance of your coming over, and why, and to see if you can manually make an appointment. If not, try another agency.

@Kurterino Hi,I suggest you telephone that PF agency to tell them in advance of your coming over, and why, and to see if you can manually make an appointment. If not, try another agency. - @alexanderstephenlange

Thx. I was under the impression that they don’t answer phone calls, but their number is published, so I might be wrong. I hadn’t even thought about selecting another agency. I just did that now, and the system works for every agency, it shows me the month of September with a few vacancies. Unfortunately, all of them are hundreds of kilometers away, except one that is only about 100 km away (could be a nice day trip), unfortunately this agency is the only one that isn’t integrated in the electronic appointment system…so no luck there.

As it is, I will be trying again once per day, until the first of September. If it still doesn’t work then, my only option will be to show up unannounced. They don’t typically serve people without an appointment, but you can talk to them, so hopefully they’ll help me solve this problem.

P.S. out of curiosity, and just to be sure, I have asked a Brazilian friend to try to make an appointment on my behalf, and she got the same error. I just wanted to be sure that the problem isn’t somehow connected to the location from where I’m accessing it, it seems not to be the case.

08/26/26 @Kurterino.  Unfortunately, expats in various cities report this problem all the time, and the PF never seem to fix it.  Two suggestions:

1. Try accessing the system via Firefox, if you haven't already.   Some official and banking systems in Brazil respond better to it than they do to Chrome-based browsers;
2. Try several times a day, especially late at night and in the wee hours of the morning.  Many people have reported appointments suddenly becoming available at those times, and being snapped up almost immediately.

As @alexanderstephenlange suggests, definitely try to call them.  If that doesn't work, I'd probably try going to the Information desk at the Estrangeiros office, reporting the problem, and asking them if they can help you.  The worst they can do is shrug and say "no".

08/26/26 @Kurterino. Unfortunately, expats in various cities report this problem all the time, and the PF never seem to fix it. Two suggestions:

Try accessing the system via Firefox, if you haven't already. Some official and banking systems in Brazil respond better to it than they do to Chrome-based browsers;
Try several times a day, especially late at night and in the wee hours of the morning. Many people have reported appointments suddenly becoming available at those times, and being snapped up almost immediately.

As @alexanderstephenlange suggests, definitely try to call them. If that doesn't work, I'd probably try going to the Information desk at the Estrangeiros office, reporting the problem, and asking them if they can help you. The worst they can do is shrug and say "no". - @abthree

Thx, I am installing Firefox right now, although o doubt that it will make a difference (as I wrote before, I could get an appointment in every city except Salvador, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem on my side).

I found an official email address as well, so I sent them an email, but I’m not holding my breath for an answer. However, I will call them if it still doesn’t work on the first of September.

@Kurterino

Am really suffering the same problem , just try to search for email of complaint and fill it and send or go to them and ask them to meet the boss and in a case they didn’t agree fill a complaint and am gonna do this today

I am very surprised! In a positive way: A few hours ago, I had sent an email to the address that is listed on Google under PF/migracao. I didn’t really expect to get an answer, much less within a few hours, but here it is:

Novas vagas serão disponibilizadas nesta sexta-feira a partir 9h, quando poderá acessar o site da PF e agendar o atendimento.

So hopefully on Friday I’ll be able to get an appointment (I’ll set my alarm clock, in case the available appointments are limited. It’s certainly first come, first serve)

@Kurterino
Am really suffering the same problem , just try to search for email of complaint and fill it and send or go to them and ask them to meet the boss and in a case they didn’t agree fill a complaint and am gonna do this today - @Moataz merghny

You’re free to do whatever you feel is right, but I would advise you to soften your tone. Do not forget that we are guests in this country, and the Polícia Federal is the organ that decides if we are welcome here or not. So even if things don’t work as smoothly as you would like them too, you’re probably better off being patient rather than firing of complaints and asking to speak to a supervisor. Just my 2 cents…

@abthree This is the answer. I was about to write something similar until I read your post. As one who lives in Salvador and who  has had to deal with this issue for more than 20 years, including a few recent appointments. I have found that the success of making PF appointments in Salvador is highly dependent on the browser used. And when no appointments are available one minute, they may be available five minutes later. This applies to the official  ba.gov.br app as well. When  I need to make an appointment I literally try every 10 minutes until I get one. Trying overnight is also a great idea, which often works. The odd thing is that the calendar can be full one minute, and the next time you check there can be many free appointments. The system has never worked very well here.

Kurt……

Sounds like you’ll be OK. Like others, I’ve had browser issues with certain sites as well, but never with gov.br or any other related PF/RF/bank sites up to this point anyways FWIW.

Just as another data point, my wife had to renew her passport 4 weeks ago, so, when she logged into the PF appointment site in Rio de Janeiro, all the dates in July that were remaining, and all of August, was greyed out. Fully booked apparently. So, she tried again a couple of times 3-4 hours later, and there was one appointment available later that week at 1100 AM so she reserved it. That’s normal apparently. I needed a PF appointment a year ago too, and had the same experience, and finally got one after half a dozen attempts over the course of 24 hours. Just keep checking the system. I also once went to the local PF office without an appointment, and spoke to the police at the door who let me in to grab a number and sit in the queue, an experience which I write off to my having a lucky day.

Well it doesn’t seem to be a browser issue. For one, I have tried with 3 different browsers (Safari, Chrome and Firefox), always with the same result. Other than that, I have been “playing” around, and it would have been possible to make an appointment on every other site (in Bahia) except in Salvador, so the system clearly works, except that the calendar in Salvador seems to be full. What’s weird is that in those other cities, the month that is displayed is September (with a few free days), whereas in Salvador, I see the month of August and there is no way to switch to September. There are arrows that should allow to select another month, but they are greyed out and can not be clicked. That’s why I hope that on the first of September, I might be able to get an appointment, because hopefully the month of September will be displayed. Unfortunately today, despite the assurance of the person who answered my message, there was no change (and I must have tried at least once per hour, sometimes more).

I will keep on trying for at least a week, but if by then I still can’t make an appointment, I will simply show up there and hopefully be able to resolve the issue. I was actually thinking about making an appointment in another city, but it would be quite expensive, the cheapest return flights would be around 600 Reais. Plus I would need a room for one night, and none of those cities seem particularly attractive. Also, if I remember correctly, i would have to go there twice: first to hand in the documents, and a few weeks later to pick up the foreigner’s ID. So it would be quite the hassle…

@Kurterino

Sorry to hear you’re still having problems. Have you been told you must make an appointment at a specific PF office or were you given a choice of locations? The PF office at the Salvador airport is usually the one that processes more complex estrangeiro issues. But a number of SACs in the city also have PF sections that handle matters such as the issuance and renewal of CRNMs (formerly CIEs). I wonder if they’re capable of doing what you need. You could call a SAC or two to find out. Also, I’ve found the reception people at the PF office in the airport to be friendly and helpful (although the inside employees often are not). If you can find a way to talk to reception there perhaps they can find you a slot or give you some advice. I have never called reception, only dealt with them in person, but the DELEMIG (Delegacia de Polícia de Imigração) number there is listed as  (71) 3377-0995. The NRE (Núcleo de Registro de Estrangeiros) for the same office is (71) 3204-1697.

@jonesio

Thank you.

I don’t know about these other offices in Salvador. Since they are not listed in the sistema de agendamento, I can’t get an appointment there either.

You are right about the people at the reception in the airport office, they are quite friendly. My plan is to keep trying for a few days, and after that I will go there and just try to give them the documents, because that’s all I have to do (hand in documents).

in the meantime I have just sent another email and hope they’ll somehow help me with this problem.

(I have considered the other locations that are in the sistema de agendamento, but they are hundreds of kilometers away, and since I have to go there twice, I’m hoping to go to Salvador)

A new development: I was trying several times per day to get an appointment, it had become somewhat of a habit, and other than Salvador, I also checked out Feira de Santana, which  had no appointments available ii either. Except today, early in the morning (between 5 and 6AM), all of a sudden there were tw o available, one on the 10th of September and one on the 11th. I immediately took one of them, since Feira de Santana is only about 130 km away, and should something open up in Salvador, I can still change.

However I’m not counting on that, and I’m planning to rent a car for the day, which will cost me a little less than 300 Reais (full coverage and unlimited mileage). Not the best solution, but acceptable (a Brazilian friend of mine has been driving to a city 300 kms away to get a new passport, so it could be worse)

Good news Kurt.......but remember, if you're not aware of the nuances of the PF agendamento progam, you cannot book another appointment in the system, unless you FIRST CANCEL the existing one.

Some risk is involved here, as you are possibly not the only one searching for an appointment at that moment either, so, maybe take the bird in the hand as they say. Sounds like a nice day trip with a lunch involved. At least you were not with my 80 year old inlaws who went to the PF to collect their passport renewals today at their 230 PM appointment, only to find people sitting there from 730 AM and no one getting served, because the power in Rio was out in that block, due to the windstorm we had yesterday. They went home empty handed to try and rebook again.

Good news Kurt.......but remember, if you're not aware of the nuances of the PF agendamento progam, you cannot book another appointment in the system, unless you FIRST CANCEL the existing one. Some risk is involved here, as you are possibly not the only one searching for an appointment at that moment either, so, maybe take the bird in the hand as they say. Sounds like a nice day trip with a lunch involved. At least you were not with my 80 year old inlaws who went to the PF to collect their passport renewals today at their 230 PM appointment, only to find people sitting there from 730 AM and no one getting served, because the power in Rio was out in that block, due to the windstorm we had yesterday. They went home empty handed to try and rebook again. - @hagece8690

I appreciate your input, but that’s not exactly how it works: if you log in with your numero de requerimento and your birthday, you have the option to cancel or change your existing appointment. If you choose to change it and you get the same message as before (no appointments available), you can just abort and your existing appointment is still valid. If by chance an appointment in Salvador should become available, I would have to select it dand confirm the change, which would cancel my existing appointment and set the new one all in one go.

So there is absolutely no risk in looking up if appointments in Salvador become available. Again, I don’t think this is going to happen, so I will book a car in a few days to be all set for my appointment. Unfortunately I will probably have to go there a second time to pick up my foreigner’s ID, so all in it will end up costing me 600 Reais. That’s a lot for Brazil, but in my country a passport costs almost a 1000 Reais, so it’s all relative. And hopefully it will be a nice drive: I have sold my car 2 years ago and haven’t driven since, so I might even enjoy it 😊

I think I misunderstood the process then. I knew you could not have two appointments booked on separate days, which is how I probably got confused.

Just for laughs my father in law told me tonight he rebooked his passport pickup  date in Rio. It's on Sept 30....... nothing available before. Even though the document is done and sitting there. It takes what, 3 minutes to show ID and collect it ? Today is Sept 2nd.

A new development: I was trying several times per day to get an appointment, it had become somewhat of a habit, and other than Salvador, I also checked out Feira de Santana, which had no appointments available ii either. Except today, early in the morning (between 5 and 6AM), all of a sudden there were tw o available, one on the 10th of September and one on the 11th. I immediately took one of them, since Feira de Santana is only about 130 km away, and should something open up in Salvador, I can still change.
However I’m not counting on that, and I’m planning to rent a car for the day, which will cost me a little less than 300 Reais (full coverage and unlimited mileage). Not the best solution, but acceptable (a Brazilian friend of mine has been driving to a city 300 kms away to get a new passport, so it could be worse) - @Kurterino

That’s good news. I often drive to Feira de Santana from near the airport in Salvador, so I’d like to point out that you should give yourself plenty of time to make the trip. Depending on the time of day there is often heavy traffic leaving  Salvador, and sometimes close to Feira. That’s especially true if  you’re travelling during rush hours or in heavy rain. The road itself is usually fine—it’s a divided multi-lane highway.

A new development: I was trying several times per day to get an appointment, it had become somewhat of a habit, and other than Salvador, I also checked out Feira de Santana, which had no appointments available ii either. Except today, early in the morning (between 5 and 6AM), all of a sudden there were tw o available, one on the 10th of September and one on the 11th. I immediately took one of them, since Feira de Santana is only about 130 km away, and should something open up in Salvador, I can still change. However I’m not counting on that, and I’m planning to rent a car for the day, which will cost me a little less than 300 Reais (full coverage and unlimited mileage). Not the best solution, but acceptable (a Brazilian friend of mine has been driving to a city 300 kms away to get a new passport, so it could be worse) - @KurterinoThat’s good news. I often drive to Feira de Santana from near the airport in Salvador, so I’d like to point out that you should give yourself plenty of time to make the trip. Depending on the time of day there is often heavy traffic leaving Salvador, and sometimes close to Feira. That’s especially true if you’re travelling during rush hours or in heavy rain. The road itself is usually fine—it’s a divided multi-lane highway. - @jonesio

I intend to start from Arembepe, which is about 40 minutes from Salvador airport. According to Google Maps, it’s 130-140 kilometers and 2 hours and 15 minutes driving time. I was planning to leave about 3.5 hours before the appointment time, so you think that’s enough (the appointment is at 11am)? Or should i better leave at 7?

@Kurterino I had erroneously assumed you would be leaving from around the airport. I’ve never driven from Arembepe to Feira de Santana, only to Salvador.  But it looks like the sensible route is heading toward Lauro de Freitas, then cutting across to the BR-324 to Feira. That way you will probably avoid Salvador bottlenecks, although Lauro de Freitas, which is on the outskirts, often has traffic jams on the main route. It depends which route you take, but honestly I’d leave early. You don’t want to miss your appointment.

@Kurterino I had erroneously assumed you would be leaving from around the airport. I’ve never driven from Arembepe to Feira de Santana, only to Salvador. But it looks like the sensible route is heading toward Lauro de Freitas, then cutting across to the BR-324 to Feira. That way you will probably avoid Salvador bottlenecks, although Lauro de Freitas, which is on the outskirts, often has traffic jams on the main route. It depends which route you take, but honestly I’d leave early. You don’t want to miss your appointment. - @jonesio

You’re correct, Lauro de Freitas does have traffic jams frequently. You’re not standing still for hours at a time, but you can easily lose 30 minutes, maybe more if you’re unlucky.

Plus I don’t know Feira de Santana at all, so I’ll leave 4 hours in advance, that should give me enough time to find the address, park the car and find the room where I have to be.

@Kurterino I had erroneously assumed you would be leaving from around the airport. I’ve never driven from Arembepe to Feira de Santana, only to Salvador. But it looks like the sensible route is heading toward Lauro de Freitas, then cutting across to the BR-324 to Feira. That way you will probably avoid Salvador bottlenecks, although Lauro de Freitas, which is on the outskirts, often has traffic jams on the main route. It depends which route you take, but honestly I’d leave early. You don’t want to miss your appointment. - @jonesio

I have just checked the route on Google Maps, and it recommends to drive via Camaçari, which is a few kilometers closer to Arembepe than Lauro de Freitas, and I think there’s less risk of encountering traffic jams. Localiza also has an office in Camaçari, so I plan to drive there with my scooter (it’s about 20-25 kilometers, so totally doable) the day before, which will allow me to drop the car off on my way home the next day, when coming back from my appointment. The only question mark is if I can count on being served more or less at the time of my appointment? Because if I have to wait a few hours, I will miss the 24h window of a 1 day rental, in which case I better rent the car for two days, in order to avoid a surcharge, which would end up costing me more.

@Kurterino

I rent often with Localiza. They always give me 3-4 extra hours as normal practice to return the car. However, they have to be open. If you show up to drop off and they are closed you will get dinged an extra day.

I think I misunderstood the process then. I knew you could not have two appointments booked on separate days, which is how I probably got confused.
Just for laughs my father in law told me tonight he rebooked his passport pickup date in Rio. It's on Sept 30....... nothing available before. Even though the document is done and sitting there. It takes what, 3 minutes to show ID and collect it ? Today is Sept 2nd. - @hagece8690

Well,  you ended up being right: after a few days of looking if there are new appointments available in Salvador, for some reason that I don’t understand, the system ended up canceling my appointment. It makes no sense, because I must have been trying at least 10 times, without getting canceled, and all of a sudden my appointment was no more. Luckily, and that was serious luck, there was another appointment available, in Feira da Santana,  at the same time as mine, but a day earlier. Obviously I immediately booked it and from here on I won’t try for Salvador anymore. I’m booked for Thursday 11 am, I have my rental car reservation locked in (luckily I hadn’t done that yet!), and unless something bad happens I’ll be there on time with all of my documents.

P. S. I do hope that the system didn’t cancel my appointment because I’m supposed to go to Salvador? I don’t know how I can check that, but I have found nothing about it. I’ll check if it’s still there before picking up my car and before living Thursday morning, that’s all I can do as far as I know.

Geezus really ??

I assume you can print out a "protocolo or agendamento receipt" of some sort, can you not ? If the excrement impacts the whirling blades when you arrive, because your name has been dropped again, at least you can plead with them at the door and maybe you'll be OK.

Honestly though, I doubt even the best IT wizards here know why the various government systems do what they tend to do sometimes KKKKK. I've been on the receiving end of 1-2 glitches in my time too. Put 3 Brasilian officials in a room, and they'll give you 3 different interpretations of the rules. Good luck mermao !!

As an aside, I was at DELEMIG @ SDU airport returning my 2017 vintage RNE card a few months ago, as I finally had my passport and all the other ID cards they require in hand. Saw this portuguese speaking dude (Angolense accent) arguing with the PF female officer (mistake #1) and demanding (mistake #2) that he must been seen right then and there (mistake #3) because "he" had missed his appointment that was marked for "THE DAY BEFORE". He was raising his voice (mistake #4) in the waiting area and had the attention of the 30-40 newcomers sitting there. The PF officer was very blunt with him as she was at the end of her rope, and basically in bureaucrat speak told him to go home and rebook in the system, as she was not prepared to accommodate him, in any way, shape, or form, at that moment, and that if he did not leave immediately he would be escorted outside.

I love this country man 😁

Geezus really ??
I assume you can print out a "protocolo or agendamento receipt" of some sort, can you not ? If the excrement impacts the whirling blades when you arrive, because your name has been dropped again, at least you can plead with them at the door and maybe you'll be OK.

Honestly though, I doubt even the best IT wizards here know why the various government systems do what they tend to do sometimes KKKKK. I've been on the receiving end of 1-2 glitches in my time too. Put 3 Brasilian officials in a room, and they'll give you 3 different interpretations of the rules. Good luck mermao !!

As an aside, I was at DELEMIG @ SDU airport returning my 2017 vintage RNE card a few months ago, as I finally had my passport and all the other ID cards they require in hand. Saw this portuguese speaking dude (Angolense accent) arguing with the PF female officer (mistake #1) and demanding (mistake #2) that he must been seen right then and there (mistake #3) because "he" had missed his appointment that was marked for "THE DAY BEFORE". He was raising his voice (mistake #4) in the waiting area and had the attention of the 30-40 newcomers sitting there. The PF officer was very blunt with him as she was at the end of her rope, and basically in bureaucrat speak told him to go home and rebook in the system, as she was not prepared to accommodate him, in any way, shape, or form, at that moment, and that if he did not leave immediately he would be escorted outside.

I love this country man 😁 - @hagece8690

I did have (and still do) a printed receipt of my original appointment on the 11th, but when I logged in with my requerimento number, I had no appointment. As I said, I managed to get an appointment on the 10th, so I’m fine with that. And when I enter the system with my number, I see the appointment on the 10th. I wonder what would have happened if I had shown up at September 11 with my printed appointment? Maybe they would have served me, since (in theory) it shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes. But I’m positive that in their system, my actual appointment is the one on the 10th, that I made today, so that’s when I’ll show up.

As for their IT system, I find it works really well, especially considering how many inhabitants Brazil has. Yes, there are even more in the USA, but I think that the US isn’t as centralized as Brazil, and a lot of systems are built for one or several states.

Have a safe trip Kurt !!

@Kurterino I just saw your post about your car rental experience, so I thought I’d ask how your PF appointment went in Feira de Santana. Did you finally get what you needed done? I hope so.

@Kurterino I just saw your post about your car rental experience, so I thought I’d ask how your PF appointment went in Feira de Santana. Did you finally get what you needed done? I hope so. - @jonesio

I did , thanks for asking. Thankfully I planned to be there almost an hour in advance, I needed it. Here’s why: for those who haven’t used the sistema de agendamento, it is very modern and entirely automated. You can choose your appointment (except that some sites don’t have free appointments, as i described), and once you have it, you get a nice receipt where everything is printed clearly (and you have to bring this receipt to your appointment)): the date and time of your appointment, including the exact address of the office. Except that when I arrived at this address, there weren’t any people waiting there and there was no open entrance. But there was a doorbell, which I rang, upon which a man came to the door, and after having a look at my appointment, he explained to me that the offices of the federal police for appointments is at a different address. Not very far away, but still about 15-20 minutes if you include everything (walking back to my car, program the GPS, drive there and find a parking space, walk to the office). Thankfully I still arrived about 10 minutes early, so no problem there.

The appointment itself was quick and easy: they checked the information on the form I had filled in, took my visa from the consulate, snapped a picture for the ID and recorded my fingerprints. They asked me where I lived, and offered to send the ID to the office in Salvador. That’s good, I was afraid to have to drive to Feira de Santana a second time.

The only ‘hiccup’ is that they told me that I was gonna receive an email with a temporary document, which I never got, even though they double checked my email address. But I can look up the progress of my request, and it is in progress, so it seems that everything is in motion as it should.

All in all, no biggie and quite smooth and easy

@Kurterino

I followed ur advice and in the end I reached my goal and scheduled a time in federal police , thanks man 🙏🏻

@Kurterino
I followed ur advice and in the end I reached my goal and scheduled a time in federal police , thanks man 🙏🏻 - @Moataz merghny

And where do you have your appointment? In Salvador?

@Kurterino

No ,in Sorocaba, sp