My experience about the Tourist Visa With the Federal Police... Uplift

Hi ddeleon88!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Regards
Armand

Hi ddeleon88,

I can tell you can tell you from personal experience with the Federal Police in Belo Horizonte that they are not all "the sharpest crayons in the box". Are you sure you were actually dealing with a police agent? The reason I ask if you didn't see the person wearning a badge (which they MUST) then it was a contracted employee from an outside company who knows zip. The Federal Police are notorious for using 'terceirozados' as they call them. I have had extensive dealings with the Federal Police in various locations in Brazil and I can tell you BH is one of the worst. You want the straight dope you go to São Paulo, they know what they're doing.

Anyway, your person was dead wrong with his information. Your stay has nothing whatsoever to do with the date of your first entry. It is not based on a calendar year, but rather a rolling year. They calculate visa stays by counting back 365 days from the date of your present entry to determine how many day you may stay. The date of entry and departure of any previous visits also count as full days in their calculation. They deduct the total number of days from 180 to determine your current stay.

Looks to me like you caught him up in his mistake and he invented all this other B--- S--- to try and further cover it up. You learned the hard way not to argue or interact adversely with anyone at the Federal Police, you paid by getting screwed out of the days you were entitled to.

As far as slipping across into Paraguay or another neighboring country to extend your visa, wrong again and don't try it. Obviously your person thinks things are still the way they were long ago because they once worked on a calendar year and this was common practice. The 'rolling year' system was adopted many years ago for the purpose of preventing just this.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog

William, I respect you as you are the king of this blog, however this is not a plan, this is the past, and every thing I said was confirmed by different agents, the guys with the badges. And when I went to argentina I flew in international airports, using my passport and visa which was scanned and check and they gave me a new 180 days starting on may 13th, and I have since renewed after 90 days and received another 90 days from the same office in BH. And as I am still here and still legal I would have to say that you are wrong as this year I have already done every that I said in my earlier post.

Well I can't comment on what happened with you, but I can tell you that unless something has recently changed in the laws and procedure that is not the way it is supposed to work. There seems to be some conflict and confusion regarding the old and new application of the entry procedure.

I will certainly take you at your word and I will check it out with DPF in São Paulo to get the latest information. Thanks for your input, certainly if things have changed I should be up to date on it in order to help our other members.

Do you, by any chance, remember the name of any of the agents you dealt with in BH, perhaps I can find out more information that way?

By the way, I'm not king of the blog or anything close... just another member like yourself. My position is voluntary, Expat-blog Team asked me if I would take it on because of the advice I give everybody.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog

Hi again ddeleon88,

Let me ask one really important question that I forgot. Are you in Brazil on a USA passport or one from some other country? If your passport is from some other country then perhaps you are actually exempt from a visa. In this case the information about dates for entry and exit would be correct.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog

US passport!

Hi ddeleon88,

As someone entering with a US passport then yes you require a 'physical' visa and the calculation of your visa stays is as I said it would be. Your person was dead wrong. The procedure is so damned complicated that without the computer system that calculates stay lengths most of the Federal Police and civilian immigration agents do not understand it well enough to calculate a stay manually should the computer system be down or if your point of entry into Brazil is not on the system.

Please see my separate and recent posting about the subject, "Tourist Visa Stay - 180 day per year maximum" for further clarification. The information comes directly from DELEMIG the DPF Delegacy of Immigrations.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog.

ok... this is strange because I have already done this, like I said this was not a plan it is what happened. And after my first period I left to argentina by an international airport, then when I came back later I came to an international airport and the computer was working both times, and both times I went to extend the 90 days to 180 days, Im not saying your wrong im just very confused based on my own experience and apparent luck...