Brazil to Reintroduce Visa Requirement for U.S. Visitors

Brazil will reinstate visa requirements for citizens from the United States, Canada, and Australia on Thursday, a move that ends six years of visa-free entry for visitors from those countries, the Associated Press reported.

American, Canadian, and Australian citizens will have to fill out a form online for an electronic visa and pay a $80.90 fee to stay in Brazil for up to 90 days.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had lifted the visa requirements in 2019 as part of his strategy to boost the country’s tourism industry and economy. Bolsonaro’s successor, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sought to reintroduce the requirements for American, Canadian, and Australian visitors in March 2023, citing the fact Brazilians needed visas to enter those countries.

“Brazil does not grant unilateral exemption from visiting visas, without reciprocity, to other countries,” the country’s foreign ministry said at the time, as quoted by the Associated Press, noting that the decision to grant the visa exemptions had represented “a break with the pattern of Brazilian migration policy, historically based on the principles of reciprocity and equal treatment.”

Brazil’s government had delayed the reintroduction of the visa requirement three times.

The move to reintroduce the visa requirement comes after President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on imports from Brazil.

Brazil brought in a little more than 6.6 million visitors in 2024, a 12.6% increase from the previous year, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Tourism, the national tourism agency Embratur, and Brazil’s federal police. Roughly 700,000 Americans visited Brazil in 2024, representing the country’s second-largest source of travelers behind Argentina.