Due to problems with travel documentation, our recent trip to South America was a disaster.  This letter is to inform you about our traumatic travel experience and to let other travelers be aware when traveling to Brazil and how rude are the Brazilian officials.

Upon arrival in Brazil on December 24, 2008, we were detained by Customs and Immigration at the Rio De Janiero Airport.  We were denied entry into the country as a result of the fact that our visas had expired.  We were informed by Customs and Immigration that we should have entered Brazil within ninety days of the visa issuance date.  Delta agents in Seattle and in Atlanta never informed us that our visas had expired.  We were told by Brazilian Customs and Immigration officials to go back to the United States on the next Delta flight, thirteen hours later.  However, the Delta representative at the Rio De Janiero airport suggested we could go to the Brazilian Consulate in Argentina, where we could renew our visas.  We chose the Argentina option.  Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, we were informed that the Visas could not be reissued until January 8, 2009, at the earliest.  Therefore, we could not return to Brazil.  Instead, we made alternate arrangements to spend our vacation in Argentina.

The visas for our trip to Brazil were issued by the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco.  As part of Visa issuing process, we had provided our travel itinerary to Brazilian Consulate and Visa Pro in San Francisco showing that we were scheduled to enter Brazil on December 23, 2008.  The Visas were issued on September 19, 2008, but were not delivered to us until early October. 

This was a very traumatic experience for us because we were held in the airport for eight hours (Brazilian officials at the airport took the possession of our luggage and passports) under guards and not allowed to communicate with our son, Mark, who was traveling with us and had appropriate documentation, so they forced him to leave airport and kept us away from any contacts with him. We finally were able to contact him through text messages to inform him where to go in Rio De Janiero.  We were treated very rudely by the Brazilian officials and the Delta agent that was addressing our situation and they didn’t handle us in a respectable and professional manner. 

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we found the following items were missing from our luggage:

1.      Box of cigars. – estimated value of $450.00

2.      Gucci sunglasses - $400.00

3.      SPC speakers - $300.00

4.      European converter, cell phone charger - $90

As a result of errors on the part of the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco we have suffered extensive damages which include:

1.      $12,540.00 in non refundable hotel charges in Brazil for two rooms

2.      $1530.00 in additional airfare

3.      $2500.00 for telephone calls made in an attempt to mitigate the damages.

It was also our understanding that airlines are required to ensure that all documentation is in order to allow United States citizens to board flights destined for countries requiring visas, such as Brazil.   If we had been notified of the discrepancy in Seattle or Atlanta, we could have taken actions to correct the matter before leaving the United States.  

Strongly we would not recommend anyone going through Visa Pro, ask tropicaltravel.net next time you would like a visa to countries and they will be happy to recommend other agencies that would do better job for you.

Thank you

The Michael Family