Consulate General of Brazil

This place is the DMV’s retarded Brazilian cousin. The workers are very rude, and inefficient. 90% of the place is waiting to see Visa’s, who only has one rude man working, while 10 other workers sit at their stations doing nothing, cuz they’re assigned to other things like passports.

If you are traveling to Brazil you will need a Visa! The Brazilian consulate is downtown at 401 N Michigan next to the tribune building. They are only open for visa services from 9am to 11am. So early arrival is strongly advised and you will probably be asked to stand in line outside the building until 9am like a new iPhone release. Remember to check in at the front desk to get an elevator pass before standing in line.
The consulate is on the 18^th floor. THERE ARE NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS IN THE BUILDING. So make sure you go potty before you arrive. Make sure you have ALL required paperwork or you will be turned around and asked to return. You will need your passport, drivers license, a recent passport photo (Walgreens), flight itinerary, printed receipt from completing application ON LINE, and a money order from the USPS (only) for $ 160. Don’t try to get one from your bank cause it won’t be accepted.
If you have all of these items all you need to do is wait until your number is called. Don’t forget to get a number when you enter the office. The processing from there should be less than 10 minutes. You will then receive a receipt to pick up your visa in about 2 weeks.
I wish I had this information my first time here.
Enjoy…

As with most consulates, the customer service is extremely poor and there are no good streamlined process in place to make things easy for business or tourism related processing of visas. I had to come here for tourism visa a couple years back and recently for business visa. Not an awesome experience.

I’m hoping they can work with me but my passport was lost somehow and my visa denied

I’ll preface this review by saying that many people that work at the Brazilian consulate are friendly and very helpful. With that said…
One word:
Incompetence
Tips:
1.) Try the New York or DC consulates if possible…
these consulates are RELATIVELY better at approving visas in a timely manner
2.) Try to apply in person, regardless of where you live…
when applying by mail you may not be notified that there is a problem with your application until it is set to be mailed back to you… by applying in person you can be sure that you have submitted the correct and necessary materials… please note that you may very well be turned away your first time applying in person so plan accordingly if you do not live within driving distance of Chicago
3.) Apply @least one month in advance…
whether in person or by mail… they DO NOT expedite visas and you WILL NOT be traveling to Brazil if your visa is not set to be approved by your flight date… no exceptions
4.) You can only pay with a USPS money order…
all other forms of payment WILL BE DENIED
5.) Maybe go to another county…
if you are not going to visit friends or family please note that there are just so many cleaner and safer options

Ever effective. Always personable and kind. Love coming here for my clients. I love what I do!

I went down to the Consulate this morning to drop off my visa application. I want to echo what another reviewer said — that if you have your paperwork in order, this is a very simple process.
The drop-​off time for visas is 9:00 — 11:00 AM, M-​F. I got there around 9:15 and took a number; I was about 15 people in. I was seen around 9:40. They seemed to move through people as quickly as possible, given that some peoples’ situations seemed more complicated than others. Everyone working there was incredibly friendly and helpful!
I can’t comment on the pick-​up process, but it doesn’t sound like that takes long at all. Just go in there with realistic expectations and follow the process, and you’ll have a good experience. If you go in there hoping to get a visa in 2 days and you didn’t do any of what they asked you to do, you’re going to be SOL.

It’s on the 18^th floor. The girl at the front desk was telling people it was the 16^th.
It’s worse than the DMV.
The only form of payment they will accept are money orders from the post office.
They stop giving out numbers about an hour and a half before they close.
You have to come back three days later to pick up the visa. You get a one hour window to pick it up. Don’t miss that window.

Need a Brazilian visa?
Get your flight itinerary, proof of lodging, passport, copy of ID, and $ 160 money order and head over to 401 N. Michigan Ave. Just make sure to come during the hours of 9−11am which isn’t posted on the website. Matter of fact this might be one of the most confusing and inconsistent website to actual location experiences I’ve ever had.
Once there, it actually went quick and the employees were way more pleasant than I thought they’d be. Gathering a bunch of documents and waiting in a line is never fun, but at least you can take a selfie bear the Brasil logo when you get inside.

After 26 years of pure frustration for twin sons every time they need to renew their Brazilian passports they have decided to give up their Brazilian citizenship. How sad that a passport can not be renewed with out having to show all the original documentations every time.

Quite frankly, having to help my mother deal with this place has completely turned me off on travelling to Brazil in the future. My experience was as follows:
My mother had to submit the correct visa paperwork per their orders. First off, the office only accepts the paperwork for a total of 3 hours every weekday from 9AM until 12 noon. For the most part, people have to work during those times which would require them to miss work… which my mother was forced to do. In addition, to pick up your complete visa, they only give you a 1 hour window from 12 noon to 1PM which means you have to deal with lunch traffic in the city. From there, things get worse.
In my mother’s situation, the office stated that they needed a cashier’s check. However they failed to disclose that it HAD TO BE ISSUED AT A POST OFFICE ONLY. So when we brought our bank issued cashier’s check, they refused it and I was forced to swallow the issuance fees (which was 8 dollars at the bank). On top of that, when my mother went to get the post office issued cashier’s check, the office failed to mention that the payment amount would be less because she was handing in her paperwork in person. When she returned with the check for the originally asked amount, they refused to accept the check and forced her to reissue another cashier’s check! My mother even offered to donate the additional money but they refused. So mind you, at this point, we now have had 3 cashier’s checks issued and wasted nearly 3 hours at this consulate before they finally accepted her paperwork.
Overall, it was a nightmare dealing with this office. There is a clear lack of concern for potential travelers, especially ones who are not familiar with applying for a visa. Also, they really don’t care to disclose all the necessary information for people to properly process their paperwork. This has been absolutely horrid experience and it has definitely made me think twice of actually bothering to travel to Brazil.

Impressed by their speedy process. People behind the counter are friendly & approachable. Wish their was a Consulate General of Brazil in my home-​state so I didn’t have to make a special out of state trip to obtain my Visa last minute :(

I was a little nervous coming here today since I have slightly over a week before I actually fly to Brazil. The guy in line with me who said it was his third time returning because he kept forgetting to bring things made me panic a bit. However, I was in and out within 25 minutes.
Got to the building at 8:40 and checked in. They told me to go to the elevators at 8:50 at which point everyone jumped into an elevator and lined up outside the door. I ended up third in line. By 9, when they let us in, there were probably about 10 people in line so I’d suggest getting there early to be at the front of the line.
I handed over all of the necessary paperwork and the very friendly guy who was helping me had everything finished within 5 minutes and I get to pick it up on Friday.
Pretty much as easy as it gets.

Who knows? Maybe I am a lucky duck. I had fantastic service (with a smile), hardly had to wait in line, and had my visa (with no problems) in 3 days.
I gathered my documents in advance, filled out my forms on line and blasted out of work at 8:45 on a Tuesday morning to get to the Consulate at 9:05 am. I was back at my office at 9:35. Taking into account Loop traffic, this is no simple task. The gentleman who assisted me was wonderful, quick, smiley, and very helpful. I stumped them a bit with a letter and request that they have no process for, but we worked that out. They were very accommodating and I had absolutely no issues.
I came back on Friday, parked in the garage for 20 minutes, picked up my passport and visa (that took all of 3 minutes) and now have access to Brazil for 10 years.
I do not know about the rest of you– but I am THRILLED that they extended the visa time to 10 years. It used to be 90 days and instead of dealing with this myself, I used to use a visa agency.
Now I feel like I have a golden ticket. Beautiful beaches, amazing men, here I come!

I didn’t have a terrible experience here like some of the others. It is annoying that there is such a short window of time to drop off and pick up visas, but that aside, i got my visa in three days, as promised. I would just recommend coming an hour early when dropping off the visa paperwork, otherwise you may wait an hour behind everyone else and could miss your chance. Pickups were a bit disorganized, stand by the far left window to get a good spot when the shade opens at noon, or just hop in the line that may have formed. Picking up is a much quicker process. Enjoy your trip!

You have to be VERY PERSISTENT if you are AT ALL pressed for time. I applied for a visa via mail/​email several months in advance but it was almost not enough. I received my visa the day before I was supposed to leave. I had two Brazilians calling & emailing almost daily, and they could not get a hold of anyone. It was only until my boyfriend called and guessed random extensions that he finally connected with someone. Plan very very very far in advance if you need a visa!

I’ll be traveling to Sao Paulo in a month. and given that the US requires Brazilians to obtain a visa to enter the US… they require us to do the same. (Seems like a fair thing to do…$ 130 seems a bit much) What also sucks is that you are also required to get a yellow fever shot. which ran for $ 110.
Anyhoo…so I get to the consulate early during their very short office hours 9 – 11 for visa applications. A few others were waiting at the door. When the doors opened… it was a bit chaotic. A few people just cut in front of people that were already waiting and grabbed a number. The number counter was off. and they were calling higher numbers than what were distributed. It was a bit annoying, and the workers there didn’t seem apologetic. I lucked out and was the second person to go, so I the total experience was only a half hour long. I was given a slip to return in a week to pick up my visa. I thought a week turnaround is pretty good. I hope it actually happens. Overall, make sure you check out the consulate website and make sure you have everything in line for your application.

Good and fast service!
The only problem I had it there was that they made my Id Card and put my last name like middle name…
I called them to explain that in US middle name is like a second name, and they said if they put my first last name and cut my second last name would be wrong.
I agreed with them, but they should at least put my whole name in there…
Now I am like any P. (Patricia, Pamela, Paula) instead of my real last name Pereira… :/

The word that comes to mind when I think of this place is incompetence. There seems to be no consistency whatsoever here. There are many times when I think our government is horrible, but I feel sorry for Brazilians if this place is representative of their government. I have gone to get four business visas from them and the first time the visa was for 30 days, second time for 90 days, third time for 1 year, and just today I got another one for 90 days again. All this while the people I work with and basically do the same job as me for my company out east have 5 year visas. My passport is basically full now because of these incompetent pinhead beauraucrats.
My suggestion is to use someone’s address out east so you can use the consulate in the DC embassy. They seem to give out 5 year visas to everyone there. It seems that they have no connection to the consulate in Chicago. Also it says it will take 15 days for a visa in Chicago while the DC one says it will only takes 4 days. The country of Brazil should be embarrased to be represented by their Chicago consulate.