The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is studying the possibility of requesting tourist visas again from American citizens, reversing a decision that was made in 2019 by then-President Jair Bolsonaro and was never returned by the White House to the Brazilians.

The government asked Itamaraty for an internal assessment of the impact of the measure on the flow of tourists to Brazil. The first indications are that:

• Bolsonaro’s move had minimal effect on Americans entering the country in 2019;
• the concession did not significantly change the reality of tourism in Brazil.

Faced with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the data cannot be conclusive. But the government will consider whether it still makes sense to maintain the concession, especially given the United States’ imposition of visas on Brazilians.

In diplomacy, such gestures occur reciprocally. The countries conclude agreements by which their nationals can move between the two places, respecting the same visa rules.

The Lula administration’s transition team, which has been working on foreign policy in the last two months of 2022, has formally proposed that Brazil once again require tourist visas for Americans, Canadians, Australians and foreigners. Japanese.

The information is part of the x-ray that was produced by the transition. Although it completed its role in December, the task force had not released the results of its review.

The x-ray sums up what diplomacy looked like under Bolsonaro. One of the group’s proposals is that, in the first hundred days of government, several acts of foreign policy by Jair Bolsonaro should be repealed.

One of them would be the decree of March 2019 which exempts from a visit visa the nationals of Australia, Canada, the United States and Japan.

According to the group’s assessment, “the current standard goes against the principle of reciprocity”. That is to say, Brazilians continue to need visas to enter these countries, despite the offer made by Bolsonaro.

“Furthermore, there is no data that indicates any type of gain with the current exemption regime. On the contrary, the decree implies a significant loss of consular revenue resources,” he pointed out.

The group is calling for this to be revoked within the first hundred days of government. But he admits that this “will require an adaptation of the consular offices concerned”.

Haitians and Afghans could see their situation reassessed in Brazil. In the same document, the transition team suggested revoking the entry system for Haitians and Afghans, warning that the model adopted was unsustainable.

“The situation of Haitians and Afghans is critical,” he said. “In the case of Haiti, the sustainability of the visa policy, in the first months of government, will depend on the security situation for the operation of the embassy and the volume of requests related to requests for family reunification, which have the legal priority. In the case of Afghanistan, attention will have to be paid to the ability to process orders and host the site,” he said.

One of the criticisms refers to the September 2021 order, which establishes rules for the humanitarian reception of Afghan nationals.

Brazil is the only country that continues to issue large-scale humanitarian visas to Afghans.”

“Due to the scarcity of reception possibilities in third countries, the demand for the Brazilian visa has been much higher than what had been estimated. Only at the embassy in Tehran is there has 7,000 appointments pending,” he said.

“In addition to the difficulties in processing visa applications, the reception poses challenges for the Union and the federated entities, so that it becomes necessary to issue a new instrument more adapted to the Brazilian and refugee realities”, warns- he.

For the group, the “demand for visas makes it unsustainable to maintain the current regime”. “There is a need to issue a new ordinance that puts an end to the previous regime and establishes the new rules for the entry of Afghan refugees into the country,” he adds.

The group also called for the repeal of an April 2022 ordinance that determined the rules for the humanitarian reception of Haitian nationals.

“It is necessary to promulgate a new Ordinance which puts an end to the previous regime and establishes the new regime of reception in the country of Haitians”, he defended himself.