Technical problems causing delays to Brazilian passport issuance

IMPACT – HIGH

What is the change? Brazilian authorities are experiencing technical problems in the production of passports, resulting in significant delays in issuance of passports to Brazilian citizens.

What does the change mean? The authorities are allowing individuals to pay an additional fee for urgent requests, but applicants should expect delays. Additionally, as a workaround to the production problems, authorities are printing passports without perforated numbers but still containing a microchip (and valid for 10 years). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is communicating to international authorities that the passports should be accepted as valid.

• Implementation time frame: Immediate and ongoing.
• Visas/permits affected: Brazilian passports.
• Who is affected: Brazilian citizens applying for passports.
• Impact on processing times: Processing for normal passports is supposed to take six days but is taking up to 30 days. Processing of urgent passports is supposed to take less than six days.
• Business impact: Brazilian citizens applying for passports should factor in longer time frames when planning travel schedules.

Background: The Brazilian Mint (Casa das Moedas Brasileira) began experiencing issues with the printing machinery and lack of booklets in mid-April. The Federal Police, which issues passports to citizens, indicated that citizens can pay an additional 77.17 Brazilian reals (about US$23) for urgent requests.

The normal processing time for ordinary passports (valid for 10 years) is six days, but has extended to 30 days in some cases. Urgent processing of ordinary passports should take less than six days. However, the Federal Police recently announced that urgent requests have increased by 20 percent.

Emergency passports (valid for one year) can be processed for immediate delivery in specific cases for the additional government fee.

BAL Analysis: Brazilian passport applicants should anticipate delays as authorities work through the technical problems.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group in Brazil. For additional information, please contact brazil@bal.com.

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