By Michael Jones (michael.jones@tsiglobalconsulting.com)

Another country with difficult Visa requirements is India – A country that I have personal experience with.  The most notable hassle that I had to deal with was the picky-ness of the Visa agency that the Indian government outsources to.  I traveled to India as part of a group, so we had to wait on all of our Visas to come through, but encountered problems as they were rejected for silly reasons such as our passport pictures being slightly crooked.  This was coupled with very long processing times, which, while not normally too hard to deal with, led to some close calls in which we almost missed our trip deadline.  There are other difficulties that you may run into in trying to get an Indian Visa as well.  For instance, Indian Visas are valid from the date of issuance, not the date of arrival.  This means that you will only have a limited amount of time to travel before your Visa is used up.  If you need to get to India to do business, try and apply at least 1 month early.

The last major country that came up in my research is Brazil.  For most people, getting a Brazilian Visa is easy.  However, citizens of the United States are likely to experience problems: mostly due to the prohibitive cost that has been levied on U.S. applications.  Likely a result of ongoing U.S.-Brazilian trade tensions, Brazil has implemented higher fees for U.S. Visas, making it difficult for Americans to afford the trip.  While this is done in other countries with poor relations with the U.S. such as Russia and Argentina, Brazil’s “reciprocity fees” are the highest.  Combine the increased fees with the fact that every Brazilian embassy does its immigration procedures differently, and you have a recipe for frustration that could undermine the future of your business in Brazil.

Of course, careful planning can eliminate a lot of the hassle of getting Visas to visit the countries that we’ve discussed in this blog series.  Just do your research, and always check with your foreign partners for unique country requirements, and you should be fine.  If you have any questions on the Visa requirements for specific countries, let me know through e-mail (michael.jones@tsiglobalconsulting.com), and I’ll write another blog entry on the country in question.  For any other questions about international business or trade policy, please contact TSI Global Consulting at 210-757-0618 for a consultation.