(this is my experience dropping off my passport at the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco; i can’t imagine experiences at other US locations would be that different.)
I hope you like the color yellow.
i’ve only ever gotten visas at consulates three times before (India, China, Germany [student visa]), and really, there is nothing substantially different about the procedure for Brazil, but keep the following in mind:
- fill out the application and make an appointment online — i showed up about 10-15 minutes before my appointment time and was greeted by an employee (p.s., much more pleasant experience people-wise than at the other consulates i’ve been to) who gave me a number like at the DMV.
- there’s a decent-sized waiting room that was only about 1/4 full, with people needing not just visa services but Brazilian citizens requiring passport or residence certification help. i waited about 40 minutes, and it took less than five minutes at the window to drop off all my stuff.
- they have a list of supporting documents [pdf] you need to bring with you — and yes, you need to follow these instructions. besides the one-page receipt you get after filling out the application online, your passport, and a passport photo, you also need:
- a printed itinerary of your flights/travel plans. the employee went through each flight (brazil or otherwise) circling dates and checking off cities (brazil or otherwise).
- a money order from the post office for the fee, currently $160. in the time i was waiting, there were at least two or three people who got up to the window only to be sent to the local post office (a couple blocks away) because they did not have the right form of payment. save yourself the trouble and come prepared.
- you can bring a self-addressed stamped express/priority mail envelope if you want them to mail your passport back, but otherwise i was told to show up in a week to pick it up.
also, i saw this postcard there on a table (along with expat newspapers, etc.) and thought it was quite clever. (aside: i didn’t know sex tourism *shudder* to brazil was a thing, but i guess it is!)
EDIT (Jan 9): today i learned prostitution is legal in Brazil, so maybe that has a lot to do with the card?