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First of all, the Entry Card is given to every passenger on any aircraft coming to Brazil and MUST be filled out by each passenger. It is the passenger's responsibility to present that Entry Card along with his/her passport or equivalent travel document to the Federal Police officer at the Immigrations checkpoint when entering the airport terminal from the aircraft. I have never heard of any of them simply forgetting to stamp the passport. I'm not doubting you, but are you absolutely certain that your friend didn't just forget to report to Immigrations and slip past somehow? Certainly, somebody must have checked through his baggage on arrival when he came off the plane?

Regardless, being in the country without either an Entry Card and stamped passport is serious trouble and could cause your friend to be deported. You said 'recently', but just how recently are we talking about here? A few days, a week, a month?

I would suggest that if it has been only a few days or so and your friend has his/her airline ticket stub, boarding pass and Entry Card that he/she either report back to the Federal Police at the airport (GRU) or to the nearest Regional Superintendency of the Policia Federal - Departamento de Estrangeiros with those documents, explain what has happened and beg for mercy. With any luck they will simply stamp the passport for the appropriate date and that will be the end of the problem. The longer your friend has already been in the country in this situation the more serious the problem will become and the more difficult to resolve.

If your friend simply decides to wait until he/she decides it's time to return home, without an entry stamp and Entry Card, there is going to be a major problem. It's better to try and resolve it now, before the return flight even if the Federal Police don't accept the explanation and ask your friend to voluntarily leave the country (which I doubt will happen).

Also, here in Brazil when the police are called to any kind of a problem they make EVERYBODY produce their identity documents. Should your friend happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, something happens and he/she's ordered to produce documents this can't be refused. Once the police find out that they're dealing with a foreigner they are going to immediately contact the Federal Police, if the documents aren't in order they will simply take the person to the Federal Police whether they were involved in whatever the situation was, or not!

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert - Expat-blog Team

Hi James. I asked really carefully this friend, I honestly believe it happened as following: he was tired and sleepy when he arrived, he followed the crowd, and he saw some oriental faces, he imagined that maybe they were Chinese as well, so he followed behind this family. This family, no matter how their faces appear to be, is Brazilian family. So he had chosen the wrong immigration desk. And somehow, the immigration officer assumed him to be one of the family, and let him pass even without checking his passport.

As my friend does not speak any Portuguese, the whole process was finished without any conversation...
He arrived more than one week already. He has valid visa, boarding pass and all evidence to confirm his flight and arrival.

I will request someone to call the airport immigration section to check how it should be solved.

I have edited my comment, as when I originally read the initial post I misread it completely.

So what you're telling me Enzo is that your friend went through the line up of Brazilians returning home and not through the check-in for foreigners as he/she should have. What should be done is take the documents, tickets, boarding pass, landing card and everything you have to the Federal Police - with somebody who speaks fluent Portuguese. Once there explain the situation as best you can. I'm sure they will first of all be impressed that someone is honest enough to present themselves and will understand. I believe that under the circumstances they will resolve the problem. It is important since your Chinese friend doesn't speak Portuguese that someone who speaks both languages go with him/her to translate.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert - Expat-blog Team

Hi USMC, I am sorry if my comments made myself misunderstood. it is actually nothing regarding racist, I want to say, per my understanding, in case someone were in an environment that you can not communicate, it is kind of human nature to behave the way my friend did. There  could be a chance that he could get some language support by doing the way he did.

Hi James, thanks for comments, this friend even does not speak fluent English. But I think we will solve it. I am not the right person to help however, my Portuguese is not good enough.

Hi Enzo,

Perhaps you can tap into the Chinese community in Campinas and find someone who is Brazilian born, of Chinese origin and speaks both Portuguese and either Mandrin or Cantonese (whichever your friend speaks). That would be the ideal person to take along to the Policia Federal. I'm sure with the Asian population in São Paulo State this shouldn't be too hard to do.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert - Expat-blog Team

What is racist about Enzo's story of what happened on his friends arrival?

Ewan, I modified my original post and retracted my original statement. Sorry for the confusion I caused everyone.





Matt V. - Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil
Visit my Personal Blog -

Hi all, I would like to update enveryone that the issue solved really easily. A friend helped to call the immigration section of GRU airport, the response was surprisingly friendly actually,  the lady said they can just go back with all supporting documents to get a stamp. As according to this friend who called and accompanied the guy there to get a new stamp, this must be a really common issue, for everyone there from the GRU immigration office seems to be familiar with it and knows how to deal it, and without any difficulty, my friend got an entry stamp with the right entry date and was given 90 days permission.
The immigration office, however, not like the immigration desks, they don't work 24hours, they work only Monday to Friday, 9:00. Am to 16:30 pm.
Thanks all again for the comments.

Hi Enzo,

Glad to hear things worked out so well. Thanks for the update.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert - Expat-blog Team

Glad it's sorted out. I've had two of these sort of things happen, both times resolved easily.

First time, I planned a trip to Brazil to attend conference in Foz do Iguacu. Was able to book ticket to GRU, but all flights to Foz were fully booked. No way to get there, except fly to Acuncion, connect to ciudad del este and take a taxi from there to Foz. Didn't notice when I landed in Acuncion that they gave me a single entry visa. When the taxi crossed the border, I was expecting to have to deal with immigration, but the guard waved us through before I could tell the driver to stop. This was a problem. I wasn't officially / legally in Brazil, but I couldn't go back into Paraguay because I never left. I was on a waitlist for the flight from Foz to GRU. When it finally cleared, my colleague, who was a stereotypical carioca, took me to the border and explained my problem to the guard. He thought it was quite funny. He invited me to walk "out of brazil", around to the other side of his booth, where he smiled and welcomed me to Brazil, stamped my passport and wished me a nice visit.

A few days later, I was flying from GRU to GIG on a flight which was a continuation from Buenos Aires to Rio. When I got off the airplane, I ended up in immigration and was asked to present my passport. I tried to explain that I was already in Brazil and I didn't arrive from Argentina. Finally he figured out what happened and let me pass.

So when I heard the story, I can see how something like this could happen.