In the most critical period of the pandemic, the release of visas was limited to emergency cases, and therefore was restricted to some units and with many requirements. However, with the decrease in serious cases, the search for the issuance of US visas grew at the same average as in years prior to the pandemic.
In places like São Paulo, the wait can reach 294 days, in Rio de Janeiro, 183 days and in Brasília, 248. The high search made the wait in line reach up to 9 months. The embassy guarantees agility in bookings, but says that since October the numbers have doubled. From a thousand requests, they increased to 24 thousand in November 2021.
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One of the main causes of this increase was the permission for foreigners to enter in November. In June 2020, for example, only 13 were issued. A very different situation from what happened before the pandemic, when the average was between 30,000 and 50,000 monthly requests.
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The general resumption of the visa application process took place on November 8th. However, the embassy still needs to meet the safety standards required by health agencies and interviews cannot be carried out at the same level as before the pandemic.
Alternatives are being sought to expedite all services. Interviews through the online system, new scheduling times and people who have already been scheduled and wish to reschedule can continue accessing the website.
Even when the borders remained closed, Latam Airlines Brasil maintained its flights from São Paulo to Miami and New York with less frequency. However, with the reopening, demand for tickets to the United States grew by around 300% in the first weeks of October.
Latam's sales director, Diogo Elias, says that in December 2021, even with the increase in the omicron variant, flight occupancies ranged from 85% to 86%. However, he believes that only in 2023 will occupations reach the same level as before the pandemic.
Other travel agencies, such as CVC, also saw an increase in demand for travel to the United States, but the rise in the dollar has still interfered with demand for international travel. Finally, the most popular destinations are Portugal, Orlando, Buenos Aires, Chile and Cancun.
