Originally posted by tbird I think the rule of thumb is that whatever a Brazilian brings home after a long-term stay abroad has to be in line with the time she has been away and her income while there. So it is an objective determination, ultimately.

It's not objective. You need to be living out of the country for at least one year and be able to prove it.
For my wife, we used our joint bank account statements as proof. 12 months worth.

Originally posted by KirkMcD Originally posted by tbird I think the rule of thumb is that whatever a Brazilian brings home after a long-term stay abroad has to be in line with the time she has been away and her income while there. So it is an objective determination, ultimately. It's not objective. You need to be living out of the country for at least one year and be able to prove it.For my wife, we used our joint bank account statements as proof. 12 months worth.

Oops. Yes, subjective. Brazilian consulate will draw up a declaration saying how long the Brazilian citizen lived in the country and what profession she/he claims to have had.

For what it is worth, to the Original Question, here is how I had done it.

I had used reverse return tickets for some time where I had first an open jaw USA to Europe to Brazil. No problem with return. Then I had a return from Brazil to USA to Brazil, and went with that once or twice, without problems. Until one day I got bumped in Charlotte because of this return requirement (same airport which let me pass no problem a few months earlier.)

I could evade cancellation of ticket by calling US Airways reservations before the flight left, claiming some delay of the first hop to be the cause of confusion. Helpful phone man put me up for next day.

Then I proceeded with following strategy which I recommend to any one-way traveler.

I purchased a One-Way Full Fare Business Class ticket for the return, using my credit card after making sure that such ticket would be fully refundable quickly enough to not make the charge appear on any bill. Since I pay my credit card bills in full, the charge was entirely virtual. With the proof of that return flight in hand, I passed the scrutiny of the US Airways staff in Charlotte. Next day I cancelled that flight. And a few weeks later, before the credit card statement was cut, I had my charge refunded completely with no residual cost to me.

For those who do not have sufficient credit, and you want to try it, I would suggest not to fly through Charlotte as these guys are checking. However, you might pass as easy as if you can show some faked web site print-out of a return itinerary from some airline which is not code-sharing with the airline you use (so that they can't check their records.) Also, you could check (or we could share info about) airlines at different hubs. I never saw this check happen on Delta in Atlanta for example. And Air France didn't check when I flew from Europe on the initial open jaw.

In either case I have not ever seen or heard or experienced anyone at the Brazilian immigration asking for a return. It is all the paranoid US airlines who are enforcing this nonsense.


Edited by Squiddie - 10 August 2012 at 17:24

No need for that. Just purchase a fully refundable ticket from Brazil to your home country to Brazil on credit card. Then once you are in Brazil, cancel that ticket for a full refund.

Good to know that TAP also fuzzes over this issue big time. Air France did not even ask.


Edited by Squiddie - 22 August 2012 at 11:10

how do you buy plane tickets without a credit/debit card?