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It's a reciprocal fee--what we charge them to come here--been that way for about 4 yrs.
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It's the fair thing. We require Brazilians to have a visa to come to the US so they require the Americans to get a visa. The Chileans and Argentinians need a visa as well, so they charge us money to enter thei country. It's an annoying fee but if we want to visit their country we need to pay up.
As to HKG at the moment SEA does not have nonstop service, but you can make a quick hop to SFO or YVR and catch a flight out of there. The tricky part is getting on a flight out of those two airports which are very busy departure points for HKG but you can always check. Out of HKG you have SAA on a 343 and CX on a 777-300, not sure how many times a week the respective airlines operate the route.
Regards,
Chepos
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Reciprocal fee my left cheek bun! Reason we had their fees higher first is because Brazilians are abusers of our visa program. They are a risk to bring in along with other countries such as Philippines and more because they stay in this country after their visas run out and search for jobs ect....we don't do that in Brazil as they do here. Just like all other countries, looking to take advantage of our system.
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I know personally this happened often in the 80s' My Brasilian friends did exactly that--they became nannaies and whent he BF came up they got pregnant, then they had to leave for personal reasons and could only come back thru their "American" child.
Until our government recognizes and DOES SOMETHING about illegal immigration that will WORK, it's still a reciprocal fee. When there was no fee, our Brasilians brought their children and just less than $10K each to deposit in US banks because of 300% inflation on their money. They did this every opportunity they had. Was it smart? For them--yes. We then paid inito the IMF to bail out BRasil more than once--now Barackhas given them drilling right for our OIL. SOB. one-termer.
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Two points:
1. As you are not officially a connecting passenger, ZED tickets are valid point-to-point, you would need to clear customs upon arrival and become a local board out of BR (or any country). To clear entry into the country you will need a visa or, in the case of SCL, pay the arrival fee.
2. Keep in mind that as a ZED passenger, especially a standby ZED, there is zero guarantee that you will be accommodated on your flight out of BR. You could be stuck in BR for hours or even days, exceeding what is normally considered a transit period. Without a visa, you would technically not be legally eligible to enter the country. If the flight conditions change (e.g., due to irregular operations) you would need that visa to "enter" the country and find a place to crash until the next flight to your destination or back home. Yes, there is always the chance that this would happen to a commercial customer but there are procedures in place to handle these situations.
