Brazilian authorities have added Ireland to the list of nationalities that can enter the country without a short-stay visa, deepening commercial and cultural ties between the two nations. Inter-Ministerial Ordinance 18/2026, published in the Federal Gazette last week and reported on 7 March 2026, waives both the e-visa and consular-sticker requirements for holders of Irish ordinary passports. The measure forms part of “Open Doors 2026”, a wider strategy that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva unveiled in January to accelerate post-pandemic tourism growth and win foreign investment ahead of Brazil’s World Expo 2027 bid. Irish travellers may now stay up to 30 days per entry and request one on-shore extension of the same length, giving a theoretical maximum of 90 days in any 12-month period. Longer work assignments or paid activities will still require the appropriate residence visa, but conference speakers and short-term assignees can pivot to the visa-free option, trimming at least two weeks off the usual lead time. For corporate mobility managers the implications are immediate. Irish engineering consultancies active in Brazil’s offshore-wind corridor can now dispatch troubleshooting teams to Recife or Fortaleza at short notice, while multinational tech firms with Latin-American headquarters in São Paulo gain extra flexibility for internal audits and project kick-offs. Travel-management companies are already updating approval workflows so that travellers’ days in Brazil feed automatically into duty-of-care and posted-worker trackers. Airlines are watching demand closely. Dublin enjoys no nonstop service to Brazil, but TAP, Air France–KLM and Lufthansa foresee stronger forward bookings on one-stop routes via Lisbon, Paris and Frankfurt. Should volumes materialise, industry analysts believe Aer Lingus could test a seasonal Dublin–São Paulo service with its incoming A321XLR narrow-bodies as early as Northern-winter 2027/28. Irish exporters also stand to benefit. Moving staff between Shannon’s med-tech cluster and Brazil’s booming healthcare market no longer carries a US $120 visa fee or courier expenses for passport shipments, lowering total trip cost by an estimated 8–10 percent. Bord Bia, Ireland’s food-promotion agency, said the exemption will support seafood and dairy trade missions planned for the second half of 2026. Practically, travellers must hold a passport valid for at least six months, proof of onward travel and sufficient funds for their stay. Brazil maintains the right to refuse entry on public-health or security grounds, and anyone engaging in remunerated activity must still secure a VITEM V or other appropriate category. Mobility teams are therefore advised to update policy matrices and educate assignees on the limits of the waiver.
Source: Travel and Tour World
