The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) updated its Brazil country advice late on 27 July. Although the document still lists broad areas of Amazonas state as “all-but-essential travel”, two changes have particular relevance for corporate mobility programmes. First, the ‘Safety and security’ chapter now includes an expanded **section on digital-payment and ride-hailing scams**. The FCDO cites a 22 % year-on-year rise in card-cloning incidents reported by British travellers, many stemming from tampered card readers in unofficial airport taxis. Guidance urges visitors to use only pre-paid booths inside terminal buildings or authorised app-based services and to insist on e-receipts. Second, the ‘Regional risks’ map has been redrawn to include parts of Pará’s border with Amazonas, following a surge in illegal mining and organised-crime activity. Firms with logistics operations on the BR-230 Trans-Amazonian Highway are advised to reassess routing and overnight security. While visa requirements for UK nationals remain unchanged (the electronic visa waiver re-introduced in April still applies), relocation providers should note that the FCDO update may affect employees’ travel-insurance coverage; many UK underwriters exclude claims arising in zones under ‘against all but essential travel’ advisories. HR teams are therefore advised to log the new geographies in internal approval workflows.
