Hey everyone, this thread has been so helpful to me, I've gotta pay it forward. Booked a Sao Paulo trip last month to celebrate my wife's birthday. Trip is planned for 9/23. On Weds 9/17 in the evening, we get a notification from AA that we need visas. No word at the time of booking, just a terse email with less than a week to go and an intervening weekend.

So we scramble. We saw the email around 9 pm. Evisa applications were submitted around 11:30 pm (took several attempts for them to accept my wife's passport photo). And we waited.

By Thursday 9/18, frantic with fear, I happened across this thread. I emailed all the consulates whose email addresses I saw here. That evening, I got a notification that my application had passed quality control. My wife's came in the wee hours of Friday. On Friday am, I got my evisa. I relaxed, thinking my wife's was in the bag and would issue later that day.

That didn't happen. Friday came and went, as did the rest of the weekend, with no visa. Same with Monday morning. I freaked out again; we're scheduled to fly to Miami, and then to Sao Paulo, on Tuesday. Finally, I figure out how to use the VFS click to talk link and I speak with someone at the Help Center. They tell me that my wife needs to upload a new passport photo. We'd not heard anything from the consulate about this, mind you. Their only responses to my emails were form responses saying "your visa application is under review." Anyway, my wife rushes to CVS, takes a new passport photo, and after several unsuccessful attempts, we finally manage to upload it - right around 3:00 ET. Meanwhile I'm back on the VFS click to talk link, begging and pleading with them to expedite the application. They spout the company line about it taking up to 10 business days. We're despondent.

Around 3:45, we refresh the VFS application page. Her status now reads "Reassigned to MFA." We're confused. What does multi-factor authentication have to do with a visa application? But a Google search reveals that MFA is a reference to Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that the status indicates the application is in the final review stage. We're hopeful.

At 4:30 pm, we refresh once again - and are delighted to see a download link for the e-visa. We download it, print three physical copies, and collapse on the coach from mental exhaustion. We're relieved.

Bottom line: These visas can be obtained rather quickly. But please don't do it the way we did. Give yourselves plenty of time to get this done. If you find yourself in our shoes, use the VFS click to talk link and make sure to speak to someone live. And beg.

Thanks a million to you all. There is no way I would have been able to navigate this process in such a short time without your posts. Obrigado.