Preparing our First Overseas Trip to Brazil with a Baby... WE NEED A VISA?!?!?!

Preparing for our first overseas trip.

The last month before travel, I was busy researching and reading other parent's top advice/items to travel with.. meanwhile...
We completely forgot we needed visas to go to Brazil. It didn't come across my husbands mind either because he has citizenship there. I never thought about it since I've only been to Korea my entire life and never had to get a visa to go there either. Once we looked over the visa process through the general consulate website, we found out their visa appointments were completely booked! My husband went in person to talk to them and there was no exception (unless it's a emergency like death, of course; even that, i'm not sure if it's possible for non-citizens). The guy at the desk told us we can use a agency instead, but the consulate cannot process it for us without a appointment.
Although we had to spend money.. the agency recommended to us by the consulate was very convenient for us since we are able to pick up from the same building . The agency must have some kind of agreement with the consulate since they were able to get visas processed within 2 weeks. We used MyBrazilVisa and here is a brief email insert.

Im trying to get a tourist visa for me and my daughter.
I am wondering if we would get our visas before december 20th, as the consulate's appointment is booked till end of december.

and I got a response within a few days...

We are extremely busy this time of year, but we can assist you.
How old is your daughter?
One thing that you need to know about our agency is that we do NOT use the Brazil consulate’s public appointment system.  We have a standing appointment at the Brazil consulate every Tuesday and Thursday, so you do NOT need any appointment at the Brazil consulate to use our service.  However, you MUST prepare your and your daughter's complete visa application materials to provide to our agency, simply because we are too busy at the present time to assist in the preparation of customer visa application materials.  We keep our fees low, but for that you must prepare your materials and provide them fully prepared to our agency.  Once your materials are in order, you can ship the materials to our agency, or drop off the materials to our agency.  We do not review materials in person with customers upon drop off.  I do that by telephone in advance of the drop off, and you can reach me at (310) 666-1174, and I am next available to speak after 7:30 pm on Thursday evening, or any subsequent day (weekends are best).
Our website provides all of the info that you’ll need to prepare your visa application materials and payment to provide to our agency:
http://www.mybrazilvisa.com/visa/touristvisa.html
You have sufficient time, so you needn’t stress about the timeframe.  Ideally we would like to receive your visa application materials within the next week.

With that being done, I was relieved we had that figured out. Now, about my daughter's age being questioned..

I already reviewed through other blogs that Brazil has a very strict minor policy when it comes to travel, a lot of the hotels require birth certificate + passport when checking in. Obtaining a visa for my daughter, I needed to:

-Complete a visa consent form for a minor
-Have that same consent form signed by both parents
-Have a Notary Acknowledgement form NOTARIZED (we went to UPS)
-Have a statement of non registration signed by the Brazilian parent (because we didn't apply for Flora's Brazilian citizenship)

Fast-forward to arrival, there is a line for foreigners and we took that one because it was shorter.
*They also have a priority line for families, seniors and for the handicapped.
Then we were met by the arrival officer that asks where we are staying, reason for visiting, etc.
Afterwards, we walked through a short duty-free area on route to the exit where bag check officers are randomly picking people; we passed through so that was nice. (I've had relatives telling us how they got picked, stayed for hours and have to list prices for any item that looks new in their luggage)


Overall, I think everything went pretty smoothly for our first trip.

I'll try to come back and add stuff about the hotels that I can't seem to remember right now.