I’ve heard Brazil has a pretty good approval rate for O-1 visas with consular processing. Has anyone considered this option or already gone through it? I’m interested in real experiences — how well does this actually work?
look, consular processing in a third country is always a lottery, whether it’s Brazil or not. the officer may ask why you’re not applying in your country of residence, and if they don’t like your answer they’ll deny it. if I were you, I’d first sort out the O-1 case itself, because if the petition is strong it’ll be approved even in, say, Belgrade, but if it’s weak no country’s statistics will save it. has your petition already been approved or are you still preparing it?
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Honestly, choosing the country for consular processing is a secondary issue — the primary one is how well the case is put together. If the petition is approved and the documents are in order, most consulates shouldn’t be a problem. If I were you I’d focus more on logistics — getting an appointment, flying there, waiting to get your passport back. Country statistics are a tricky thing: they fluctuate and the sample sizes are small, so it’s hard to draw conclusions. Also, clarify — do you already have approval or are you still at the filing stage?
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Well, I’ve heard mixed things about Brazil — some people got really lucky, while others ended up on AP (АП) for a year and a half. So I wouldn’t fixate on the country; I’d look more at the specific case. I generally agree about the logistics — that’s really more important than pretty statistics.
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I think everyone’s already said the main thing — the country is secondary, the case is primary. When I redid my petition with a lawyer, I didn’t worry at all about where to file it, because I knew the documents were properly put together. But if I’d taken my first petition to Brazil or anywhere else, it wouldn’t have helped, because the problem was with the case itself, not the consulate.
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the only thing I’ll add - with TCN processing, i.e. when you apply outside your country of citizenship, the consular officer has every right to ask “why not home country”, and if the answer doesn’t convince them - that’s a 221(g) and that’s that. the petition decides, not the consulate’s geography.
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Via Brazil? Is there a residence permit there? Without a residence permit you can’t, like before, just register in any country.
I just posted about this topic today, more precisely covering this question.
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We’re right to say the case matters more than the country, but Brazil is actually a solid option if the logistics allow — I’ve seen people who, after being refused in one place, easily get a visa in São Paulo. Just don’t base your strategy on that: first make sure your petition is rock‑solid, then choose where to fly. Hang in there, you’ll figure it out)
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By the way, you were right to raise the question about the residence permit — when I was thinking where to reapply after the denial, I also started googling all those options with third countries and nearly got tangled up in the filing rules. In the end the lawyer told me, “focus on the petition, not the geography,” and that was the best thing I heard that month. You can spin the statistics however you like, but a strong case is a strong case at any consulate.
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