Planning Brazil is the fun part. Rio, São Paulo, the coast, maybe a few extra days somewhere you discover along the way. Then the visa application asks for a flight reservation showing how you enter Brazil and how you leave. The good news is that the itinerary can describe the trip you actually want, rather than forcing you into a return flight from the city where you landed.
Brazil's Consulate General in San Francisco lists confirmation of a flight reservation showing both entry into and exit from Brazil among the documents for its electronic visitor visa guidance.
Who is the Brazil eVisa for?
Brazil brought back a visitor visa requirement for travelers using United States, Canadian and Australian passports on April 10, 2025. For tourism and eligible business visits, those passport holders can use the electronic visa process described by Brazil's foreign ministry. The Brazilian government announcement explains the change, and the consulate's eVisa page points applicants to the electronic application service.
This is a passport-specific route, not a new eVisa form that every visitor to Brazil completes. Travelers applying for a regular visitor visa through a Brazilian consulate may also be asked for a flight plan, but that is a separate application channel.
For anyone assembling a Brazil visa file, the practical question is the same: what should the flight document actually show?
Your arrival and departure do not need to be mirror images
Imagine landing in São Paulo (GRU), spending a few days there, continuing to Rio de Janeiro and flying home from Rio (GIG). That is a normal multi-city holiday. Your flight plan can show the arrival in one city and the departure from another, as long as both sectors describe the intended journey.
Or reverse the route: arrive in Rio, finish in São Paulo and leave from there. The important distinction is between a round-trip ticket to one airport and an itinerary with an entry and an exit. The consular wording asks for confirmation showing travel into and out of Brazil; it does not say the two international flights must use the same Brazilian airport.
A third-country departure can also be a natural part of a South American trip. Someone continuing from Brazil to another country is still showing a route out of Brazil, not necessarily a journey home. Keep the next country and its travel dates consistent with the plan you submit.
What belongs on the flight reservation?
The most useful document is one a reader can understand at a glance. It shows your full name, the international route, dates and airline flight details. A booking confirmation may also display a reservation reference, often called a PNR.
For a trip with a connection, keep the complete sequence visible. If you fly from Toronto to São Paulo through another hub, the itinerary should make the final arrival in Brazil understandable. The same goes for a departure with a connection: the first domestic leg is not, by itself, the flight out of Brazil.
A flight reservation records a proposed journey. An issued airline ticket is the document used to travel after the fare has been purchased. Brazil's San Francisco eVisa guidance uses the phrase confirmation of flight reservation, which is why it is useful to read the actual wording rather than assume that every application requires an already purchased fare.
The general guide to flight reservations versus paid tickets for visas explains this distinction without turning a travel plan into an accounting exercise.
A Brazilian consulate gives a useful planning tip
The Brazilian consulate in Barcelona makes the timing point unusually directly. Its visitor visa guidance in Spanish recommends reserving the flight instead of buying it before the visa is issued. That advice belongs to the consular visitor-visa process described on that page, while the San Francisco page provides the specific eVisa document list for eligible passports.
The takeaway for trip planning is simple: the document used to explain your proposed dates and the final airfare purchase can happen at different moments. That is especially handy when you want to compare cities, decide how long to stay or wait until the application is complete before settling on a fare.
For a longer discussion of planning a return flight around a visa application, see the existing return flight reservation guide.
How to make the dates work for a real holiday
Start with the number of days you actually want in Brazil. Then fit the arrival and departure flights around the places you want to see. A ten-day trip split between São Paulo and Rio needs a different pace from a month exploring several regions.
Keep the flight dates consistent with the stay described in the application and your accommodation plans. If you arrive late at night, the local arrival date may differ from the date you boarded abroad. And if your departure has a connection, the flight out of Brazil may happen on a different day from your arrival home.
You do not need to invent a complicated route to make the trip look substantial. Two international flight sectors, arranged around a realistic holiday, often tell the story better than a long chain of unnecessary stops.
From application to the actual trip
Once the visa stage is behind you, the next decisions are about the journey itself: which city you want to leave from, baggage allowances, connection times and whether the fare gives you enough flexibility. A reservation used for the application and the eventual ticket can reflect the same route without being the same purchase.
Brazil is a destination where an open-ended travel idea can become a very enjoyable multi-city itinerary. Start by getting the entry and exit points right; the beaches, neighborhoods and side trips can fill the space between them.