I'll start with the end, you can choose to read the amazing story after if you like.
Two stars for the incredibly helpful staff at PVE. They were amazing through this whole thing and really went out of their way to help. All I would have appreciated was some honesty and recognition that PVE messed up. And in doing so made me lose 3 days of my trip and spend an extra $1200 to change my flights. But, I was going to the World Cup come hell or high water!
I needed to get my Visa for the World Cup in Brazil and there were no more appointments at the San Francisco Consulate. My friend had gone through PVE and had zero issues, leading me to believe that I would have my Visa taken care of without problem.
I sent my documents to Chicago and they were forwarded to the NYC Consulate. Par for the course as NYC is the only Brazilian Consulate that processes requests via mail. And to be honest, I didn't leave much room for error as I had waited until nearly the last minute. I paid for the 12 day processing and my travel companion was a little nervous, asking me to change it to the 7 day.
I get online and start a chat. I asked to change my processing time to the 7 day, paid for it and was told my documents would be delivered to the NYC Brazilian Consulate the next day. Hmm, that was simple! Time passes and no word. I receive a call from the NYC Consulate informing that my Visa would be ready for pick up on June 11. My flight leaves from SFO on June 13 at 12:05am. Wow, I thought, this is gonna be a miracle. Not to mention, there's no reason my Visa should have been ready on June 11 after I paid for the 7 day processing. In fact, I should have had my visa well before that day.
I get online and start a chat again. I get the company line, "We cannot guarantee any processing because the Consulates cannot tell us which Visas will be released." Ok... That's understandable. Chat, company line, chat, company line, chat, company line...
Long story short, my Visa was "Held up in NY by the Consulate. We apologize sir, there's nothing we can do." I miss my flight and have to pay out the nose to get my flights rearranged. No big deal though, I'm going to make this happen.
Days pass and I'm still getting the company line. By this time I've gone to the San Francisco Consulate and received a phone number for someone in the NY office that is going to help me locate my Visa. Low and behold, my Visa was ready to be picked up and released on June 11... Odd, PVE said it wasn't. In fact, they were blaming the Consulate and strikes that had happened almost a month prior as to why they couldn't retrieve my documents. I asked NY about this claim, I was told that the strikes did not affect the Visas at all. In fact the only process that wasn't affected by the strikes was the Visa processing.
Honesty goes a long way. I know there was nothing that they could have done AFTER they had forgotten to change my processing time. But had they told me they had made a mistake, I would not have been bothered. Stuff happens, own up to it. read more