Days allowed in Sth American countries
 

Hi
As a UK passport holder I am allowed up to 90 days in most if not all the countries in South America without a visa.

Does that apply for your motorbike? After looking on the relevant pages I see mention of 30 days
If it is only 30 days, is that only for bikes on say a UK reg?

If I bought a motorbike in Peru for instance would that give me the full 90 days?

Thanks in advance :thumbup1:

90/90 most times
 

Most times customs will give you 90 days for you and 90 for your bike. I have read of riders getting shorted and only receiving 30 days. Sometimes the official is just being a ***** and won't give the rider more than 30 days on their bike. The first step is immigration, so ask for 90 days on your visa. Customs won't give you more than the number of days immigrations gave you (that happened to me one time. I can't remember where and it didn't matter in the end.)

I believe you will usually get 90 on the bike if you ask and if you get any push back, then ask extra nice. You will probably get what you ask for. As with most request, if you follow up with a reason, it helps. Say how you are planing to visit blah and blah-blah...and then see blah-blah-blah... If you are entering Argentina from Brazil and get 90 days on your visa, and when you ask for 90 days for you bike and they say 30...tell them about all the places you want to visit from the tango shows in BA to the sea lions in Terra del Fuego... Share with the official how much you are looking forward to spending quality time in their country. Ask if they know good hotels in the touristic places. The inference being you plan to spend money. I don't know if all of this is really necessary, but it might work.

I was restricted in length by visa and importation in Suriname. They are pretty tight in general and length of importation was no exception. I didn't really care as I was moving through pretty quickly and didn't plan to spend more than a week there. Ended up there only three nights. Same for Cuba, but the boat arrived and left 28 days later, so we were given papers for 30 days.

Cheers for the information

jeiger

Some do. Argentina routinely give you 8 months for the vehicle, but sometimes only 90 days. 90 for the rider.

Uruguay give 12 months at land crossings but maybe not at ferry crossings.

Bolivia is one where you might only get 30 days initially but which can be extended.

Another point to watch is that I believe 4 Central American countries only allow 90 days total spread between the 4 countries - bit like the Schengen zone in Europe which only allows 90 days combined over all treaty countries.

I stand corrected...
 

Thanks Tony. I stand corrected by someone with much more experience. What I should have said was, for me, one time, when entering a country immigrations gave me 30 days, and customs wouldn't give me more time.

Peter - seems to be a matter of whether the border official is in a good mood or not - so your experience is quite common. Paso Jama into Argentina is reputed to be very mean with TIP duration.
Some travellers get around it by just going to the next post and recrossing, but that might involve hundreds of kilometres detour and a couple of days driving so isn't practical in many situations.


One of those hope for the best but be prepared for the worst situations. I got 3 months crossing into Argentina way down south where it didn't matter, but got 8 months at the last crossing when it did matter as it saved me having to cross into Uruguay to store the vehicle

The latest I heard was Brazil no longer gives a TVIP, the last time I crossed in 2012 they did. Now you should be only limited by the time allowed on your passport VISA or stamp and your bike would not be on a time limit it would seem, maybe it is tied closer to your passport again I haven't crossed since I heard of TVIP no longer required.

Uruguay is supposed to have 12 month temporary import if asked for at certain locations, I have no personal experience with this yet.

My travel bike is still in Caracas after I crashed out in 2012 and I wait patiently until I can go again.

We have all "heard" about this - and I would really, really like it to be true, but until we have first hand accounts - several rather than just one - of someone entering with their vehicle, spending most of their allocated 90 days travelling around, then flying out and returning months after the 90 days and then driving out without problems, I don't see that it would be wise to assume anything just because a TIP isn't issued. All it would take is for the vehicle to be noted on the computer against the passport.
So far there have been a couple of accounts of the initial entry, but nothing about collecting the vehicle months after flying out - or for that matter, even flying out and leaving the vehicle behind within the 90 days..

If it was true, then Brazil would become the #1 country for selling a vehicle and storing them. No risk of border confiscations or fines for overstaying. Sounds too good to be true but hope it is true.

Obviously it IS true!
I entered a couple of days ago from Ciudad del Este to Foz de Iguacu, with my now-sold truck that contained my bike. NOONE was interested in me. I had to search for someone to import anything. They said, no, just continue. I re-entered to Paraguay with just the truck, imported it (also only for the new owner in order to officially nationalize it, otherwise noone cared) and returned on a moto-taxi (adrenaline!!).
The bike is right now officially nowhere as I have neither imported it into Paraguay (noone cared), but it is officially out of Argentina.
The hostal owner here, Rodolfo, who organized the HU meeting, says, there is NO TIP!
As to your concerns that this might allow a free sale here, it is a clear NO! If a brazilian wants to import the bike, it is tricky or at least very expensive. They have to pay around 100% taxes, as in Argentina. In Paraguay they pay around 40%only.
Tomorrow I will have a look at the cataratas on the argentinian side and return to Brazil. Then I know more...: )

I agree 100%, it makes no sense that a country that has such high import duties would stop controlling vehicles crossing its borders. Time will tell where the catch lies. Perhaps getting caught with an unregistered bike is met with stiff fines.

I left and entered Brazil today and explicitely asked for it: THERE IS NO TIP!
Believe it or not...

I believe
 

Like Mulder on The X-Files, I believe. Not in UFOs, but that there is no longer a TIP requirement when you ride into Brazil.

I still wonder if there is a catch. Certainly if a Brazilian is riding your bike and it has foreign plates, there will be problems or at a minimum a conversation at the police station.

Does TIP stand for Temporary import paperwork??? Just checking :rofl:

yes and no
 

In a restaurant TIP stands for 'To Insure Promptness.' At a border it appears to stand of the other thing. =)

I need to say that I unconditionally accept that there is NO TIP ISSUED going into Brazil. This saves us 5 minutes at the border and means one less bit of paper to look after. WooHoo!!
What else does it mean for us travellers? Maybe nothing, maybe a lot. We don't know yet.

What I don't accept is that this automatically means it is open slather as far as leaving our vehicles behind while we go back home for a few months. Good if that is the case, but since I doubt whether anyone can get an official written clarification of this, we will only know once travellers have tried it out and come out unscathed. Not just one or two, but many, with no failures. This will take many months to determine the pattern and will require a few travellers to test it out.

Maybe I will be the first one to test it. I have free secure parking in Brasilia, I will be entering for a couple of months and then flying to Australia and the Europe for at least six months and then coming back to Brasil to continue the journey. That would be a pretty good test, but in itself won't be conclusive..
Sounds like norschweger will also be a guinea pig.

I know of one recent case where a vehicle came in to Brazil with no TIP being issued, was sold and the original owners flew back to Europe leaving it with the new owners. What I don't know is whether the new owners have yet left Brasil or if there was a Power of Attorney/Poder involved. Even if they have got out OK, sighting one blowfly doesn't mean that summer has arrived.

Argentina is a good example where hundreds leave their vehicles and head home without problems, but if you are silly enough to ask the customs if it is OK, they will tell you it is illegal. Many also sell their vehicles and fly out, but some new owners come seriously unstuck because it is illegal.

TIP, TVIP Temporary (Vehicle) Import Permit - in one form or another is used by most countries from Mexico south - Brazil now excepted of course - and is roughly equivalent to the Carnet system used by many other countries (but heaps cheaper and more convenient) .
Some countries won't let you leave without taking the vehicle too, some let you leave provided you come back within the validity period of the original visa and TIP, some have different validity periods for visa and TIP, some can be extended in-country and some not. Some countries get together and have a single validity period for the total time spent in all those countries (like the Schengen zone in Europe)
No uniformity

Thanks for the info Tony
Do you get the TIP/TVIP when you enter the Sth American country or do you get it before you go??

Cheers
Wayne

Usual procedure when you get to a border is to go through Immigration first where you MUST make sure you get your passport stamped. They sometimes forget and then you can have trouble at the next border.
Then you go to the Aduana (Customs) where you show your passport again, plus the title and or registration papers for the vehicle. Sometimes they will come out and have a look and some even check the VIN, but not so often. They will then issue you with a sheet of paper with vehicle details, date of entry and date you have to be back out of the country. Don't lose it as you have to hand it in when you leave. Some countries have extra steps such as Chile where SAG conduct inspections for fruit and vegetables that range from extremely strict right through to the three stooges comedy. Some spray the vehicle tyres paying great attention to the outside of each tyre but not bothering with the underneath or even the inside of the tyres.

Some borders have combined border posts where you first check out of the country you are in - first Immigration and then Aduana and then move one window to the right to the Immigration and then Aduana of the next country. Sometimes you get a slip as you walk in and each window ticks one box and then there is a man collecting the slips as you drive out.

Lots of variations and sometimes there are crazy things like immigration being in a previous town and Aduana being 50 km away and down a side road (like heading out of Bolivia to Chile) or you have to pick up a bit of paper in one country for processing in the next country.
Most are very predictable and straight forward, but it pays to do some research so you don't get caught out and have to backtrack 50 miles. The central America forum on HUBB has a post on border crossings that is very comprehensive. Chile/Argentina crossings are pretty easy. Half are combined border posts and the rest are individual posts a few km apart, but sometimes a couple of hundred km apart with a huge no-mans-land - Paso Sico for instance.

Regarding the TIP - some countries have set-in-stone validity periods that are usually the same as your visa validity, but some will give you longer if you ask nicely. Argentina mostly gives 8 months TIP but only 3 months visa, but sometimes if you don't ask, they only give you 90 days.

Other thing is if you are American, Canadian or Australian, some countries operate on a payback principle and treat us as badly as our own governments treat visitors. Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile are examples and some of us can't just rock up to the border and be allowed in. Poms are OK though, even in Argentina. ;-)))

Tony
Thanks for all the info, I am British so i think its a little easier haha.

Wayne

much easier? maybe NOT in Argentina! "Las Malvinas son argentinas" : )

Can't be all that bad despite the huge signs down south. We drove a British registered iveco complete with big GB sticker around for 6 months and never had the slightest problem - although maybe all the kangaroo and map of Australia stickers all over it may have distracted the locals - of the fact that it was a RHD vehicle and they must be pretty rare judging by the bemusement of everyone including the police.
Photo taken by Phil, the previous owner.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-J...0/P1150223.JPG

I had proper EU GB stickers on the licence plates plus the oval GB sticker as well so it was unmistakeably British

Tony LEE, your information is PRICELESS! The fog of confusion is slowly clearing. Now to remember it all...


I'm guessing I'll be a testcase. I bought a bike from somebody here on the forum which is now stationed in Foz de Iguacu. He already went home, I'm picking it up in 2,5 months, and hope to drive clear out of Brazil. Hoping I won't have too much trouble.

More than two years låter, I have not had any problems. left Brazil, entered first Argentina, then Chile and Bolivia.Now on my way back to Brazil. Hopefully to do the same again...