Frequent questions about immigrating to Brazil

A visa is authorization to enter, granted by a Brazilian consulate while you are outside the country. A residence permit is authorization to stay, applied for inside Brazil, at the Polícia Federal (Federal Police). Anyone entering on a temporary visa still has to complete the registration in order to receive the CRNM.

With a diagnosis of your tie to the country. Having a Brazilian spouse, child, parent or sibling, a job offer, a university place, capital to invest or remote work for a foreign client leads to different routes, with different deadlines and requirements. Fixing the right legal grounds before gathering a single document is what avoids doing the work twice.

Not necessarily. From abroad, the normal route is the consular visa. From inside Brazil, several grounds allow a residence application straight to the Polícia Federal. In some cases it is worth planning your entry in a particular way precisely in order to open the more advantageous route.

The total cost combines official fees, apostille, sworn translation and professional fees. Fees vary by type of application and document costs vary by country of origin. We present a closed quote after the analysis, together with the document list for your case, so there is no surprise cost mid-process.

Only once they are apostilled, or legalized at the Brazilian consulate if the country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, and translated by a Brazilian public translator. The order is that: apostille first, translation second, because the apostille is translated too.

Yes, and it is a frequent problem for anyone with a compound first name, a double surname or a transliteration from another alphabet. A spelling difference between passport, certificate and translation triggers a request for correction. It is worth identifying and fixing that before filing.

The CPF is required at practically every stage of life in Brazil and it appears in the paperwork of immigration cases. It is one of the first items to sort out, and a foreign national can obtain one, including at a consular post.

Not yet. After entering on a temporary visa you have to complete the migration registration at the Polícia Federal within the legal deadline, counted from entry. It is a short deadline and missing it creates an irregular status even with a valid visa in your passport.

Get advice immediately. The Migration Law favors regularization, and staying beyond your term is as a rule an administrative fine, not automatic deportation. But time works against you: the longer the irregular status, the fewer the alternatives.

It depends on the type of application and the stage. In some cases leaving the country during the examination damages the case. Confirm before buying a ticket, because undoing that kind of decision is usually impossible.

It depends on the grounds behind the residence. Family reunion generally allows paid activity. Digital nomad residence does not authorize employment with a Brazilian company. Check the work authorization attached to your case before signing a contract.

A great deal. The spouse or partner of a Brazilian has their own grounds for residence through family reunion and also has the naturalization term reduced to one year. The sensitive point is proving the relationship, above all in a stable union.

The general rule is four years of residence. It drops to one year for anyone with a Brazilian child or spouse, among other situations. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries need one uninterrupted year. There is also extraordinary naturalization, after more than fifteen uninterrupted years, which waives the language requirement.

Having a Brazilian child is an express ground for residence through family reunion and it also reduces the ordinary naturalization term to one year. There is no automatic guarantee, because the application still has to be prepared correctly, but it is one of the strongest grounds in the law.