How to obtain residency in Brazil: 6 Key Pathways

I met with Francisco, my Brazil residency and tax pro, to get the latest updates on how to get residency in Brazil. Together, in the video below we break down the various pathways, requirements and tax implications. This guide will take you through each step and detail of securing permanent residency in Brazil.

Why get residency in Brazil?

• Can apply for citizenship after four years of permanent residency and in some cases one
• Live in a tropical climate with many world class urban metropolises
• Take advantage of high quality private healthcare
• Spend your winters where it is summer, all while staying in an American time zone
• Dual citizenship is allowed
• In some cases taxes are not as bad as one could be lead to think by the headline tax rates

What are the pathways to residency in Brazil?

There are six pathways to get residency and permanent residency in Brazil:

Family Reunification

This visa category allows you to apply for residency as a family member of a Brazilian national or a foreign national holding a Brazilian residence permit. There is a broad spectrum of relatives eligible to apply, including spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren of the sponsoring individual. Individuals with a Brazilian spouse or child can apply for citizenship after one year of residency.

Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP)

If you are from a country such as Portugal, Angola or elsewhere in the Lusophone world, you can apply for residency through a preferred granting of a two-year temporary residency and work permit. After this you can apply for permanent residence in Brazil.

Mercosur

Nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay are eligible to apply for a temporary residence permit, which can be extended to dependents of these individuals regardless of the children’s citizenship.

Work Visa

If you are sponsored by a company or organization to do work in Brazil you can obtain a temporary residence permit this way.

Retirement Visa

This category of visa grants temporary residency to retired applicants earning $2000 USD of regular income monthly. The income does not have to be solely pension income, it can include other passive sources such as rental income.

Brazil Permanent Residency Investor Visa (VIPER)

With a Permanent Residency Investor Visa you can engage in business activities, purchase real estate and open a company.

Documents needed to apply for the Brazil Investor Visa

• A valid passport
• Apostilled clean criminal background check from your country of citizenship and any country you have lived in during the prior 12 months. Must be issued less than three months from time of application.
• Apostille birth certificate
• Apostille marriage certificate (if applicable)
• Proof of health insurance coverage in Brazil
• A valid tax identifier number (CPF)
  

How to apply for citizenship in Brazil

The normal timeline for naturalization is four years. If you have a Brazilian child, are from a Portuguese speaking (CPLP) country, or have made a significant cultural or philanthropic contribution to Brazil, you may apply for naturalization after one year.

You must spend 9 months per year in Brazil of the total residency period. This is not a citizenship that you will get by simply acquiring the property or making the investment. You must be a genuine resident of Brazil during the permanent residency period.

You must also demonstrate proficiency in the Portuguese language to naturalize.  

Does Brazil consider me a tax resident as a permanent resident?

There is a six-month rule if you are a temporary resident, whereby if you exceed 183 days physically in Brazil you become a tax resident.

If you obtain permanent residency in Brazil, you become a tax resident on day one.

If you decide you want to depart as a tax resident, you can submit a definitive departure form declaring that you no longer intend to be considered a tax resident of Brazil. You can still keep your permanent residency. 

Tax incentives as a Brazil resident

Brazil is by no means a tax haven, but there are some special regimes that can help you optimize your tax exposure.

Simples Nacional Regime

If you are already a resident, there is the Simples Nacional tax regime for small companies making up to 4.8 million BRL (~$850,000) in annual turnover. Remote entrepreneurs and others can set up such a company and pay based on turnover, not your profit. You can expect to pay 3% to 15% with such a structure.

Offshore Company Regime

Since 2024 if you live in Brazil and you have a company outside Brazil that is paying under 20% corporate income tax, or that is in a tax haven according to Brazil, you can pay 15% flat tax on the profits of the companies even if they aren’t distributed.

Lucro Presumido Regime

For those investing in real estate locally, taxes on rents in Brazil are up to 27.5%, but if you run them through a local company you can use the Lucro Presumido regime. You will pay in the neighborhood of 14-15% owning the property through such a company as opposed to as an individual.

Transcript of “How to get residency in Brazil & and taxes in Brazil”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m with Francisco, and we shall be discussing how to obtain residency in Brazil. Francisco, you have a firm helping people move to Brazil, birth tourism, etc.

How to get residency in Brazil

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can you tell us about the different ways a foreigner can get residency in Brazil?

FRANCISCO: Yeah. There’s a number of ways. The easiest one, of course, if you have the family reunification option. If you give birth in Brazil, the kid becomes Brazilian, and you can get PR right away. Same thing, if you’re married or in a stable union to a Brazilian, then you can also get PR right away. Besides this, there is the option for nationals of preferred countries, so basically, from all of the Portuguese-speaking countries, you can get the CPLP visa, show $1,500 regular income, and then you can progress to PR in two years. There’s the Mercosur visa, if you’re Argentinian or Colombian national, not resident, so if you have Paraguay residency, this doesn’t count. But if you’re a national of one of these countries, then you can also apply for PR, then two years, and then you go for PR.

Besides this, there is the work visa option, depending how you’re getting hired, you can get, like, even a permanent worker visa that can lead to citizenship. Of course, this can also be structured, if the person is looking to create their own company and can be done, especially for startups and for executives, there is a preference there to get straight to PR.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But it needs to be a real business? Can you just, like some countries, you just create a company, hire yourself as director, and boom, you get residency this way, or do you actually need to be running business?

FRANCISCO: You have to actually be employed. You need to have local salary, you have to have the social security contributions. But yes, it’s possible to structure it with your own local, like, structure your own local business. And then there is the retiree visa option. If you have $2,000 monthly regular income, and then this does not have to be solely pension income. If you have, let’s say, like, $800 of pension, but then you have some rentals on the side, then you can complement it to reach the $2k.

Brazil investor visa for real estate

FRANCISCO: And then the most interesting one, I would say, that leads to PR, is the investor visa. And then here you have many options. You can do business ventures, you can invest in the country, and you can also buy real estate. This also qualifies.

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, let’s talk about this in detail. Let’s say, I come to you, Francisco, and I say, “I want to move to Brazil. I have money to invest. I want to do the investor visa.” Talk me through it.

FRANCISCO: Okay? We can help with the entire investor visa process, be it through the business option or the real estate option. For the business option, it’s usually R$500,000. This will depend on the exchange rate at the time, but it’s like about $100k, a bit less. If you’re investing through an existing legal entity, then it’s R$600,000. If you’re investing as an individual, R$500,000, then as an entity, R$600,000. And if you’re doing a startup investment, then that’s R$150,000 that you have to invest, so, like, $35k roughly. This would be the business side.

Then there is the real estate investment side, which allows you to buy urban real estate. If you’re getting rural real estate, there’s a series of additional requirements and complications, so we’re talking urban real estate here. If you’re investing in the north and the northeast regions, which are, overall, the poorer, least-developed regions of Brazil, then it’s R$700,000, so roughly like $125k. And if you’re investing in the other regions of Brazil, so Center East, South, and Southeast, then it’s R$1 million, so about $180k. Mostly, when people are going for the cheaper options, they go for the Northeast instead of the North, because that’s where all the coastal beach cities are, like, the perpetual Caribbean weather. So Salvador, Recife, João Pessoa, Fortaleza, Pipa, a big expat hub nowadays. That’s the Northeast options.

And then, in the south, very popular with expats, Florianópolis, currently, because it’s safer. Rio de Janeiro, of course. And then you can also check other options, like Sao Paulo or Curitiba, depending on each person’s preferences.

How to buy property in Brazil

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Let’s say, I want to go with the real estate option, which is the most logical, because I think there’s a lot of corpses of–

FRANCISCO: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: people trying to do business in Brazil.

FRANCISCO: To do business in Brazil?

LADISLAS MAURICE: So let’s focus on the reasonable option. So I choose a property, I go through the purchase process, I have the title deed in hand, what do you need from me? What documents do you need from me? What are the timelines? Talk me through it.

FRANCISCO: Okay, so Brazil is a bit of a bureaucratic country, to say the least. There’s a couple of bureaucratic things we have to keep in mind, even before the property purchase, which is to be able to buy a property, first, you have to get the CPF. And the CPF is this tax number in Brazil that’s going to be used for everything, so for bank accounts, for the residency, for anything. Like, buying a bus ticket in Brazil, they ask you for the CPF.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It was terrible. I remember being in Rio, I had to send a DHL quite urgently, and they asked me for a CPF. I was, like, “I’m not a resident here. I just need to send a DHL.” They’re like, “Ah, sorry, we can’t.” So we had to use someone else’s CPF.

FRANCISCO: The thing is, Brazil currently doesn’t have much tourism and doesn’t have that many expats compared to, let’s say, Mexico or so. So all of our internal systems for pharmacies, to restaurants, to everything, they’re considering that the client is going to be Brazilian, right? Like, 90% of Brazil’s tourism is internal tourism from other Brazilian states. Now that there’s more international demand, this is beginning to change. For example, until two years ago, it was almost impossible to get a bank account as a nonresident, but now, because so many Brazilians are leaving, and also because many foreigners are coming, there’s been a number of banks that started offering these nonresident accounts, right? They’re called the CDEs, conta domiciliada no exterior.

Even for, like, buying real estate or so, before, you had to send international Swift transaction from outside, now you can actually get a bank account before you become a resident. For the purchase itself, you’re going to have to get the CPF. This can be requested remotely from outside of Brazil. We can do the whole process online. Can expect a month to get this number. Then you can purchase the property, you get the title. Then we’re going to need the birth certificate, or your marriage certificate, apostilled, passports, all the documentation from the property.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Criminal background check as well?

FRANCISCO: Criminal background check. And then you’re going to have to go to the Federal Police in Brazil, that’s where they take all the registrations for foreigners. You’re going to get the RNE, which is into the registration of foreigners. And then you’re going to get a separate ID card, the CRNM, for foreigners, also.

Timeline for getting permanent residency in Brazil

FRANCISCO: Timeline is a bit hard to say. It depends also where you’re going to process this, because there’s many different places from the Polícia Federal and how they’re on– Brazil varies, but you can expect from several weeks to as long as 12 months.

But the main point is, when you apply for the residency, while you’re waiting for the documentation to come out, you can already use a property and stay in Brazil. You don’t have to wait until everything, like, for the 12 months until you can actually come and spend time in Brazil.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So you do this and you get permanent residency?

FRANCISCO: For the investor visa, you’re going to get a temporary residency. And you’re supposed to stay at least 30 days during this period in Brazil. And then, after the two years, you can convert it to permanent residency if you still kept the property. You’re not supposed to sell it. Once you’re a permanent resident, then you are going to progress onto the citizenship, and then you have no requirement anymore.

LADISLAS MAURICE: How much longer to apply for citizenship after PR? Essentially, I can come, I buy the property, blah, blah, CPF, etc., then I just need to spend 30 days in two years on temporary residency to then get my permanent residency? Am I getting this correct?

Naturalization process in Brazil

FRANCISCO: Yes. You only have to spend 30 days during this residence period if you’re a real estate investor, and then you can convert to the permanent residency later on. They’re going to want to see that you still have the property, but then, once you progress to PR, then you start counting the time for the citizenship. The regular naturalization time is four years. However, if you are married to a Brazilian, or you have a Brazilian child, so if you give birth, the child is automatically Brazilian, so many do that. If you have Brazilian child or are from a Portuguese-speaking country by origin, like Portugal, Angola, whatever, then you can apply for it in one year of PR. If you are recognized for extraordinary feats of science or arts and so on, then, or, like, business philanthropy, two years. Otherwise, the regular period is four years.

And the important thing is so you can qualify for the citizenship you’re supposed to stay nine months per year of the aggregate period that you have to qualify for. If you’re qualifying in one year, you have to spend nine months in Brazil. If you’re qualifying on the basis of four years, then you have to spend, out of those four years, three of them in Brazil. It doesn’t have to be like nine months per exact year, but on the aggregate of the four years, you should have spent three years in Brazil. This is not a citizenship that you’re going to get, like, “Oh, just going to get the property. I’m going to travel around, and then I’m going to collect a passport later on.” Unfortunately, you actually are supposed to put the time in so you can qualify for the citizenship.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s say, I’m not looking for citizenship and I just want permanent residency as a Plan B, without necessarily wanting to spend that much time in Brazil, do I risk losing my permanent residency if I don’t spend X amount of time in the country? How does it work?

FRANCISCO: Yours, you’re not supposed to stay outside of Brazil for more than two consecutive years in a row. Similar to Panama, you can come back for a few days every two years or so. You can present a justification if you have some reason for being abroad for longer than this, and then they can let you stay longer. But in general–

LADISLAS MAURICE: Check in every two years?

FRANCISCO: check in every two years.

Does Brazil consider me a tax resident with permanent residency?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Let’s say, I do this. Let’s say, whatever, I have a Brazilian girlfriend, I get PR this way, and then I just want to use it as a Plan B. Now I just check in every two years. Does Brazil consider me a tax resident with a PR?

FRANCISCO: This is one of the main reasons why I would say that if you’re looking to get PR in Brazil, that you should go for the citizenship, you should really consider spending the time and getting the document. Because in the understanding of the Federal Revenue Service, they have the six-month rule, the 183-day rule if you’re a temporary resident. If you’re a temporary resident and you’re spending over six months, then you become a tax resident. But for PR, the moment you step in Brazil with a PR, you automatically become a tax resident.

And here’s the thing, so you become a tax resident, we can talk about the tax situation in Brazil in a bit, but when you’re a tax resident, if you want to stop being a tax resident, you have to do this declaration of departure, which is very easy to do. It’s not an exit tax by any means, it’s just a partial tax filing, like for the part of the year you were in Brazil. But when you hand in this definitive departure thing, you lose the PR. And if you’re a Brazilian, on the other hand, if I do this, I do the definitive departure, I’m no longer a tax resident. And then if I want, next year, I change my mind, I can just come back. And then, for that year, I wasn’t a tax resident, but then for the year after, I decided, no, I’m coming back to Brazil, and then I can do it again.

I’ve already seen some cases. For example, an Argentinian client of mine, he married a Brazilian, had Brazilian kids, lived in Brazil for, like, 10 years, and now with the current political situation, with Lula, the rising taxes, he wants to leave, but he never went for his citizenship. If he does the exit now, he loses his PR, and then if he wants to get citizenship later, he’s going to have to apply for PR again and do it all over again. Now we’re doing his citizenship application so that after he becomes a citizen, then he can depart, and should the situation change, he comes back anytime he wants.

Double taxation in Brazil

LADISLAS MAURICE: What about when people live in a country that has a double tax treaty agreement with Brazil? Let’s say, I’m in Toronto. I have Brazilian PR as a Plan B. Brazil considers me a tax resident, but I’m actually spending nine months per year in Canada, and according to the double tax treaty, I’m probably only a tax resident in Canada. Does Brazil actually recognize these matters, and how does it work concretely? Let’s say, I’m your client. I have PR, and I tell you, “Francisco, I know I have permanent residency in Brazil. I know they consider me a tax resident, but I believe I’m not because of this double tax treaty agreement which protects me.” What are the steps that need to be taken to make sure I’m not running into major issues?

FRANCISCO: First of all, in this case, you’d have to use the double tax treaty and read what it says regarding tax residency. Usually, in the tax treaties that I’ve read from Brazil and other countries, the main criteria are where you have your definitive center of life, where you have your permanent dwelling. Otherwise, if you don’t have or if you have it in both, then where you’re spending most of your time, where you’re living your day-to-day. In this case, it would fall on the basis of Canada, or Uruguay, or Spain, or these countries where Brazil has a treaty.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But you still need to file a return every year in Brazil, or some sort of document to file to say, I’m not a tax resident?

FRANCISCO: You have to use a double tax treaty, like, go into it with a lawyer in Brazil to claim this, and that you’re not a tax resident. This would be, like, an extraordinary circumstance, let’s say. Most cases, not saying this is a recommended or legal, but usually when people, like, have this PR and they’re living somewhere else, they don’t have any Brazilian income to tax or declare, so they just don’t declare anything. And since the Brazilian Federal Revenue doesn’t know your other assets in this case, then–

LADISLAS MAURICE: This is not tax advice. [laughs]

FRANCISCO: This is not tax advice.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s actually not tax advice.

FRANCISCO: This is not recommended. This is not what you should do. I’m just saying, like, the usual way is just people don’t do it. Of course, you’re supposed to declare all of your assets and all of your income when you’re a tax resident in Brazil. In any case, there is tax compensation. If you’re already paying tax in Canada or in another country, then Brazil recognizes it, even when there’s no tax treaty. In the case, for example, of you’re paying a 30% withholding on US dividends, then you can credit it that entire amount in Brazil. And since the top tax rate in Brazil is 27.5%, and if you’re paying anywhere above that, you’re not going to pay anything else in Brazil.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Because, generally speaking, Brazil is tax hell, right?

FRANCISCO: In general, Brazil is a tax hell, and the taxes are increasing, especially import taxes or taxes on, like, real businesses, they’re super high, some of the highest in the world. But there are a number of ways to pay low income tax legally. And in fact, when I work with Brazilian clients moving to Europe, they’re often shocked at how much more tax they’re going to have to pay, even when they go to these special tax regimes, like, the Portuguese NHR, or, like, Malta, or whatever.

Tax schemes and incentives in Brazil

FRANCISCO: In Brazil, there’s a couple options to optimize.

First of all, when you’re already a resident, and this is only for residents, there is the simples nacional regime, which is a regime for small companies, up to R$4.8 million turnover per year. That’s, like, $800,000 yearly income. Most people, be them contractors, or independent remote entrepreneurs, they’re all setting up these simples nacionalcompanies. And there, you don’t pay tax on your profits, you pay tax on your gross turnover. And then for most people earning, let’s say, $100k to $300k per year, you’re going to pay between 3% to 15% tax total.

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s not too bad.

FRANCISCO: Currently, there is no taxation of dividends from Brazilian dividends exclusively. You pay this tax at the company level, and then when you distribute the dividend to yourself, there’s no additional tax to be paid. Total income tax for a lot of these people is between 3% to 10%, 15%. Now, this is using a local Brazilian company. There’s also the option, if you have a foreign company. Let’s say, you have a US LLC, and you’re living in Brazil. Since 2024, there is an offshore law that went into effect that basically says, if you live in Brazil and you have a company outside of Brazil that is paying under 20% corporate income tax, or that is located in one of the tax havens according to Brazil, then you’re supposed to pay 15% flat tax on the profits of those companies, even if they’re not distributed.

Let’s say, the profits attributable to you. You have a US LLC, 100% of that LLC belongs to you, and you have $100k profit for that year. You’re supposed to pay 15% of that tax on your personal income tax in Brazil. If you leave the money in the company and you decide to invest, that tax has already been paid, so if you decide to distribute the money later on, there’s no additional tax on the distribution. However, if you do distribute it, it’s the same 15%. Especially for those that are considering nationality in Brazil.

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s not too bad.

FRANCISCO: We don’t know if they will try to raise taxes in other ways, as they’re currently doing. Currently, the government is focusing on things like VAT, and–

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s a bigger one.

FRANCISCO: and so on. There’s, at least, no plan to change that for the offshore companies. So 15% flat tax, you live in Brazil from one to four years under PR, can get citizenship. And then if you want to leave later, there is no exit tax, so you can simply exit, realize your capital gains. And then if you want, come back after a year or two and enjoy the capital gains that you had.

Simples nacional companies is a big one, offshore companies is a big one, and then, especially for those who are doing local real estate and you have residency, it’s important to mention, taxes on rents in Brazil are up to 27.5% if you’re earning the rents as an individual resident in Brazil. But if you run them through a local company, then they have this regime that you can take for local companies called presumed profit, lucro presumido, where you’re going to pay 14%, 15% tax on your rental income. You can, basically, cut it in half if you own the property through a company, instead of owning the property directly as an individual. That’s another tax optimization opportunity for real estate investors.

Get in touch with Francisco for residency and tax accounting

LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting. So you can help people with all this residency, all the tax stuff, all that?

FRANCISCO: Yeah, so we can help getting all of the different residencies in Brazil, so investor residency, family reunification, retiree, etc. And then on the tax side, help structure simples nacional companies or local holding companies for real estate as well as help with accounting for offshore companies. If you have a US LLC, or a Nevis company, or a BVI, whichever offshore company you have, you have this 15% flat tax. But the thing is, you have to present the company’s accounting in Brazil. And the thing is, a lot of these jurisdictions don’t need audited accounting usually, so you’re going to have to hire an accountant to present it in Brazil.

You can present in International Accounting Standards, or you can use Brazilian accounting standards to present this. And we have local tax jurists and accountants who can help provide these declarations and accounting for the company.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, fantastic. Great. All right, so if you’re interested, there is a link below. You can find more information and get in touch directly with Francisco.

FRANCISCO: Thank you, Ladislas.

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. Thank you.