Brazil Investor Visa

What the property route is

A Brazilian property deed doesn't let you live in Brazil. An article on the International Bar Association's site puts it directly: owning an asset doesn't entitle you to a visa. The route described here is narrower. Under Normative Resolution 36 of 9 October 2018 from the National Immigration Council (CNIg), a foreigner who invests their own funds from abroad in urban property above a set value can get residence authorization.

The name causes confusion. Law 13.445/2017, the Migration Law, replaced the old visa system. Art. 12 lists five visa types: visit, temporary, diplomatic, official and courtesy. There is no "permanent visa" any more, and older pages that use terms such as VIPER describe a system that has gone. The current path has two parts: a temporary visa or residence authorization for four years, then indefinite residence. Consulates number temporary visas under codes of their own, so ask yours which code it uses for RN 36.

The file also goes to a different office than older guides say. RN 36 as it stands names the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and Decree 12.657/2025 updated art. 42 of the migration decree to send prior authorization requests there. CNIg writes the rule. The ministry decides your file.

Use has grown from a low base. An IBA article cited nine visas in about the first year. The ministry reported R$ 283.2 million of immigrant investment in property from January to September 2024, led by the United States at R$ 65.7 million, France at R$ 39.9 million and Italy at R$ 39.5 million. By state, Rio de Janeiro took R$ 125.2 million, São Paulo R$ 56.4 million and Santa Catarina R$ 23.2 million.

Residence is one decision among several, so compare it with the others in the residency options guide before you tie a purchase to it.

Thresholds by region

RN 36, art. 2 sets the minimum at R$ 1,000,000, invested in urban property. Art. 2, §1 says the minimum may be up to 30% lower for property in the North and Northeast regions, which gives the R$ 700,000 figure the ministry itself quotes. The rule is written in reais and there is no dollar version. Dollar figures are only conversions, and they move daily.

You will still see "about US$ 200,000" quoted online. That is wrong as stated, on two counts. The rule sets no dollar figure, and at the current rate R$ 1,000,000 is about US$ 184,502, while the lower threshold is about US$ 129,151.

Exchange rates can catch you. Suppose you plan to send US$ 130,000 for a R$ 700,000 home in Natal. At R$ 5.42 that is R$ 704,600, which clears the bar by R$ 4,600. If the rate drops 2% to R$ 5.31 before the transfer, you get R$ 690,300 and fall short. Fees also come off the top. Leave a margin, and see Sending Money to Brazil before you fix the date.

The ministry says the threshold is lower in the North and Northeast to encourage investment there, and the wording is "may be up to 30% lower". The text does not set out when the ministry would accept less than the full reduction. Every source reviewed for this guide treats R$ 700,000 as the working figure, including the ministry's own 2024 note.

How much home does the minimum buy? Dividing by FipeZAP's September 2026 city averages gives a rough answer. Prime neighborhoods cost more than these averages, and so the same money buys less in Barra or Copacabana.

Closing costs sit on top of the price. ITBI, notary and registry fees are what you pay to complete the purchase, and RN 36 measures the property, so don't count them toward the minimum unless a lawyer says otherwise. Check real asking prices on the listings page and each city page before you rely on a figure.

What counts toward the amount

The text of RN 36 is short, and most buyer mistakes come from assuming more than it says.

Worked examples

• Two apartments in Ponta Negra at R$ 380,000 and R$ 340,000, both in your name, total R$ 720,000. That clears R$ 700,000, as long as both are paid with foreign funds.
• A couple buys a R$ 1,400,000 house in Campeche in equal shares. Each share is R$ 700,000, and the region's minimum is R$ 1,000,000. Art. 3, §1 allows co-ownership only if each co-owner invested the full minimum, so neither qualifies on these numbers. Ask a lawyer whether one spouse should qualify alone on a purchase in one name, with the other joining through family reunion, explained below.
• A buyer pays R$ 1,000,000 from abroad and borrows R$ 500,000 for an apartment costing R$ 1,500,000 in Pinheiros. That works: the loan covers only the part above the minimum.
• A buyer pays R$ 700,000 from abroad and borrows R$ 300,000 for an apartment costing R$ 1,000,000 in Botafogo. That fails, because the Southeast minimum is R$ 1,000,000, while only R$ 700,000 came from abroad.

Points the text leaves open

Three things deserve a written answer from a lawyer.

• Which value counts? RN 36 speaks of the property's value and the bank statement of the transfer. It doesn't say what happens if the deed value, the appraised value and the transfer differ. Keep them aligned. A deed understated to reduce ITBI (the city's transfer tax) could sink your file, and art. 6-C opens cancelation for false statements. The tax side is in the closing costs guide.
• Does financing work the same way at the lower threshold? Art. 3, §2 allows financing on the portion above R$ 1,000,000, "ressalvando-se" (setting aside) art. 2, §1, the North and Northeast reduction, and it doesn't spell out the result. One law firm says financing doesn't count toward the minimum at all. For a R$ 700,000 purchase in the Northeast, ask how the ministry treats it.
• What about ownership through a company? The text speaks of a natural person owning the property. Older guides mention a CNPJ, but the current wording doesn't support that.

On land without a building, RN 36 names finished property and property under construction. It doesn't list bare land. Don't count on it. Older pages also claimed that an unregistered off-plan unit never counts. That is wrong as a general rule, since art. 3, II provides for it, though the paperwork is heavier. The off-plan guide explains incorporation and how to read those records.

A separate route exists for investing in a company rather than a home: RN 13/2017, which RN 49/2024 amended. The residency comparison sets it beside this one.

Proving the money came from abroad

Art. 1 asks for "recursos próprios de origem externa", your own funds of external origin. Art. 3 is where this becomes a document. RN 49 of 25 June 2024 rewrote that line to match the new foreign exchange framework, Law 14.286/2021. You now need a statement from a financial institution authorized or registered with the Banco Central in Brazil, confirming the international capital transfer for the purchase. For a unit under construction, it can confirm the down payment under the promise of sale, up to the required value.

Plan for that statement before the money moves:

• Send the funds from an account you hold in your own name to your own account in Brazil, or by a route your lawyer has cleared.
• Tell the bank the purpose in writing, and use the same description on the exchange records.
• Keep the SWIFT message, the exchange contract, the home-bank statement and proof of the source of funds.
• Pay the seller in a way that shows the funds' path, and put that payment in the deed.

Money sent through a friend's account or carried in cash won't produce the statement, and cash brought in is hard to tie to the purchase. Exchange contracts are covered in detail on the money transfer page. The same records matter later, when you sell. The selling guide explains how to send your money home.

The 14-day rule, renewal and loss

The first version of RN 36 gave two years and asked for 30 days of presence. Resolution 46 of 9 December 2021, published in August 2022, changed both. As it stands:

• First term: four years (art. 3, §4; art. 4, sole paragraph).
• Presence: at least 14 days in Brazil in every two-year period, consecutive or not, counted from Federal Police registration (art. 6).
• After four years: the term can change to indefinite. You file the art. 3 documents to prove the investment remains, a copy of the CRNM and criminal record certificates from where you lived during the term (art. 5).
• Missed the 14 days or the deadline: you can ask for a new four-year authorization, as long as the investment is still there (art. 6-A).

Articles online still quote the old terms, such as the two-year term in one on the IBA's site dated 2024. The current text on the ministry's site says four years and 14 days. Trust that text, and re-check it on the day you file.

Here is how the dates run. You register with the Federal Police on 15 January 2028. Your first presence period ends on 15 January 2030, and you need 14 days inside it. The second ends on 15 January 2032, which is also when the four-year term ends. Start the conversion file some months before that date, and renew your criminal record certificates so they are current when you file.

The 14 days don't remove the general rule. Decree 9.199/2017, art. 135, III allows loss of residence for absence of over two years without justification. Meeting the 14-day rule protects you against that ground (art. 6, sole paragraph). So a buyer who visits two weeks every other year stays within the rule.

How you can lose it

• Selling. Art. 6-B says that if the grounds for residence cease, during the fixed term or the indefinite one, the authorization may be revoked under art. 135, I of the decree. The text doesn't exempt indefinite residence, so ask a lawyer before you sell even after conversion. Selling and replacing the property isn't addressed in the text. Art. 6-A helps only if the investment is maintained. Don't assume a gap is safe.
• Falsehood. Omitting relevant information or making a false statement opens a cancelation process at any time (art. 6-C; decree art. 136).

It's easy to lose count over two years. Keep your entry and exit stamps or printed travel records, and put each period in your calendar. The dates run from registration, which is not the date of purchase.

Spouses, partners and children

RN 36 is silent on family. They come through a separate door: family reunion under the Migration Law (art. 37) and the decree (art. 153). It covers a spouse or partner, a child, and some other relatives. A sibling over 18 must prove economic dependence.

Three rules connect it to your investment:

• Your residence comes first. Relatives can apply at the same time as you, but their authorization depends on yours being granted (art. 153, §§8 and 9).
• Terms match. If yours is fixed, theirs ends on the same date. If yours is indefinite, theirs is too (§§4 and 5).
• They can work. A family-reunion holder can do any activity on equal terms with Brazilians (§10).

A further limit applies: a family-reunion holder can't sponsor others in the same way (§2). And if your residence ends, ask early what happens to theirs, since it rests on yours. Decree art. 135, I, on the end of the grounds, has been applied to family-reunion cases in Federal Police decisions. That can mean a spouse needs a route of their own.

Tax and citizenship

Tax

Immigration status and tax status are separate tests. Art. 2 of IN SRF 208/2002, from Receita Federal, treats as resident someone who lives in Brazil on a permanent basis, someone who arrives on a permanent visa from the date of arrival, and someone on a temporary visa from their 184th day in Brazil, whether or not the days run together, inside 12 months. If a 12-month window falls short, a new one starts at your next entry. Once a tax resident, you owe Brazilian tax on worldwide income.

Here is an open point. The instruction still speaks of a "permanent visa", a category the 2017 law removed, and the date you obtain one is a start date of its own (art. 2, III, b, 3). The texts behind this page don't say how Receita treats an investor who moves from the four-year term to indefinite residence. The two possible readings give very different start dates. Get a cross-border tax adviser's written view before you convert, especially if you hold foreign investments. For ongoing property tax, see the property tax guide, and rental income is in the guide for non-residents.

Citizenship

Ordinary naturalization takes four years of residence (Migration Law, art. 65), plus workable Portuguese and no criminal record. The clock matters more than most sites admit. Decree art. 221 starts the count when the immigrant began to reside on an indefinite term. On that reading, four years on the fixed term plus four on the indefinite one comes to about eight years. The 14-day rule protects your residence permit, and it won't make you a resident for this purpose: the ministry's document checklist wants proof that residence was continuous. Older pages that promise citizenship at year four skip this step.

The period falls to one year with a Brazilian child, or with a Brazilian spouse or partner you aren't separated from (Law art. 66; decree art. 235). Portuguese can be shown in several ways under Portaria 623/2020, including the Celpe-Bras exam, a Brazilian degree or a Portuguese course for immigrants at a university accredited by the education ministry. Celpe-Bras is no longer the only proof, whatever older pages say. Brazil's rules on inheritance apply to your property under any status, and they are in the inheritance guide.

Questions

Sources

1. Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, RN 36/2018 consolidated text
2. Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, list of CNIg normative resolutions
3. Lex, Resolution CNIg 46 of 9 December 2021, amending RN 36
4. Lex, Resolution CNIg 49 of 25 June 2024, amending RN 11, 13 and 36
5. LegisWeb, original text of RN 36/2018
6. Planalto, Migration Law, Law 13.445/2017
7. Planalto, Decree 9.199/2017, arts. 42, 64, 135, 142, 153, 221, 233 and 235
8. Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, R$ 283 million invested by immigrants, 2024
9. Migalhas, residence through property investment, requirements
10. International Bar Association, investment visas in Brazil, 2024
11. Ribeiro Cavalcante, real estate investor visa, practical timelines, 2026
12. Normas Legais, Normative Instruction SRF 208/2002
13. Ministério da Justiça, documents for ordinary naturalization
14. Portal de Imigração, guided route for RN 36
15. Consulate General of Brazil in Chicago, temporary visas and electronic issue, 2026