Brazil · Residency by investment
Investor Visa — Corporate Investment (VITEM IX)
Open
Last verified July 2026
Governed by Lei 13.445/2017 (Migration Law) and CNIg Normative Resolution 11/2017. The BRL 500,000 corporate threshold and the BRL 150,000 innovation threshold have been stable for years — notably, they have never been indexed for inflation.
Roughly USD 90,000 into a real Brazilian company buys residency in a G20 economy and starts a four-year clock to one of the strongest passports outside Europe. Judged purely on cost per passport-point it is among the best offers in the world. The tax regime is what stops it being obvious.
Qualifying routes
500k BRL
Investment in the share capital of a Brazilian company
roughly USD 90–100k; must be registered with the Banco Central as foreign direct investment
150k BRL
Innovation, technology or scientific research company
roughly USD 27–30k; the reduced threshold is conditional on the company's qualifying activity
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 500k BRL
- Total landed cost
- BRL 500k investment plus roughly USD 8–20k in legal, accounting and incorporation costs
- Timeline
- 3–9 months — CNIg review then consular or in-country processing; the RNM card follows registration with the Polícia Federal
- Physical presence
- The permit can lapse if you are absent from Brazil for more than two consecutive years. Naturalisation, however, requires genuine uninterrupted residence.
- Family
- spouse or stable union partnerchildrendependent parents
- Permanent residency
- the investor authorisation is indefinite-term residency from grant, subject to conditions
- Citizenship
- 4 years of residence (ordinary naturalisation); 1 year if you have a Brazilian child; 1 year for Portuguese-language country nationals
- Language test
- Portuguese proficiency, typically via CELPE-Bras or Brazilian educational documents
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- investment registered with the Banco Central do Brasil as FDIa Brazilian company with a business plan and job or income creation potentialCPF and Brazilian corporate registrationclean criminal record, apostilled and sworn-translatedregistration with the Polícia Federal on arrival
What can go wrong
- The BRL 500,000 is not a deposit. CNIg expects a real operating company, a business plan, and job or income creation; renewals are reviewed against what you promised. Shell companies get refused and, later, unwound.
- The real cost is tax. Brazilian tax residency generally attaches on arrival with a permanent visa, bringing worldwide income into scope. Lei 14.754/2023 taxes your offshore company's profits at 15% every 31 December whether or not distributed, for anyone controlling over 50% of a foreign entity, and treats foreign trusts as transparent to the settlor. For a UHNW family this can dwarf the investment many times over in year one.
- From 2026, Lei 15.270/2025 adds the IRPFM minimum tax: annual income over BRL 600,000 attracts a minimum rate rising linearly to 10%, and 10% flat above BRL 1.2 million. The regime is tightening, not loosening.
- The offshore-asset amnesty is closed. There is no longer a reduced-penalty path to regularise previously undeclared foreign assets — arriving with a messy structure is now expensive.
- State inheritance tax (ITCMD) is being made progressive under the 2023 constitutional tax reform. The historic 8% ceiling is a floor for planning purposes, not a comfort.
- Naturalisation after four years requires real uninterrupted residence and CELPE-Bras. The visa is easy; the passport is not.