Brazil Residency Through Real Estate Investment

Since 2018 Brazil has offered a residence permit to foreigners who buy property in the country with their own money from abroad. Search engines and agents often call it the Brazilian "golden visa", borrowing the name of the better-known European schemes. Brazil's own name for it is plainer: autorização de residência por investimento imobiliário, residence authorisation through real estate investment. It is modest by international standards, with a threshold of one million reais, and it asks very little of the holder in return. It also gives less than the nickname suggests. This guide sets out the rule as it stands in October 2026: the amounts, what property counts, the documents, the term, the path to an indefinite permit, and the things it does not do.

It is general information, not legal advice. Immigration rules change by resolution and ministerial act, and each case turns on its own facts, so the application should be prepared by a Brazilian immigration lawyer, working alongside the real-estate lawyer who handles the purchase.

The rule and where it comes from

Brazil's Migration Law of 2017 (Law 13,445) allows residence to be granted for investment. The real-estate route was created by the National Immigration Council, CNIg, in Normative Resolution No. 36 of 9 October 2018, published in the official gazette on 21 November 2018. It was rewritten in important ways by Resolution CNIg MJSP No. 46 of 9 December 2021, whose changes law firms report took effect on 8 August 2022. The consolidated text on the Ministry of Justice and Public Security's immigration portal, checked in October 2026, still shows Resolution 46 as the latest amendment.

The resolution covers a natural person who, with their own funds of foreign origin, makes a real estate investment in Brazil. Applications are filed through the Ministry of Justice's online immigration system, MigranteWeb, on the Portal de Imigração. The Ministry also issues procedural ordinances from time to time, so your lawyer should check the current filing rules on the day you apply.

Two features of the 2018 original have changed and still circulate in older articles. The first version gave a two-year permit and required thirty days in Brazil during that period, and the Ministry of Labour decided the cases. Today the permit runs for four years, the presence requirement is fourteen days in every two years, and the Ministry of Justice handles the applications. If a guide quotes two years and thirty days, it is describing the old rule.

The route has never been crowded. Writing for the International Bar Association in 2024, a São Paulo lawyer counted only about nine residence permits granted in its first year or so, and put it down partly to how little the real-estate trade knew about it. That matters to a buyer in a practical way: not every broker, bank branch or even lawyer has prepared one of these files, so it is worth asking anyone you hire whether they have.

For questions about the rule itself, the Ministry of Justice's immigration portal lists the General Coordination of Labour Immigration (CGIL) as the contact, at [email protected], and the government's Fala.BR platform for formal enquiries. Those channels answer questions about the regulation; they do not prepare applications.

How much you have to invest

The minimum is an investment in urban real estate of at least R$ 1,000,000. In the North and Northeast regions the resolution allows the minimum to be up to 30% lower, which the Ministry of Justice's own news service gives as R$ 700,000. Rio de Janeiro is in the Southeast, so a purchase in Rio is measured against the full R$ 1,000,000.

The resolution adds a few rules on how the amount can be made up:

• More than one property. The investor can reach the minimum by buying two or more properties, as long as the total meets the threshold.
• Co-ownership. Buying jointly is allowed, but each co-owner must have invested the full minimum. Two people cannot share one R$ 1,000,000 purchase and both qualify.
• Financing. Only the part of the investment above R$ 1,000,000 may be financed. The first million has to be the investor's own money.
• Money from abroad. The funds have to be the investor's own and of foreign origin, which in practice means sent from abroad through a Brazilian bank, in the investor's name, and documented. Brazilian law firms add that the person who sends the money, the buyer on the deed and the applicant should be the same person.

The last point is where the immigration file and the purchase file meet. If the money came in through a properly documented foreign-exchange contract, the bank can issue the declaration the Ministry asks for. If it did not, there is nothing for the bank to declare. Our guide to the CPF, bank account and money transfer for foreign buyers explains how the exchange contract works.

What property qualifies

The property must be urban, and it may be either already built or under construction. Rural land does not count under this resolution. Beyond that the resolution does not ask what kind of urban property it is: a house, an apartment, or more than one unit all work if the total reaches the minimum. The investor must be the owner, so the purchase has to be in the applicant's own name.

The resolution also gives the Ministry the power to carry out on-site checks. That is a reason to keep the property and its paperwork in order, not a sign that inspections are routine.

Because the documents come from the land registry, the property's legal health matters as much as its price. For a built property the Ministry asks for a registry record showing ownership free of liens and encumbrances. A house with a mortgage, a judicial charge or an unresolved registry problem can block the application even when the price is far above the minimum. Our guide to due diligence on Brazilian property covers how those problems are found before purchase.

The documents

The resolution lists different documents for a finished property and for one still being built. For a property already built:

• the property's registry record (the matrícula, called in the resolution the Registro Geral do Imóvel) proving ownership free of liens or encumbrances;
• a declaration from a credit institution authorised by the Banco Central confirming the international transfer of the capital.

For a property under construction:

• the promise-to-purchase contract (Contrato de Promessa de Compra e Venda), registered at the land registry;
• the bank declaration on the international transfer, including for the down payment;
• the building permit (Alvará de Construção);
• the registered development filing (Memorial de Incorporação).

To these the resolution adds the general documents required for residence applications under CNIg Normative Resolution No. 1 of 2017. The Ministry's news service summarises the core of it as proof of purchase, by public deed or purchase contract, plus records showing the origin and international transfer of the money. Foreign documents generally need an apostille and a sworn translation; your lawyer will give you the list for your nationality.

The bank declaration in practice

The bank declaration is the document most often missing, because it depends on choices made months earlier when the money was sent. The bank can only confirm what its records show: a foreign-exchange operation, in the investor's name and CPF, bringing money from abroad, for the purchase of real estate. Money that came in through a relative's account, through a company, in several unexplained transfers or under a generic purpose leaves the bank unable to say what the Ministry needs it to say. Ask the bank before you send anything whether it issues these declarations and what it will need from you.

Buying off-plan

The under-construction route exists so that an investor does not have to wait for a building to be finished. Its documents are the developer's: the building permit and the registered Memorial de Incorporação, the filing that legally establishes a development at the land registry before the units exist. If either is missing, the property does not qualify on this route, however far the works have advanced.

Applying from abroad or from inside Brazil

There are two ways in. An investor who is abroad applies for the residence authorisation first; once it is granted, the Brazilian consulate issues a temporary visa on that basis, and the investor travels to Brazil. An investor who is already in Brazil can apply from inside the country under article 151 of Decree 9,199 of 2017, with the same documents. In both cases the resolution grants residence for four years.

After arrival the holder registers with the Polícia Federal, which issues the Carteira de Registro Nacional Migratório, or CRNM, the identity card for foreign residents. That registration date matters: the clock for the fourteen-day presence rule starts from it.

For a finished house bought from abroad, the order of events runs like this:

1. Get a CPF and agree with the bank how the money will come in.
2. Bring the money in from abroad, in your own name, through an authorised bank.
3. Sign the deed and register it at the land registry.
4. Collect the updated registry record and the bank's declaration.
5. File the residence application through MigranteWeb, with the general documents.
6. Receive the authorisation and, if you are abroad, the temporary visa from the consulate.
7. Enter Brazil and register with the Polícia Federal for the CRNM.

A purchase that is still moving through the registry is not yet ready to support an application, unless it is a property under construction with a registered promise-to-purchase. The government does not publish a standard processing time for each stage, so plan the application around your own calendar rather than a promised date.

The four-year term and the fourteen-day rule

The initial authorisation is for four years. To keep it, the holder has two obligations.

Keep the investment

The investment has to be maintained throughout the period. The resolution says that when the basis on which residence was granted ceases, the authorisation can be lost, under article 135, item I, of Decree 9,199/2017. Selling the property, or reducing your holding below the minimum, removes the basis.

If you plan to swap one property for another during the term, speak to your lawyer before you sell. The resolution counts the total value of urban property you own, so the order of the two transactions, and whether the new money is again your own and from abroad, decides whether the investment was maintained without a gap. The same caution applies to a mortgage taken out later: at the four-year mark the Ministry asks again for the original documents, including the registry record that showed the property free of liens.

Spend fourteen days in Brazil every two years

The holder must be in Brazil for at least fourteen days, consecutive or not, in each two-year period, counted from the Polícia Federal registration. The resolution says that a holder who meets this is not subject to the loss of residence for long absence that would otherwise apply under article 135, item III, of the same decree. For an investor who visits Rio once a year, the requirement is easy to meet; it is still worth keeping entry stamps and travel records.

If something goes wrong

The resolution offers a way back. A holder who misses the fourteen-day requirement, or who misses the deadline to ask for the indefinite permit, can apply for a new four-year authorisation, provided the investment is still in place. Separately, a relevant omission or a false statement in the application can lead to cancellation under article 136 of the decree.

From four years to an indefinite permit

At the end of the four years, the holder can ask for the authorisation to be changed to an indefinite term (prazo indeterminado). The resolution asks for:

• the same documents as at the start, to prove the investment has been maintained;
• a copy of the CRNM;
• criminal record certificates, or an equivalent document from the judicial authority of the place of residence.

The resolution links the request to the end of the four-year term and refers to a deadline for it, but the published text does not state the window in days. Treat the last months of the fourth year as the time to file, and let your lawyer confirm the exact cut-off. A holder who for some reason received a shorter initial term can ask for renewal up to the point where the indefinite permit can be requested.

An indefinite residence permit is what most people mean when they say "permanent residence" in Brazil. It is still tied to the investor, and the rules on losing it under the Migration Law continue to apply.

Family members

The investor's permit does not automatically cover a spouse, partner or children. Each family member applies for their own residence, usually on the basis of family reunion (reunião familiar), a separate category in the Migration Law that links their permit to the investor's. In practice the applications are prepared together. Which relatives qualify, and with what documents, depends on the relationship and is a question for the immigration lawyer at the start, not after the investor's permit is granted.

Each co-owner who wants their own investor permit must, as noted above, have invested the full minimum in their own name. A couple buying one house together, where only one of them has invested the full minimum, is looking at one investor permit and a family-reunion application for the other, not two investor permits.

What it does not give you

The permit is useful, but it is narrower than the "golden visa" label suggests. Four points are worth knowing before you count on it.

It is not a fast route to citizenship

Ordinary naturalisation in Brazil requires, as a rule, four years of residence counted from the date the person began residing in Brazil on an indefinite permit, so the four years on the initial investor permit do not count towards it. The Ministry of Justice also limits absences: sporadic trips abroad adding up to no more than about three months a year, or twelve months over the four-year period, do not block approval. An investor who spends fourteen days in Brazil every two years is meeting the investor rule but not living in Brazil in the sense naturalisation requires. Shorter periods apply in specific cases, for example to people married to a Brazilian or born in a Portuguese-speaking country.

It does not settle your tax position

The Receita Federal has ruled on this exact point. In Solução de Consulta COSIT No. 180 of 2021 it stated that Resolution 36 is an immigration rule, not a tax rule, and that tax residence is governed by Receita Normative Instruction 208 of 2002. A person who enters on a temporary visa becomes a Brazilian tax resident on completing 184 days in Brazil, consecutive or not, within a twelve-month period, and from then on is subject to the same tax rules as any other resident. An investor who actually moves to Rio should take tax advice in both countries before the 184th day, not after.

It does not tie you to Brazil

The permit carries no obligation to live in Brazil beyond the fourteen days, no requirement to create jobs and no investment in anything other than the property. That is its appeal. It is also why it does not, on its own, build the record of residence that naturalisation and some other benefits need.

It does not make the purchase easier

Foreigners can buy urban property in Brazil without any permit at all. The residence authorisation follows a purchase that has to be done correctly on its own terms: CPF, clean title, money through an authorised bank, deed, registration. The permit is a consequence of a good purchase, not a shortcut to one. Our step-by-step guide to buying in Rio and our overview for foreign buyers cover the purchase itself.

Where Rio, Joá and a R$ 15 million house fit

Rio de Janeiro is where immigrants put the most money into Brazilian property. The Ministry of Justice's monthly migration bulletin reported that immigrants invested R$ 283.2 million in property in Brazil between January and September 2024, and that the state of Rio de Janeiro led with R$ 125.2 million, ahead of São Paulo and Santa Catarina. By nationality, buyers from the United States led, followed by France, Italy and Germany. The bulletin does not say how many of those buyers went on to use the residence route.

For a buyer at the top of the Rio market the threshold is not the difficult part. A five-suite house in Joá, a bairro inside the city of Rio de Janeiro, such as the cliffside house presented on this site and offered at R$ 15,000,000, is fifteen times the R$ 1,000,000 minimum that applies in the Southeast. What matters is the rest of the file:

• at least the first R$ 1,000,000 must be the buyer's own money, sent from abroad; only the part above it may be financed;
• the money must arrive through an authorised bank, in the buyer's name, so that the bank can issue its declaration;
• the deed must be registered and the registry record must show the property free of liens;
• the urban classification should be confirmed on the property's matrícula by the lawyer, as with any purchase.

A buyer planning to use the permit should say so at the start, to the lawyer and to the bank, so that the purchase is structured for it from the first transfer. Three questions are worth settling before the offer: whose name the house will be in, since the permit goes to the owner on the deed and not to a company; where the first million will come from, since it must be your own money from abroad; and who in the family needs residence, since each person beyond the investor needs a separate application. The brokers at Art de Vivre, which markets the house in Joá, can arrange a viewing and answer questions about the property; the residence application belongs with an immigration lawyer. For costs, see our guide to the costs of buying property in Rio, and for life after the keys, running a house in Rio. To ask about the house, use the contact page or reach Art de Vivre directly.