Brazil in 2026: who it suits and how the process works

Brazil has an investment residency program. To obtain the "golden visa" you need to invest from R$700,000 (~$136,000) in property in the north and northeast of the country, and R$1,000,000 (~$194,000) in other areas. The status realistically takes 6–12 months to arrange, and a passport can be obtained after a minimum of 6 years, depending on the case. Dual citizenship is allowed.

How the program works

Brazil's "golden visa" is the name for the route through investment in real estate. The application is filed through a Brazilian consulate abroad, or straight away inside the country online through the Ministry of Justice. The second path is the more popular one.

The key condition: the money must come from abroad by an official bank transfer with currency registration at the Central Bank. There is an option to buy property with cryptocurrency. It is not difficult to carry out and is fully legal, but it requires additional steps, which we can go through in more detail at a consultation.

The Florianópolis property market is growing very fast: buying property here is, first and foremost, a profitable investment.

What it costs

The main sum is the investment itself, and it remains your asset. On top of it come mandatory payments for processing the application and issuing the documents; their size depends on who is in the family. We will put together an exact calculation for your family at a free consultation. If the application is refused, the service fees are not returned.

Who can be included in the application

The main applicant must be of legal age, have no criminal record and have a confirmed legal source of funds. Along with them, with no additional investment, the application also covers:

• a spouse or partner;
• minor children;
• adult children and parents who are financially dependent on the applicant.

What the status gives you

A resident can live, work, run a business and study in Brazil, and gets access to free public healthcare and schools. Children born in Brazil become citizens, and their parents gain the right to apply for citizenship after just 1 year of residence.

The usual route to a passport without a child being born in Brazil is a minimum of 6 years, and more realistically 8 depending on the case: first you have to accumulate the continuous residence qualifying period that gives the right to apply for citizenship, and then come preparing the file, the queue and the review itself. A Portuguese exam and a clean criminal record will be required. To apply for a passport you have to accumulate a period of actual residence; 14-day visits, which are enough to maintain residency, will not get you citizenship. A Brazilian passport opens the Schengen area, the UK, Japan and most of the world without a visa. A visa is needed for trips to the US.

Taxes

A person becomes a tax resident if they live in the country for at least 183 days a year.

A resident pays tax on worldwide income.

The main points of the tax system: income tax is calculated on a progressive scale up to 27.5%, and income up to R$5,000 a month is not taxed; dividends above R$50,000 a month from a single company are taxed at source at a rate of 10%; income from foreign assets and the profits of controlled foreign companies are taxed at 15% annually; capital gains are taxed at 15–22.5% (the rate rises with the amount); there is no wealth tax. A Brazilian residence permit does not release you from tax obligations in the country where you actually live.

Cost of living

The budget for a family of four starts at roughly $2,500 a month including rent and goes up to $5,000 in the expensive cities. The most expensive are São Paulo and Florianópolis. Florianópolis is the most popular with expats and the safest to live in, followed by São Paulo and Rio. The northeast is noticeably cheaper. An apartment with 2–3 bedrooms costs $700–1,900 a month depending on the city, plus the residential complex fee.

Schools fall into groups: bilingual private schools cost R$70,000–100,000 a year; international ones (the American Graded, the British St. Paul's) start at $30,000 a year. Public healthcare is free for residents, but it works with queues. Private healthcare in the big cities is considered the most developed in Latin America; insurance costs R$500–2,800 a month per person depending on age and coverage.

Downsides and risks

1. The investment has to be kept: for the first 2 years the status is temporary, and you can exit the property earlier only by replacing it with an equivalent one.
2. Only urban property qualifies and it must have clean paperwork; such a property is easy to sell in the big cities, while in outlying areas there are few buyers.
3. Currency risk: the real's rate against the dollar moves by tens of percent, and the dollar value of the threshold and of your asset floats along with it.
4. Bureaucracy: apostilles, sworn translations, queues at government offices; in practice the timelines often turn out longer than the official ones.
5. Safety and language: the crime rate is falling, but it remains higher than the European level (gated residential complexes are the standard for families), and without basic Portuguese it is hard to deal with government offices and school.

Who it suits and who it does not

It suits: people who need an inexpensive "plan B" with a token presence requirement; families with a plan to move for real; investors for whom a real asset matters: the property stays in their ownership and can bring a high return in a fast-growing market, for example in Florianópolis.

It does not suit: owners of large offshore structures who have not done tax planning in advance; people who are not ready to learn Portuguese — it is mandatory for citizenship, and living in Brazil without it will be hard.

What's next

Brazil is strong where other programs are weak: an entry threshold that is low by the standards of "golden visas", and a token presence requirement. If you want to see how the program fits your family, with its make-up, budget and goals, book a free Migronis consultation: migronis.com/consultation.