Brazil Permanent Residency: The Four Ways to Get It, Compared

Brazil grants permanent residency to foreign nationals through four main doors: three investment routes and family reunion, with naturalisation as the step after residency. The routes are written into the Migration Law of 2017 and two resolutions of the National Immigration Council, and they differ on the one thing most guides blur: whether residency is permanent from the first day or becomes permanent later. This page sets the four side by side, with the numbers Brazil has actually published.

The four routes at a glance

The approval counts are from StartBrazil's record of every investor-residency decision published in the Diário Oficial da União. The 2025 figures are final: 516 approvals from 44 countries, split 273 real estate, 239 company and 4 startup. The full breakdown is on the route comparison page.

Startup investment: the cheapest permanent status in a major economy

Article 3 of Normative Resolution 13/2017 lowers the company-investment minimum from R$500,000 to R$150,000 when the Brazilian company is innovative. Innovation is shown in one of a small number of ways: the company has received public innovation funding, sits in a recognised technology park, is incubated or has graduated from an incubator, or can demonstrate the originality of what it does. The investor capitalises the company, registers the capital with the Central Bank, and files the residence application with a three-year business plan.

The authorisation is an indefinite-term residence from the day it is granted. It is conditional: at three years the authorities verify that the investment was maintained and the company is operating. In StartBrazil's data, the four 2025 filings took between 83 and 125 days from filing to publication. Since the first approval in 2018, 24 people worldwide have used this route through June 2026, which is the reason our founder describes it as the door almost nobody has walked through. The count by year and origin is on the startup route page.

Company investment: the established route

The standard route under the same resolution is a R$500,000 investment in a new or existing Brazilian company, with the investor entering the company's ownership. The residence is again indefinite-term from approval and verified at three years. This is the route Chinese investors use almost exclusively: China was the largest origin in 2025 with 103 approvals, and the company route accounted for nearly all of them. Company-route cases filed in 2025 averaged about 51 days from filing to publication in StartBrazil's record. Details and the sector breakdown are on the company route page.

Real estate: the most used route, and the only one that starts temporary

Normative Resolution 36/2018 grants residence for the purchase of urban property worth at least R$1,000,000, or R$700,000 in the North and Northeast regions. Unlike the two company routes, the authorisation is granted for up to four years and converted to indefinite term afterwards, provided the property was kept. It is the most used route by a wide margin: 273 approvals in 2025, and 1,138 from 2018 through June 2026. Investors from 36 countries used it in 2025. Real-estate cases filed in 2025 averaged about 54 days from filing to publication. The year-by-year record is on the real estate route page.

Family reunion

Article 37 of the Migration Law provides residence for the spouse or partner, children and parents of a Brazilian citizen or of a foreign resident, and the implementing decree sets the documents. The family member's residence follows the status of the person who calls them: an investor with indefinite-term residence can bring a spouse and dependent children under the same status. This is the route most investors use for their families, and it is why the investment routes are usually a household decision rather than an individual one.

What "permanent" means, and what it does not

Three things are true of every indefinite-term residence in Brazil. First, it does not require full-time presence: under the migration decree, absence from the country for more than two years is what puts the authorisation at risk. Second, it is not citizenship. Brazil has no citizenship by investment; residency is the status the investment buys, and citizenship comes later through naturalisation. Third, it is verified. The investment routes are conditional on the investment being maintained, and the check happens.

From residency to citizenship

Ordinary naturalisation under article 65 of the Migration Law requires four years of residence, the ability to communicate in Portuguese and no criminal conviction. The residence period falls to one year for a foreign national with a Brazilian child or a Brazilian spouse. Brazil permits dual nationality, so naturalisation does not require giving up the original citizenship in Brazilian law, although the applicant's own country may have its rules. Our dual citizenship post covers the sequence in detail.

Processing times, and the target that may change them

The figures above are StartBrazil's 2025 record, measured from the MigranteWeb filing date to publication in the Diário Oficial: about 51 days for company cases, about 54 for real estate, 83 to 125 for the four startup cases. In March 2026 the federal government launched the Janela Única de Investimentos, a single-window portal whose published target is to cut visa and residence processing from 60 to 20 days. We reported on the launch here; the 2025 figures are the pre-launch record and will be updated as the 2026 filings publish.

Which route fits which person

The startup route fits a founder, an executive or an investor who wants permanent status at the lowest capital commitment and is willing to back a qualifying company for at least three years. The company route fits an investor who wants a controlling stake in a going concern, or who is bringing an existing business to Brazil. The real estate route fits a buyer who wants an asset they can use, accepts a four-year temporary period, and does not want to run a company. Family reunion fits the household of any of the three. The two-minute eligibility quiz sorts this out, and a consultation takes it from there. StartBrazil orients the choice and coordinates the process; the legal work is done by independently licensed Brazilian lawyers, and no one can promise an approval.