2026 guide for Brazilians
Choose your visa under the CPLP regime, then follow seven steps from Brazil to your Portuguese residence card.
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Moving to Portugal from Brazil starts with one choice: the residence visa that fits what you will live on, whether a pension, remote work, a business, a job offer or your studies. You can visit Portugal without a visa for up to 90 days, but to live there you apply for a visa in Brazil first: as a Brazilian, you do it under the CPLP regime, with a lighter file. Nearly 494,000 Brazilians lived in Portugal at the end of 2025, the largest foreign community in the country.
This guide takes you through the 7 steps, from your Polícia Federal certificate and its apostille to your residence card, then the Estatuto de Igualdade, your exit from the Receita Federal, your INSS and Portuguese citizenship, by residence or by descent.
Moving from Brazil in 6 numbers (2026)
Yes to all five? A residence visa is your route: step 1 below shows which one.
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Yes. As a Brazilian, you can visit Portugal without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180, counted across the whole Schengen area. To live there longer, you need a residence visa from the Portuguese consular network in Brazil, then a residence permit from AIMA, the immigration agency, in Portugal. ETIAS, the EU’s online travel authorization for visitors, is not in operation yet.
If you are also Portuguese, you simply live in Portugal as a citizen. If you hold the passport of another EU country, Italy for instance, you live there on that passport, without a visa: after three months, you have 30 days to register at the town hall (câmara municipal) and get your registration certificate (CRUE).
A child of a Portuguese parent, born in Brazil, is Portuguese by origin once the birth is registered in the Portuguese civil registry, or by declaring it. A grandchild of a Portuguese citizen by origin can be too, by declaration, with effective ties to the Portuguese community; since May 2026, that includes proving knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and symbols. Our guides to citizenship by descent and citizenship through a grandparent explain the routes, and we order Portuguese birth certificates (€59) for the file.
The visa depends on what you will live on in Portugal. Brazilians apply for the same visas as everyone else, under the CPLP regime (below). Find your situation, then read our guide to that visa.
| You will live on | Visa | From (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| A pension, rents or investments | D7 | €920 a month |
| Remote work for an employer or clients abroad | D8 | €3,680 a month |
| Your own business or freelance work in Portugal | D2 | €11,040 of means |
| A highly qualified job in Portugal | D3 | €1,611 a month |
| Another job offer in Portugal | D1 | €920 a month |
| Studies at a Portuguese university | D4 | Your admission |
| An investment you keep five years | Golden Visa | €250,000 |
Most retirees apply for the D7: an INSS or private pension, rents or dividends count, if regular and documented. Working remotely for Brazilian employers or clients? The D8.
The work visas need a job before you apply: a contract or promise of contract from an employer in Portugal, which you find yourself (the D1), or a highly qualified one (the D3). The job seeker visa is not available: since October 2025 it is reserved for people with specialized technical skills, to be listed by a regulation that has not been published.
The Golden Visa is not a consular visa: you apply to AIMA directly. Real estate no longer qualifies, and most routes need €500,000.
Not sure which one fits? Ask us in a free call.
Brazil and Portugal are parties to the CPLP mobility agreement, signed in Luanda on 17 July 2021 by the Portuguese-speaking countries. Portugal's foreigners' law gives their nationals a lighter visa process:
Until October 2025, a Brazilian could enter Portugal as a visitor and ask AIMA for a CPLP residence permit there. Since Lei 61/2025, in force on 23 October 2025, the CPLP permit is for holders of a residence visa, and consulates may refuse a CPLP visa on other grounds than an alert in the Schengen system. Our CPLP visa guide goes into detail.
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Portuguese consulates ask for a criminal record certificate from your country of nationality and from any country where you lived more than a year (not under 16). In Brazil, the checklists VFS Global hands out ask for the Polícia Federal’s certificate, issued in the last 30 days, with the Hague apostille.
The Apostille Convention has been in force for Brazil since 14 August 2016, and Portugal is a party too: your Brazilian documents get an apostille instead of a legalization.
The same goes for the birth and marriage certificates of a family application.
Portugal’s consular network in Brazil takes visa applications through VFS Global, its official service provider. Its visa centers are in Brasília, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Nova Lima (Belo Horizonte). Portugal also has vice-consulates in Belém, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre and Recife; in the last four, for now, each sets how you submit your application. Our directory of Portuguese consulates in Brazil has their addresses.
Every visa has its own list, and the CPLP regime lightens it. The general list, with what the visa rules add:
The checklists VFS gives in Brazil date from 2020: check the current one before you book.
Under the social security agreement, the CDAM (once PB4, now PT/BR-13) from Brazil’s Ministério da Saúde lets you use Portugal’s public health service as a Portuguese citizen would, and the visa checklists accept it in place of travel insurance. Ask for it online, before you move, with your gov.br account: it is free, the ministry asks for proof of residence in Brazil, and its analysis can take up to 90 days. For Portugal, it is valid 6 months, 1 year or 5 years, depending on the reason for your trip.
Your residence visa is valid for 4 months and two entries: the time to move and get your residence permit. Many visas are issued with the AIMA appointment already scheduled: the date and office are in the paperwork you receive with your visa. If no date was assigned, request one from AIMA; appointments are always free. Our AIMA guide explains how.
At AIMA, you ask for the CPLP residence permit or the permit of your visa, give your fingerprints and photo, and show your passport and visa, your means and your address. You don’t need your Polícia Federal certificate again: AIMA consults the Portuguese record itself.
AIMA has 90 days to decide, which it can extend by 30. Your first permit lasts 2 years and renewals 3; as a Brazilian, you don’t pay its grant fee. Permanent residence comes after 5 years, citizenship after 7.
Before you leave Brazil, ask about a baggage certificate for your household goods. Once in Portugal, change the address of your NIF to your new home.
The Treaty of Porto Seguro, signed by Portugal and Brazil on 22 April 2000, gives Brazilians who live in Portugal a status no other foreigners have: the Estatuto de Igualdade. With it, you have the same rights and duties as a Portuguese citizen, except diplomatic protection in a third country, and the offices of President, President of Parliament, Prime Minister and president of a supreme court, the armed forces and the diplomatic career. AIMA received 22,614 requests in 2025.
After three years of residence, you can also ask for political rights, at the same time or later: you then exercise political rights in Portugal as the Constitution and the law allow, within the limits above. But their use in Portugal suspends their exercise in Brazil. For local elections, gov.pt lists the right to vote after two years of residence and to stand after four.
Moving abroad for good, you tell the Receita Federal in two steps, and from then on Brazil taxes only your income from Brazil.
The exit is for tax only: Itamaraty confirms it changes nothing to your consular services, and you keep your CPF. After it, Brazil withholds tax at source on what you receive from Brazil: 25% on work income and on private pensions (previdência complementar), the ordinary progressive table on INSS pensions, 15% on rents and most other income, and 10% on dividends since January 2026. Tell the payer if the tax convention below lowers or removes that tax.
Brazil and Portugal’s tax convention of 16 May 2000, in force since 2001 and unchanged, decides between them by your permanent home, then your centre of vital interests (article 4). Once you live in Portugal:
When Brazil may tax an income that Portugal taxes too, Portugal deducts the Brazilian tax from its own tax on that income (article 23).
You become a Portuguese tax resident after more than 183 days in Portugal in any 12 months, or earlier with a home you intend to keep as your habitual residence. You then file a Portuguese return (IRS) every year, from 1 April to 30 June, for the year before. The NHR regime is closed to anyone who becomes resident from 2025; its successor, the IFICI, taxes income from qualifying jobs at 20% for 10 years, and leaves pensions out.
This is not tax advice: your case depends on your income and assets. Put your questions to a lawyer in a 40-minute tax consultation (€249), have your IRS filed by a certified accountant, and read our guide to IFICI, the “NHR 2.0”.
Brazil and Portugal have a social security agreement, signed in 1991, in force since 1995 and widened in 2013. What it means for you:
Any foreign national living legally in Portugal can get an SNS user number (número de utente), given at your first visit to a public health center or hospital. For the SNS to cover your care, your record needs your ID, your Portuguese NIF, your full address in Portugal and a valid residence document; you can then register with the health center of your area, where you also validate your CDAM (above).
In an emergency, call 112. The SNS 24 line, 808 24 24 24, answers health questions day and night. Our guide to Portuguese healthcare goes further.
A private health insurance (seguro de saúde) covers what its contract lists: conditions you already have are usually excluded, and some covers start after a waiting period. A “plano de saúde” is only a discount card on a network of providers. In 2025, an individual policy cost on average €452 per insured person (ASF, the insurance supervisor). Our guides to health insurance for expats and to insurance in Portugal compare the options.
To buy a home in Portugal, you need a NIF: the taxes on the purchase are paid under it. Three taxes apply:
| Tax | When | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| IMT, the property transfer tax | Once, when you buy | 0% to 7.5% |
| Stamp duty (Imposto do Selo) | Once, when you buy | 0.8% |
| IMI, the municipal property tax | Every year | 0.3% to 0.45% |
IMT and stamp duty are worked out on the price or the taxable value of the property (valor patrimonial tributário), whichever is higher, and stamp duty is paid before the deed. On the mainland, a home you buy to live in permanently pays no IMT up to €106,346 in 2026; above, the rate rises by brackets up to 7.5%. A second home pays from 1%.
IMI is due every year from whoever owns the home on 31 December, on its taxable value: each municipality sets its rate between 0.3% and 0.45%. Our guides to buying a house in Portugal as a foreigner, to mortgages and to home insurance go further.
In Portugal, an inheritance pays 10% stamp duty on what is located in Portugal: a home, money in a Portuguese bank, a car registered there. Your spouse or de facto partner, descendants and ascendants (children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents) are exempt. The death is reported to the tax office (Finanças) by the end of the third month after it.
In Brazil, inheritance tax, the ITCMD, is a state tax, and since Lei Complementar 227 of January 2026 the law says which state taxes the estate of someone who lived abroad. If you die while living in Portugal:
Each state sets its rates, which must be progressive since the 2023 tax reform, within a ceiling set by the Senate. Brazil and Portugal have no inheritance tax treaty: theirs covers income tax only. A notary can tell your heirs what they would pay in each country.
Brazil is one of the Portuguese-speaking countries whose licenses Portugal accepts, even after you become a resident, as long as:
That permission is valid in Portugal only. Outside those conditions, a resident exchanges the license within 90 days of settling, and anyone who wants another category, or to drive for a ride-hailing platform, exchanges it too. The exchange is done online at IMT, with no driving test: a medical certificate from your doctor, your ID and residence permit, your CNH and a certificate of its authenticity from the authority that issued it or a consulate; it costs €30, 10% less online. Our license exchange guide has the steps.
When you move your home to Portugal, your personal belongings enter free of import duty if you owned and used them for at least 6 months before you leave, you lived outside the EU for at least 12 months, and they arrive within 12 months of your move; for 12 months, you can’t lend, rent out or sell them without telling customs. Our baggage certificate guide explains the paperwork, and our guide to moving with pets covers your dog or cat.
Moving your residence, you pay no vehicle tax (ISV) on one car if you are over 18, lived in Brazil for at least six months, and owned the car there for at least six months before you moved, bought with Brazil’s taxes paid. You ask customs within 12 months of your move, with proof of your residence in Brazil and the car’s papers. The exemption is once every ten years, and you cannot sell, rent or lend the car for 12 months after it gets its Portuguese plates. Buying in Portugal instead? See our guides to buying a car and to car insurance.
After five years with a residence permit, you can ask AIMA for permanent residence, with basic Portuguese. The card is renewed every five years.
After seven years of legal residence, as a national of a Portuguese-speaking country, you can apply for Portuguese citizenship (since Lei Orgânica 1/2026; it was five, and most other foreigners now wait ten). Your years can be added up if they fall within nine years. You are presumed to know the language; you still prove, by a test or a certificate, that you know Portuguese culture, history and national symbols, and the rights and duties of citizens. You also declare your adherence to the rule of law, show you can support yourself, and must have no conviction that bars it. The new test is still to be set by regulation.
Married to a Portuguese citizen for more than three years, you can become Portuguese by declaration instead. A great-grandchild of a Portuguese citizen by origin can apply after five years of legal residence.
You keep your Brazilian nationality: Portugal does not ask you to give it up, and since Constitutional Amendment 131 of 2023, a Brazilian loses Brazilian nationality only by asking for it expressly.
You won’t be alone: nearly 494,000 Brazilians lived in Portugal at the end of 2025, according to AIMA’s yearly report, 31.1% of all foreign residents and the largest foreign community for the sixth year running.
Brazil has consulates-general in Lisbon, Porto and Faro, each for its own districts, and honorary consulates in Fátima and Loulé; you book through Itamaraty’s e-consular system. Lisbon covers the center and south as far as Setúbal, Madeira and the Azores; Porto the north and Coimbra; Faro the Algarve, Beja and Évora. They issue the certificate of nationality the Estatuto de Igualdade asks for, and the proof of life for your INSS pension.
Moving from another country? See our guides to moving to Portugal from the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Rent is the biggest line. On new leases, the median rent in Portugal was €10.17 per m² a month in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.2% in a year (INE): €15.24 in Greater Lisbon, €11.99 on the Setúbal peninsula and €11.56 in the Algarve. Pay is set against it: the minimum wage is €920 a month in 2026, paid 14 times a year, or €1,073 a month over 12. That €920, the D7 minimum, is a legal floor, not a comfortable budget.
Our guides go into detail for Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve and Madeira.
Give yourself time to see the cities first: our scouting trip guide helps you plan one.
The rules, amounts and fees in this guide were checked on 24 October 2026 against the law and the official portals:
Written by Brenda L., relocation expert at AnchorLess. Where consulates differ, we say which one asks. This guide is not tax advice.
A residence visa that fits what you will live on (the D7 for a pension or income, the D8 for remote work, and others for a business, a job offer you already have or studies), applied for in Brazil under the CPLP regime, with proof of your means or a term of responsibility, your Polícia Federal certificate with its apostille, and a valid passport. You then get your residence permit from AIMA in Portugal.
Not for a visit of up to 90 days in any 180, counted across the Schengen area. To live in Portugal, yes: a residence visa from the Portuguese consular network in Brazil, unless you also hold a Portuguese or another EU passport.
Not any more, as a rule. The manifestação de interesse ended in June 2024, and since 23 October 2025 a new CPLP residence permit is for holders of a residence visa. Apply for your visa in Brazil first.
Not a visa of its own, but the regime under which Brazilians and other nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries apply for Portuguese visas: no prior opinion from AIMA, a shorter document list, means that a term of responsibility from a host in Portugal can replace, and a CPLP residence permit from AIMA once you arrive with your residence visa.
Not at the moment. Since 23 October 2025, consulates and VFS centers in Brazil no longer take job seeker visa applications; its successor, for people with specialized technical skills, awaits a regulation. To move for work, you first need a contract or promise of contract, which you find yourself, from an employer in Portugal: the D1, or the D3 for a highly qualified job.
At a VFS Global center, Portugal’s service provider, in Brasília, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or Nova Lima (Belo Horizonte), at the one of your choice; in Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Fortaleza and Recife, as the vice-consulate sets out. The visa fee is €110, charged in reais, plus VFS’s service fee.
Yes. Brazil and Portugal are both parties to the Apostille Convention: any registered cartório puts the apostille on it, at a price set by your state. The certificate itself is free, online, and the checklists VFS gives in Brazil want one issued in the last 30 days. It is in Portuguese, so it needs no translation.
A status from the Treaty of Porto Seguro (2000) that gives Brazilians with a Portuguese residence permit the same rights and duties as Portuguese citizens, with a few exceptions. You ask AIMA for it, for free, with your residence permit and a certificate of nationality from a Brazilian consulate. After three years of residence, you can also ask for political rights, which suspends their exercise in Brazil.
Yes: ask for its payment into a Portuguese bank account on Meu INSS before you move, and send a proof of life every year in your birthday month. Under the Brazil–Portugal tax convention, an INSS pension is taxable only in Brazil, at source; since the STF’s 2024 ruling, by the ordinary progressive table instead of a flat 25%.
Yes. File the Comunicação de Saída Definitiva do País online, from the day you leave until the end of February of the next year, then the Declaração de Saída Definitiva in the next income tax window. Without it, you stay a Brazilian tax resident for your first 12 months abroad. Tell your payers in Brazil too.
Yes, even as a resident, while your CNH is less than 15 years old (since issue or last renewal), valid, and you are under 60. Otherwise, you exchange it at IMT within 90 days of settling, without a driving test.
Seven years of legal residence since May 2026 (it was five), added up within nine years, with a test or certificate of Portuguese culture, history and symbols; you are presumed to know the language. You keep your Brazilian nationality. A child of a Portuguese parent is Portuguese by origin, and a grandchild can become Portuguese by declaration.
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