One of two countries with 100 out of 100 for status security: an appeal halts removal by an explicit provision of the law.
between leaguesOn paper Brazil is one of the most open countries in our sample. Its 2017 Migration Law is built around the newcomer's rights rather than control: no language or integration tests for residence, a spouse may work immediately without a separate permit, no income threshold for family reunification, and children attend state school whatever their status. The open door is backed by numbers: since 2010 Brazil has granted more than 575,000 residence permits to Venezuelans alone, and we found no campaign against legal foreign residents.
What breaks is delivery, and it breaks in one place: the Federal Police. Visas come fast, but within 90 days of arrival you must register and collect a residence card, and in big cities the appointment queue stretches over months while the police system goes down from time to time. In small towns the same appointment can be had the next day. Late registration costs R$100 a day, up to R$10,000. The state does not publish refusal statistics.
The status itself is protected by law. Losing a job is not a ground for cancellation: residence ends for fraud or concealment, a change of ground, or more than two years outside Brazil. Even someone who falls out of status gets a notice with at least 60 days to regularise, extendable by the same again; an appeal suspends removal, and the law generally forbids detention for migration reasons. A renewal filed on time keeps your stay legal until the decision.
Day to day, everything hinges on that same residence card. Banks want a CPF tax number and the card or its filing receipt, and card delays freeze accounts and payroll; fintech banks are easier. Diploma recognition runs through public universities and takes months, longer for doctors.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
Since 10 April 2025 a visa is required to enter, with an e-visa option. To live in Brazil, the same nomad visa route as everyone else.
Citizens of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador get residence simply by nationality. Citizens of Angola, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea have a simplified route, and Portuguese citizens enjoy a special equal-rights status.
No visa for up to 90 days within 180 for tourism and business; living in Brazil requires a visa. The humanitarian visa programme for Ukrainian citizens ran until 31 December 2025; a new general humanitarian framework was adopted, but by April 2026 its list of countries had still not been published. According to the Embassy of Ukraine in Brazil, staying because of the war is currently possible only through refugee status.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no nationality-based restrictions on the nomad visa. The same income threshold and procedure apply.
The place interval 4-10 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
Between leaguesThe league holds in fewer than half of the recalculations. Read this country as sitting between two leagues, not as a member of the upper one.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Status security: 100 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 57.9. The weakest is Agency processing: 53 against 48.7. Above the world average: 6 out of 7.
The other such country is Chile. You get at least 60 days, extendable, to put your status in order, freedom of movement is preserved meanwhile, and the law explicitly forbids detention on migration grounds. A spouse works immediately and on equal terms with Brazilians, without a separate permit, and that extends to the family of someone on a remote work visa. Education is a right of everyone under the Constitution, regardless of migration status.
DownsideAgency processing scores 53, settling in 62. Delays in issuing the registration number block both the bank account and payroll; diploma recognition goes through state universities and takes months; income on a remote work visa is taxed at around 24%.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
Consulates usually issue the nomad visa in 3-4 weeks, in-country applications take 15-30 working days. The slow part is Federal Police registration: in big cities the wait for an appointment is 1-2 months, and it must be done within 90 days of entry.
Yes. The VITEM XIV nomad visa needs no Brazilian job offer: you need income from a foreign employer or clients of $1,500 a month, or $18,000 in savings.
R$168.13 for the authorisation and R$204.77 for the residence card. Over five years about R$1,100 per adult and about R$3,300 for a family of three.
Losing a job is not a ground: residence ends for fraud, a change of ground or more than two years abroad. Even out of status, the law gives at least 60 days to regularise, and an appeal suspends removal.
The nomad visa does not convert to permanent residence; after two years you switch ground, so the realistic path is about 4 years. Citizenship after 4 years of residence with Portuguese at roughly B1, or after one year if married to a Brazilian; dual citizenship is allowed.
The state is open: a liberal law, full family rights, no residence exams and strong protection of status. The obstacle is Federal Police bureaucracy, which can delay full legal registration and a bank account by months.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.