What does emigrating to Brazil cost?
Three questions, and you have an honest range for your situation — with for every item whether it's a checked rate or an estimate. On the application side this is a route of few fees: the card and the application at the Polícia Federal are literally in the decree, and the money sits in the apostilles and the sworn translations. The real money sits in three other items: the move across the ocean, which enters the country tax-free if you make the window; the car, which you don't take along; and the plano de saúde that returns every month — which therefore isn't in this one-off count but is in the step-by-step plan.
Looking for the whole route to Brazil, not just the costs? See the steps, the order and the paperwork →
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 6.300 – € 22.600
Where does that difference come from?
- Leaving the car behind and buying on the spot€ 3.000 – € 14.000
- The first months€ 2.500 – € 6.000
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 200 – € 850
- De verhuizing
- € 3.500 – € 15.300
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.600 – € 6.500
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- The CRNM at the Polícia Federal€ 30 – € 45
- The application or the conversion at the Ministry of Justice€ 0 – € 35
- The VITEM visa at the consulate(estimate)€ 0 – € 150
- Apostilles, certificate of conduct and sworn translations(estimate)€ 200 – € 600
The birth certificate, the certificate of conduct and the pension or income statement each get an apostille from the court (€ 27 per document, 2026 rate); a couple adds the marriage certificate, children their birth certificates. The translation into Portuguese has to be done by a tradutor público juramentado registered with a Brazilian Junta Comercial, at a rate per page that the Junta of each state sets. The top counts on doing over once a document that is too old on the day of lodging.
De verhuizing
- Flights(estimate)€ 500 – € 1.300
One way from Amsterdam to São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, direct in a good eleven hours, or with a connection in Lisbon to the north-east. The spread sits in the season and the luggage: whoever travels with extra suitcases because the container comes later pays the top.
- Leaving the car behind and buying on the spot(estimate)€ 3.000 – € 14.000
Deliberately included as a cost item instead of a saving. Brazil forbids the import of used consumer goods, and article 35 of Portaria SECEX 249/2023 makes an exception for cars only above thirty years, for collectors. So you sell your car in the Netherlands and buy again in Brazil, where cars are more expensive than here because of the import levies on parts. The range is a second-hand car in reasonable condition; what your Dutch car fetches comes straight off it. Whoever goes to live in São Paulo or Rio can do without for the first months and sits at the bottom.
De eerste maanden
- The first months(estimate)€ 2.500 – € 6.000
Deposit or seguro-fiança and rent paid in advance — the law caps a cash deposit at three months' rent, and whoever has no Brazilian fiador pays an annual premium for the seguro-fiança — furnishing what didn't come along, and the months in which you still run double. The rents vary: the interior and the north-east are affordable, the good neighbourhoods of São Paulo and Rio charge European amounts.
- Bank, phone and the first counters(estimate)€ 60 – € 250
- Converting the driving licence to the CNH(estimate)€ 60 – € 200
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 4 to 7% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 10.000 to € 17.500.
The ITBI, the municipal transfer tax — in São Paulo 3 percent on the higher of purchase price and reference value; every municipality sets its own rate — plus the notarial deed at the cartório de notas and the recording on the matrícula at the cartório de registro de imóveis, both according to the state's fee table. A lawyer of your own who reads the matrícula before you pay a deposit sits in the top.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
Urban property you buy as a foreigner in your own name, without a permit. Farmland falls under the law of 1971: up to three módulos de exploração indefinida freely, above that only with permission, and never more than fifty módulos. In areas considered indispensable to national security, prior permission is needed.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 5 October 2026.
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One thing you can sort out today
Closing down the Netherlands is the same work for everyone, wherever you're going. With the letter pack you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready — health insurance, rent, employer, bank, pension fund — with the date by which each has to go out. € 49 one-off; it's also included in every plan.
Your complete, personal cost picture — with your route, your documents and your deadlines — you get in Vertrekklaar.
From range to your own budget
The calculator above works with three questions; the journey itself knows more. In Vertrekklaar the same model calculates on your real situation — who's coming, household contents along or not, pet along or not — and watches the clocks: the ninety days as a tourist, the ninety or thirty days for the registro, the window of three to six months for the household goods, the hundred and eighty days for the driving licence and the renewal before the end date. A one-off € 399, no subscription.
Leaving with AOW or a pension? Compare how countries tax your pension
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Brazil: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Brazil really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
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