CRNM and CPF: the two numbers everything in Brazil hangs on, and the 90-day clock

Yes, you must register, and the clock runs from the day you land: article 64 of Decreto 9.199 gives whoever enters with a temporary visa 90 days to request registration with the Polícia Federal, and article 307 puts a fine on it. It costs 204.77 reais for the card, on top of the 168.13 reais of the residence application. The pitfall is that Brazil has two numbers that each have their own counter, and that the second, the CPF, is in practice needed before the first: without a CPF no bank account, no rental contract in your name and no phone subscription. Fortunately you can get that number in Amsterdam already.

	RNM and CRNM	CPF
What	registration and residence card	tax number
From whom	Polícia Federal	Receita Federal
When	within 90 days of arrival with a visa; after a residence permit within 30 days of the service calling you to do so	before departure, at the consulate
Cost	204.77 reais for the card	free
Validity	the term of your residence permit; nine years for residence of indefinite duration	indefinite, it is a number

What exactly is the registration?

Article 19 of the migration law calls it the civil identification "by biographical and biometric data", mandatory for every immigrant with a temporary visa or a residence permit. You get a Registro Nacional Migratório, the RNM number, and the card that goes with it, the Carteira de Registro Nacional Migratório. That card shows the end date of your residence permit (article 73); for residence of indefinite duration the card is valid nine years (article 74).

The procedure is, according to the service, fully digital: you fill in the form online, pay the GRU, the Brazilian payment slip, of 204.77 reais and make an appointment at the unit of the Polícia Federal of the place where you live — only there, the service says, apart from the exceptions of article 67. At the appointment they take your fingerprints and your address; article 70 obliges you to give a physical address and, if you have one, an e-mail address. The card is handed out at the same unit, on average thirty working days later.

What if the card is not there yet?

Then you are not without rights. Article 63 says that the registered immigrant, as long as the card has not been issued, shows the protocol of his application, together with his passport, and keeps the rights of the law with it. Article 65 goes a step further back: your passport with a valid visa proves your identity and your lawful stay as long as the deadline for registration is still running. Keep the protocol like your passport; the bank and the landlord want to see it, and the residence routes describe which documents you must carry besides.

The birth certificate travels along to the appointment. At registration the Polícia Federal wants a document with the full names of both parents, apostilled and translated. Your passport does not name them. Whoever forgets the certificate in the Netherlands has to have it sent and apostilled after all, and the 90 days keep running.

How do I get the CPF?

The Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas is, according to the Receita Federal, "your identity": there is no minimum age, Brazilians and foreigners can register, in Brazil or abroad, and it costs nothing. It is a number, not a document; whoever has lost the card prints the proof of registration from the website.

For a foreigner in the Netherlands the registration runs through the consulate-general in Amsterdam, and in person. First you fill in the form of the Receita Federal online, after which a Ficha Cadastral with a code is created; then you choose the service "Inscrição no CPF" in the e-consular system, add your documents and get, once the file is approved, an appointment. Brazilians may do it by e-mail; foreigners may not, the consulate says explicitly. The consulate also says why you arrange it now: whoever goes to live in Brazil "must have a CPF".

Changes afterwards — a new address, a correction — go through the e-mail address of the Receita Federal for residents abroad, also for foreigners, or in Brazil at an office of the service.

Why the CPF comes before the CRNM

Because the rest of the country runs on it. The bank asks for it when opening an account, the landlord puts it in the rental contract, the phone shop and the web shop ask for it with every order, and since 2024 it is, according to the consulate, on every government form. Whoever has the number in his passport before he lands starts the first weeks with a head start of weeks.

What is not here: from when you are a tax resident and what that does to your Dutch pension. That hangs on your visa and on the 183 days, and is in the article on AOW, pension and tax.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Brazil or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.