Documents For Brazilian Retirement Visa etc.

11/08/25  @ Mark Blonde.  Congratulations on deciding to take the plunge.

You should be able to print out a Benefit Verification Letter for Social Security anytime from the Social Security site.  Similar Payment or Benefit Verification Letters should be available from any private pensions that are paying you benefits.  Those should be sufficient.  For investment income, consider using your year-end and most recent quarter account statements. 

ALL English language documents that you present to Brazilian authorities in Brazil (including your US Driver's License when you request a Brazilian one from your state's DETRAN!) must be translated by a Sworn Translator duly appointed through a competitive process by the Junta Comercial of a Brazilian state.  So not any translations will do, but fortunately, Sworn Translations are relatively easy to obtain once you're here.  Just do a search on "Tradutores Juramentados (name of city)", and you can easily arrange it.  There are also legitimate online companies that have Sworn Translators on staff.  I've used them for less important documents and they've been fine, but not all agencies will accept electronic signatures.  That's improving, though.

The benefits of obtaining a VITEM XIV Retirement Visa from a Brazilian Consulate is that you don't have to obtain Sworn Translations for any of your documents in English, and if they decide that there's a problem with your document package it's easier to fix, since you're still in the US. 

If you're being told that the Immigration Office in São Paulo isn't requesting proof of insurance from applicants that may  or may not be true, but it's still a requirement of Normative Resolution No. 40 of 02 October 2019, the regulation that makes both  the Retirement Visa from the Consulate and the Authorization of Residency from the Federal Police possible.  If that regulation is being or has been ignored, it could still snap back at any time.

Some retirees have bought an international policy that covered Brazil, then canceled it as soon as they moved here and got local insurance.  I would also urge you to get local private insurance after you move here.  Prices are reasonable, wait times are shorter (sometimes much shorter) than SUS, and your Medicare will be useless here.

The process is pretty straightforward, so if your documents support your application, you shouldn't need to pay an attorney.  If you decide to come on a Tourist Visa and try to apply for an Authorization of Residency from the Federal Police, be sure to get your Sworn Translations going as soon as possible after you arrive, and your application in as soon as they're ready.  Don't risk exhausting the time allowed on your visa before the application has been presented and accepted.

Thank you for your advice. You're make getting it through a consulate here seem like a better plan. Regarding the insurance, if you have a residency visa, you become a taxable citizen so the need for insurance seems kind of unfair ("we'll tax you 27.5%, but we don't want you using SUS which your taxes helps pay for?"), but my main reason for thinking that I wasn't going to get insurance is because the way it's structured, I'm going to have to keep paying for Medicare no matter what (in case I get old an feeble and need to go back to family for support) so anything serious and planned, I'll go back to the States and my friend in Brazil says that any real emergency is going to be taken care of at a SUS hospital anyway. I'm healthy so any routine visits I could pay out of pocket. I did ask her to find a local plan for me to investigate since any I seem to get quoted for here are going to cost me ~$600/month which seems insane. But if online printouts are ok, I should be able to get everything I need. I just feel a little uneasy because anyone could just change an online print out to say whatever they need. the FBI report is something else I'm looking into.

@abthree

Any advice on finding local insurance while I'm still in the USA? The recommendation I got won't let me even contact them with my US phone number. Thanks!

@Mark Blonde

In my opinion you should apply to the Federal Police in Brasil instead of a consolate in LA.  I have a great attorney in SP who facilitated my retirement visa. She can answer all of your questions and get the job done. She has all the US resources needed. Let me know if you want a referral.

If you can do the consulate route it’s probably best. Less messing with document translations, apostles etc. Don’t stress too much. This will be your first experience dealing with Brazillian bureaucracy, but it won’t be the last. It’s all about the money.

@ibdegen

yes please!

11/08/25 "we'll tax you 27.5%, but we don't want you using SUS which your taxes helps pay for?"

- @Mark Blonde

If you notice, the only people you read on this site agonizing about the notorious 27.5% tax rate are potential expats thinking about moving to Brazil.  You never read about any expats already here paying taxes at that rate because no one does.  Brazil's rules against double taxation alone mean that it's practically impossible for a resident foreigner whose principal source of income is in their home country and who pays their taxes as required there to be charged by Brazil anything like the rate they pay at home, let alone the terror-inducing 27.5%.  And that's before figuring in Brazil's additional age-related deductions as one gets older. 

If an expat does his/her own Brazilian taxes (which I certainly do NOT recommend), is perfectly honest, declares of every cent of overseas income, and files as if they didn't pay ANY taxes at home, then in that case yes, that expat's top marginal rate (still not overall rate, because the rate table is progressive) will approach 27.5%.  This person will drastically overpay their taxes.  That's what it would take.

11/08/25 If you can do the consulate route it’s probably best. Less messing with document translations, apostles etc. Don’t stress too much. This will be your first experience dealing with Brazillian bureaucracy - @bepmoht

Agreed.  The Brazilian Government's preferred route is the Visa route, and the government's preferred route is usually the easiest.

The Polícia Federal route is a permitted route, and if your paperwork is in order and properly translated and you get it all in on time, You should have little or no trouble.  you should not need a lawyer for a normal case, but if you don't mind spending the money, it may save  you some time and stress.

If your case is at all hinky, i.e., does not seem to meet the requirements for residency based on retirement, or you simply run out of time on your Tourist Visa, a lawyer is probably needed and may be able to help. 

11/08/25 "anything serious and planned, I'll go back to the States and my friend in Brazil says that any real emergency is going to be taken care of at a SUS hospital anyway. " - @Mark Blonde

There's a whole world of devils in the details of "serious and planned" and "taken care of at a SUS hospital" that might help to inform any decision on health insurance.  Here's an example.

As I've written about elsewhere (https://www.expat.com/en/forum/south-am … es-p3.html  Post #91), on August 29 I was hit by a motorcycle speeding through an intersection while I was crossing the street.  This is an increasingly common occurrence in Brazil; a lady in Aracaju was hit the same way the very same week and died of her injuries; I was bruised and bloodied up pretty bad, but did not lose consciousness. 

The SAMU ambulance arrived within minutes and rushed me to the SUS hospital that handles head trauma.  They did a great job of addressing the immediate emergency:  they examined me, observed me. popped me into the MRI machine, and only after they'd determined that I had no brain injury, no fractures, and no apparent internal injuries did they clean me up, sew me up (ten stitches to the forehead) observe me a little longer, and send me home with a prescription for pain relievers and instructions to get my bandages changed daily at the local first aid station.  They did not give me muscle relaxants (which I found out later are standard with this kind of injury in the US, and would really have helped over the next several days), or follow-up instructions.  Presumably, if I was in bad enough shape that would be acted on when I got my bandages changed.   The medical record of my hospital treatment was available in two and a half weeks, and has been quite useful; the MRI report, however, still hasn't been released, and isn't expected until the end of this month, November.

Since we have private insurance, I've been to see an internist, an angiologist (potential clots), an orthopedist (rib, thorax , and shoulder injuries), and a neurologist (head injuries and dizziness), all of whom have ordered a lot of tests, only one of which required a special authorization, none of it at any out-of-pocket cost to us.  I suspect that some physical therapy is in my immediate future, also at no cost to us.  If I had depended on SUS, I'd probably still be waiting for initial appointments with some of these professionals.  These are not injuries that I would have considered getting onto a plane with, let alone trying to set up treatment when I landed.

On our insurance plan, we currently pay ~R$1300/mo for me and ~$R500/mo for my (much younger) husband -- about US$244 and US$94 respectively, deductible on our Brazilian income taxes.  Everyone's situation is different, but that seems like a good deal to me.

@Mark Blonde

I know people who have used an attorney (in Brazil) to get a retirement visa, and others who did it themselves from the UK.

All were successful, but a lot less stress using an attorney, although obviously more costly.

I particulrly agree with @Abthree's comment about the 27.5% tax - absolutlely right!

A friend of mine had a hip replacement done in Recife privately 3 weeks ago, and the total cost, including initial cconsulting, x-rays, orthopaedic surgeon, US-imported implant, anaesthetist, operating theatre and staff, 1 night's hospital stay in private room with his wife, nurses, etc, was about R$30,000.  He was asked if he could pay by cask or pix, or wanted a notal fiscal - in which case the price would be a little higher as they would have to pay the tax...

11/09/25 Any advice on finding local insurance while I'm still in the USA? The recommendation I got won't let me even contact them with my US phone number. Thanks! - @Mark Blonde

I doubt that would work, and it's much better to get local coverage locally anyway:  while there are still a couple of national brands, private health insurance is really a regional business, and the same brand can have radically different reputations -- and presumably outcomes -- in different parts of the country.  Our carrier has a sterling reputation here in Manaus, but a friend in João Pessoa tells us that there, its nickname is "the housemaids' health plan".  On the other hand, the plan that he's happy with there has a terrible reputation and substandard-looking facilities here. 

My suggestion would be to get the cheapest international "bridge" plan you can for visa purposes, find out from your Brazilian friends what plans are viewed best in the part of São Paulo where you want to live, focus on those, and cancel the "bridge" plan as soon as you can:  either when you have local coverage, or if you decide to go with SUS, as soon as you have a CPF and a Brazilian address.

@abthreeMy reading (and yes, I need to find an expert) is that there is no tax agreement between Brazil and the USA, but data sharing, so I need to declare all US income and pay taxes on it in Brazil, and looking at the Brazilian tax tables online, with Social Security alone, I would expect most Americans to be in the top tax bracket. That does ignore any deductions I'd be eligible for. The relief that seems straight forward is that when filing for my US taxes, I can deduct what I pay to Brazil, so since it would be more there than my US taxes, I wouldn't have to pay anything to US. Just waving my hands to guess, I think I'd be paying around 20% in the US, so while 27.5 might be high, given the difference in cost of living, an increase in taxes of 7% isn't that excessive. I do realize that there is a lot of unreported income etc in Brazil and if that is a game, I need to understand what can be done.

thank you!

@Peter Itamaraca

with a lot of premium plans in the US, you could pay that much just in copays!

@abthree

great advice! Thank you!

11/09/25  @Mark Blonde  *Apologies in advance to our non-US members for this very US-oriented response.* Don't worry, you can be 100% honest in your Brazilian tax return and your Brazilian taxes should be much lower than your US taxes.  It's natural for an American to assume that "I need to declare all US income and pay taxes on it in Brazil" because that's the way the IRS works.  But it's not the way that the Receita Federal works.  This is why I believe that any expat needs a good, trustworthy Brazilian accountant.  You'll have plenty of time to find one, because you shouldn't have to file a Brazilian tax return until the April after your definitive arrival at the earliest, maybe later, so you can find someone you feel comfortable with and work out your tax plan together.

You are correct that there is no US-Brazil Tax Treaty, but Brazilian law is very definite in its prohibition of double taxation regardless, so in principle all US income that's taxed in the US will be exempt from taxation here.  There seem to be some formulas to re-include a portion of funds that an expat transfers to Brazil as taxable income, so a lot of us end up paying some income tax, but it isn't on our whole US income.  As we get older the deductions become higher, and private health care premiums are at least partially deductible, too.  What your accountant will show on your return will be your income that Brazil considers taxable, which will probably not bear any easy identification with what's on the "Taxable Income" line of your 1040. 

This is how I describe my annual process:  My tax person in the US prepares and files my US return as early as possible.  When that's done, I give my Brazil person my complete US tax return, all proof of US income (1099s and my investment statements) that my US guy had, statements for our Brazilian bank accounts, proof of our health care payments, and any random documents she requests.  She does what I call her "Black Magic" and sends  me a printout (filing is all electronic here) of my draft return.  My husband and I sit down with her over tea and cookies (she's a friend, too), and she explains her reasoning to us.  I don't try to understand the numbers, because they're pretty opaque to me; I just want to make sure that everything that went into the US return was considered, and included, excluded, or adjusted according to the current Brazilian tax laws.  That completed, she files the return and I simultaneously pay the taxes due electronically.  A day or two later, my RF account shows "Return processed/taxes paid/no taxes due".

With respect to deductibility of Brazilian taxes on your US return, beware.  The last time I checked, US taxpayers were allowed to exclude 100% up to a certain limit of Brazil-based earned income that was already taxed in Brazil; as far as I know, there is no exclusion or deduction for Brazil based investment income, or for Brazilian taxes on US-based income.  You'll want to confirm all this with your US tax advisor.

Double post, deleted

@

    - 11/08/25 " The SAMU ambulance arrived within minutes and rushed me to the SUS hospital that handles head trauma. They did a great job of addressing the immediate emergency: they examined me, observed me. popped me into the MRI machine, and only after they'd determined that I had no brain injury, no fractures, and no apparent internal injuries did they clean me up, sew me up (ten stitches to the forehead) observe me a little longer, and send me home with a prescription for pain relievers and instructions to get my bandages changed daily at the local first aid station. They did not give me muscle relaxants (which I found out later are standard with this kind of injury in the US, and would really have helped over the next several days), or follow-up instructions. Presumably, if I was in bad enough shape that would be acted on when I got my bandages changed. The medical record of my hospital treatment was available in two and a half weeks, and has been quite useful; the MRI report, however, still hasn't been released, and isn't expected until the end of this month, November. Since we have private insurance, I've been to see an internist, an angiologist (potential clots), an orthopedist (rib, thorax , and shoulder injuries), and a neurologist (head injuries and dizziness), all of whom have ordered a lot of tests, only one of which required a special authorization, none of it at any out-of-pocket cost to us. I suspect that some physical therapy is in my immediate future, also at no cost to us. If I had depended on SUS, I'd probably still be waiting for initial appointments with some of these professionals. These are not injuries that I would have considered getting onto a plane with, let alone trying to set up treatment when I landed. On our insurance plan, we currently pay ~R$1300/mo for me and ~$R500/mo for my (much younger) husband -- about US$244 and US$94 respectively, deductible on our Brazilian income taxes. Everyone's situation is different, but that seems like a good deal to me. - @abthree

Very interesting write-up, thank you. I was on the fence about getting local insurance, since I also still have coverage from my home country, which extends internationally for emergencies. “Thanks” to your experience, I will definitely get a Plano. They are totally affordable, even at the highest brackets. And from what I heard (and experienced at my dentist), the service is really good at the ‘particulares’.

@Kurterino

Just remember that not all doctors/clinics/hospitals accept all medical insurance companies. So if you have a local health care provider that you imagine you might use in the future, make sure they accept your plan before you sign up to it...

@Peter Itamaraca

Thx, I heard that before, it’s good to have it confirmed. Given that I don’t know which health care providers are the best, nor what kind of provider I might need, I decided to listen to recommendations from people who live in the area. I’ll probably go with Hapvida, but I’m still considering Bradesco as well. have already decided that a plano enfermaria is sufficient for me, I don’t need the apartamento option.

I’ll get a quote from

both of them and will decide definitely soon, in order to have a plano starting in 2026.

11/13/25 @Kurterino.  We have Hapvida and have been satisfied with them; service offerings and reputations of companies seems inconsistent across states, so you're wise to ask your local contacts before signing up.  We chose "enfermaria", too:  our understanding is that it's apt to mean "semi-private room" rather than "ward", which is a setting that is no longer common in Brazil, either.  If either of us is ever hospitalized, semi-private is good enough.  We don't need to pay the monthly upcharge for the possibility of a private room if needed.

Hapvida operates on a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) model, not a fee-for-service model.  They maintain their own network of doctors, hospitals, rehab facilities, and laboratories, and most services are kept in-house.  Hapvida doctors also have private practices and/or work for SUS, so there's some overlap.  They have contracts with providers for services that they don't have in-house.  So you may have more choice of practitioners with Bradesco, although you may pay more.