Brazil Humanitarian Visa in 2026: Who Qualifies and How It Works

The question arrives in our inbox in careful English, often written for someone else: a brother in Kabul, a cousin’s family waiting in Islamabad, a mother in Port-au-Prince. It almost always contains the same confusion — “We want to apply for asylum at the Brazilian embassy.” And the honest first answer is that no such thing exists: Brazilian embassies do not take asylum applications. What the embassy can issue — to nationals of designated crisis countries, under rules that have changed as recently as January 2026 — is a humanitarian visa. What Brazil grants to people who reach its territory and fear return is refugee status. They are two different doors, in two different buildings, governed by two different laws.

Mixing them up is not a small vocabulary error. Families have waited months on the wrong list, missed the right one, and made choices — like accepting one status while another application was pending — whose legal effects they only discovered later.

The thing this guide turns on is that Brazil’s humanitarian reception is really two tracks running in parallel: a visa track that starts abroad, at a consulate, under interministerial portarias that get replaced and renewed every year or two — and a refuge track that starts only on Brazilian soil, under a 1997 law that has not needed replacing. Everything else — who qualifies, which documents, which office, what you can and cannot do afterward — follows from knowing which track you are on.

This is educational content prepared by the ZS Advogados Associados team for people affected by the crises in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Haiti, for other nationals of countries in grave instability, and for the relatives, sponsors, and volunteers in Brazil trying to help them. It explains the legal basis of the humanitarian visa, what changed on 1 January 2026, the country-by-country state of play, the documents and the consulate step, what happens after arrival, and how family members fit in. It complements our guides on the humanitarian visa’s foundations, the refugee and asylum process, and refugee rights in Brazil.

Humanitarian visa or refugee claim — which track are you on?

Start here, because every other question depends on it.

	Humanitarian visa (acolhida humanitária)	Refugee status (refúgio)
Legal basis	Lei 13.445/2017, art. 14, §3º + interministerial portarias	Lei 9.474/1997
Where you apply	At a Brazilian consulate abroad, before travel	Inside Brazil or at the border — never at a consulate
Who decides	Foreign Ministry post, after Ministry of Justice analysis	CONARE (National Committee for Refugees)
Who qualifies	Nationals of countries designated by portaria/joint act, in grave instability, conflict, disaster, or rights violations	Anyone with a well-founded fear of persecution (race, religion, nationality, social group, political opinion) or fleeing grave and generalized human-rights violations
Entry requirement	Regular entry with the visa	Irregular entry is expressly no bar (art. 8º)
While pending	You wait abroad	You stay: provisional protocol, protection from removal, right to work (art. 21)
What you get	180-day single-entry visa → 2-year residence → indefinite	Refugee status: durable protection, travel document, path to residence
Can it be both?	You may claim refuge after arriving on the visa — but accepting humanitarian residence has meant waiving the refugee claim	—

Two consequences of this table do most of the work. First: if you are outside Brazil, the refuge track is closed to you until you arrive — the only Brazilian door open abroad is the visa track (or an ordinary visa category you independently qualify for). Second: if you are already in Brazil, the visa track is moot — your options are a refuge claim or a residence authorization, including humanitarian residence, from inside.

Legal basis: the humanitarian visa is art. 14, §3º, of Lei nº 13.445/2017, regulated by arts. 36 and 145 of Decreto nº 9.199/2017 and implemented by interministerial portarias; the refuge track — definition, border access, no-penalty for irregular entry, provisional protocol, and CONARE — is Lei nº 9.474/1997, arts. 1º, 7º, 8º and 21.

What is the legal basis of the humanitarian visa?

Brazil wrote humanitarian reception directly into its migration statute. Art. 14, §3º of Lei 13.445/2017 provides that a temporary visa for humanitarian reception (acolhida humanitária) may be granted to a stateless person or a national of any country in a situation of grave or imminent institutional instability, armed conflict, major calamity, environmental disaster, or grave violation of human rights or international humanitarian law. Its twin, art. 30, I, “c”, allows a residence authorization on the same ground for people already on Brazilian territory. The implementing decree (Decreto 9.199/2017, arts. 36 and 145) then delegates the operative details — which countries, which posts, which conditions — to joint ministerial acts.

That delegation is why this area moves so fast. The statute is stable; the portarias interministeriais built on it are time-limited instruments that get renewed, replaced, and consolidated — which is exactly what happened at the turn of 2026.

The humanitarian ground is discretionary by design. The law says the visa “may” be granted (poderá ser concedido); no portaria converts that into an entitlement, consulates retain judgment on each file, and processing has always been subject to the posts’ real-world capacity. Any honest guide — and any honest advisor — must say plainly: no one can promise a humanitarian visa will be issued, and anyone who does promise it should not be trusted.

Legal basis: Lei nº 13.445/2017, art. 14, §3º (visa) and art. 30, I, “c” (residence); Decreto nº 9.199/2017, arts. 36 and 145 (joint-act delegation).

What changed on 1 January 2026?

For most of the past decade, Brazil ran humanitarian reception through country-specific portarias — one lineage for Haitians, one for Afghans, one for Ukrainians, each with its own renewals and expiry dates. That architecture was replaced.

Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 60, of 30 December 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, consolidated the humanitarian-visa framework into a single instrument for nationals of any country meeting the art. 14, §3º criteria (and stateless persons residing in or originating from those countries). It expressly revoked the three country-specific portarias of December 2024 — nº 49 (Afghanistan), nº 50 (Ukraine), and nº 51 (Haiti). Its main design features, as published:

• Designation by joint act. The specific countries covered and the consulates enabled to issue the visa are designated by joint ministerial act — not fixed in the portaria itself. What is “open” at any moment is therefore a moving list.
• Community sponsorship as a gate. A visa is only processed where a civil-society organization holding a cooperation agreement with the federal government — selected through a public call under Lei 13.019/2014 — confirms capacity to receive the applicant (patrocínio comunitário). This generalizes the model first applied to Afghans in 2023.
• The same visa mechanics as the country programs: a 180-day, single-entry temporary visa, followed by registration and residence in Brazil.
• No fixed expiry date of its own — unlike the country portarias, which carried sunset clauses.

Reception advocates have publicly criticized the sponsorship gate — issuance volumes reportedly fell year over year as capacity, not demand, became the constraint — and implementation details (which organizations are authorized, for which nationalities, with how many places) have continued to develop during 2026. Treat every operational detail as confirm-before-relying: the framework is Portaria 60/2025, but the joint acts and public calls under it are where your case actually lives.

Speak to counsel — designations move. Which countries and posts are enabled, and which sponsoring organizations have capacity, are administrative facts that can change between the day you read this and the day you apply. Verify the current designations through the Ministry of Justice’s migration portal or counsel before building plans on them.

Afghanistan, Ukraine, Haiti: the state of play

Afghanistan. Brazil opened its Afghan program with Portaria Interministerial nº 24/2021, weeks after the August 2021 fall of Kabul, and renewed it through Portaria nº 42/2023 and then nº 49/2024. The 2023 instrument — the fullest public statement of how the program works — provided a 180-day single-entry visa issued exclusively by the Brazilian embassies in Tehran and Islamabad, conditioned issuance on the sponsorship confirmation of an authorized organization, directed special attention to applications from women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and their family groups, and exempted beneficiaries from visa fees, registration fees, and fines. Since 1 January 2026 the Afghan route runs under the consolidated Portaria 60/2025: the program continues through authorized sponsoring organizations, but the currently enabled posts, the covered profile (the earlier portarias were tied to people who left Afghanistan in the context of August 2021), and available sponsorship places must be confirmed at the time of application. Demand has consistently exceeded places, and waits have been long — a hard truth families deserve to hear early.

Ukraine. Brazil created the Ukrainian route with Portaria Interministerial nº 28/2022 in the first days of the full-scale invasion — a 180-day visa plus two-year residence for Ukrainian nationals and stateless persons affected or displaced by the conflict — and renewed the framework repeatedly (nº 30/2022 onward, through nº 50/2024, which centered on residence authorization). That lineage, too, was folded into Portaria 60/2025 from January 2026. Ukrainians already in Brazil have primarily used the humanitarian residence route rather than the consular visa; whether and how Ukraine features in the current joint-act designations should be confirmed before applying.

Haiti. The oldest lineage: Brazil has run a Haiti-specific humanitarian route since the early 2010s, renewed many times, most recently through Portaria nº 38/2023 and Portaria nº 51/2024 (in force from January 2025), before consolidation into Portaria 60/2025. Haiti also keeps one instrument of its own: Portaria Interministerial nº 55/2025 created an electronic family-reunification visa for Haitian nationals and residents of Haiti with qualifying family in Brazil who obtained residence under the earlier Haitian portarias — a meaningful practical channel, since it does not require appearing at a distant consulate. Its operational windows have been extended by subsequent acts; confirm current validity.

For the refuge-side experience of these communities in Brazil, see our guides on Syrian refugees in Brazil — the community whose reception in the 2010s shaped the humanitarian-visa model — and refugee rights and process.

Speak to counsel — program status must be confirmed, not assumed. Each of these lineages has been renewed, replaced, or consolidated at least once every two years, and the current framework delegates the operative details to joint acts that can change without a new portaria. Where we could not verify a current designation, we say so — and you should apply the same discipline: never rely on an expiry date or an “open program” claim that is not confirmed against the official portal at the time you act.

What documents are required, and how does the consulate step work?

The humanitarian file is deliberately thin — the portarias were written for people fleeing places where paperwork burned. Under the recent instruments, the visa application requires:

Document	Notes
Valid travel document	Passport; the rules have tolerated near-expiry documents, and post-arrival steps accept expired ones
Visa application form	The consular form for the enabled post
Criminal-record certificate	From the country of origin or residence — or, where impossible to obtain, a sworn declaration of no criminal record in any country
Authorization for minors	Parental/guardian authorization where applicable
Sponsorship confirmation	Not a document you produce: the authorized organization’s capacity confirmation, processed between the ministries
(Earlier Afghan rules) proof of transport to Brazil	Required under Portaria 42/2023; confirm whether the current rules ask for it

Crucially, the portarias contain an exceptional-waiver clause: where an applicant cannot present one or more documents, the visa may still be granted, in a reasoned decision, after consultation with the Foreign Ministry. That clause exists precisely for the Afghan woman who cannot approach Taliban offices for a certificate, or the Haitian family whose registry office no longer functions. It is discretionary — but it is in the text, and invoking it well is one of the places where careful preparation shows.

The sequence, in practice: identify the currently enabled post and an authorized sponsoring organization; the Ministry of Justice screens profiles and transmits the named list to the Foreign Ministry; the post schedules the interview; the visa issues if the requirements are met. Under the Afghan portarias this ran through Tehran and Islamabad, with the portaria itself warning that issuance was subject to local processing conditions — an understated reference to the real-world difficulty of appointments, travel, and waiting in third countries. We do not describe current scheduling mechanics for any post here because we could not verify them as of writing; confirm directly with the enabled post’s official channels, and be wary of anyone selling “appointment slots.”

Speak to counsel — and beware of intermediaries. Every element of this step — enabled posts, scheduling, document lists, waiver practice — is post-specific and time-specific. Crisis-affected applicants are heavily targeted by fraud: no private party can sell visa approval, queue position, or sponsorship. Verify everything against official channels.

What happens after you arrive in Brazil?

The visa is the door, not the house. The status you actually live on is built in Brazil, in three steps:

1. Register with the Federal Police within 90 days of entry. Registration converts your visa into a temporary residence authorization — two years under the recent portarias — and produces your CRNM (Carteira de Registro Nacional Migratório), the card that functions as your Brazilian ID. Our CRNM guide walks through the appointment and the card.
2. Live and work freely. The portarias expressly guarantee beneficiaries the free exercise of work. With the CRNM and a CPF you can be formally employed, study, use the public health system, and enroll children in school. Beneficiaries have been exempt from visa fees, registration fees, and fines under the portarias (pre-consular service charges by contracted providers may still apply).
3. Convert to indefinite residence. In the 90 days before the two-year residence expires, you may apply for residence of indefinite duration (prazo indeterminado), on conditions the portarias have kept consistent: absences from Brazil of no more than 90 days per migratory year, entries and exits only through regular border control, no criminal record in Brazil or abroad, and proof of means of subsistence — with a deliberately broad menu of accepted evidence running from an employment contract or self-employment registration to business ownership, investments, or a sworn declaration of lawful and sufficient means.

Residence time then counts toward ordinary naturalization — at least four years of residence, Portuguese communication ability, and a clean record under arts. 65–66 of the Migration Law, with the period cut to one year for those with a Brazilian child or spouse. For how these paths have worked for protection populations, see Brazilian citizenship for refugees.

One interaction deserves its own line, because it is the most consequential fine print in the whole system: under the portarias, obtaining humanitarian residence has meant renouncing or withdrawing a refugee claim or refugee status (the Afghan portaria said so expressly, citing art. 39 of Lei 9.474/1997). For some families that trade is right — residence is stable and practical; for others, refugee status’s specific protections matter. Decide it consciously, not by default.

Legal basis: registration and two-year residence, work rights, fee exemptions, indefinite-residence requirements, and the refugee-claim waiver appear in the humanitarian portarias (Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 42/2023, arts. 5º–12, for the Afghan program; equivalent provisions in the consolidated Portaria nº 60/2025); naturalization is Lei nº 13.445/2017, arts. 65–66.

How do family members fit in?

Three distinct mechanisms, often confused:

• Family groups applying together. The humanitarian ground itself covers affected families — spouses, children, dependent relatives who share the qualifying situation apply in their own right, and the Afghan portaria directed special attention to women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and their family groups.
• Dependents within the residence rules. The portarias’ indefinite-residence provisions recognize dependents broadly: children (and student children up to the year they turn 24), economically dependent ascendants and siblings, spouses and partners in stable union, stepchildren and minors under guardianship — with dependence provable by sworn declaration plus the responsible person’s proof of subsistence.
• Family reunification after arrival. Once an anchor relative holds residence, others can be called (chamados) through family-reunification channels — and the portarias extend the fee exemptions to family members called by beneficiaries. Haiti has the dedicated electronic reunification visa of Portaria 55/2025. The general mechanics are in our family reunification guide.

Documentary flexibility runs through all three: unlegalized, untranslated birth and marriage certificates have been accepted with a sworn authenticity declaration, and where even those are impossible, filiation data can be self-declared under penalty of law. Unaccompanied and separated children follow the specific protections of the child-protection framework (the Afghan portaria incorporated CONANDA Resolution 232/2022).

What does it cost and how long does it take?

Ranges only — illustrative, as of August 2026 (FX note: ~R$5.4 per US$1 where converted):

• Government fees: broadly zero. The humanitarian portarias exempt beneficiaries from visa fees, registration fees, and fines, and extend the exemption to called family members. Contracted pre-consular service providers may charge handling fees; document costs (certificates, photos, travel to the post) remain yours.
• The real cost is time and logistics. Reaching an enabled post from Afghanistan or Haiti — travel, stay in a third country, waiting for an interview — has commonly cost families the equivalent of hundreds to thousands of US dollars, borne privately or with sponsor support.
• Timeline: months, not weeks. Sponsorship confirmation, ministry screening, interview scheduling, and issuance have routinely run several months end to end, with wide variation; post-arrival registration is quick (an appointment within the 90-day window), and the two-year-to-indefinite conversion is a further application with its own processing time.
• Professional fees. Firms commonly structure humanitarian-track work as flat-fee stages (eligibility and track analysis; application preparation; post-arrival regularization), with family-group pricing. Pro bono capacity exists in this area — through civil-society organizations, university clinics, and the DPU — and a paid advisor should tell you so.

Speak to counsel — confirm the current figures and waits. Every number above moves with post capacity, sponsorship availability, and rule changes. Nothing here is a quote, and no wait estimate from any source binds a consulate.

Hypothetical illustration — not a real client.

Imagine an Afghan civil engineer who left Kabul for Pakistan in 2022 with his wife and two daughters. In 2024 the family joined the list of a Brazilian sponsoring organization; in 2025 the ministry screening cleared them, but the year ended before an interview date. In January 2026 the rules consolidated under the new portaria, and the family feared they had lost their place. The organization confirmed its agreement remained active; the file continued under the new framework. At the interview, the family could not present an Afghan criminal-record certificate — approaching the authorities in Kabul was impossible — and filed sworn declarations instead, with a short legal memorandum invoking the waiver clause. The visas issued; the family flew to Guarulhos; within three weeks they held CRNMs and CPFs, and the daughters were enrolled in a public school in the sponsor’s city. The engineer’s brother, still in Pakistan, remains on the waiting list — the family’s file did not create a right for his.

Every distinguishing detail here is invented. Real situations turn on their own facts, dates, and documents, and require individual analysis. Nothing in this example predicts any outcome.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Applying for “asylum at the embassy.” Consulates issue visas; refuge is claimed only on Brazilian soil. Months are lost writing to the wrong institution.
• Assuming the program that existed last year still runs unchanged. The portarias have been replaced or renewed at least every two years — 24/2021 → 42/2023 → 49/2024 → 60/2025 for Afghans alone. Verify the instrument in force today.
• Ignoring the sponsorship gate. Since 2023 for Afghans, and generally since 2026, no sponsor confirmation means no processing — the queue that matters is the organizations’ capacity, not the consulate’s.
• Paying intermediaries for “slots” or “approvals.” No private party can sell queue position, sponsorship, or issuance. This fraud specifically targets Afghan and Haitian families.
• Missing the 90-day registration window after arrival, or the 90-day pre-expiry window for converting to indefinite residence — both are hard deadlines that create avoidable irregularity.
• Waiving a refugee claim accidentally. Accepting humanitarian residence has meant renouncing pending or recognized refugee status. Make that choice deliberately, with advice.
• Traveling out of Brazil carelessly. Long absences (over 90 days per migratory year) or exits outside border control can forfeit the path to indefinite residence — and leaving with settled intent has been treated as ending the humanitarian ground.
• Treating discretionary as guaranteed. The visa “may” be granted. Plan for delay and refusal; preserve alternatives (refuge on arrival where genuine, other visa categories where available).

Brazil humanitarian visa at a glance

Element	Rule (as of August 2026)	Basis
Statutory ground	Humanitarian reception for nationals of countries in grave crisis; stateless persons	Lei 13.445/2017, art. 14, §3º
Current framework	Single consolidated portaria, in force 1 Jan 2026; countries and posts designated by joint act	Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 60/2025
Gate	Community sponsorship by authorized civil-society organization	Portaria 60/2025; Lei 13.019/2014
Visa	Temporary (VITEM), 180 days, single entry	Portarias (42/2023; 60/2025)
After arrival	Register with Federal Police in 90 days → 2-year residence + CRNM	Portarias; Decreto 9.199/2017
Work	Free exercise of work guaranteed	Portarias
Fees	Exempt (visa, registration, fines); pre-consular service charges possible	Portarias, citing Decreto 9.199/2017, art. 312, §4º
Indefinite residence	Apply in last 90 days of the 2 years; absence, entry, record, and subsistence conditions	Portarias
Refuge track (separate)	Claim inside Brazil/at border; CONARE decides; irregular entry no bar; protocol + work while pending	Lei 9.474/1997, arts. 1º, 7º–8º, 21
Interaction	Humanitarian residence has meant waiving the refugee claim	Portarias; Lei 9.474/1997, art. 39

Key terms

• Acolhida humanitária — humanitarian reception, the statutory ground for both the visa (art. 14, §3º) and residence (art. 30, I, “c”).
• Portaria interministerial — the joint MJSP/MRE act that operationalizes the ground for specific countries and periods.
• Patrocínio comunitário — community sponsorship: an authorized organization’s confirmed capacity to receive the applicant, required for processing.
• VITEM — the temporary-visa class; the humanitarian visa is a 180-day, single-entry temporary visa.
• CRNM (Carteira de Registro Nacional Migratório) — the migrant ID card issued on registration.
• CONARE — the National Committee for Refugees, which decides refuge claims under Lei 9.474/1997.
• Refúgio — refugee status; claimed only inside Brazil or at the border, never at a consulate.
• Prazo indeterminado — indefinite-duration residence, available after the two-year period on conditions.
• Chamado/chamante — the called family member and the anchor beneficiary in family reunification.

Key takeaways

• Two tracks, two doors: the humanitarian visa starts at a consulate abroad under Lei 13.445/2017, art. 14, §3º; refuge starts only on Brazilian soil under Lei 9.474/1997. Embassies do not take asylum claims.
• Since 1 January 2026, one framework: Portaria Interministerial nº 60/2025 replaced the Afghan (49/2024), Ukrainian (50/2024), and Haitian (51/2024) portarias; covered countries and enabled posts are set by joint ministerial act.
• Community sponsorship is the gate: without an authorized organization’s capacity confirmation, the visa is not processed — organizational capacity, not consular speed, has been the binding constraint.
• The visa is discretionary. No portaria creates an entitlement, and no one can honestly promise issuance.
• The document bar is deliberately low, with an express waiver clause for papers that crisis makes impossible to obtain — invoked well, it works.
• The real status is built after arrival: 90-day registration, two-year residence with full work rights and fee exemptions, then indefinite residence and, in time, naturalization.
• Family is built into every layer — joint applications, broad dependent definitions, fee-exempt reunification — but each mechanism has its own rules.
• Verify everything against the instrument in force today. This area has changed every year or two by design; program status, posts, and sponsor lists must be confirmed at the moment you act.

Related guides on this site

• The humanitarian visa in Brazil: foundations
• Refugee status and asylum in Brazil
• Refugee rights and the process in Brazil
• Syrian refugees in Brazil
• Brazilian citizenship for refugees
• Family reunification in Brazil
• The CRNM residence permit

How ZS Advogados can help

Humanitarian cases are track-selection cases before they are paperwork cases: whether a family’s facts belong on the visa track or the refuge track, whether accepting residence should mean waiving a claim, how to document a file when the documents were left behind, and how to keep a two-year status from silently expiring into irregularity. The rules reward preparation — the waiver clauses, the dependent definitions, the fee exemptions all exist in the text — and punish assumptions, because the text itself is replaced every year or two.

Our team advises applicants, family anchors in Brazil, and the organizations and volunteers who support them: eligibility and track analysis, application files for the enabled posts, post-arrival registration and CRNM, the conversion to indefinite residence, family reunification, and the long arc to naturalization. We work in English and Portuguese, and we will tell you plainly what cannot be promised — including by us.

• Immigration law — humanitarian visa and residence files, refuge-track strategy, Federal Police registration, family reunification
• International law — cross-border documents, consular strategy, and coordination with sponsors and organizations abroad

Book a consultation to have your family’s track, timing, and file reviewed against the rules actually in force.

Technical review by the ZS Advogados Associados team, including co-founding partner Karina Peres Silvério (OAB/SP 331.050) and founding partner Zachariah Zagol (OAB/SP 351.356). Contact: contato@zsassociados.com — +55 (18) 3908-1653 — Presidente Prudente, SP.

Sources and legal basis

• Lei nº 13.445/2017 — Lei de Migração (Planalto)
• Decreto nº 9.199/2017 — regulamento da Lei de Migração (Planalto)
• Lei nº 9.474/1997 — Estatuto dos Refugiados / CONARE (Planalto)
• Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 60/2025 (Portal de Imigração — MJSP)
• Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 60/2025 — registro oficial (DSpace MJ)
• Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 42/2023 — programa afegão (Polícia Federal, gov.br)
• Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 28/2022 — Ucrânia (Portal de Imigração — MJSP)
• Portaria Interministerial MJSP/MRE nº 55/2025 — reunião familiar Haiti (Portal de Imigração — MJSP)
• Portal de Imigração — índice de portarias interministeriais (MJSP)
• Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública — refúgio (gov.br)

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This guide is for informational and educational purposes only, in line with Provimento No. 205/2021 of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB). It is not legal advice, an opinion, or an offer of services, does not refer to any specific case, and does not guarantee any result — humanitarian visas are discretionary, and no outcome can be promised by anyone. It describes Brazilian law and administrative practice in general terms; the interministerial portarias in this area are renewed and replaced frequently, and country designations, enabled consulates, and sponsoring-organization capacity change without notice. Rules and instruments are cited as of August 2026; changes after that date are not reflected. Each situation requires individual analysis by a licensed attorney. Last updated August 2026.