When a Brazilian company hires a foreign professional, two legal relationships must be coordinated: the employment relationship, governed by Brazilian labor law, and the immigration status that allows the foreign national to live in the country and perform that work.
The expression “work visa” is therefore useful in everyday language, but simplifies a system with several different categories. Foreign nationals providing services in Brazil do not all use the same authorization. An employee hired under the Brazilian Labor Code (Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho, or CLT), a company manager without an employment relationship, a technician sent by a foreign company, a professional involved in technology transfer and a digital nomad may each rely on a different immigration basis.
For the regular hiring of a foreign national as an employee of a Brazilian company, the main provision is Regulatory Resolution No. 02/2017, issued by the National Immigration Council (CNIg). Known by its Portuguese abbreviation, RN, this resolution governs residence authorization for work under an employment relationship in Brazil. It requires the contract, duties and the foreign national’s professional qualifications to be consistent with one another.
The analysis should therefore begin with the professional relationship that will actually exist. Using a category without an employment relationship for an arrangement that is, in practice, employment—or, conversely, structuring as employment an activity with its own immigration basis—can create unnecessary inconsistencies under labor and immigration law.
When RN No. 02/2017 is the appropriate category
RN No. 02 applies to foreign nationals who will work in Brazil under an employment relationship governed by Brazilian labor law. The central elements are an employer in Brazil and an employment contract that reflects the duties the foreign national will actually perform.
The hiring company is normally the applicant when the professional is still abroad. If the foreign national is already lawfully in Brazil, the regulations allow the residence authorization application to be submitted by the company or by the visitor or immigrant, as appropriate.
The resolution also allows an individual to act as the employer. In that situation, the application must include, where applicable, the documents required of a corporate employer. In business practice, however, most applications involve Brazilian companies hiring foreign professionals to join their local teams.
This category must be distinguished from RN No. 11/2017. A foreign director or company manager appointed to exercise management powers without an employment relationship should not automatically be treated as an employee for immigration purposes. Similarly, technical assistance, technology transfer and other temporary services are subject to specific rules and should not be classified under RN No. 02 merely because the foreign national will perform a professional activity in Brazil.
The employment contract and the duties performed in Brazil
Immigration authorization is directly linked to the employment relationship on which the application is based. The contract submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security must contain the minimum clauses required by the regulations and comply with the CLT.
When the professional is still abroad and an application is made for prior residence authorization, RN No. 02 requires a fixed-term employment contract. For an applicant already in Brazil, the resolution permits either a fixed-term or an indefinite-term contract, subject to the other applicable conditions.
This distinction matters because the immigration documentation should not be prepared in isolation by the immigration department or the foreign professional. Duties, compensation, contract duration, workplace and the other terms of employment must match the arrangements that will actually apply once employment begins.
Later changes can also have immigration consequences. A change of employer requires a specific procedure through MigranteWeb, the government’s online employment immigration system. Changes in duties or workplace, even within the same employer or corporate group, must also be assessed and, where applicable, notified to the immigration authority.
Professional qualifications and experience are assessed
RN No. 02 considers more than the existence of a job offer. The Ministry assesses whether the foreign national’s qualifications and professional experience are appropriate to the work they will perform in Brazil.
Evidence is generally provided through diplomas, certificates or statements from organizations for which the professional has worked. The resolution provides alternative qualification routes according to the applicant’s education and experience. These include:
- a master’s degree, doctorate or higher qualification relevant to the work to be performed;
- a postgraduate qualification involving at least 360 hours of study and one year of experience in the area of specialization;
- a university degree and, as a general rule, at least two years of professional experience counted from graduation;
- specific technical or vocational training and at least three years of experience;
- at least twelve years of schooling and at least four years of experience in an occupation that does not require technical training or a university degree; or
- at least three years of experience in an artistic or cultural profession that does not require formal educational qualifications.
RN No. 02 itself allows exceptions. Where the suitability of the professional’s background for the role can be demonstrated by other means, the ordinary education requirement may be waived at the administration’s discretion, provided the professional has at least five years of experience.
Specific provisions also apply to professionals who work or have worked for a foreign company in the same corporate group as the Brazilian applicant company. In these cases, service abroad may be evidenced by a statement from the Brazilian company, provided the conditions set out in the resolution are met.
The qualification assessment is one of the areas in which consistent documentation is particularly important. The job specified in the contract, employment history, diplomas and statements of experience must all support the same role. Overly generic job titles or duties that do not match the professional documentation may lead to requests for further information or jeopardize the application.
The application can begin abroad or in Brazil
When the professional is abroad, the process normally begins with an application for prior residence authorization to the General Coordination Office for Labor Immigration within the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, submitted electronically through MigranteWeb.
Once the application is approved, the decision forms part of the consular process for issuing the corresponding temporary visa. The foreign national then enters Brazil and must register with the Federal Police to obtain an RNM, the national immigration registration number, and a CRNM, the immigration identity card issued on the basis of that registration.
When the foreign national is already in Brazil and the circumstances allow an application for residence, authorization may be requested within the country through MigranteWeb. In this situation, an intermediate consular stage is not necessarily required, but the requirements concerning the contract, professional qualifications and general employment immigration documentation still apply.
Being in Brazil as a visitor should therefore not, in itself, be treated as an absolute barrier to obtaining the appropriate status for employment. The correct route depends on the person’s immigration status, the legal basis used and the stage at which the employment arrangements are made.
Initial residence period, renewal and conversion to an indefinite period
Authorization under RN No. 02 is initially granted for up to two years. This is a maximum, not a mandatory duration: a shorter period may be granted depending on the contract submitted and the way the application is structured.
After the initial authorization, RN No. 30/2018 provides two distinct routes. Renewing residence under RN No. 02 requires a new fixed-term employment contract, whereas changing residence to an indefinite period requires a new indefinite-term employment contract. In both cases, the contract must comply with the Brazilian Labor Code.
This distinction is important because labor law also restricts successive fixed-term contracts. Article 445 of the CLT provides that a fixed-term contract may not exceed two years, and Article 451 states that a fixed-term contract extended more than once becomes an indefinite-term contract. Article 452 also contains a specific rule for successive contracts entered into less than six months apart, subject to the statutory exceptions.
In the most common situation, where the same employment relationship continues, this means that an initial one-year contract may be extended for another year while remaining within the two-year limit under labor law. If the initial contract was already made for the maximum two years and the employment relationship continues, the usual arrangement is an indefinite-term contract, together with an immigration application to change residence to an indefinite period. This is therefore not an automatic renewal for further two-year periods: the immigration arrangements must reflect the legally permissible nature and duration of the employment contract.
Changes of employer and changes during employment
Employment-based residence authorization should not be treated as a general authorization to take any job in Brazil. It is granted on the basis of a specific relationship between the foreign national, the employer and the activity described in the application.
A change of employer is subject to a specific procedure and must be submitted through MigranteWeb. This is especially important in transfers between companies in the same corporate group, internal reorganizations, acquisitions of companies and executive moves from one role to another.
Where the employer remains the same but the duties or place of work change, current Ministry of Justice guidance likewise requires notification through the appropriate administrative channels.
These steps prevent the immigration documentation from continuing to describe a professional arrangement that no longer corresponds to the work actually performed in Brazil.
Professionals educated in Brazil and other work categories
RN No. 02 is not the only residence route based on an employment relationship. In 2024, RN No. 50 introduced specific provisions for immigrants who completed an undergraduate degree or a stricto sensu postgraduate degree—a master’s degree or doctorate—in Brazil, are present in the country and wish to obtain residence for work purposes.
Brazil’s system also includes several work categories without an employment relationship or with a specific professional purpose, such as managers and directors of companies receiving foreign investment, technical assistance, technology transfer, professional training, research, maritime activities and other situations governed by their own resolutions.
Before filing an application, it is therefore necessary to identify the actual legal nature of the activity. Payment or the provision of services does not, by itself, mean that RN No. 02 is the correct basis.
The two-thirds rule for Brazilian workers and the constitutional debate
In addition to the immigration requirements under RN No. 02, the CLT still contains a proportionality rule for Brazilian and foreign workers in its chapter on “nationalization of labor.” Articles 352 and 354 require Brazilian nationals to account for at least two-thirds of the workforce in covered companies with three or more employees. The sole paragraph of Article 354 extends the proportionality requirement to the corresponding payroll as well.
The CLT itself contains important exceptions and rules treating certain foreign nationals as equivalent to Brazilians for this purpose. Article 353 provides for that equivalent treatment, while Article 357 excludes employees in specialized technical roles from the proportionality calculation where the competent authority considers that Brazilian workers are unavailable. Even on a literal reading of the CLT, the rule should therefore not be applied as a simple numerical limit detached from the actual circumstances.
Whether these provisions remain applicable is, however, the subject of constitutional controversy. The 1988 Constitution guarantees equality before the law to Brazilians and resident foreign nationals, while the Migration Law adopts equal treatment and opportunity for migrants and the protection of workers without discrimination based on nationality or immigration status as guiding principles. Against this background, a significant body of legal scholarship questions whether the proportionality rule remained in force under the current constitutional order.
This debate has reached the courts in cases directly involving employment-based residence authorizations. In December 2024, the Fifth Panel of the Federal Regional Court of the First Region, deciding Appeal No. 1071083-10.2022.4.01.3400 in mandado de segurança proceedings—a judicial remedy for protecting a clearly established right against unlawful official action—upheld a decision disapplying Article 354 of the CLT. The court found that the two-thirds rule had not survived the 1988 Constitution because it was incompatible with the principle of equal treatment. This is a significant precedent, but it is not a binding ruling of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that has definitively resolved the issue for all cases.
In practice, a company employing a significant number of foreign professionals should neither disregard wording that remains formally present in the CLT nor treat its legal applicability as beyond dispute. Workforce composition, payroll, the duties performed, any exceptions and the applicable administrative or judicial interpretation must be assessed in the circumstances of each case, particularly where the proportionality requirement could affect an immigration application or a labor inspection.
Hiring, payroll and tax residence
Obtaining the appropriate immigration status does not replace the labor obligations arising from the hiring. Once a Brazilian employment relationship is established, it must be handled under the applicable labor, social security and payroll rules.
Immigration residence must also be distinguished from tax residence. A foreign national entering Brazil to work under an employment relationship may become tax resident upon arrival, under the applicable tax rules. For professionals transferred from other countries, that date can affect salary paid abroad, bonuses, stock options, private pension arrangements, investments and other components of international compensation or assets.
Immigration, the employment contract, payroll and taxation should therefore be assessed together in international employee transfers. The objective is not merely to enable the professional to enter Brazil, but to structure the relationship with the company correctly throughout the assignment.
Family reunification
Employment-based residence can also support family reunification applications for a spouse, a partner in a legally recognized unmarried partnership, children and other family members covered by the regulations. Family members have their own applications, but the move can be organized in coordination with the employee’s transfer.
Where the employee’s residence is granted for a fixed period, the family members’ derivative residence generally follows the status of the sponsoring family member, known in Portuguese as the chamante. For assignments involving the whole family, marriage documents, evidence of parentage and documents proving other family relationships should therefore be prepared alongside the principal application.
Frequently asked questions about work visas and residence
Does every foreign national working in Brazil need RN No. 02?
No. RN No. 02 is intended for work under a Brazilian employment relationship. Company managers without an employment relationship, technicians, technology transfer professionals, digital nomads and other categories may rely on different immigration grounds.
Does the Brazilian company have to submit the application?
Where the professional is abroad and prior residence authorization is sought, the Brazilian company or institution seeking to bring them to Brazil normally submits the application. Where the foreign national is already in Brazil, either the company or the individual may be entitled to apply, depending on the category.
How long does the first authorization last?
RN No. 02 provides for an initial residence period of up to two years. If the fixed-term employment contract is shorter, renewal may be used within the applicable labor-law limits; in a continuing relationship, an initial one-year contract may, for example, be extended for another year. If the employment relationship has already reached the maximum two-year fixed term and continues, the usual approach is to enter into an indefinite-term contract and apply to change residence to an indefinite period under RN No. 30/2018.
Is a university degree required?
Not necessarily. RN No. 02 provides different combinations of education and professional experience, including technical training, twelve years of schooling combined with work experience, and exceptions based on substantial experience. The central requirement is to show that the professional’s background is appropriate to the role performed in Brazil.
Can the foreign national change employer?
Yes, but the change should not be treated as a simple internal contract amendment. There is a specific immigration procedure for changing employer through MigranteWeb, and the documentation must be updated before or in conjunction with the new employment relationship.
Can the employee’s spouse work in Brazil?
A family member who obtains residence through family reunification may undertake paid work in Brazil, subject to the rules applicable to the profession or activity concerned.
Must two-thirds of the company’s employees be Brazilian?
The CLT still contains this rule in Articles 352–354, including in relation to payroll, but its applicability following the 1988 Constitution is legally disputed. A recent precedent from the Federal Regional Court of the First Region disapplied Article 354 on the ground that it had not survived the Constitution. Since there is no binding STF ruling that settles the controversy, the assessment must consider the particular circumstances, workforce composition and the administrative or labor-law risk involved.
Conclusion
Hiring a foreign national in Brazil should not begin with choosing a “work visa” in the abstract. The first step is to identify the nature of the professional relationship that will actually be established and determine whether it falls within the employment-based category or one of the specific categories provided by the immigration regulations.
Under RN No. 02, the employment contract, professional qualifications and immigration procedure are parts of the same project. Preparing them separately increases the risk of inconsistencies between the declared role, the professional documentation and the actual hiring arrangements.
Companies transferring professionals to Brazil should also plan from the outset for the duration of residence, possible changes in duties or employer, the position of family members and the labor and tax consequences of the international transfer.
Legal assistance for hiring and transferring foreign professionals
SCCM advises companies and foreign professionals on structuring employment-based residence authorizations in Brazil. This includes identifying the appropriate immigration category, preparing documents, handling MigranteWeb applications, coordinating the employment contracts and overseeing subsequent registration and residence maintenance requirements.
Where the transfer also involves family members, international compensation, equity interests or other asset-related matters, the assessment can be coordinated with the other relevant areas of law so that the immigration arrangements accurately reflect the operation carried out in Brazil.