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Foreign Investment in Brazil: 2021 | A StartBrazil Research Report
2021: the recovery year the United States discovered Brazil's investor visa.
Brazil published 271 investor-residency approvals in 2021, up 45% from the pandemic floor. Two structural shifts date to this year: real estate jumped to more than a third of all approvals, and the United States surged from 14 approvals to 40. This report analyzes every one of them — who invested, from where, and what it set up for the years that followed.
Published: July 15th, 2026
Research: Daniel Atz & Suzana Vilela Caetano Castro
Part of the yearly Foreign Investment in Brazil series — all editions & the 2018–2026 dashboard →Written By: Daniel Atz & Lauren Lowell
39
countries of origin
271
investor residency approvals in 2021
3
startup visa approvals — the route's first small cluster
The Three Pathways
Real estate jumped to a third of all approvals in 2021.
Brazilian law offers foreign nationals three routes to residency by investment. They share an underlying legal framework but diverge sharply on cost, outcome — and who actually uses them.
Real Estate Investor
(RN 36/2018)
USD 190,000
≈BRL 1,000,000
Buy qualifying property in Brazil. Receive a 4-year temporary residency, then convert to permanent afterwords if you continue to meet the criteria.
97 approvals in 2021 — 36% of the year, up from 27 approvals in 2020: the route's proportions reset the system.
Company Investor
(RN 13/2017)
USD 95,000
≈BRL 500,000
Invest in a Brazilian company. Receive permanent residency immediately, provided capital stays active for three years.
171 approvals in 2021. 63% of the year — well below the route's old 95%+ share
Startup Investor
(RN 13/2017 ART 3)
USD 29,000
≈BRL 150,000
Invest in an innovative Brazilian startup. Receive permanent residency immediately — the same outcome as the BRL 500,000 company pathway, at less than a third the cost.
3 approvals in 2021 — the route was no longer purely theoretical.
Nationalities - All 3 Pathways
271 total investors. The United States surges to #2.
France and the United States together represent 32% of all approvals. The American jump — 14 approvals to 40 in one year — is the most important origin-side shift of the middle years: remote-work-era relocation interest, a strong dollar, and Brazil's low thresholds pulled American buyers into a system that had been almost entirely European and Chinese.
Europeans make up 60% of all approvals overall. The US accounts for 15%. China represents 5% — a fraction of its pre-pandemic volume; Chinese numbers would not recover until 2024.
France
47 investors
United States
40
Italy
29
Portugal
19
Germany
19
Spain
13
China
13
+ 32 other countries
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