Moving to Paraguay from Brazil

Step 1

The documents a Brazilian assembles for the MERCOSUR route

Paraguay's Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) expects a specific, short set of documents for the Residencia Temporaria MERCOSUR. As a Brazilian you gather most of these at home, before you cross:

• Your Brazilian passport, or your national identity document — under MERCOSUR rules the DNM accepts a valid national ID, not only a passport.
• Your Brazilian birth certificate (certidão de nascimento) — a current certified copy, not the original hospital record.
• Your federal criminal-record certificate — the "Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais" issued by the Polícia Federal. You can request it online; it is valid for 90 days, so time it against your appointment. This is the police record Paraguay expects from Brazilian applicants.
• Your marriage certificate (certidão de casamento), if you are married and applying as a couple.
• What the MERCOSUR route does NOT ask of you: there is no investment minimum and no bank deposit to prove economic solvency — though you still show proof of lawful means, such as a job, a pension, a business, or studies. The document list itself is shorter than the standard residency, which is the central advantage of holding a MERCOSUR passport.

Step 2

Apostille via a cartório — and the one translation step

Brazil and Paraguay both belong to the Hague Apostille Convention, so each Brazilian document needs a single apostille and you skip consular legalization entirely. The MERCOSUR route does not change the apostille requirement, but it does simplify the documents that have to go through it.

• Apostilles in Brazil are issued by authorized notary offices (cartórios), under a system coordinated by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ). Brazil also runs an electronic apostille, so many documents can be apostilled digitally.
• Apostille your Polícia Federal certificate, birth certificate, and marriage certificate before you submit them to the DNM. Tell the cartório the apostille is for use in Paraguay.
• Brazilian documents are in Portuguese — and here the MERCOSUR route gives you a real exemption: Paraguay's DNM explicitly waives sworn translation for documents issued in Portuguese by Brazil. A US or German applicant must pay for sworn Spanish translation; a Brazilian, in most cases, does not.
• Confirm the current translation exemption with the DNM or a Paraguayan consulate before you travel, since individual officers occasionally request a translation anyway.

Be honest with yourself

Brazil does not stop taxing you automatically

This is the section most relocation marketing quietly skips. Brazil taxes by residence, not by citizenship — but leaving the country does not end your Brazilian tax residency on its own. You have to formally exit the tax system, and the step is routinely missed. Brazil expects a departing resident to file the "Comunicação de Saída Definitiva do País" and then the "Declaração de Saída Definitiva do País" with the Receita Federal — the exit declaration that converts you from resident, taxed on worldwide income, to non-resident, taxed only on Brazilian-source income. The exit return is filed for the year you leave, by the usual April 30 deadline of the following year. Skip it and the Receita Federal can still treat you as a Brazilian tax resident, leaving you exposed to tax on your global income and to double taxation. The honest summary: Paraguay's low territorial tax is genuinely attractive, but the saving only becomes real once you have correctly closed out your Brazilian tax residency. Speak to an accountant who works across both countries before any tax-driven move.

Getting there

An overland move, or a short flight

Unlike a transatlantic relocation, moving from Brazil is a regional move — and you have a genuine choice of how to arrive:

• Overland is the common route. The Friendship Bridge (Ponte da Amizade) links Foz do Iguaçu to Ciudad del Este, and buses, cars, and vans cross it daily; many people relocate their belongings this way. Crossings also exist further south and west along the long shared border.
• Flights are quick if you prefer them — short hops connect São Paulo and other Brazilian cities to Asunción, far closer than any intercontinental routing.
• Document preparation — ordering records and apostilling them at a cartório — typically runs a few weeks; pace it against the 90-day validity of your Polícia Federal certificate.
• As a MERCOSUR national you do not need a visa to enter Paraguay, and you may enter on your Brazilian national ID rather than a passport. You begin the residency process in person, at the DNM, after you arrive.

FAQ

Moving to Paraguay from Brazil — FAQ