Country-wide policy
Who Writes the Residency Rules Changed in October 2025
For eight years the detailed conditions of almost every Brazilian residence category were set by resolutions of the national immigration council. Decreto 12.657/2025 went through the regulation and replaced the council with joint acts of the ministries of justice and foreign affairs, article by article - work, investment, study, family, religious activity, volunteering and the residual migration-policy ground all now point at a different rulemaker. The decree did not repeal the existing resolutions, so they remain in force until they are replaced. The practical consequence for a reader is that every figure on the investor, retiree, digital nomad and work pages sits on an instrument whose author no longer has the power to issue it, and any of them may be reissued without notice.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through marriage
- Residency through ancestry
What it requires
- Check the date on any resolution before relying on it, and check whether a joint ministerial act has replaced it
At a glance
- Instrument
- Decreto nº 12.657, de 7 de outubro de 2025
The decree's epígrafe as published, signed on 7 October 2025.
- Published
- 8 October 2025
The publication note carried with the text - DOU de 8.10.2025 - the day after signature.
- Articles of Decreto 9.199/2017 rewritten
- Twenty-sevenCALC (calculated by us, not published)
Our count, not a figure the decree states. Article 19 reproduces with new wording articles 29, 34, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 56, 127, 138, 141, 143, 144, 145, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 161, 162, 312 and 318 of Decreto 9.199/2017.
- New rulemaker
- A joint act of the ministers of justice and of foreign affairs
- Existing resolutions
- Not repealed
What the law says
«DECRETO Nº 12.657, DE 7 DE OUTUBRO DE 2025»Our translation - not official
DECREE No. 12,657, OF 7 OCTOBER 2025
The decree's own heading, which is where its number and date come from.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes the compiled text of laws and decrees with amendments woven in and superseded wording struck through on the same page.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what is in force without reading the strike-throughs: the page stacks every historical wording of an article above the current one, so quoting the wrong layer produces a repealed rule that still passes a verbatim check. It is also not the point of legal effect; that is the gazette.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Institui a Política Nacional de Migrações, Refúgio e <br>Apatridia, de que trata o art. 120 da Lei nº 13.445, de 24 <br>de maio de 2017, e altera o Decreto nº 9.199, de 20 de <br>novembro de 2017.»Our translation - not official
Establishes the National Policy on Migration, Refuge and Statelessness, provided for in article 120 of Law No. 13,445 of 24 May 2017, and amends Decree No. 9,199 of 20 November 2017.
The policy is the headline; the amendment to the regulation in article 19 is what actually changes what applicants face.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes the compiled text of laws and decrees with amendments woven in and superseded wording struck through on the same page.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what is in force without reading the strike-throughs: the page stacks every historical wording of an article above the current one, so quoting the wrong layer produces a repealed rule that still passes a verbatim check. It is also not the point of legal effect; that is the gazette.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Ato conjunto do Ministro de Estado da Justiça e
> > Segurança Pública e do Ministro de Estado das Relações Exteriores,
> > ouvido o Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego, disciplinará os casos
> > especiais para a concessão de autorização de residência associada às
> > questões laborais.»Our translation - not official
A joint act of the Minister of State for Justice and Public Security and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, having heard the Ministry of Labour and Employment, shall govern the special cases for granting residence authorisation connected with labour matters.
Article 162 of the regulation is the enabling provision the immigration council's resolutions were made under. It now names a different author. The angle brackets are the markup of the amending decree's quoted text as the publisher sets it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes the compiled text of laws and decrees with amendments woven in and superseded wording struck through on the same page.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what is in force without reading the strike-throughs: the page stacks every historical wording of an article above the current one, so quoting the wrong layer produces a repealed rule that still passes a verbatim check. It is also not the point of legal effect; that is the gazette.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Este texto não substitui o publicado no DOU de 8.10.2025»Our translation - not official
This text does not replace the one published in the Official Gazette of 8.10.2025
Planalto's own footer, giving the day the decree appeared in the Diário Oficial - the day after its date. Article 21 puts the decree in force on the date of publication.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes the compiled text of laws and decrees with amendments woven in and superseded wording struck through on the same page.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for what is in force without reading the strike-throughs: the page stacks every historical wording of an article above the current one, so quoting the wrong layer produces a repealed rule that still passes a verbatim check. It is also not the point of legal effect; that is the gazette.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The immigration council's own resolutions index, read on 27 September 2026, still ends at Resolução CNIG/MJSP nº 51 of 14 March 2025 - that is, before this decree. Nothing has been reissued yet.
Resolução Normativa nº 02/2017, which sets the qualification tiers for work residency, still names the Ministry of Labour as the deciding authority. The justice ministry's service page routes the same applications through its own system.