Residency as a Student
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Venezuela on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Venezuela to Brazil · Residency as a student
A student residence runs one year at a time and may be renewed until the course finishes, against proof of enrolment, satisfactory progress and means of support. It is tied to a named institution, and leaving that institution is something the institution itself has to report to the Federal Police within thirty days. The useful part is that it is not a study-only permit: paid work is allowed as long as it fits around the study hours.
At a glance
- Initial term
- Up to one year
- Renewal
- Until the course is completed
- Paid work
- Allowed, if compatible with the study hours
- Changing institution
- Permitted, with notice to the Federal Police
- Processing fee
- R$ 168,13
- Residence card fee
- R$ 204,77
Requirements
- Enrolment in a regular course, or a placement or exchange for study or research, at a defined educational institution
- Proof of the applicant's own financial capacity or that of whoever will support them, or a scholarship
- Criminal record certificates for the last five years and a declaration that there are none anywhere
- The processing fee and the fee for the residence card
- For renewal, proof of continued enrolment and of satisfactory academic progress
Country-level policy
Two fees cover almost every residence application: R$ 168,13 to process it and R$ 204,77 to issue the residence card. They are set in the annex to the 2017 regulation, and the interesting thing is that the Federal Police and the justice ministry both charge exactly those amounts nine years later. Instrument and agency agree, which is not what we found in Paraguay. The regulation allows the amounts to be adjusted and nobody has adjusted them, so in real terms the fee has fallen by more than half. Citizens of the Portuguese-speaking community are exempt from the processing fee under a 2002 treaty, but not from the card fee - the treaty excepts the cost of issuing documents, and the Federal Police applies exactly that carve-out.
Lei 13.445/2017 replaced the 1980 foreigners' statute and changed the thing that shapes every other answer about Brazil: residence can be applied for from inside the country, regardless of the status you are in. Both the statute and its regulation say so in terms. A visitor may turn a visit into residence by request and registration; an irregular overstayer may apply on any ground whose conditions they meet. That is why Brazil has no equivalent of Paraguay's consular visa for residency or Chile's rule that residence is applied for from abroad. The same law abolished the permanent and temporary visa categories, replacing them with residence authorisations of determinate or indeterminate term - which matters because two instruments that still govern real decisions, the revenue's residence test and older agency pages, were never rewritten.
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.
Brazilian residence is lost after more than two years out of the country without a justification offered. It is a rule about continuous absence, not a presence quota, and the difference decides real cases: two separate absences of eighteen months each break nothing, while a single stretch of twenty-five months does. Residence is also lost when the reason it was granted stops being true, and the holder is required to tell the Federal Police when that happens. The one category with an explicit presence obligation instead is the real-estate investor, who must spend at least fourteen days in Brazil every two years and, by doing so, is taken outside the absence rule altogether.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Venezuela
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«A autorização de residência para fins de estudo poderá ser concedida ao imigrante que pretenda frequentar curso regular ou realizar estágio ou intercâmbio de estudo ou de pesquisa.»Our translation - not official
A residence authorisation for study purposes may be granted to an immigrant who intends to attend a regular course or undertake a placement or exchange for study or research.
About 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
«A autorização de residência com fundamento na hipótese elencada neste artigo poderá ser concedida inicialmente pelo prazo de até um ano.»Our translation - not official
The residence authorisation on the ground listed in this article may be granted initially for a period of up to one year.
One year, where most other grounds in the same regulation start at two.
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
«o imigrante poderá requerer a renovação até que o curso seja concluído, desde que apresente comprovante de matrícula e aproveitamento escolar, além de meios de subsistência»Our translation - not official
the immigrant may apply for renewal until the course is completed, provided they present proof of enrolment and academic progress, as well as means of subsistence
Renewal is tied to the course rather than to a fixed number of years, so a long doctorate is renewed as many times as it takes.
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
«O exercício de atividade remunerada será permitido ao imigrante a quem se tenha sido concedida a autorização de residência de que trata o»Our translation - not official
The carrying out of paid activity shall be permitted to the immigrant to whom the residence authorisation referred to in the
The sentence continues "caput, desde que compatível com a carga horária do estudo". The grammatical slip - a quem se tenha sido concedida - is the publisher's and is kept.
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
«| Processamento e avaliação de pedidos de autorização de residência | R$ 168,13 |»Our translation - not official
| Processing and assessment of residence authorisation applications | R$ 168.13 |
The fee is set in the annex to the regulation and has not moved since 2017. The Federal Police charges the same amount under revenue code 140066.
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
«| Emissão de cédula de identidade de imigrante | R$ 204,77 |»Our translation - not official
| Issue of immigrant identity card | R$ 204.77 |
The card is charged separately from the application, under revenue code 140120, and is payable even where the processing fee is waived.
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 institution the student leaves has thirty days to tell the Federal Police. The consequence is that dropping out is visible to the migration authority without the student doing anything.
The detailed document list is set by a joint act of the ministries of justice and foreign affairs; the justice ministry's service page reproduces it and is the practical reference.
- consolidatesDecreto nº 9.199, de 20 de novembro de 2017
Presidência da República - Portal da Legislação (Planalto)
About 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
- consolidatesLei nº 13.445, de 24 de maio de 2017 - Lei de Migração
Presidência da República - Portal da Legislação (Planalto)
About 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
- administersMinistério da Justiça e Segurança Pública - Autorização de Residência
Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública
About this source
Grants residence authorisations, runs the application system, and hosts the immigration council's index of resolutions.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the content of a resolution - its service pages paraphrase, and several still describe the allocation of competence as it stood before the 2025 decree moved it. Cannot be cited for who the Mercosur agreement covers: its page names no countries at all.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source