NextSpring

No Income or Private-Means Route: One Permit, Granted on Purpose Rather Than on a Category

Answer

The general rule applies to you

No exception is recorded for citizens of Brazil 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 Brazil to Suriname · Residency on passive income

There is no residence category in Suriname for someone living on income from abroad, and no threshold to meet, because there are no categories at all. The Vreemdelingenwet 1991 creates a residence permit of at most two years and a settlement permit, and leaves the grounds for both to the Minister: the purpose of the stay appears as a limitation written onto the permit rather than as a route with published conditions. Means of support matter twice - as a condition of lawful presence under article 6(2)(c), and as a ground for withdrawing a permit under article 12(b) when the holder no longer has them - but nothing in the Act or the regulation names a figure. The application is lodged either at the Ministry of Justice and Police or at a Surinamese mission abroad, and a person who is in Suriname as a tourist cannot lodge it at all.

Verified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

At a glance

Dedicated income or private-means route
None

The Vreemdelingenwet 1991 creates one residence permit, granted for up to two years under article 11(2) and quoted here, and one settlement permit under article 15(1), which asks for five years of lawful main residence. The department's own list of application types names no income category.

Income threshold
None published

The Act requires sufficient means and does not quantify them. Article 17 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit lets a security deposit, a third-party guarantee or a deposited ticket be imposed instead.

Residence permit
At most two years, renewable
Settlement permit
After five years of lawful main residence
Where to apply
Ministry of Justice and Police, or a Surinamese mission abroad
Deemed refusal
Six months without a decision

Article 32(3) treats a permit as refused where the competent authority has not decided within six months, which opens the review to the President.

Requirements

  • An authorisation for short stay obtained from a Surinamese embassy or consulate before travelling, unless you are of Surinamese origin or a CARICOM national
  • Registration with the aliens department of the police within eight days of arrival and a residence application within fourteen days
  • Sufficient means for the stay and for the journey to a place outside Suriname where admission is assured
  • No danger to public order, national security or public health

In detail

Why there is nothing to list

Suriname's aliens law has no catalogue of residence categories. The Vreemdelingenwet 1991 creates exactly two permissions - a residence permit of at most two years under article 11 and a settlement permit under article 13 - and attaches no grounds to either. Article 11(3) lets the Minister grant a residence permit "onder beperkingen, verband houdende met het doel waarvoor het verblijf is toegestaan", limitations connected with the purpose for which the stay is allowed, and article 11(6) lets him refuse on grounds derived from the general interest. The purpose is therefore a condition written onto a permit, not a route with its own requirements. The aliens department reflects this: it offers four application types for a stay, split by who the applicant is - of Surinamese origin or not - and never by why they are coming.

Means of support, twice

Article 6(2)(c) makes lawful presence depend on having enough to cover both the stay in Suriname and the journey to a place outside it where admission is assured, and article 6(3) treats that condition as met where security has been given for those costs under rules made by State decree. Article 17 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit sets out what that security can be: a deposit, a written guarantee from a named third party, adequate sickness insurance including psychiatric admission, or a deposited passage ticket instead of a deposit. Article 12(b) of the Act then allows a residence permit to be withdrawn where the holder no longer has sufficient means of subsistence. None of these provisions states an amount, and the regulation leaves the amount to the condition imposed in the individual case.

Country-level policy

The consolidated statute book stops in 2005, and the publisher says so on the front page

Suriname's laws are published by the National Assembly in four collections, and the boundary between them is a date. The first is Geldende teksten tot en met 2005, texts in force to 2005: the amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005 to produce consolidated texts. The second and third are the Acts passed after 2005 and the amendments made after 2005, published as facsimiles of the Staatsblad, one instrument at a time. The index page states in terms that the new Acts and amendments have not since been incorporated into the consolidated text. That is a cut-off stated by the publisher rather than inferred from an edition's name, and it is unusually honest: most revised editions in this comparison say nothing about their own staleness. The practical consequence is that reading a consolidated Surinamese Act is only half the work. The other half is the list of post-2005 amendments, where the Income Tax Act alone has ten entries.

What applies to you

Nothing changes for a citizen of Brazil

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedVreemdelingenwet 1991 (S.B. 1992 no. 3) · Artikel 11 lid 2 · consolidated to 2005
«2. De verblijfsvergunning wordt verleend voor de duur van maximaal twee jaar met de mogelijkheid van verlenging.»

Our translation - not official

The residence permit is granted for a duration of at most two years with the possibility of extension.

Read it at the source
About this source

The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedVreemdelingenwet 1991 (S.B. 1992 no. 3) · Artikel 15 lid 1 · consolidated to 2005
«1. Aan een vreemdeling die gedurende een tijdvak van ten minste vijf jaar zijn geoorloofd hoofdverblijf in Suriname heeft gehad, kan de vestigingsvergunning slechts worden geweigerd:»

Our translation - not official

An alien who has had his lawful main residence in Suriname for a period of at least five years may be refused the settlement permit only: (a) if it is not reasonably assured that he will be able to dispose durably of sufficient means of subsistence; (b) if he has seriously breached public order and peace, or constitutes a serious danger to national security or public health.

Read it at the source
About this source

The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedVreemdelingenwet 1991 (S.B. 1992 no. 3) · Artikel 32 lid 1 · consolidated to 2005
«1. Aan de President van de Republiek Suriname kan herziening worden gevraagd van beschikkingen strekkende tot:»

Our translation - not official

Revision may be sought from the President of the Republic of Suriname of decisions to:

The list that follows covers refusal of a residence permit, refusal to extend it, grant for a shorter period than asked or under limitations, change of those limitations, withdrawal, and expulsion of certain long-present aliens. Sub-section (2) adds refusal and withdrawal of a settlement permit and a declaration that an alien is undesirable.

Read it at the source
About this source

The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedType aanvragen en hun toelichting, Onderdirectoraat Vreemdelingenzaken · Settlement
«Voor het aanvragen van een vestigingsvergunning dient een vreemdeling gedurende 5 jaren zijn legaal hoofdverblijf in Suriname te hebben gehad.»

Our translation - not official

To apply for a settlement permit an alien must have had his lawful main residence in Suriname for 5 years.

Read it at the source
About this source

The sub-directorate that decides residence, extension, settlement and naturalisation applications under the Vreemdelingenwet 1991, the Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995 and the Wet op de Nationaliteit en het Ingezetenschap. Its site publishes the categorisation of aliens it works to (Surinaamse origine, CARICOM staatsburgers, overige vreemdelingen), the application types it accepts, the authorisation-for-short-stay procedure, document lists, announcements and a register of granted residence permits.

Standing: Applies the rule

Cannot be cited for: It states practice, not law, and the two diverge in both directions. It gives CARICOM nationals a six-month short stay where the Vreemdelingenwet gives a visa-free visitor three months, and it gives a recognised skilled citizen an indefinite stay the Wet Bekwame Burgers does not confer at all. It describes the marriage option right as open to any alien married to a Surinamese national for two years, where article 12 of the nationality law covers only a wife and states no duration. It attributes the Presidential naturalisation power to article 16 of that law when the power is in article 16a. Its page on categories of aliens announces that the Caribbean Community has fifteen member countries and then lists fourteen, omitting Haiti. It cites instruments it does not publish - the beschikking S.B. 2016 no. 17 on aliens of Surinamese origin and the resolution S.B. 2004 no. 120 on charges - so a figure or a condition found only here has no readable source behind it. Its own announcements page is stale: the latest dated notice is 15 November 2021. It serves a self-signed certificate on https, so a plain client rejects it; it reads over http and through the extraction service.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMachtiging kortverblijf, Onderdirectoraat Vreemdelingenzaken · Where the authorisation is sought
«Op de Ambassade of het Consulaat van Suriname in het land van herkomst een machtiging tot kortverblijf (MKV) aanvragen (artikel 3 Vreemdelingenwet 1991 jo artikel 12 Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995).»

Our translation - not official

Apply for an authorisation for short stay (MKV) at the Embassy or Consulate of Suriname in the country of origin (article 3 Vreemdelingenwet 1991 in conjunction with article 12 Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995).

Read it at the source
About this source

The sub-directorate that decides residence, extension, settlement and naturalisation applications under the Vreemdelingenwet 1991, the Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995 and the Wet op de Nationaliteit en het Ingezetenschap. Its site publishes the categorisation of aliens it works to (Surinaamse origine, CARICOM staatsburgers, overige vreemdelingen), the application types it accepts, the authorisation-for-short-stay procedure, document lists, announcements and a register of granted residence permits.

Standing: Applies the rule

Cannot be cited for: It states practice, not law, and the two diverge in both directions. It gives CARICOM nationals a six-month short stay where the Vreemdelingenwet gives a visa-free visitor three months, and it gives a recognised skilled citizen an indefinite stay the Wet Bekwame Burgers does not confer at all. It describes the marriage option right as open to any alien married to a Surinamese national for two years, where article 12 of the nationality law covers only a wife and states no duration. It attributes the Presidential naturalisation power to article 16 of that law when the power is in article 16a. Its page on categories of aliens announces that the Caribbean Community has fifteen member countries and then lists fourteen, omitting Haiti. It cites instruments it does not publish - the beschikking S.B. 2016 no. 17 on aliens of Surinamese origin and the resolution S.B. 2004 no. 120 on charges - so a figure or a condition found only here has no readable source behind it. Its own announcements page is stale: the latest dated notice is 15 November 2021. It serves a self-signed certificate on https, so a plain client rejects it; it reads over http and through the extraction service.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Practical notes

The negative here is bounded by what we read: the whole of the Vreemdelingenwet 1991, the whole of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995, and the aliens department's own pages listing the application types it offers. Neither instrument enumerates grounds for a permit, and the department lists none.

A reader should expect the figure to come from the official handling the file rather than from a page. Where a deposit or guarantee is imposed, article 19 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit says when it comes back: on withdrawal or expiry of the permit, at the latest ten years after it was paid, on acquiring indefinite stay, on becoming Surinamese, or on death.

Sources4 · all accessed 2026-10-06
  • consolidates
    Vreemdelingenwet 1991 (S.B. 1992 no. 3)

    De Nationale Assemblee van de Republiek Suriname · consolidated to 2005

    About this source

    The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995 (S.B. 1995 no. 85)

    De Nationale Assemblee van de Republiek Suriname · consolidated to 2005

    About this source

    The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

  • administers
    Type aanvragen en hun toelichting

    Onderdirectoraat Vreemdelingenzaken, Ministerie van Justitie en Politie (Suriname)

    About this source

    The sub-directorate that decides residence, extension, settlement and naturalisation applications under the Vreemdelingenwet 1991, the Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995 and the Wet op de Nationaliteit en het Ingezetenschap. Its site publishes the categorisation of aliens it works to (Surinaamse origine, CARICOM staatsburgers, overige vreemdelingen), the application types it accepts, the authorisation-for-short-stay procedure, document lists, announcements and a register of granted residence permits.

    Standing: Applies the rule

    Cannot be cited for: It states practice, not law, and the two diverge in both directions. It gives CARICOM nationals a six-month short stay where the Vreemdelingenwet gives a visa-free visitor three months, and it gives a recognised skilled citizen an indefinite stay the Wet Bekwame Burgers does not confer at all. It describes the marriage option right as open to any alien married to a Surinamese national for two years, where article 12 of the nationality law covers only a wife and states no duration. It attributes the Presidential naturalisation power to article 16 of that law when the power is in article 16a. Its page on categories of aliens announces that the Caribbean Community has fifteen member countries and then lists fourteen, omitting Haiti. It cites instruments it does not publish - the beschikking S.B. 2016 no. 17 on aliens of Surinamese origin and the resolution S.B. 2004 no. 120 on charges - so a figure or a condition found only here has no readable source behind it. Its own announcements page is stale: the latest dated notice is 15 November 2021. It serves a self-signed certificate on https, so a plain client rejects it; it reads over http and through the extraction service.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

  • administers
    Machtiging kortverblijf

    Onderdirectoraat Vreemdelingenzaken, Ministerie van Justitie en Politie (Suriname)

    About this source

    The sub-directorate that decides residence, extension, settlement and naturalisation applications under the Vreemdelingenwet 1991, the Vreemdelingenbesluit 1995 and the Wet op de Nationaliteit en het Ingezetenschap. Its site publishes the categorisation of aliens it works to (Surinaamse origine, CARICOM staatsburgers, overige vreemdelingen), the application types it accepts, the authorisation-for-short-stay procedure, document lists, announcements and a register of granted residence permits.

    Standing: Applies the rule

    Cannot be cited for: It states practice, not law, and the two diverge in both directions. It gives CARICOM nationals a six-month short stay where the Vreemdelingenwet gives a visa-free visitor three months, and it gives a recognised skilled citizen an indefinite stay the Wet Bekwame Burgers does not confer at all. It describes the marriage option right as open to any alien married to a Surinamese national for two years, where article 12 of the nationality law covers only a wife and states no duration. It attributes the Presidential naturalisation power to article 16 of that law when the power is in article 16a. Its page on categories of aliens announces that the Caribbean Community has fifteen member countries and then lists fourteen, omitting Haiti. It cites instruments it does not publish - the beschikking S.B. 2016 no. 17 on aliens of Surinamese origin and the resolution S.B. 2004 no. 120 on charges - so a figure or a condition found only here has no readable source behind it. Its own announcements page is stale: the latest dated notice is 15 November 2021. It serves a self-signed certificate on https, so a plain client rejects it; it reads over http and through the extraction service.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source