Before you start

An approved visa from a Brazilian consulate, or an eligible basis for applying from inside Brazil
Birth certificate and criminal record certificate, apostilled in the issuing country
Sworn Portuguese translations by a tradutor público juramentado registered with a Junta Comercial
CPF
Proof of a Manaus address

Step-by-step

1
Obtain the CPF before departure
Receita Federal issues CPFs online and through consulates to applicants with no visa and no Brazilian address. It gates the bank account, the phone chip and the lease, and the lease is what proves your address to the Federal Police. Doing it first collapses the whole chain.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departureFree through a consulate
2
Apostille and translate at source
Both the birth certificate and the criminal record certificate need an apostille from the issuing country and then a sworn Brazilian translation. Apostille turnaround abroad is the slowest step in the whole process and frequently consumes a third of the 90 days on its own. Sworn translators are scarcer in Manaus than in the southern capitals, so arriving with the translations already done is worth more here than elsewhere.
In personWho: You2–3 months ahead
3
Note the date of your arrival stamp
The 90-day registration deadline attaches to your entry under that visa. Do not build a plan around the idea that leaving Brazil and returning restarts it — nothing in the migration decree says so, and the assumption is unusually common among people who cross to Colombia, Peru or Venezuela for work.
In personWho: You
4
Book at the Amazonas superintendency early
Migration appointments are booked through the Polícia Federal portal. The Manaus superintendency serves a state where most municipalities are reached only by boat or plane, so it is the practical option for a very large catchment. Book in your first week and reschedule later if documents slip. Pay the GRU fees in advance because the appointment cannot proceed without the receipts.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
5
Let your employer's mobility team do what it can
Most foreign professionals in Manaus arrive through a Polo Industrial employer with an established immigration provider that has run this process many times through this specific office. Use them for the residence authorisation; the biometrics appointment cannot be delegated.
Via employerWho: Your employer/sponsor
6
Attend for biometrics, then collect the CRNM
In person for fingerprints, photograph and the document file, with originals plus copies of everything including proof of your Manaus address. The card follows some weeks later and is what allows you to sign a lease, take a salaried job and hold a full bank account. Renewals are applied for from inside Brazil, well before expiry.
In personWho: YouBRL 204.77 for the CRNM card

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the Brazilian visa
CPF
Apostilled and sworn-translated birth certificate
Apostilled and sworn-translated criminal record certificate
Proof of a Manaus address
Employment contract or income evidence for the relevant route
Paid GRU fee receipts

Things most newcomers don’t know

A SUFRAMA project is an industrial benefit, not an immigration route.

The Zona Franca de Manaus grants tax incentives to approved manufacturing projects. It creates no visa category, no residence right and no fast track for the people who staff those projects — they arrive on the ordinary work authorisation like anyone else. Executives moving in on the strength of a corporate incentive package are sometimes surprised to find their own status runs on the standard federal timetable, with the standard 90-day registration clock.

Source: Decreto-Lei 288/1967 and Lei 13.445/2017 — separate regimes

The Manaus superintendency serves a state larger than any country in Western Europe.

Amazonas covers roughly 1.56 million square kilometres and most of its municipalities have no road access at all — reaching the capital means a flight or days on a boat. That concentrates migration business on Manaus and makes appointment supply, rather than document preparation, the thing most likely to break your first three months. Book on arrival, before the flat hunt, and move the date if you need to.

Source: Polícia Federal — Superintendência Regional no Amazonas

The CPF has no immigration prerequisite, and since 2023 public bodies must accept it as sufficient identification.

Lei 14.534/2023 made the CPF the single sufficient identification number in public-service databases and barred public bodies from demanding another document for registrations and forms. It is issued to people with no visa, no address and no presence in Brazil. Arriving with it already in hand is the difference between a productive first fortnight and one spent queueing.

Source: Lei 14.534/2023 and Receita Federal — CPF for residents abroad

Mercosur nationality is a completely different and far lighter route, and it matters here.

Argentine, Uruguayan, Paraguayan, Bolivian, Chilean, Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadorian nationals qualify for two-year temporary residence convertible to permanent under the Mercosur agreement, with no income test and a much shorter document list. Amazonas borders Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, so a meaningful share of arrivals qualify — and are still routinely put through the general work route by employers' lawyers who default to what they know.

Source: Acordo de Residência do Mercosul

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming a SUFRAMA-approved project carries any immigration benefit.
Believing the 90 days restart when you re-enter Brazil from a neighbouring country.
Leaving apostilles and sworn translations until after arrival, in a city with few sworn translators.
Booking the Federal Police appointment after the flat hunt rather than before it.
Using a competent but unsworn translator — only a tradutor público juramentado is accepted.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.