Moving to Brazil from Canada

Canada has been party to the Apostille Convention since 11 January 2024, although the Vancouver page still says it is not. The consulate may ask for more, and the post that serves your province decides. Toronto gives a typical 10 business days from the day the consulate receives your papers, tells you to apply at least 15 business days before you travel, and says some cases take up to a month. Montreal says about 10 business days for e-Consular validation and then about 20 business days after the consulate receives your file, and Vancouver says about 10 business days after it receives the documents. These times can change without notice. After you enter, a temporary visa holder applies to register with the Federal Police within 90 days (Decree 9.199, article 64; the Federal Police service page and the Ministry of Justice guide say the same), so book that appointment early. The CRNM costs R$204.77, and the Federal Police page estimates about 30 business days for the last step and up to 180 calendar days overall.

Foreign tax paid can be deducted only where a treaty provides for it or there is reciprocal treatment, and not above the extra Brazilian tax caused by that income (article 115). Canada and Brazil have an income tax convention, signed on 4 June 1984, that Finance Canada lists as in force. Under article XXII, Brazil allows a deduction for Canadian income tax paid on income that the convention lets Canada tax, up to the Brazilian tax on that income. Article XIV gives income from independent professional services to the country where you are resident, unless it is borne by a permanent establishment or a company resident in the other country, and article XV lets the country where an employment is exercised tax the pay, with an exemption for up to 183 days in a fiscal year when the employer is not resident there and no permanent establishment bears the pay. Article IV breaks a tie when you count as resident of both countries: permanent home, then closest personal and economic ties, then habitual abode, then nationality. We did not find how the Receita Federal applies these rules to someone who works remotely for a Canadian payer while living in Brazil, so that is unknown. The Regulation is a 2018 consolidation, so later changes need an adviser's check.

When you leave for good, you file a Definitive Departure Declaration covering 1 January to the day before you leave (article 14). If you leave without presenting it, you are treated as resident for the first 12 months of absence. This describes the mechanism, not your bill.

If you keep significant ties, you are usually still a factual resident of Canada. You usually become a non-resident on the latest of leaving, your spouse or dependants leaving, or becoming resident in your new country. Because Canada has a convention with Brazil, a person who is resident of both countries may be treated as a deemed non-resident of Canada under its tie-breaker, and Form NR73 asks the CRA for its opinion; we cannot say which result would apply to you. If you emigrate, you are treated as having sold most property at fair market value on the day you leave; Canadian real estate, RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs and pensions are among the exceptions. Form T1161 applies if your property is worth more than CA$25,000, and Form T1244 lets you defer the tax until you sell, with security needed if the federal tax owing is more than CA$16,500 (CA$13,777.50 for former residents of Quebec). This describes the mechanism, not your bill.

A self-employed person is covered by the country where they live. The CRA issues certificates of coverage for employers who send employees abroad and for self-employed workers who provide services abroad. Whether the detached-worker rule applies to someone who moves on their own, and which Brazilian contributions apply to a remote worker with a Canadian employer, we did not find; both are unknown. CPP retirement benefits are payable outside Canada, and Old Age Security abroad needs 20 years of residence in Canada after age 18. This describes the mechanism, not your bill.

The Government of Canada says public hospitals and clinics are free but often overcrowded and short of staff and medicines, and that private hospitals require proof of insurance and may ask for immediate cash payment. We found no figure for private health insurance, so that cost is unknown, and no health care agreement between Canada and Brazil (the social security agreement covers pensions only). Provincial cover differs: Ontario can keep OHIP for up to two years of absence if Ontario stays your primary home and you meet its conditions, with emergency payments abroad capped (up to CA$400 a day for intensive care), while British Columbia ends MSP at the end of the month you leave permanently. Quebec and the other provinces set their own rules, which we could not read.