CPF and RNM: Your First Two Brazilian Numbers, Explained

Two numbers, two agencies

New arrivals hear about both numbers in the same breath, and they are easy to confuse. They come from different agencies and do different jobs.

	CPF	RNM
Full name	Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas	Registro Nacional Migratório
Issued by	Receita Federal (the tax authority)	Polícia Federal (the Federal Police)
What it is	The register of individual taxpayers	Your migration registration
Who needs it	Anyone holding property, bank accounts or investments in Brazil, resident or not	Immigrants holding a temporary visa or a residence authorization
From abroad?	Yes, at a Brazilian consulate	No, in person in Brazil
Physical card	None for enrolment from abroad	Yes, the CRNM
Official fee	None charged by the consulate	R$204.77 for the CRNM card

You can get the CPF before you leave the US. The RNM comes after you land, on a deadline. This guide covers both in that order. For the whole move in sequence, see Moving to Brazil from the US: Every Step, in Order.

The CPF: Brazil's taxpayer number

What it is and who needs one

The CPF is the Receita Federal's register of individual taxpayers. You do not need to be a resident, or even to be in Brazil, to need one. The Receita Federal says that people living abroad, Brazilian or foreign, must have a CPF if they hold assets subject to public registration in Brazil, including:

• real estate
• vehicles, boats and aircraft
• bank accounts
• financial and capital-market investments

So if you plan to buy property, open a bank account or invest in Brazil, the CPF comes first.

Getting a CPF from the US

The official route for a foreigner living abroad, as described on the gov.br service page (page updated December 15, 2025):

1. Fill in the FCPF form online, then print and sign it.
2. Book an appointment at a Brazilian consulate through its e-consular system.
3. Attend in person with the signed form, an identity document and a birth or marriage certificate.

The service carries no fee.

What you get: a printout, not a card

Enrolment from abroad does not produce a CPF card. Your proof is the Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral no CPF, which you print from the Receita Federal website. Keep a copy: it is your proof of enrolment.

Getting a CPF once you are in Brazil

This guide covers the route from abroad because it is the one we checked against an official page. We have not confirmed the current in-country procedure for foreigners from an official source, so check the Receita Federal's CPF pages before relying on any description of it, including ones you find on bank or school websites.

Why "regular" status matters

A CPF has a status as well as a number. The Central Bank's Pix regulation lets a Pix key be registered only for a user whose CPF is in "regular" status (Resolução BCB 1/2020, art. 57, §4). The comprovante shows the status, which makes it the quickest check if a bank or app rejects your number.

The RNM: registering with the Federal Police

What it is

Registration with the Federal Police produces two things: the Registro Nacional Migratório (RNM) number and the Carteira de Registro Nacional Migratório (CRNM), the ID card that carries it. Registration collects personal and biometric data, such as fingerprints. The source for this section is the Federal Police service page on gov.br (page updated September 1, 2026).

The deadline

Your situation	Deadline to register
You entered Brazil with a temporary visa (for example the digital nomad visa)	90 days after entering Brazil
Your residence authorization was granted inside Brazil	30 days after publication in the Diário Oficial

The Chicago consulate repeats the 90-day rule for digital nomad visa holders: register within 90 days of first entry. Missing the deadline can bring penalties under Decreto 9.199/2017.

How it works

• In person, by appointment, at the Federal Police unit where you live (the exceptions are in art. 67 of Decreto 9.199/2017).
• Fee: R$204.77 for issuing the CRNM, checked on November 3, 2026.
• Time: the gov.br page estimates the whole service at up to 180 calendar days, with one step averaging 30 working days. That is an official estimate, not a promise, and it does not move your registration deadline. The deadline is about when you register, not when the card arrives.

Documents that need preparing in advance

The registration is where US documents meet Brazilian requirements. The Chicago consulate says the FBI background check and the birth certificate must be apostilled for Federal Police registration, and that the birth certificate must then be translated by a sworn translator in Brazil.

Two general rules sit behind that:

• Apostille in the US. Brazil has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since August 14, 2016, so a US public document is apostilled by the US authority that issued it. Brazilian consulates in the US no longer legalize US documents.
• Sworn translation in Brazil. A foreign-language document needs a translation by a sworn public translator registered with a Junta Comercial in Brazil to have effect there. A translator who is not registered with a Junta Comercial does not meet that rule.

Why the CRNM keeps coming back

The card is not a one-off. Later steps in each residence route ask for it:

• Digital nomad renewal: a copy of the CRNM is on the renewal list (CNIg Resolution 45/2021, art. 6). See Brazil Digital Nomad Visa for Americans.
• Real estate residency: the 14-days-in-Brazil rule is counted from your Federal Police registration, and the change to an indefinite term after four years asks for a copy of the CRNM (CNIg Resolution 36/2018, arts. 5 and 6). See Brazil's Real Estate Residency.

Putting the two numbers to work: banking and Pix

The rules on bank accounts are less restrictive than forum threads suggest. From the Central Bank's normative texts (searchable on the Banco Central's normative search):

• Residency is not a legal requirement for an account. Authorized institutions may open, keep and close accounts for non-residents on the same terms as for residents (Resolução BCB 277/2022, art. 67).
• Identity checks are. Every bank must verify and validate the holder's identity and qualification, including their risk profile and financial capacity (Resolução CMN 4.753/2019, art. 2), and accounts can be opened electronically (art. 3).
• CPF: required to hold a bank account (Receita Federal, above).
• Pix: a key can be registered only after the account opening, including identity verification, is complete, and only with a CPF in regular status. Key types are a phone number, an email, a CPF, a CNPJ or a random key (Resolução BCB 1/2020, art. 45). No rule found ties Pix to residency or to an RNM.

Secondary sources only: in practice, banks often ask for an RNM or CRNM and a Brazilian address, and some route non-residents to a specific non-resident account. That is bank policy, which each bank sets for itself; it is not in the rules.

US side: a Brazilian bank account counts toward the FBAR. A US person whose foreign accounts exceed US$10,000 in aggregate at any time in the year must file one. More on both tax systems in Brazil Tax Residency for Americans.

Myths checked against the text

• "You can get a CPF online from anywhere." For foreigners living abroad, the official gov.br page describes an in-person appointment at a Brazilian consulate, with the FCPF form filled in online beforehand.
• "You will get a CPF card in the mail." Enrolment from abroad produces no card; the proof is the printed comprovante.
• "The RNM deadline starts when your card is ready." The deadline is 90 days after entry (or 30 days after publication of a grant made in Brazil). The card can take much longer to arrive.
• "You need an RNM to open a bank account or use Pix." Not in the Central Bank rules. Individual banks may ask for it.

The order, in one list

1. Before you leave: get the CPF at a consulate, and have your FBI check and birth certificate apostilled in the US.
2. On arrival: note your entry date. The 90-day registration clock has started.
3. In Brazil: get the sworn translation of the birth certificate, book the Federal Police appointment and register.
4. Keep the CPF comprovante and your CRNM together: a bank account needs the CPF, and the later residence steps above ask for the CRNM.

The checklist on this page has these steps on one sheet. If you are on the digital nomad route and want the arrival timeline and document trackers to fill in yourself, the Brazil Digital Nomad Visa Kit includes them.