Why Americans are moving to Brazil
For a US salary, Brazil is a 40–60% cost-of-living drop with negligible quality-of-life trade-off in the cities you would actually choose.
Florianópolis, in particular, has become a default landing pad for Americans: subtropical, safe by Brazilian standards, ~1.3M metro population, and one of the densest concentrations of foreign remote workers in Latin America.
The structural pull is the cost-of-living arbitrage. The structural friction is the US tax system, which does not care that you are abroad.
What visa do you need?
For trips up to 90 days, US citizens enter Brazil with an e-Visa (reintroduced in 2024).
For longer stays, the standard route is the VITEM XIV digital nomad visa: US$1,500/month income or US$18,000 in savings, foreign employer or clients only, 1 year renewable to 2.
See the dedicated visa guide for documents and timelines. For most Americans, applying at the Brazilian consulate in their home region before flying is the cleanest path.
Tax: this is the part Americans get wrong
Two things make US-Brazil tax different from every other move:
One, no double-taxation treaty. The US and Brazil signed only a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) in 2007. There is no automatic treaty relief.
Two, citizenship-based taxation. The US is one of the only countries in the world that taxes citizens regardless of where they live. You will file Form 1040 every year, forever, until you renounce.
Practically:
- You continue filing US federal taxes (Form 1040).
- You file FBAR (FinCEN 114) if your foreign accounts exceed US$10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year.
- You file FATCA (Form 8938) if total foreign assets exceed US$200,000 (single, abroad).
- After 183 days in Brazil, you become a Brazilian tax resident: monthly Carnê-Leão filings plus annual DIRPF.
- To avoid being taxed twice on the same income, you use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE, US$132,900 for tax year 2026) or the Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116).
FEIE is straightforward if you pass the Physical Presence Test (330 full days in foreign countries in a 12-month period). The Foreign Tax Credit is usually better if you are paying significant Brazilian tax already, because it offsets dollar-for-dollar instead of capping at the FEIE ceiling. Get an accountant who has done this before; there are not that many.
How do you handle money across both countries?
You are earning in USD and living in BRL. Inside Brazil, everything runs on Pix, about 93% of Brazilian adults use it, and ~47% of all Brazilian financial transactions in 2024 settled through it.
A US bank account does not Pix. A US-issued card pays your Brazilian rent through a SWIFT wire (slow) or a credit-card FX charge (3–6% markup, IOF on top).
Local Brazilian bank accounts solve that, but they need a CPF and usually an RNM, which means you have to be already on a residency-triggering visa, and even then setup is paperwork-heavy.
The faster path is a multi-currency wallet that holds USD natively, converts to BRL at near-spot, and pays via Pix as a first-class rail. That is what Liminal is built for, and why most Americans who arrive ready do not bother opening a Nubank account for the first 3–6 months.
What to set up before you arrive
The Americans who arrive smoothly have these five things done before they fly:
- A CPF (apply via the Brazilian consulate or Receita Federal’s online form; it is free).
- A wallet that holds USD and pays BRL via Pix.
- A SIM/eSIM plan that activates on arrival (TIM works without a CPF).
- An accommodation deposit paid via Pix, Brazilian landlords almost never wire-receive cleanly.
- A US expat-tax service lined up for the first FEIE/FBAR filing (Bright!Tax, Greenback, or similar).
The last one is the one Americans most often skip. Do not, IRS penalties for missed FBAR alone can hit US$10,000 per account, even if no tax was owed.
Day-to-day differences
Most of the cultural shift is what any American making this move experiences: more flexible, more relational, less infrastructure-on-rails. But a few things are specifically jarring coming from the US:
- Payments are bank-to-bank (Pix), not card-rail. Card culture exists but Pix is faster, cheaper, and universal.
- Tipping is closer to European convention than American: 10% built into the bill at restaurants, no expectation beyond.
- English drops off fast outside São Paulo central neighbourhoods and Florianópolis expat enclaves.
- Customer service is slower but more human, fewer chatbots, more “let me get my manager.”
Is Brazil cheaper than the US?
In the cities you would actually move to, yes, meaningfully.
Florianópolis, 2026 ranges for a remote worker:
- Furnished 1-bed: ~$580–$1,150/month
- Eating out: ~$7–$15 per meal
- Coffee: ~$1.80 cappuccino, ~$1.30 espresso
- Monthly all-in (rent + food + transport + coworking): ~$1,200–1,800
For a US-salary remote worker, that is roughly 40–60% of comparable US cost. The gap is mostly rent and services; tradeable goods (electronics, imported clothing) are often more expensive than in the US thanks to import duties.
How do you make the move actually work?
The move itself, flights, container shipment, lease signing, is the easy part. The structural setup is what determines whether your first three months feel like a holiday or a bureaucratic ordeal.
The Americans who arrive smoothest have their CPF, their USD-to-BRL wallet, their Pix capability, and their FEIE/FBAR filing plan all in place before takeoff.
Liminal handles the money side: USD held natively, BRL paid via Pix, international transfers settled in seconds rather than days. You arrive with the financial layer already running.