Concluding a ten-day fact-finding mission, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Gehad Madi issued a statement on 1 April lauding Brazil’s 2017 Migration Law as a regional benchmark for humane, non-punitive migration management. He highlighted Brazil’s issuance of humanitarian visas, equal access to health and education and the absence of criminal penalties for irregular entry as practices that set the country apart from increasingly restrictive regimes in Europe and North America. Madi nevertheless identified bottlenecks that hamper migrants’ daily lives. The National Committee for Refugees (CONARE) and the Federal Police lack staff to handle a record asylum-case backlog, leading to multi-year waits that complicate legal employment, bank accounts and mobility for applicants—many of whom are Venezuelan, Haitian and Cuban. He also criticised a 2024 policy requiring certain transit passengers at São Paulo–Guarulhos airport to obtain a Brazilian visa before lodging an asylum claim, calling it incompatible with international-protection norms. Among the rapporteur’s recommendations: increase federal funding so CONARE can decide claims within six months; expand Federal-Police frontline presence at airports and border posts; and review airport-transit visa rules that effectively block spontaneous asylum requests. Madi further urged Brazil to improve language support and digitalise residence-permit renewals—a move that would benefit corporates employing foreign talent under work visas. For global-mobility managers the report is a double-edged sword. Brazil remains attractive for relocating staff thanks to its broad family-reunification, digital-nomad and humanitarian-visa categories. Yet sluggish document issuance can delay assignee start dates.
![UN special rapporteur praises Brazil’s rights-based migration model but urges faster asylum processing]()
For applicants who need extra assistance cutting through red tape, VisaHQ provides an online toolkit that streamlines everything from form filling to appointment scheduling and offers real-time status alerts for a wide range of Brazilian visa types. The platform’s country page (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/) consolidates the latest entry rules and processing times, helping both travellers and HR teams avoid costly surprises.
Companies are advised to build six-to-nine-month lead times into relocation timelines and to monitor forthcoming regulatory tweaks that may speed up electronic filing. The Foreign Ministry welcomed the UN’s praise and signalled it is drafting an ordinance to automate part of the asylum workflow. If enacted, the changes could ease pressure on overstretched officials and reinforce Brazil’s reputation as a mobility-friendly hub in South America.
For applicants who need extra assistance cutting through red tape, VisaHQ provides an online toolkit that streamlines everything from form filling to appointment scheduling and offers real-time status alerts for a wide range of Brazilian visa types. The platform’s country page (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/) consolidates the latest entry rules and processing times, helping both travellers and HR teams avoid costly surprises.
Companies are advised to build six-to-nine-month lead times into relocation timelines and to monitor forthcoming regulatory tweaks that may speed up electronic filing. The Foreign Ministry welcomed the UN’s praise and signalled it is drafting an ordinance to automate part of the asylum workflow. If enacted, the changes could ease pressure on overstretched officials and reinforce Brazil’s reputation as a mobility-friendly hub in South America.
