Brazil Dual Citizenship: Do You Lose Your Brazilian Nationality If You Naturalize in the US or Elsewhere?

Published September 29, 2026. Also available in Portuguese.

No — not since Constitutional Amendment 131 of October 3, 2023, which entered into force on the date of its publication. A Brazilian who becomes a US citizen, or who naturalizes in Portugal, Canada or anywhere else, no longer loses Brazilian nationality for acquiring another one: the amendment's own summary says it was made to suprimir a perda da nacionalidade brasileira em razão da mera aquisição de outra nacionalidade. Article 12, § 4, of the Constitution now allows the loss of Brazilian nationality in only two cases. The first is a naturalized Brazilian whose naturalization is canceled by a court judgment, for fraud in the naturalization process or for an attack on the constitutional order and the democratic State. The second is any Brazilian — born or naturalized — who makes an express request to lose Brazilian nationality before a competent Brazilian authority, and that request is itself barred where it would leave the person stateless. So Brazil dual citizenship is the rule, but not an absolute: a Brazilian-born citizen can still give Brazilian nationality up on purpose, and a naturalized Brazilian can still lose it under item I. The US naturalization oath, in which the new citizen swears to renounce and abjure absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, is taken before US authorities; read against the Constitution, it is not a request made to a Brazilian authority — that is my reading, not a sentence written in any Brazilian text. Three official texts still carry the older rule — the Itamaraty page of Brazil's embassy in Helsinki, updated on October 31, 2024, article 249 of Decree 9,199 of 2017, and article 75 of Law 13,445 of 2017 —, and on when Brazilian nationality is lost the Constitution prevails over all of them. And whoever lost Brazilian nationality before the amendment does not get it back by the amendment's text alone: the regulation still in force frames the way back as a request to the Ministry of Justice.

The question reaches me in three versions. A Brazilian who has lived in the United States for years is about to become a US citizen and wants to know whether becoming an American citizen ends Brazilian citizenship. A Brazilian in Portugal, Canada or elsewhere is weighing naturalization and has read on an official page that it could cost the Brazilian nationality. And a Brazilian who naturalized abroad years ago, and received a letter or saw an ordinance declaring the loss, wants to know whether the 2023 change brought it back. The three have the same starting point — article 12 of the Constitution — and very different endings. This article reads the texts in force as I captured them on September 29, 2026, marks where a sentence is my reading rather than the text, and names no firm other than the author's.

Brazil dual citizenship in one answer

The table is the article in rows. The left column is the situation, the middle column is what the Constitution and the rules below it say, and the right column is where it is written. Where a cell is my reading, it says so.

Two of those rows are what most readers came for, and they pull in opposite directions. The first row is the good news: the Constitution itself removed the rule under which a Brazilian who naturalized abroad could lose Brazilian nationality. The seventh row is the caution: for someone whose loss was already declared, the texts still in force below the Constitution were written for the old rule, and nothing I read undoes an old loss on its own.

Put in the three versions the question arrives in, the table gives three short answers. The Brazilian about to take the US oath in 2026 keeps Brazilian nationality; nothing in the ceremony is a request made to Brazil, and nothing needs to be filed in Brazil for the nationality to continue. The Brazilian weighing naturalization in Portugal or Canada gets the same Brazilian answer, and has one more question to ask — whether that country's own law asks for anything about the Brazilian nationality — which is the other country's to answer. The Brazilian whose loss was declared by an ordinance years ago is in a different position: the ordinance is an act that exists, the amendment's text does not erase it, and the way back is a request, with conditions written before 2023. The rest of this article is the reasoning behind those three sentences, provision by provision.

What Constitutional Amendment 131 changed — before and after

Brazilian nationality law sits in the Constitution, not in an ordinary statute, which is why changing it took a constitutional amendment. The current text of article 12, § 4 and § 5, as the Planalto consolidation of the Constitution prints it, reads:

§ 4º - Será declarada a perda da nacionalidade do brasileiro que: I - tiver cancelada sua naturalização, por sentença judicial, em virtude de fraude relacionada ao processo de naturalização ou de atentado contra a ordem constitucional e o Estado Democrático; […] II - fizer pedido expresso de perda da nacionalidade brasileira perante autoridade brasileira competente, ressalvadas situações que acarretem apatridia. […] § 5º A renúncia da nacionalidade, nos termos do inciso II do § 4º deste artigo, não impede o interessado de readquirir sua nacionalidade brasileira originária, nos termos da lei.

§ 4. The loss of nationality shall be declared for the Brazilian who: I – has their naturalization canceled, by a court judgment, by reason of fraud related to the naturalization process or of an attack against the constitutional order and the Democratic State; […] II – makes an express request for the loss of Brazilian nationality before a competent Brazilian authority, except for situations that result in statelessness. […] § 5. The renunciation of nationality, under item II of § 4 of this article, does not prevent the person concerned from reacquiring their original Brazilian nationality, in the terms of the law.

The first cut marked […] is a Planalto note that item I was given this wording by Amendment 131 of 2023; the second omits the same note for item II and the two old sub-items, which the consolidation now prints as a) revogada; and b) revogada. — repealed. Those sub-items were the heart of the old rule, and their disappearance is the whole change for a Brazilian who naturalizes abroad.

The amendment says what it was for in its own summary, and when it took effect in its article 2. From the text of Constitutional Amendment 131:

Altera o art. 12 da Constituição Federal para suprimir a perda da nacionalidade brasileira em razão da mera aquisição de outra nacionalidade, incluir a exceção para situações de apatridia e acrescentar a possibilidade de a pessoa requerer a perda da própria nacionalidade. […] Art. 2º Esta Emenda à Constituição entra em vigor na data de sua publicação.

Amends article 12 of the Federal Constitution to remove the loss of Brazilian nationality by reason of the mere acquisition of another nationality, to include the exception for situations of statelessness and to add the possibility for the person to request the loss of their own nationality. […] Article 2. This Amendment to the Constitution enters into force on the date of its publication.

The amendment is dated October 3, 2023, and the Planalto text refers to its publication in the Official Gazette of October 4, 2023; since it enters into force on publication, the safe way to date the change is "early October 2023", and I use the amendment's name rather than a single day wherever the day matters. Nothing in the amendment's text speaks of losses declared before it — a point section 7 comes back to.

What did the old text say? The Planalto consolidation no longer prints it in full; the clearest place where it still appears in words is an official consular page, which I quote here only to show the "before" and come back to in section 5. The "Brazilian Nationality" page of Brazil's embassy in Helsinki, updated on October 31, 2024, reads, in its own English:

According to article 12, § 4, of the Federal Constitution, the loss of nationality will be declared for Brazilians who: I - had their naturalization canceled, by court decision, due to activity harmful to the national interest; II - acquire another nationality, except in the following cases: a) recognition of original nationality by foreign law; b) imposition of naturalization, by the foreign law, on the Brazilian residing in a foreign state, as a condition for permanence in its territory or for the exercise of civil rights.

That is the wording in force before Amendment 131, reproduced on a page updated a year after the amendment. Set side by side, the change is this:

Read the old item II again and the difference is structural, not cosmetic. Before, the trigger was an act done abroad — acquiring the other nationality — and the two exceptions were defenses the Brazilian had to prove. After, the trigger is an act done before Brazil — a request — and the only brake written into the text is statelessness. The person who wants to stay Brazilian no longer has anything to prove; the person who wants to stop being Brazilian has to ask.

The instrument. When a text tells you that naturalizing abroad costs Brazilian nationality, look for two things in it: whether it quotes sub-items "a" and "b" — the exceptions of "original nationality" and "imposed naturalization" —, and when it was written or last updated. A text that works with those two exceptions is working with the wording before October 2023.

Becoming a US citizen: the oath of renunciation and Brazilian law

For a Brazilian about to become a US citizen, the question is rarely about the Constitution; it is about the ceremony. To become an American citizen, the applicant swears an oath whose words sound like exactly what Brazil used to punish. The statute is 8 U.S.C. § 1448, whose heading is Oath of renunciation and allegiance:

A person who has applied for naturalization shall, in order to be and before being admitted to citizenship, take in a public ceremony before the Attorney General or a court with jurisdiction under section 1421(b) of this title an oath (1) to support the Constitution of the United States; (2) to renounce and abjure absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen; […]

Under the old rule, this oath of allegiance hardly mattered in Brazil: what counted was the acquisition of the other nationality, and the question was whether one of the two exceptions applied — whether US naturalization had been "imposed" on the Brazilian as a condition to stay or to exercise civil rights. That argument is gone, because the rule it answered is gone. Today the question is a different one: is swearing that oath the pedido expresso de perda da nacionalidade brasileira perante autoridade brasileira competente of item II?

My reading is that it is not, for three reasons taken from the texts themselves. First, the oath is taken in a public ceremony before the Attorney General or a court with jurisdiction — before US authorities; item II requires a request made perante autoridade brasileira competente, before a Brazilian one. Second, the oath is a condition the US statute sets for acquiring US citizenship; it is not a request addressed to Brazil to end Brazilian nationality, and the amendment's own summary says the loss by mera aquisição de outra nacionalidade was removed. Third, Brazil has a procedure for the express request, run by the Ministry of Justice, with a form, documents and a decision published by the Ministry — described in section 6 — and nothing in the oath ceremony passes through it. No Brazilian text I read says in so many words that the US oath is not the request; that is why I call this a reading and not a rule. It is, however, the reading that fits the words of item II.

The same logic applies to any other country whose naturalization includes an oath or a declaration: what the other country requires you to say to it does not, by itself, become a request made to Brazil. What the other country does with your Brazilian nationality is its own law, and section 4 deals with that.

For completeness, US law has its own list for the opposite case — how an American loses US nationality — in 8 U.S.C. § 1481, which speaks of a person who shall lose his nationality by voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality. That section concerns the American who becomes something else, not the Brazilian who becomes American, and renouncing US citizenship is outside this article.

The instrument. Keep your certificate of naturalization and the date of the oath with your Brazilian documents. In the texts I read, nothing obliges a Brazilian to tell Brazil about the new nationality, and nothing makes the new nationality a ground of loss; if a Brazilian office ever raises the old rule with you, the date of the oath and the text of article 12, § 4, in force are the two facts that answer it.

Naturalizing in another country: when the other side asks you to give up Brazil's

Brazil's side of the question is the same whatever the other country is. Article 12, § 4, does not distinguish between becoming American, Portuguese, Canadian, Italian or Japanese; it simply no longer lists acquiring another nationality as a ground of loss. So "Brazil Portugal dual citizenship" and "Brazil Canada dual citizenship" have the same Brazilian answer as "Brazil dual citizenship USA": Brazil does not take its nationality away because you acquired theirs.

The other half of every dual citizenship question belongs to the other country. The other country's law decides whether it asks you to give up Brazil's — and, if it does, when —, and I state no country's rule here — I did not read any foreign nationality statute other than the two US sections quoted, and the US oath quoted above does not require any act before Brazil. If the country where you are naturalizing does require proof that you renounced your Brazilian nationality, that is the moment when the express request of item II becomes relevant: it is the only route Brazilian law offers to end Brazilian nationality on purpose.

Two features of that route matter to anyone in that position. The first is the statelessness brake. Item II excepts situações que acarretem apatridia, and the Ministry of Justice's service page describes the request as one made desde que a perda não acarrete apatridia — as long as the loss does not result in statelessness. The second is timing: the documents the Ministry lists begin with the Comprovante de aquisição da nova nacionalidade — proof that the new nationality has already been acquired. A country that demands renunciation before it grants naturalization and a Brazilian procedure that asks for proof of the new nationality first can pull in opposite directions; how the other country handles that sequence is a question for its authorities, and it is one to settle before either application is filed.

Two things this article does not claim. It does not say which countries require renunciation, and it does not say that the other country will accept a Brazilian decision as proof. It says only what Brazil's side is: no loss for naturalizing, and loss only on your own express request, never into statelessness.

Does Brazil allow triple citizenship? Nothing in article 12 counts nationalities. The old rule tied the loss to acquiring "another" nationality; the new rule ties it to a request, and neither the old nor the new text fixes a number. My reading is that Brazilian law, by itself, sets no ceiling at two — a Brazilian who holds two other nationalities is in the same position under § 4 as one who holds one —, and that whether each of the other countries accepts the combination is, again, each country's own law.

Holding two nationalities has one practical consequence that the consular page describes without reference to the old rule, and it is worth knowing before you travel. Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Helsinki page explains, consular assistance to be provided to dual nationals, when these citizens are in a country of which they are also nationals, will be quite limited. A Brazilian who is also American and runs into trouble in the United States should not count on the Brazilian consulate in the way a Brazilian tourist could; the page advises being aware of the limitations of action of Brazilian consular offices with regard to consular protection. That is a limit on protection, not a loss of nationality.

The instrument. Before you apply for naturalization anywhere, ask the other country's authority one written question — "does your law require me to renounce Brazilian nationality, and if so, what proof do you accept and when?" — and keep the answer. If the answer is yes, read section 6 before you file anything with Brazil.

The official texts that still carry the old rule

Why do official sources still say you can lose Brazilian citizenship by naturalizing? Because some of them were written for the old rule and, in the versions I read on September 29, 2026, still reproduce it. None of this changes the answer — the Constitution is at the top of the hierarchy, and a page, a statute or a decree cannot keep alive a ground of loss that the Constitution removed —, but a reader who meets these texts deserves to know what they are.

The consular page. The Helsinki embassy's "Brazilian Nationality" page — a page of Itamaraty, Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the gov.br portal, published on July 19, 2022 and, according to its own header, updated on October 31, 2024 — says, under "Dual or Multiple Nationalities":

That is, the national legal system allows Brazilians to have dual or multiple nationalities ONLY if the other nationality(ies) arise from birth in a foreign territory (original nationality), of foreign ancestry (original nationality) or naturalization by imposition of a foreign rule.

The next paragraph of the same page describes the administrative procedure for the loss of Brazilian nationality of those who voluntarily adopt another nationality, citing article 12, § 4, item II, of the Constitution combined with articles 249 and 250 of Decree 9,199/2017, and its "Loss of Nationality" section transcribes § 4 in the wording quoted in section 2. The page still reproduces the wording in force before Amendment 131; its legal-basis lists cite the Constitution, Law 13,445/2017, article 75, and Decree 9,199/2017, articles 248 to 253, and do not mention the amendment. The same page also opens with a notice that matters later: This service is not responsibility of the Brazilian consular offices. Therefore, it cannot be carried out at the Embassies of Brazil.

The decree. Decree 9,199 of 2017, which regulates the Migration Law, still carries, in the Planalto text I read, an article that restates the old item II almost word for word:

Art. 249. A perda da nacionalidade será declarada ao brasileiro que adquirir outra nacionalidade, exceto nas seguintes hipóteses: I - de reconhecimento de nacionalidade originária pela lei estrangeira; e II - de imposição de naturalização, pela norma estrangeira, ao brasileiro residente em estado estrangeiro, como condição para permanência em seu território ou para o exercício de direitos civis.

Article 249. The loss of nationality shall be declared for the Brazilian who acquires another nationality, except in the following cases: I – recognition of original nationality by foreign law; and II – imposition of naturalization, by the foreign rule, on the Brazilian residing in a foreign state, as a condition for staying in its territory or for the exercise of civil rights.

The consolidation marks many of the decree's articles with notes of later wording; article 249 carries none. The decree is a regulation issued by the President to execute a statute. It cannot create a ground of loss that the Constitution does not contain, and after Amendment 131 the ground it restates is no longer in the Constitution. My reading is that article 249 cannot found a new declaration of loss; the text itself, as published, was not changed.

The statute. The Migration Law, Law 13,445 of 2017, has one article in the same position. Article 75 still describes the loss of a naturalized Brazilian em razão de condenação transitada em julgado por atividade nociva ao interesse nacional — the old item I. It carries no amendment note in the text I read.

Article 76 of Law 13,445, article 254 of the decree and the Ministry of Justice's reacquisition page (last modified December 15, 2025) are not on this list: they create no ground of loss. They are the written way back for someone whose loss was declared under the old rule, drafted in the logic before the amendment — reacquisition still asks for a request to renounce the other nationality —, and section 7 reads them as they stand. What none of these texts is, is a source for the question "do I lose Brazilian citizenship if I naturalize today?" — to that question the Constitution answers, and it answers no.

The instrument. If a consular officer, a registry clerk or a bank cites one of these texts to you, ask which provision it applies and in which wording, and answer with article 12, § 4, of the Constitution in the wording of Amendment 131 — the Planalto consolidation is the easiest place to show it. Be courteous about it: the pages say what they say, and the person across the counter did not write them.

Giving up Brazilian citizenship on purpose: the express request

How do you renounce Brazilian citizenship? Through the express request of item II, which the Ministry of Justice runs as a public service named "Optar pela perda de nacionalidade brasileira" — to opt for the loss of Brazilian nationality. The page, last modified on December 15, 2025, defines the service and who may use it:

É o ato pelo qual o brasileiro, nato ou naturalizado, faz pedido expresso de perda da nacionalidade brasileira perante autoridade brasileira competente, desde que a perda não acarrete apatridia. […] Nato ou naturalizado que adquiriu outra nacionalidade e desejar perder a brasileira.

It is the act by which the Brazilian, born or naturalized, makes an express request for the loss of Brazilian nationality before a competent Brazilian authority, provided the loss does not result in statelessness. […] Born or naturalized Brazilian who has acquired another nationality and wishes to lose the Brazilian one.

The competent authority, in practice, is the Ministry of Justice and Public Security — not the consulate. The decree has the loss declared por ato do Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Segurança Pública, após procedimento administrativo, no qual serão garantidos os princípios do contraditório e da ampla defesa (article 250), and the Helsinki page, as quoted above, says the service cannot be carried out at Brazilian embassies. The Ministry's page lists three channels: by post, to the Departamento de Migrações do Ministério da Justiça in Brasília; on the web; and in person, at the Ministry's building in Brasília.

The documents the page lists for every case are these: the Comprovante de aquisição da nova nacionalidade, legalizada e apostilada de acordo com o a Convenção sobre a eliminação da exigência de legalização de documentos públicos estrangeiros (Convenção da Haia), acompanhada da respectiva tradução realizada no Brasil por tradutor juramentado. — the proof of the new nationality, apostilled and translated by a sworn translator in Brazil —; the Cópia da página de identificação do passaporte emitido pelo outro país; and the Endereço de correio eletrônico do requerente. A Brazilian by birth adds the Certidão de nascimento ou de casamento atualizada.; a naturalized Brazilian, the Certificado de naturalização brasileira. The decree adds a minimum content for any request made by the person concerned:

Art. 251. Na hipótese de procedimento de perda de nacionalidade instaurado a pedido do interessado, a solicitação deverá conter, no mínimo: I - a identificação do interessado, com a devida documentação; II - o relato do fato motivador e a sua fundamentação legal; III - a documentação que comprove a incidência de hipótese de perda de nacionalidade, devidamente traduzida, se for o caso; IV - endereço de correio eletrônico do interessado, se o possuir.

Article 251. Where a loss-of-nationality procedure is opened at the request of the person concerned, the request must contain, at a minimum: I – the identification of the person concerned, with the proper documentation; II – the account of the motivating fact and its legal basis; III – the documentation proving that a ground for loss of nationality applies, duly translated, where applicable; IV – the email address of the person concerned, if they have one.

The same article provides that the Ministry publishes the decision on its website and that an appeal lies to the next level no prazo de dez dias, contado da data da publicação no sítio eletrônico do Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública. Article 252 has the Ministry inform the loss to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Council of Justice and the Federal Police. The service page estimates the whole service at between 60 and 90 calendar days and states Este serviço é gratuito para o cidadão. Those are the page's estimates, not guarantees, and I give none of my own.

Then the brake. The statelessness proviso is in the Constitution, in the page's definition and in the decree: O risco de geração de situação de apatridia será considerado previamente à declaração da perda da nacionalidade. (article 253). This is why the request comes with proof of the other nationality: a Brazilian who holds no other nationality cannot use item II to become no one's national.

Minors are a point on which the two official pages differ. The Ministry of Justice page lists a case for a Brasileiro nato ou naturalizado menor de 18 anos and says O requerimento deverá ser apresentado por ambos os pais ou apenas um deles, desde que com a anuência expressa do outro ou pelo representante legal. The Helsinki page says that only the interested party, after reaching the age of majority (18 years of age), can request the loss of his Brazilian nationality. The Ministry runs the service and its page is the more recent of the two; which of them the Ministry applies to a given child is a question to put to the Ministry before filing, and I do not decide it here.

What the loss means is stated plainly on the consular page, in a passage that does not depend on the old rule: After the publication of the act, the interested party will be considered, for all purposes, a foreigner before the Brazilian State. A former Brazilian is, for Brazil, a foreigner, and loses what the Constitution reserves to Brazilians. And the way back is narrower than the way out. Section 5 of article 12 says the renunciation não impede o interessado de readquirir sua nacionalidade brasileira originária, nos termos da lei — "in the terms of the law" —, and I found no statute or regulation, written after Amendment 131, that sets those terms. The regulation that exists is the one of section 7, written for the old rule.

The instrument. Before you ask to lose Brazilian nationality, write down why, and check whether the reason really requires it: if the other country does not demand renunciation, the Constitution no longer asks you to choose. If it does demand it, assemble the documents in the order the Ministry lists them, keep a copy of everything filed, and follow the decision on the Ministry's website, where the ten-day appeal period starts.

If you lost Brazilian nationality before Constitutional Amendment 131

"I lost my Brazilian citizenship before 2023 — can I get it back?" is the question with the least comfortable answer, and it has to be read in the texts as they stand, not as one would like them to be. The amendment changed the grounds of loss from its publication onward (article 2). Its text does not say that losses already declared are undone, and I do not read it as saying so. The way back that is written down is the one of Law 13,445, article 76, and Decree 9,199, article 254:

Art. 254. O brasileiro que houver perdido a nacionalidade, em razão do disposto no inciso II do § 4º do art. 12 da Constituição, poderá, se cessada a causa, readquiri-la ou ter revogado o ato que declarou a sua perda. § 1º Cessada a causa da perda de nacionalidade, o interessado, por meio de requerimento endereçado ao Ministro da Justiça e Segurança Pública, poderá pleitear a sua reaquisição. […] § 3º A cessação da causa da perda da nacionalidade brasileira poderá ser demonstrada por meio de ato do interessado que represente pedido de renúncia da nacionalidade então adquirida. § 4º O ato que declarou a perda da nacionalidade poderá ser revogado por decisão do Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Segurança Pública caso seja constatado que estava presente uma das exceções previstas nas alíneas “a” e “b” do inciso II do § 4º do art. 12 da Constituição. […] § 7º O deferimento do requerimento de reaquisição ou a revogação da perda importará no restabelecimento da nacionalidade originária brasileira.

Article 254. The Brazilian who has lost nationality by reason of item II of § 4 of article 12 of the Constitution may, if the cause has ceased, reacquire it or have the act that declared the loss revoked. § 1. Once the cause of the loss of nationality has ceased, the person concerned may seek its reacquisition by an application addressed to the Minister of Justice and Public Security. […] § 3. The cessation of the cause of the loss of Brazilian nationality may be shown by an act of the person concerned that represents a request to renounce the nationality then acquired. § 4. The act that declared the loss of nationality may be revoked by decision of the Minister of Justice and Public Security if it is found that one of the exceptions of sub-items “a” and “b” of item II of § 4 of article 12 of the Constitution was present. […] § 7. The granting of the application for reacquisition or the revocation of the loss shall result in the restoration of the original Brazilian nationality.

Before those routes, one distinction that decides whether they concern you at all. Under the rules in force since 2017 the loss is not automatic: the decree has it declared por ato do Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Segurança Pública, após procedimento administrativo (article 250); the Helsinki page, in its old-rule text, says This is not an automatic process, but one that may be instituted by the authorities of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. and, on the effect, The loss of Brazilian nationality will take effect from the publication of the declaratory ordinance of the Minister of Justice and Public Security in the Federal Official Gazette (Diário Oficial da União - DOU). A Brazilian who naturalized abroad before 2023 may never have had any procedure opened. My reading is that, for such a person, no loss exists: there is no published act, and after Amendment 131 the ground on which such an act would rest is no longer in the Constitution. The opposite reading is possible and deserves a sentence: the Constitution's own verb — Será declarada a perda — can be read as declaring a loss that already happened when the other nationality was acquired. I read the texts above as tying the effect to the published act; the regulation in force before 2017 was not read for this article, and none of these texts settles the point in so many words. Article 254 and the routes below are for those whose loss was declared.

The article draws two routes, and the Ministry of Justice's "Readquirir nacionalidade brasileira" page, last modified on December 15, 2025, describes them in the same terms:

REVOGAÇÃO DE PERDA DE NACIONALIDADE BRASILEIRA - Quem renunciou ou perdeu a nacionalidade e quer readquirir sua nacionalidade brasileira originária poderá ter a revogação do ato que declarou a perda. REAQUISIÇÃO DE NACIONALIDADE BRASILEIRA - Quem perdeu a nacionalidade brasileira, por ter adquirido outra nacionalidade, e deseja readquirir sua nacionalidade brasileira originária.

REVOCATION OF THE LOSS OF BRAZILIAN NATIONALITY – Whoever renounced or lost nationality and wants to reacquire their original Brazilian nationality may have the act that declared the loss revoked. REACQUISITION OF BRAZILIAN NATIONALITY – Whoever lost Brazilian nationality for having acquired another nationality and wishes to reacquire their original Brazilian nationality.

For the revocation, the page asks for Comprovação de imposição de naturalização por estado estrangeiro ou comprovação de nacionalidade originária estrangeira. — the two old exceptions, again. For the reacquisition, it asks for Comprovação de que cessou a causa da perda da nacionalidade brasileira por meio de protocolo de pedido de renúncia da nacionalidade estrangeira; and, after the grant, Comprovação de perda da nacionalidade derivada no prazo de dezoito meses após a data da publicação da Portaria de concessão. — proof, within eighteen months of the grant, that the foreign nationality acquired by naturalization was in fact lost. Both routes also ask for an updated birth or marriage certificate and a form addressed to the Minister of Justice.

Read with today's Constitution, the reacquisition route has an evident tension: it asks a person to give up the foreign nationality in order to recover a Brazilian nationality that, since Amendment 131, a new applicant could hold together with it. That is the text as written in 2017 and as the Ministry's page still presents it in December 2025. I did not find, as of September 29, 2026, a statute or regulation adopted after the amendment that rewrites these routes, that sets the "terms of the law" of the new § 5, or that treats losses declared before October 2023 differently. Whether the Ministry applies the 2017 conditions as written to a request filed today is not something the texts I read answer, and I make no forecast about any decision.

What I can say is what the texts make possible. A loss declared under the old item II is not reversed by the amendment's text; the route back is a request, and the request goes to the Ministry of Justice, not to a consulate. Revocation, in the text, is reserved to cases in which one of the old exceptions was present — a foreign nationality held from birth, or a naturalization imposed as a condition to stay or to exercise civil rights — and it has to be proved "by any means permitted in Brazilian law" (§ 5). Reacquisition, in the text, runs through a renunciation of the other nationality. Neither is automatic, neither is guaranteed, and which one fits a given file depends on facts that are in that file and nowhere else.

The instrument. Find the ordinance that declared your loss and read what it says the ground was. Then put your facts against the two rows of the table: if you held the other nationality from birth, or your naturalization was imposed as a condition to stay or to work, the revocation row is the one to examine; if not, the reacquisition row is the written route, with its condition of renouncing the other nationality. Either way, nothing is filed without reading the current service page on the day.

Two Supreme Court proceedings on the loss of nationality

Two proceedings before the First Panel of the Supreme Federal Court concern the loss of Brazilian nationality, and I describe them only as their public dockets record them — the full judgments were not read for this article.

The first is a writ of mandamus, MS 33,864, reported by Justice Luís Roberto Barroso. Its information tab gives the subject as DIREITO INTERNACIONAL | Nacionalidade | Perda, and its parties tab names as the respondent authority the MINISTRO DE ESTADO DA JUSTIÇA. The docket records the Minister notified through the Office of the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) and, on April 19, 2016, this decision of the First Panel:

Decisão: Por maioria de votos, a Turma denegou a segurança e revogou a liminar deferida, nos termos do voto do Relator, vencidos os Senhores Ministros Edson Fachin e Marco Aurélio.

Decision: By majority vote, the Panel denied the writ and revoked the injunction previously granted, in the terms of the Rapporteur's vote, with Justices Edson Fachin and Marco Aurélio dissenting.

The second is an extradition, Ext 1,462, with the same rapporteur. Its docket, in a decision of June 27, 2016, refers to the nationality question in these words: ainda que eventualmente revertida a decisão que manteve a perda da nacionalidade brasileira — "even if the decision that upheld the loss of Brazilian nationality were eventually reversed". On March 28, 2017, the First Panel decided: Por maioria de votos, a Turma assentou a possibilidade de entrega da Extraditanda ao Governo requerente, nos termos do voto do Relator, vencido o Senhor Ministro Marco Aurélio, Presidente. — it established that the person could be surrendered to the requesting Government.

What the dockets record is a writ on the loss of nationality against the Minister of Justice, denied in April 2016, and an extradition judgment allowing surrender in March 2017, whose docket refers to a decision that had upheld a loss of Brazilian nationality without saying which one. I do not say that the extradition judgment declared the loss, I do not link the two proceedings beyond what their dockets record, and the dockets I read do not say why Congress amended article 12 six years later.

Naturalized Brazilians: the one way the state can still take it

Can a naturalized Brazilian lose Brazilian citizenship? Yes, in two ways. The first is the same as for everyone: an express request under item II. The second is theirs alone, item I — the Brazilian who tiver cancelada sua naturalização, por sentença judicial, em virtude de fraude relacionada ao processo de naturalização ou de atentado contra a ordem constitucional e o Estado Democrático. Three elements are required by the words: a court judgment — not an administrative act —, a cancellation of the naturalization, and one of two grounds, fraud in the naturalization process or an attack on the constitutional order and the democratic State.

The statute and the decree below the Constitution still describe item I in its old words. Law 13,445, article 75, speaks of condenação transitada em julgado por atividade nociva ao interesse nacional, and adds, in a sole paragraph that, on my reading, still fits the new text, O risco de geração de situação de apatridia será levado em consideração antes da efetivação da perda da nacionalidade. Decree 9,199, article 248, repeats "activity harmful to the national interest". Since 2023, the grounds are the Constitution's: fraud or an attack on the constitutional order. On my reading, "activity harmful to the national interest", as a ground distinct from those two, no longer founds a cancellation after the amendment.

Outside item I, the Constitution keeps naturalized and born Brazilians on the same footing unless it says otherwise: A lei não poderá estabelecer distinção entre brasileiros natos e naturalizados, salvo nos casos previstos nesta Constituição. (article 12, § 2). A naturalized Brazilian who later acquires a third nationality, or who returns to the nationality of origin, is covered by the same § 4 as anyone else: no loss for acquiring it, loss only by request or under item I. How a foreigner becomes a naturalized Brazilian — the residence periods, the Portuguese requirement, the file — is a separate subject; for the spouse of a Brazilian, it is in the firm's article on marrying a Brazilian.

Your children born abroad — a separate door

Children born abroad to a Brazilian parent are a different question from the parent's own nationality, and they deserve their own article. In one paragraph: under article 12, I, "c", in the wording of Amendment 54 of 2007, Brazilians by birth include os nascidos no estrangeiro de pai brasileiro ou de mãe brasileira, desde que sejam registrados em repartição brasileira competente ou venham a residir na República Federativa do Brasil e optem, em qualquer tempo, depois de atingida a maioridade, pela nacionalidade brasileira; — registration at a Brazilian consulate, or coming to live in Brazil and opting for Brazilian nationality after majority. A parent's naturalization abroad does not touch that rule, and a child who holds another nationality from birth is in the "original nationality" situation that was never a ground of loss. The registration, the option and the paperwork behind them are the subject of a separate article.

Dual citizenship is not dual tax residency

A passport does not decide where you pay tax. None of the nationality texts read for this article connects Brazilian nationality to income tax, and the rules that decide whether Brazil taxes you as a resident or as a non-resident look at presence, visa and departure, not at the nationalities you hold. A Brazilian citizen who lives in the United States can be a non-resident for Brazilian income tax; a foreigner living in Brazil can be a resident. Keeping Brazilian nationality after naturalizing abroad does not, by itself, make you a Brazilian tax resident, and renouncing it does not, by itself, end your Brazilian tax obligations. Who is a non-resident, the residence rules of the Receita Federal, and how Brazilian-source income is taxed abroad are in the firm's article on non-resident taxation in Brazil. The US side of a US citizen's taxes is outside this article.

How I handle a nationality question — and the mistakes that cost the most

First the facts, in order: how the person became Brazilian (born in Brazil, born abroad and registered, naturalized), which other nationalities they hold and how each was acquired (by birth, by descent, by naturalization — and on what date), and whether any Brazilian act was ever published about their nationality. Then the date line: everything before Amendment 131 is read against the old text and its two exceptions; everything after, against the new § 4. Then the question the person actually has — keep, give up, or recover — and the one text that answers it: the Constitution for keeping, the Ministry of Justice's service and the decree for giving up, and article 254 with the Ministry's page for recovering. When the file needs someone to act in Brazil, the power of attorney is a document of its own, and how the firm works with clients abroad — including how to verify the author's registration with the Brazilian bar — is in hiring a Brazilian lawyer from abroad.

Five mistakes we keep seeing.

1. Treating a page that still reproduces the pre-2023 wording as the rule. A consular page updated in October 2024 still says Brazilians may hold another nationality "ONLY" by birth, ancestry or imposed naturalization. The Constitution, since Amendment 131, says otherwise, and it prevails.

2. Thinking the US oath was the renunciation. On my reading, the oath is taken before US authorities as a condition of US citizenship; item II requires an express request before a Brazilian authority, and Brazil has a procedure for that request which the ceremony does not use.

3. Renouncing when no one asked. The express request is a real, published act with real effects — you become a foreigner for Brazil — and the way back depends on "the terms of the law", for which I found no rule written after 2023. If the other country does not require it, the Constitution no longer asks you to choose.

4. Assuming an old loss disappeared in 2023. The amendment's text does not undo losses already declared. The written route back is a request to the Ministry of Justice, under a regulation written for the old rule.

5. Mixing nationality with tax. Keeping or losing Brazilian nationality does not decide Brazilian tax residence; the residence rules of the Receita Federal — presence, visa and departure — do.

The three facts that decide Brazil dual citizenship

Stripped to its skeleton, Brazil dual citizenship comes down to three facts:

• Since Constitutional Amendment 131 (October 2023), a Brazilian does not lose Brazilian nationality for naturalizing in the US or anywhere else; loss exists only when a court cancels a naturalized Brazilian's naturalization for fraud or an attack on the constitutional order, or when any Brazilian makes an express request before a competent Brazilian authority — never into statelessness. Constitution, art. 12, § 4, I and II, and § 5; Amendment 131/2023, summary and art. 2.
• Three official texts still carry the old rule — the Itamaraty page of the Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki (updated October 31, 2024), Decree 9,199/2017, art. 249, and Law 13,445/2017, art. 75 — and on when nationality is lost the Constitution prevails over all of them; the US naturalization oath, sworn before US authorities, is not on my reading the Brazilian express request. 8 U.S.C. § 1448(a); Decree 9,199/2017, arts. 250 to 253; Ministry of Justice, "Optar pela perda de nacionalidade brasileira".
• A loss declared before the amendment is not undone by its text; the written way back is reacquisition (with a request to renounce the other nationality) or revocation (where an old exception was present), on request to the Ministry of Justice, under a regulation written before 2023 and not rewritten as of September 29, 2026. Law 13,445/2017, art. 76; Decree 9,199/2017, art. 254; Ministry of Justice, "Readquirir nacionalidade brasileira" (last modified December 15, 2025).

Carvalho Barros Advocacia Internacional handles these questions for Brazilians and families who live abroad — a Brazilian practice serving clients in more than 30 countries, with international family law counsel that reads, for each person, the sequence this article described: how the nationality was acquired, which text governs the date, and what the Ministry of Justice requires today. Written communication with the firm is in English; meetings are conducted with an interpreter at no cost to the client. No promise of outcome is made or implied anywhere in this article.

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About the author

Luiz Alberto de Carvalho Barros Filho

Attorney at Law — Brazilian Bar (OAB/AL 7.530)

Brazilian attorney dedicated to private international law and cross-border taxation. Published author in the International Law Deskbook 2.0 (The Florida Bar) and contributor to the International Law Quarterly, also of The Florida Bar.

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Legal note. This article is informational and does not replace individual legal advice, and it makes no promise as to the outcome of any request, procedure or decision concerning nationality (Brazilian Bar Provision OAB No. 205/2021). The provisions supporting it — the Federal Constitution (article 12, I, ‘c’, and §§ 2, 4 and 5), in the Planalto consolidation; Constitutional Amendment No. 131/2023 (articles 1 and 2) and Constitutional Amendment No. 54/2007; Law No. 13,445/2017 (articles 75 and 76); Decree No. 9,199/2017 (articles 248 to 254); the Ministry of Justice and Public Security service pages “Optar pela perda de nacionalidade brasileira” and “Readquirir nacionalidade brasileira” (both last modified December 15, 2025); the “Brazilian Nationality” page of the Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki (published July 19, 2022, updated October 31, 2024); the public dockets of MS 33,864 (docket entries, information and parties tabs) and Ext 1,462 (docket entries) at the Supreme Federal Court; and 8 U.S.C. §§ 1448 and 1481, in the 2024 edition of the United States Code on govinfo — were checked against official sources on September 29, 2026, with the provisions the argument rests on named in the text itself. Portuguese passages, whether in blocks or inline, are reproduced from the official texts; English passages from the US Code and from the embassy page are reproduced from them; other English passages shown in quotation marks are the author’s working translation. The Portuguese is the only authoritative version of Brazilian texts. This article is the English counterpart of the firm’s Portuguese article on the same subject, written for readers abroad. Method caveats and declared limits. (i) Law 13,445/2017, articles 75 and 76, and Decree 9,199/2017, articles 248, 249 and 254, are cited in the wording they carry in the Planalto texts read, which predates Constitutional Amendment 131; on when nationality is lost the Constitution prevails over articles 75, 248 and 249, and articles 76 and 254 remain the written way back for losses declared under the old item II. (ii) The Supreme Court proceedings are described only from their public docket entries and, for MS 33,864, its information and parties tabs; the full judgments were not read, no party is named, nothing is attributed to them beyond those records, and the two proceedings are not linked beyond what their dockets say. (iii) No statute or regulation adopted after Constitutional Amendment 131 that sets the ‘terms of the law’ of article 12, § 5, or that rewrites the reacquisition and revocation routes, was found as of September 29, 2026. (iv) The reading of the United States naturalization oath as not being the express request of article 12, § 4, II, the position of a Brazilian who naturalized abroad before the amendment without any loss declared, the absence of a numerical limit on nationalities, and the effect of the amendment on the old grounds still printed in the statute and the decree are the author’s readings, marked as such in the text. (v) No foreign country’s nationality law other than the two United States provisions cited was read, and none is stated. (vi) The processing time and the absence of fees are those stated on the Ministry of Justice service page; the two official pages differ on requests concerning minors, and the article does not decide between them. To review your specific case, contact attorney Luiz Barros — Brazilian Bar, OAB/AL 7.530.