When you start dealing with administrative procedures in Brazil, you will quickly come across gov.br. This account serves as your digital identity for accessing a large number of Brazilian public services.
It allows you to use the same identity to access different administrative services online. However, not all gov.br accounts offer the same possibilities: there are three security levels, Bronze, Silver (Prata) and Gold (Ouro).
This distinction can be particularly important for a foreign national. It is perfectly possible to have a CPF and a gov.br account, only to discover that certain procedures remain unavailable because your identity verification level is not sufficient.
Understanding how gov.br works early on can therefore make certain procedures considerably easier, particularly if you later need to continue them from abroad.
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What is a gov.br account?
A gov.br account is a digital identity that allows the Brazilian public administration to verify who is using an online public service.
It allows you to access numerous digital services provided by the federal administration and other public bodies integrated into the platform using a single account.
The account is personal and free of charge.
Both Brazilian and foreign nationals can create a gov.br account provided that they are registered in the Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPF).
This is why CPF and gov.br are closely linked without being the same thing:
CPF = your registration number in the Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas.
gov.br = your digital identity for authenticating yourself with numerous online public services.
If you do not yet have a CPF, we explain this first step in our article about obtaining a CPF in Brazil.
Creating your gov.br account
The account can currently be created through the gov.br website or directly in the gov.br app.
The process starts with your CPF number. You then follow the steps provided to create your account and verify your identity.
Create your account on the official gov.br website →
The gov.br app becomes particularly useful afterwards, especially for managing your account, strengthening its security and carrying out certain checks that may allow you to increase your account level.
Creating the account is only the first step, however. You should then check which security level has been assigned to it.
Understanding the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels
gov.br uses three security and access levels:
Bronze → Silver (Prata) → Gold (Ouro)
These levels are not subscriptions and you do not have to pay to move from one to another. They represent the degree of confidence established through the verification of your identity.
The more reliable the method available to the administration to confirm that you are genuinely the person associated with the CPF being used, the higher the account's trust level can be.
Bronze
Bronze is the basic level.
It allows you to use a single identity to access digital services considered less sensitive, but access to certain features and services remains restricted.
For a foreign national who has only recently obtained a CPF, this is a situation that can easily arise: having a CPF and successfully creating a gov.br account does not automatically mean that you have a Silver or Gold account.
Silver (Prata)
The Silver (Prata) level involves stronger identity verification.
It provides access to many more digital services and to account features requiring a higher level of trust. Current methods for reaching this level include certain identity checks and validation through an accredited bank.
The latter can be particularly convenient for someone already living in Brazil who has an account with a participating bank.
For a foreign national who is not yet resident in Brazil, it may naturally be less accessible.
Gold (Ouro)
Gold (Ouro) is the highest security level for a gov.br account.
It provides access to services requiring the highest level of account assurance and relies on stronger identity verification. Available methods include certain biometric checks against Brazilian public databases and the use of a digital certificate compatible with ICP-Brasil.
A Gold account is not required for every procedure, however. The level required depends on the service you wish to use.
Check the gov.br account security levels and validation methods →
Why can this be more complicated for a foreign national?
This is where administrative theory can sometimes meet practical reality.
A Brazilian national may already be present in several databases used to verify identity: Brazilian documents, biometric records, banking information and so on.
A foreign national who has only recently obtained a CPF may not yet have access to the same validation methods.
In our own experience, the gov.br account created while we were not yet resident in Brazil remained at Bronze level. The CPF existed and the account worked, but some possibilities remained restricted.
This does not necessarily mean that there is a problem with your CPF or your account. There may simply be no validation method available to gov.br that establishes your identity at a higher level of confidence.
This is an important distinction to understand before concluding that “gov.br does not work for foreigners”.
Why move to Silver or Gold?
There is no need to aim for Gold simply for the sake of having the highest level.
The real question is: which services will you need?
Some services work with a Bronze account, while others require Silver or Gold. The Receita Federal, for example, requires higher trust levels for access to certain digital services.
One of the most useful differences for someone settling in Brazil, however, concerns the electronic signing of documents.
Signing documents with gov.br
gov.br provides a service for signing documents electronically.
To use the gov.br advanced electronic signature, you currently need an account at Silver or Gold level.
This can be particularly useful when you need to complete procedures remotely.
You can receive an electronic document, authenticate yourself using your gov.br account and apply a signature recognised within the framework established by Brazilian law, provided that this type of signature is accepted for the procedure concerned.
Learn about the official gov.br electronic signature service →
For someone already living in Brazil, this is simply convenient. For someone who needs to return to Europe for several months while procedures continue in Brazil, it can become considerably more important.
Digital certificates: an option worth knowing about
Another particularly useful possibility is a personal digital certificate compatible with ICP-Brasil.
This is a digital identification system separate from the basic gov.br account and based on Brazil's official digital certificate infrastructure.
A personal digital certificate compatible with ICP-Brasil can, among other things, be used to log in to gov.br and raise the account to Gold level. According to current official information, Gold status obtained through this validation remains valid for 36 months before another authentication using the certificate is required.
There is an important distinction here: we are referring to a personal digital certificate. A digital certificate issued to a legal entity cannot be used to create or increase the level of an individual's gov.br account.
A digital certificate is therefore not essential for everyone. For some foreign nationals, however, it can be an interesting solution when the other validation methods offered by gov.br are not easily available to them.
Something to consider before returning abroad
This is probably the most important practical advice in this article.
Imagine coming to Brazil for a few weeks or months to prepare for your future move. You obtain your CPF, begin your administrative procedures and then temporarily return to Europe.
A few weeks later, a professional in Brazil sends you a document that needs to be signed electronically.
That is an inconvenient time to discover that your gov.br account is still Bronze and that you have no straightforward way of reaching the required level while abroad.
In our experience, dealing with this issue while you are still in Brazil can prevent a great deal of difficulty later on.
If you know that some procedures will continue after you leave, check before leaving the country:
- the current level of your gov.br account;
- which validation methods are available to you;
- whether Silver or Gold will be required for the procedures you expect to carry out;
- and, if appropriate for your circumstances, whether obtaining an ICP-Brasil-compatible digital certificate would be worthwhile.
This does not mean that every foreign national should automatically obtain a digital certificate. The point is not to discover the problem after returning to a country thousands of kilometres away from Brazil.
Securing your gov.br account
As your gov.br account provides access to more services, its security naturally becomes increasingly important.
gov.br allows you, among other things, to enable two-step verification and manage the devices associated with your account.
We recommend using these protections as soon as you start using your account for important procedures.
As with online banking, your gov.br password and the verification codes sent to your phone should never be shared with another person.
A professional may assist you with an administrative procedure, but that does not mean they should have unrestricted access to your personal gov.br credentials.
Our advice for new arrivals
For someone preparing to settle in Brazil, we would look at the process like this:
CPF → gov.br account → check your level → increase it if necessary → secure your account.
There is no need to insist on obtaining a Gold account on your first day. A Bronze account may be perfectly adequate as long as you only use services compatible with that level.
However, do not wait until you urgently need to sign a document before finding out how gov.br account levels work.
If you are a foreign national and will later need to continue some procedures from your home country, check your digital situation while you are still in Brazil. Depending on your circumstances, bank, biometric or digital-certificate validation may allow you to obtain a higher level and make remote procedures considerably easier.
A gov.br account may initially seem like just another login when you arrive in Brazil. Over time, it becomes clear that it is actually one of the main keys to accessing Brazil's digital public administration.
