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An import licence in Brazil is the authorisation a government agency gives before a specific product may enter the country. It is required when the goods are subject to health, environmental, technical or security control, and it must be granted before the customs declaration is filed. Without it, the cargo stops at the border.
If you ship into Brazil, you have probably met this the hard way. The shipment lands, the customs broker opens the system, and an agency nobody consulted has flagged the goods. From that moment the clock works against you: storage charges running, a customer asking, and a review that can take weeks.
It is the instrument by which a Brazilian public agency authorises one specific product, imported by one specific company, in one specific operation. Customs is not the body that demands it. Sector legislation is, and the Receita Federal (Brazil's federal revenue and customs authority) simply checks that a valid licence exists.
The timing rule is explicit. Under Portaria Secex 249 of 4 July 2023, article 5, the licence must be obtained before the import declaration is filed, whether that declaration is a DI (the legacy import declaration) or a Duimp (the single import declaration that is replacing it). Source: Secex, text consolidated up to Portaria Secex 523 of 15 July 2026.
There is one exception that catches exporters off guard. Article 6 of the same ordinance provides that, in exceptional cases set out in specific regulation, a non automatic licence must be issued before the goods are shipped from abroad. The agency then flags the licence as subject to a shipment restriction, and your supplier cannot despatch until it is granted.
The list of goods and operations subject to licensing is published at siscomex.gov.br. Under the ordinance it carries four data points per item: the NCM code (Brazil's tariff classification, based on the Mercosur nomenclature), the agency in charge, the legal basis, and whether the licence is automatic or non automatic.
Órgão anuente is the Brazilian term for a consenting agency: the body that reviews and authorises imports within its field. One product may answer to more than one. The table below shows the agencies that come up most often in express air cargo and the type of control each exercises, as a starting orientation rather than a ruling.
Agency | Type of control | Cargo that usually lands there |
Anvisa | Health surveillance | Medicines, cosmetics, food, medical devices, sanitising products |
Anatel | Telecommunications | Equipment that requires homologation, such as radios and routers |
Inmetro | Technical conformity | Products under compulsory certification, from electrical goods to protective equipment |
MAPA | Agriculture and livestock | Animal and plant products, beverages, agricultural inputs |
Brazilian Army | Controlled products | Items under controlled products supervision, including certain chemicals |
Ibama | Environment | Controlled substances, waste, protected fauna and flora |
Decex and Secex | Foreign trade | Used equipment, similarity examination, quotas and trade defence measures |
The table orients, it does not decide. The final word on your goods comes from the official query by NCM code, because two similar products can carry different treatments. One detail trips up many exporters: when several agencies are involved, a single one requiring a pre shipment licence makes that requirement apply to the whole operation, under article 6 of Portaria Secex 249.
Through the administrative treatment simulator on the Portal Único de Comércio Exterior (Brazil's single window for foreign trade) at siscomex.gov.br. You enter the NCM code and the operation details, and the system returns whether licensing applies, which agency reviews it and the legal basis. The query is free and needs no registration.
Run it at three moments, always before the purchase order is confirmed:
Tariff classification carries the whole thing. Getting the NCM code wrong does not only change the duty rate: it changes which agency reviews your cargo. If that part of your operation is still shaky, start with the guide to HS codes and tariff classification.
The practical difference between the two types of import licence in Brazil is the deadline and the depth of review. Automatic licensing is approved within 10 days, provided the request is filed properly and in full. Non automatic licensing gives the agency up to 60 days from the moment the request is registered in Siscomex. Source: Portaria Secex 249, articles 11 and 12.
The 60 day period can be shorter when sector rules say so, and longer when the complexity of the case justifies it. But there is a third path, and it is the one that delays most imports into Brazil: the exigência, or formal request for correction.
When the agency finds an error, an omission or missing information, it records an exigência in the system and the review clock is suspended until you reply. You have 90 days to correct it. If you do not answer, the request is cancelled automatically for lack of interest, under article 13 of the ordinance.
Look at what that does to your planning. A 60 day request that receives an exigência on day 55 does not become 60 days and nothing more. It becomes 60 days plus your response time plus a review that restarts. A poorly prepared licence costs more than an expensive one.
Validity matters too. Licences issued through the Siscomex Importação LI module are valid for up to 180 days for filing the DI, counted from issuance. Where pre shipment licensing applies, the goods must be shipped within 90 days of the licence being issued, under article 15.
The goods are not cleared and the company faces a fine. Importing goods subject to licensing without obtaining the licence carries a penalty of 30% of the customs value, with a floor of BRL 500 and no ceiling. Source: Receita Federal, Brazilian Customs Regulation, article 706, item I, point "a".
Where the licence does exist but is granted after the goods were shipped, the fine is also 30% of the customs value, with a floor of BRL 500 and a cap of BRL 5,000, under point "b" of the same article. It is a lighter penalty, and the gap between the two usually comes down to a few days of preparation.
Then add the costs nobody budgets. Storage accruing, working capital locked in cargo that does not move, a delivery date missed with the end customer and, depending on the product, spoilage risk. Since release follows rules of its own, it pays to understand the full path of customs clearance for shipments into Brazil first.
They change where the licence is requested. Portaria Secex 249, article 4, sets out two modules: Siscomex Importação LI, for operations declared through a DI, and LPCO Importação, for operations declared through a Duimp. LPCO stands for Licenças, Permissões, Certificados e Outros Documentos, the single window module that concentrates all consenting agencies.
The migration is under way. The DI shutdown schedule was approved by the Siscomex management commission and is being updated in stages, by type of operation and by agency. The official schedule page, published on 7 October 2025, was on version 27 as of 14 September 2026. Source: Portal Único de Comércio Exterior.
For an importer, the consequence is concrete: the date your operation leaves the DI and starts requiring LPCO and Duimp depends on what you import. Check it in the single window shutdown simulator and align it with your customs broker before booking the next shipment.
Something useful came with the change. The single window publishes a dashboard with the average LPCO review time per agency, in calendar days. It was published on 25 June 2026 and updated on 12 August 2026, and it lets you set lead time expectations against data rather than guesswork. When your operation already runs on Duimp, the Siscomex guide for imports maps the full flow.
By treating the import licence as part of the purchase order rather than a logistics step. Companies that do this settle the question while there is still time to change supplier, packaging or product description.
What works in the routine of a small or mid sized importer:
None of these steps is expensive. All of them are tedious. The difference between an import that flows and one that sits in a warehouse is almost always on that list, not in the freight rate. To build the process from scratch, the guide to importing into Brazil covers the stages that come before this one.
No. Most goods enter without licensing and the customs declaration is filed directly. A licence is required only when sector legislation says so, because of the nature of the goods or the operation, and that is verified by NCM code in the administrative treatment simulator of the single window.
Automatic licensing is approved within 10 days, and non automatic licensing has a review period of up to 60 days from registration in Siscomex, under Portaria Secex 249. If the agency records an exigência, the clock is suspended until the importer replies.
As a rule, no. It must be granted before the import declaration is filed. Licensing prior to shipment from abroad is required only in exceptional cases set out in specific regulation, and in that case the licence is flagged with a shipment restriction.
It is 30% of the customs value, with a minimum of BRL 500 and no maximum, under article 706, item I, point "a", of the Brazilian Customs Regulation. If the licence is granted after shipment, the fine is 30% with a minimum of BRL 500 and a maximum of BRL 5,000.
A request is refused when there is an error that cannot be remedied or when conditions in the legislation were not met. The route is to fix what caused the decision and file a new request with complete documentation. Depending on the goods, returning them abroad may be necessary, and that call belongs to the importer and the customs broker.
It depends on the product and its NCM code. Telecommunications equipment that requires homologation answers to Anatel, while goods under compulsory certification answer to Inmetro, and a single item can fall under both. The administrative treatment query is what settles it for your specific product.
Licensing and transport are two clocks running side by side. The agency clock you control with lead time and complete paperwork. The cargo clock depends on who is holding the shipment, who files the clearance and who answers when Brazilian customs asks for something.
If your company ships into Brazil regularly and needs an international carrier that follows the customs process from departure to delivery, open a DHL Express business account and treat clearance as part of the service rather than a surprise at the end of the trip.
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