Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and stricter regulations in Argentina, more and more Russians are choosing to travel to Brazil to give birth to children, who will obtain Brazilian nationality. Yulia and Dmitri (whose names have been changed for safety reasons) flew from Russia to Brazil this summer so that their child could be born there. Yulia was 32 weeks pregnant at the time of travel.
"Of course, we didn't say that I was pregnant at border control," Yulia told DW. Her daughter was born at a private clinic in Santos, a city in southern Brazil. Anybody born in the country has an automatic right to Brazilian nationality. The family is currently preparing all the paperwork. "We've achieved our minimum goal," said Dmitri. "With a Brazilian passport, our daughter will be able to travel without a visa to almost any country in the world. She won't have to apply for an expensive and time-consuming Schengen visa. We want her to be able to decide for herself where she studies, works or lives."
He said that a colleague of his had traveled to Brazil in early August with his pregnant wife for the same reasons. Yulia and Dmitri said that they had spent the equivalent of about €10,000 (about $11,500) during the first six weeks of their stay in Brazil, which included the costs for several days of treatment for their daughter in intensive care. Dmitri quit his job at a bank for the trip and hopes to find work again after the family returns to their home in the Russian capital Moscow. However, they are only planning to return once all the documents for their daughter are ready and that could take months. Other Russian families have decided to stay in Brazil permanently.
According to organizations and lawyers that provide support to Russians in Brazil, there has been an increase in immigration from Russia, particularly since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which visa requirements for Russian nationals entering certain countries were tightened. Birth tourism to Brazil has also increased since Argentina, which used to be one of the main destinations for people wanting their children to be born in a country that automatically grants citizenship to newborns, tightened its regulations. People who want their children to obtain Argentinian citizenship now have to have resided in Argentina for at least two years. Since 2025, the access of people who do not have a permanent residence permit to free healthcare has also been restricted.
According to the Russian news outlet RBC, more than 7,000 Russians applied for a residence permit in Argentina in 2023. By mid-2025, the number had decreased to about 1,800. Meanwhile, almost 500 Brazilian passports were issued to Russians in 2024 and more than 600 the following year. More than half of the new citizens were women. The parents of a child born in Brazil can apply for a residence permit, which they can obtain within a year, under certain circumstances.
Yana (name changed) and her husband chose to do this in 2023. "The events of 2022 certainly played a role, but we had already toyed with the idea of giving birth abroad," Yana told DW. "A lot can happen in Russia. I always wanted a second passport and to give birth to my child in another country. When I became pregnant unexpectedly, all we had to do was decide which country made sense." Yana gave birth to a boy at a public hospital in Florianopolis, the capital of the southern state of Santa Catarina, and the family stayed in Brazil for about three years.
"It was important to get passports for us and our child. I really enjoyed living there, and I learned Portuguese," Yana said, adding that she and her husband have lived as "digital nomads" in various countries over the years. Even though they no longer live in Brazil, they want their son to have a connection to his birth country: "We read Portuguese books and talk a lot about Brazil. I want him to be able to travel without a visa and remain open to the world."
One of the largest Russian communities in Brazil lives in Florianopolis, and it's growing. According to the local health authorities, 119 Russian women took advantage of prenatal consultations in the first six months of this year. In all of 2025, it was 136 Russian women. A lawyer who preferred to remain anonymous told DW that Brazil neither expressly prohibited nor permitted foreign nationals to enter the country for the purpose of giving birth. Often pregnant women do not disclose their reason for traveling to Brazil at border control. And once they are in the country they have access to free public hospitals and medical facilities regardless of their immigration status.
As Russian birth tourism to Brazil increases, a whole industry has emerged. Often, recent Russian immigrants to Brazil act as intermediaries and help others find housing or medical care. They provide assistance with complicated administrative procedures or the language. Depending on the level of care, the cost can reach into the thousands of dollars. However, providers of such services, lawyers, and volunteers report stricter controls by Brazilian authorities, particularly in cities with larger Russian communities, such as Florianopolis. They say authorities are requesting more documents than in the past. "The police are conducting more thorough checks to verify whether people actually live at the addresses they provide," one lawyer said, explaining that in the past, false addresses had been given by people hoping to obtain residence permits more quickly.
But DW did not find any evidence to suggest that Russians were being denied entry to Brazil en masse. In late July, the Russian Telegram channel Baza reported that 10 pregnant women had been "deported" from Russia. The information was later picked up by various media outlets. However, the Brazilian police denied the veracity of the report to DW, explaining that decisions to deny somebody entry to the country were always made on a case-by-case basis, and that pregnancy played no role in the process. DW was only able to find one documented case of a pregnant Russian woman being initially refused entry into Brazil. She was allowed to enter the country after a lawyer intervened. According to the court records, the Brazilian border authorities had doubts as to how the Russian national would be financing her stay in Brazil. The woman did not respond to the DW's inquiries. This article was originally written in Russian.
Source: www.dw.com