Drone Rules in Brazil for Foreign Creators (2026)

Two authorities you cannot ignore: ANAC and DECEA

Brazil treats drones seriously, and legal operation rests on two separate federal bodies that do two different jobs. The first is ANAC, the National Civil Aviation Agency, which registers the aircraft itself and sets the rules of operation under regulation RBAC-E No. 94. The second is DECEA, the Airspace Control Department, run by the Air Force, which controls who may use Brazilian airspace and when. Registering with one does not satisfy the other. You need both, for essentially every flight that leaves the ground.

For a visiting YouTuber, brand filmmaker or photographer, this is the single most misunderstood point. Being a licensed drone pilot in your home country grants you nothing here. Brazil recognises no foreign drone licence or registration. The moment your aircraft weighs 250 grams or more, you enter a system that expects a Brazilian tax number, an online aircraft registry and a per-flight airspace request. We built our drone filming permits service precisely to carry foreign creators through both authorities without a single wasted day of a tight shooting schedule.

• ANAC (SISANT): registers the drone and governs how it may be operated
• DECEA (SARPAS): authorises the specific airspace, altitude and time window of each flight
• ANATEL: the drone's radio link must be a homologated, certified device

ANAC registration through SISANT

Any drone weighing more than 250 grams and up to 25 kilograms — which covers almost every creator's rig, from a compact folding drone to a professional cinema platform — must be registered in SISANT, ANAC's online unmanned aircraft system. Registration is done entirely online, is valid for two years and, at present, carries no government fee. It produces a registration number that, by law, must be physically affixed to the aircraft before it flies.

The practical catch for foreigners is the login. SISANT is accessed through the federal gov.br portal, which is keyed to a CPF, the Brazilian individual taxpayer number. Without a CPF you cannot open the account, and without the account you cannot register the drone. This is why a foreign creator's drone paperwork almost always begins weeks earlier with obtaining a CPF. Aircraft under 250 grams are exempt from SISANT registration, but — and this trips people up constantly — they are not exempt from the airspace rules below.

One more technical requirement sits in the background: the drone's radio and remote controller must be homologated by ANATEL, the national telecommunications agency. Mainstream consumer drones sold globally are generally certified, but exotic or heavily modified equipment can be questioned, especially if it draws attention on a professional shoot.

DECEA airspace authorization through SARPAS

Registering the drone is only half the picture. Before each flight you must request access to the airspace itself through SARPAS, DECEA's online request system. This is not a one-time formality; it is filed per operation, defining exactly where you will fly, the maximum altitude, and the date and time window. You submit the request, receive an authorization, and must carry proof of it during the flight.

For a standard low-risk flight — daytime, in uncontrolled airspace, well away from airports and crowds, below 120 metres (400 feet) above ground — approval can be near-immediate and largely automated. The moment your plan touches controlled airspace, higher altitudes, night operations or the vicinity of an aerodrome, the request goes to human analysis and can take days, sometimes with conditions attached. Building this lead time into a shoot is essential; a location scout that ignores airspace almost always produces a schedule that collapses on the day.

The 120-metre ceiling is the default operating limit for visual-line-of-sight flying, and flying beyond visual line of sight or above that ceiling demands additional, specialised authorization that is rarely granted to a short-stay visitor. Plan your shots to live comfortably inside the standard envelope.

No-fly zones and the Paraná realities

The rules that ground most visiting creators are not the paperwork but the geography. You may not overfly people who are not part of the operation, and you must keep a minimum horizontal distance of 30 metres from any uninvolved person unless a protective barrier exists. You may not fly in the controlled airspace around airports without specific clearance, and Paraná is dotted with them: Afonso Pena and Bacacheri serve Curitiba, and Foz do Iguaçu has its own international airport minutes from the tourist zone.

The state's most photogenic sites are also its most restricted. The Iguaçu Falls sit inside the Iguaçu National Park, a federally protected area where drone flights are controlled by ICMBio and are, in practice, prohibited for tourists without a specific research or production permit. Nearby, the Itaipu hydroelectric dam is critical binational infrastructure with restricted airspace that a casual flight must never enter. On the coast, the Port of Paranaguá is a secured strategic facility where port and federal security rules apply. These are exactly the shots creators most want, and exactly the ones that require proper, documented authorization rather than a hopeful launch.

Getting these clearances is possible, but it is a coordination exercise across ICMBio, DECEA, sometimes Itaipu Binacional and port authorities — not something to attempt for the first time on location with a client watching the clock.

• Keep 30 metres horizontal from uninvolved people; never overfly crowds
• Airports: Afonso Pena and Bacacheri (Curitiba), Foz do Iguaçu International — controlled airspace
• Iguaçu National Park (the falls): ICMBio-controlled, generally off-limits without a permit
• Itaipu dam and the Port of Paranaguá: restricted, strategic infrastructure

Pilot rules, insurance and flight conduct

Beyond registration and airspace, the operator carries ongoing responsibilities. The remote pilot must be at least 18 years old and is legally accountable for the safety of every flight and for any damage caused. Brazilian rules require civil liability insurance covering damage to third parties for operations of drones over 250 grams, with a narrow exemption for purely recreational flights of the lightest class — a professional shoot does not qualify for that exemption, so appropriate cover should be arranged.

Sensible conduct is also a legal expectation: fly in daylight and good visibility unless specifically authorized otherwise, keep the aircraft within your visual line of sight, respect the privacy of people and private property below, and never fly under the influence or in a manner that endangers manned aviation. These sound obvious, but on a fast-moving creator shoot they are precisely the corners that get cut, and they are the ones that generate complaints and enforcement.

What non-compliance actually costs

The penalties are real and they land on the operator. ANAC can impose administrative fines for flying an unregistered aircraft or breaching operational rules, and DECEA and the Air Force treat unauthorized use of airspace as a serious matter. Fines for drone infractions commonly run into thousands of reais per violation, and flying near an airport or restricted installation escalates the response quickly, potentially involving the Federal Police and seizure of the equipment.

For a foreign creator the secondary costs are often worse than the fine. A confiscated drone means a dead shoot day and lost footage you flew across the world to capture; an incident near sensitive infrastructure can create immigration and customs complications on top of the aviation penalty. Compliance is not bureaucratic caution — it is protection for your gear, your footage and your ability to keep working in Brazil.

How Brazil4Connect gets you flying legally

We handle the entire chain as your on-the-ground production partner in Paraná. We help you secure the CPF that unlocks the gov.br login, register your aircraft in SISANT and confirm its ANATEL-homologated status, then file the correct SARPAS requests for each location and altitude in your shot list. Where a site demands more — the national park, the Itaipu vicinity, controlled airspace near Curitiba or Foz do Iguaçu — we coordinate the additional authorizations with the relevant authorities and build realistic lead times into your schedule. Our drone filming permits service starts from USD 350 per shoot, scaled to the number of locations and the complexity of the airspace.

Because most of these problems start at the border, we frequently pair this with our camera gear customs support, so your drone and cinema kit actually enter Brazil cleanly and are not held at the airport before you ever reach a launch point. The result is simple: you arrive, your paperwork is already in order, and you spend your days filming rather than negotiating with agencies in Portuguese.