The questions European exporters actually ask.

Not necessarily — but you need import capacity one way or another. The real paths are your own Brazilian entity (a CNPJ) with a RADAR/Siscomex habilitação sized to your financial capacity, or importing through a Brazilian company — a trading company (conta e ordem or encomenda) or another importer. Each carries different control, tax, and liability consequences. There's no lightweight "importer of record" you simply appoint. Choosing the structure that fits your entry — rather than defaulting into one — is part of what the Entry Diagnostic settles.

Brazil doesn't have the lightweight, appointable importer-of-record that some countries do. The importer is a Brazilian legal person carrying real customs and tax liability. You can import through a third party's entity — an IoR/DDP service or a trading company — and that's a legitimate, fast path if your goal is to never touch Brazilian customs. The trade-off is structural: the shipment routes through their registration every time, and the arrangement is built to continue, not to be exited. If you want your own capability instead, that's a different structure. We help you choose deliberately.

A despachante files your import declaration and clears cargo through Siscomex — essential work, but execution-only, and it assumes the hard part is already solved: that your classification is right, your homologation is done, and you already hold import capacity. We sit above that. We own the classification, the homologation strategy, the import structure, and the go/no-go — and we engage and coordinate a despachante as part of execution. We're not a replacement for your broker; we're the owner your broker assumes you already have.

Those providers become the legal importer using their own Brazilian entity and quote you a landed cost — genuinely useful if your goal is to never build Brazilian capability. The trade-off is by design: every shipment routes through their entity, the registration and customs history sit in their name, and the model is built to continue indefinitely. Our mandate is time-boxed — deliver your first compliant shipment and a repeatable process your own team, broker, or entity can run without us. It's a different tool for a different goal.

Treat it as a floor, not a pass. Brazilian conformity runs on its own requirements — INMETRO certification schemes, NR-12 machinery safety, Anatel for anything RF-emitting. NR-12, for example, has its own annexes and typically requires Portuguese-language documentation and local engineering sign-off; a CE mark doesn't substitute for it. Exactly what applies depends on your specific equipment and its category — the readiness check gives you a directional read, and the Diagnostic confirms it against the current rules.

Possibly — Anatel's scope reaches further than obvious telecom gear. Anything that emits RF, including embedded wireless modules, radios, or certain sensors inside industrial or data-center equipment, can trigger homologation, and a foreign certification doesn't substitute. Homologation runs on accredited-lab testing and takes weeks per product family, and for much equipment the import license has to be approved before the goods leave origin. This is precisely the kind of thing that's cheap to find out early and very expensive to discover at the port.

Sometimes. Capital goods with no Brazilian equivalent can qualify for duty relief through an ex-tarifário application. But it runs on its own timeline, it can be contested by domestic manufacturers, and the bar for "no national equivalent" has been tightening. It's well worth pursuing when it fits — and it has to be started early. The Diagnostic tells you whether it's realistic for your specific goods before you build a plan around it.

It depends on your equipment and what it triggers — homologation alone can run weeks per product family on lab testing, and some licenses must clear before anything ships. We won't hand you a reassuring number that isn't real. The point of starting with the readiness check and the Diagnostic is to put a realistic timeline in front of you before you commit capital, so the clock starts when it should — not when your cargo is already sitting at the port.

A staged, fixed-scope model — not an open-ended retainer. It starts free with the 2-minute readiness check, moves to a fixed-fee Entry Diagnostic (the definitive read and the go/no-go, in writing), and only then to an owned execution engagement scoped to your entry. You always know exactly what you're committing to at each step, and you can stop after any of them with something you keep. We share specific figures in the qualification conversation.

The opposite of stuck. You get your first compliant shipment through the door and a documented, repeatable entry process your team runs without us. We're paid to make ourselves unnecessary — never to become a permanent importer or a standing retainer. Built to exit is the whole point.

No. We don't take long-term importer-of-record responsibility, we don't run permanent country operations, and we don't guarantee revenue or handle go-to-market. We own the entry execution and the go/no-go call, deliver the first shipment, hand off the process, and step out. Clear boundaries protect both sides.

Two hubs, one trade lane — Berlin at origin, alongside your export team, and São Paulo on the ground, where entry is won or lost. The work happens in Portuguese, inside the Brazilian institutions, not managed remotely from Europe. Ivan Sanz, the founder, leads it and holds the go/no-go — so one accountable person owns the outcome, start to finish.