Are electronic signatures legal in Brazil? ICP-Brasil, gov.br and Lei 14.063

Brazil has one of the most developed digital-signature systems in the world. Companies sign tax documents with an e-CNPJ, lawyers file in court with an e-CPF, millions of citizens sign with their gov.br account, and deeds are now done by video with an online notary. That variety is also why so many people ask: which of these actually has legal validity, and for what?

The short answer

• Electronic signatures are legally valid in Brazil. Medida Provisória 2.200-2, of 24 August 2001, created the ICP-Brasil public-key infrastructure and gave electronic documents legal effect.
• Documents signed with an ICP-Brasil certificate are presumed true as to the signers. Other methods (platforms such as DocuSign or KovaPDF, non-ICP certificates) are also valid if the parties accept them or the person the document is used against accepts it.
• Lei 14.063/2020 created three levels (simples, avançada and qualificada) and says which level is needed when dealing with public bodies.
• Real estate transfer and registration generally need a qualified (ICP-Brasil) signature, with some exceptions added later, and deeds that must be escritura pública are made before a notary, in person or through e-Notariado.

The law

MP 2.200-2/2001 and ICP-Brasil

The MP set up the Infraestrutura de Chaves Públicas Brasileira (ICP-Brasil). The Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação (ITI) acts as the root certification authority (AC-Raiz) and accredits the certification authorities that issue certificates to people and companies, under rules from the ICP-Brasil Management Committee.

Article 10 is the rule everything else builds on:

• §1: statements in electronic documents produced with an ICP-Brasil certification process are presumed true in relation to the signers, as the Civil Code provides for signed documents.
• §2: the MP does not prevent other means of proving authorship and integrity of electronic documents (including certificates not issued by ICP-Brasil) as long as they are accepted as valid by the parties or by the person against whom the document is used.

So an ICP-Brasil signature is strong by force of law, while any other electronic signature rests on the parties' acceptance and on the evidence behind it.

Lei 14.063/2020: simple, advanced and qualified

Lei 14.063, of 23 September 2020, was written mainly for interactions with public entities, but its three categories are now used across the market:

The law says which level public bodies may accept for which kind of interaction, and lists acts that need a qualified signature, including acts of transfer and registration of real property, with exceptions. It is regulated for the federal administration by Decreto 10.543/2020.

Later changes

• Lei 14.382/2022, which created the electronic registry system (SERP), amended article 17 of the Lei de Registros Públicos (Lei 6.015/1973). Electronic submissions to registries are to be signed with an ICP-Brasil certificate as the rule, and the Corregedoria Nacional de Justiça of the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ) may set the cases in which an advanced signature is accepted, including acts involving real estate. Registry guidance reads this narrowly: advanced signatures are mostly limited to acts that do not transfer or encumber the property.
• Lei 14.620/2023 allowed financial institutions that grant real-estate credit, and the parties to their contracts, to use advanced as well as qualified signatures in the private instruments they sign with the force of a public deed (a new article 17-A in Lei 14.063). It also added §4 to article 784 of the Código de Processo Civil: an extrajudicial executive title made electronically may use any type of electronic signature allowed by law, and the two witnesses are no longer required when the signature provider confirms the document's integrity. That change took effect in July 2023.

How far registries accept advanced signatures outside these exceptions has been debated, and cartórios still apply CNJ rules. Expect a registry to ask for ICP-Brasil unless a rule clearly says otherwise.

Evidence in court

The Código de Processo Civil (Lei 13.105/2015) says, in article 411, that a document is considered authentic when its authorship is identified by any legal means of certification, including electronic, under the law. Combined with MP 2.200-2 art. 10 §2, courts regularly enforce contracts signed on e-signature platforms when the audit trail shows who signed. An ICP-Brasil signature shifts the burden: whoever denies it has to prove otherwise.

Documents that need a special signature or a notary

Real estate and e-Notariado

Under the Civil Code, rights over real property above a set value need a public deed (escritura pública), drawn up by a notary. Since Provimento CNJ 100/2020, now consolidated in the national code of notarial and registry rules (Provimento CNJ 149/2023), notaries can perform acts remotely through the e-Notariado platform: the parties join a videoconference with the notary and sign with an ICP-Brasil certificate or with a notarised digital certificate issued through the platform. After that, the deed still has to be registered at the Registro de Imóveis.

A promise of sale (contrato de promessa de compra e venda) or a rental contract is a private instrument and can be signed with any accepted electronic signature. See Can you e-sign a property deed or sale contract?.

Employment

The CLT allows an employment contract to be agreed tacitly or expressly, verbally or in writing, so there is no requirement for ink. Electronic signing of contracts and HR documents is widespread, and the work card itself has been digital since 2019. Labour courts assess electronic evidence like any other. See Can an employment contract be signed electronically?.

Does the gov.br signature have legal validity?

The free gov.br signature is an advanced electronic signature under Lei 14.063, available to accounts at prata (silver) or ouro (gold) level. It is designed for interactions with public bodies, where it is clearly valid.

For private contracts, it counts as "another means" under MP 2.200-2 art. 10 §2: valid if the parties accept it. Some banks, registries and companies still refuse it and insist on ICP-Brasil, and legal opinions differ on how far it should reach. Courts have been moving towards accepting it: in REsp 2.243.445, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça held that a power of attorney for a lawsuit signed through gov.br is valid without notarised signature recognition, unless there is a concrete reason to doubt the signature. Outside court, still ask the receiving party before relying on it.

How to get an e-CPF or e-CNPJ

1. Choose a certification authority accredited by ITI (the list is public) and the certificate type. e-CPF for an individual, e-CNPJ for a company.
2. Validate your identity, in person or by videoconference where the authority offers it.
3. Choose the format:

The A1 certificate is the one you can use on a website. Keep the .pfx file and password safe. Anyone holding both can sign as you.

The certificate types are changing. Under Resolução CG ICP-Brasil 211/2024, the A1 type is being phased out: A1 certificates can still be issued and used during a transition that ends on 2 March 2029. After that, individuals sign with A3 or A4 certificates, and companies use a new electronic seal (selo eletrônico), which also comes in a software version. Ask your certification authority which type it issues today.

Which KovaPDF tool to use

• You have an A1 e-CPF or e-CNPJ: use Digital Signature. Upload the .pfx, enter the password (used once in memory, never stored), and KovaPDF creates a PAdES signature with a trusted timestamp and long-term validation data. Because the certificate is ICP-Brasil, the result is a qualified signature under Lei 14.063 with the presumption of MP 2.200-2 art. 10 §1. Validators such as the ITI's own tool can check it.
• Private contracts where the parties accept any electronic signature: Request Signatures sends the PDF to each signer; they sign by private link without an account. The finished PDF carries a certificate of completion (names, emails, times, IP addresses, document fingerprint) and a trusted timestamp. This is an electronic signature under art. 10 §2: not ICP-Brasil and not gov.br. Under CPC art. 784 §4, a provider confirming integrity can help an electronic contract work as an executive title, but confirm with a lawyer for your case.
• Just you signing a form: Sign PDF.
• Checking a signed PDF: Verify PDF Signature. Foreign software may not trust the ICP-Brasil root by default; "untrusted" there is about the root, not a forgery.

KovaPDF cannot use an A3 token or cloud certificate, apply a gov.br signature, or act as a notary.