What INMETRO certification means for an importer

The short answer

Mandatory conformity assessment works object by object. The official list names the object, the mechanism and the regulator, and the mechanism is not always certification: entries carry Certificação, Declaração do Fornecedor, Inspeção or Não aplicável. Textile products sit in the list under Não aplicável.

There is no INMETRO list organised by NCM code. The list is kept by object name, and the link to a tariff code exists only inside Portal Único Siscomex, through the two queries below.

A certificate does not give the right to sell. For most objects a second step follows, Registro de Objeto under Portaria Inmetro nº 258, de 6 de agosto de 2020, and that registration is what authorises the market.

The applicant has to be established in Brazil. The factory can be foreign, the applicant cannot, because the request carries a CNPJ and the registration service runs on an e-CNPJ token.

For imports the conformity mark goes on before the goods enter the country. The one exception, model 1b, is a batch procedure, and it is the whole of the "certify it on arrival" idea.

The legal basis and who does what

Lei nº 5.966, de 11 de dezembro de 1973 created the system, with Conmetro as its normative body and Inmetro as a federal autarquia and central executive body. Inmetro also serves as Conmetro's executive secretariat.

Lei nº 9.933, de 20 de dezembro de 1999 is the operative act. Article 2 lets Conmetro issue technical regulations in metrology and conformity assessment. Article 3 gives Inmetro the power to issue technical regulations, an exclusive administrative police function in legal metrology, and responsibility for conformity assessment and accreditation. Article 5 binds anyone who manufactures, imports, processes or sells regulated goods. Article 8 lists the sanctions: warning, fine, interdiction, seizure, destruction, suspension and cancellation of registration. Article 9 puts the fine between R$ 100,00 and R$ 1.500.000,00. Lei nº 12.545, de 14 de dezembro de 2011 widened Inmetro's remit and added the Taxa de Avaliação da Conformidade as article 3-A.

So Conmetro adopts the norms, and Inmetro issues portarias, accredits bodies, keeps the registers, grants import anuência and applies penalties. The customs side of the same shipment sits in the guide to importing into Brazil.

How to check whether your product is covered

Two official routes exist, and they answer different questions.

Route	Where	What it tells you
By object name	INMETRO's list of mandatory programmes, gov.br/inmetro	Whether an object of that description is regulated, by which mechanism, under which regulator
By act	Sistema Inmetro de Legislação, inmetro.gov.br/legislacao	The regulation itself, searchable by a word such as brinquedo or capacete, or by number and year
By NCM code	Portal Único Siscomex	Whether an INMETRO licensing reference attaches to that tariff code

Portal Único offers two published ways to run the NCM check. First: Importação, LPCO, Simular tratamento administrativo, then the NCM. If an anuência applies, a field called Referência de licenciamento Inmetro appears. Second: Importação, Classif, Consultar, then the NCM or a product description, the IMP button in the Ações column, and the TA tab.

For an edge case, INMETRO's instruction is to ask through Fale Conosco under the subject Anuência para Importação. Licence mechanics are on import licensing, and the credentials needed before any filing are on RADAR and Siscomex accreditation.

The official list is dated January 2022, and it shows

The list page carries the line "Atualizado em 25/01/2022 18h25". Two entries were checked against current acts for this page. Both were stale.

Object	Act shown in the list	Act in force
Toys (brinquedos)	Portaria nº 563 de 29/12/2016	Portaria Inmetro nº 302, de 12 de julho de 2021
Electrical wires, cables and flexible cords	Portaria nº 640 de 30/11/2012	Portaria Inmetro nº 131, de 23 de março de 2022

INMETRO's own FAQ for toys makes the point in its title, describing Portaria 563/2016 as revoked by Portaria 302/2021. For wires and cables, Portaria 131/2022 is the consolidated regulation, with the certification process in Anexo II and the mark criteria in Anexo III.

Two out of two is a small sample and the rest were not checked, which is the point. Treat the list as an index of what is regulated, never as a citation of the act that regulates it, and confirm every portaria number in Sistema Inmetro de Legislação before it reaches a compliance plan or a supplier instruction.

The regulator column is not always Inmetro either: Anvisa, Contran, MTE, Denatran, IBAMA and Conama appear too, and sanitary goods run through ANVISA registration as well. No official count of programmes exists. At least 116 numbered entries were retrieved, the extraction truncated there, and INMETRO publishes no aggregate figure.

Who can hold the certificate and the registration

The RGCP, approved by Portaria Inmetro nº 200, de 29 de abril de 2021, says certification must be requested exclusively by the Fornecedor, and the application carries that applicant's company name, address and CNPJ. The OCP separately receives the manufacturer's identification and full address, including production sites in other countries. The factory can sit anywhere. The applicant cannot.

The published definition of Fornecedor covers a person or company, national or foreign, legally established in the country. That wording comes from an undated INMETRO FAQ PDF which still quotes a superseded fee, so it is an old version of the document and worth reconfirming against Portaria 258/2020. The registration side is unambiguous: Registrar Objeto runs on a gov.br account and an e-CNPJ token.

Two structures follow. The Brazilian importer holds the certificate and registration, which ties market access to that partner, since changing distributor means moving the certification. Or the manufacturer holds both through its own entity, covered on setting up a Brazilian company. The RGCP does allow transfer to a receiving OCP, so the first is not a one-way door. Settle this early, because it decides whose name goes on everything that follows.

The procedure: OCP, laboratories and models

The RGCP took effect on 1 June 2021 and covers any object whose requirements use the certification mechanism, mandatory or voluntary. Certification is run by an OCP, which assesses the product, selects the laboratory and issues the certificate. Clause 9.2 requires the OCP to be legally established in Brazil and accredited by Inmetro/Cgcre, and clause 8.4.1 requires the same of a foreign body, with a CNPJ. Cgcre is the only accreditation body recognised in Brazil, and scopes can be withdrawn at any time.

Clause 6.2.4.3 ranks laboratories in eleven levels. The second is the opening for a foreign manufacturer: third-party laboratories accredited by Inmetro/Cgcre or by an ILAC or IAAC mutual recognition signatory, so testing done abroad can count. Audits of imported products are carried out at the importer's site.

The RGCP sets out six models numbered 1 to 6, with model 1 split into 1a and 1b.

Model	What it involves
1a	Single batch, no maintenance afterwards
1b	Imported batch, sampling and testing at the Brazilian border
2	Initial assessment, periodic maintenance audits and testing, recertification
3	Initial assessment with a quality management system audit, maintenance, recertification
4	Initial assessment, maintenance by testing only, recertification
5	Initial assessment with a QMS audit, maintenance by audit and testing, recertification
6	Initial assessment with a QMS audit, maintenance by audit, recertification

Which model applies is set by the object's own portaria, not by the RGCP, and there is no default. The common claim that mandatory certification in Brazil is always model 5 has no basis in the RGCP text. Validity is fixed the same way, with 1a and 1b carrying none as batch procedures.

The conformity mark and when it goes on

The Selo de Identificação da Conformidade shows that conformity was assessed through the established process. There is no universal artwork: clause 11.1 leaves the model, characteristics, traceability and methods of affixing to each object's requirements, and the mark can go on the certificate, the product and the packaging. No standalone act on using the mark was found in INMETRO's own sources; the rules sit in clause 11 and in each object's requirements.

Clause 11.3 is the one to plan around. For imported products, other than under model 1b, the mark must be applied before the goods enter the country, "antes da entrada do mesmo no país". Since only a certified product carries the mark and marking normally happens at the factory, the practical reading is that certification closes before shipment. That is an inference from the marking rule rather than a published deadline, and INMETRO's own FAQ entry on pre-shipment licensing could not be retrieved for this page, so neither answer to that narrower question is given here.

Model 1b is the exception written into the rule, with sampling and testing at the Brazilian border and its own batch LPCO models. It suits a one-off consignment, not a product line. Labelling duties beyond the mark are on labelling rules.

Registro de Objeto: the certificate is not the permission

INMETRO defines registration as the act by which it authorises, in the form of the law, the making available of a product, input or service on the national market. Certification produces a document; registration produces the authorisation.

It is filed with one of three things: a valid Certificado de Conformidade where the mechanism is certification, a test report from an accredited laboratory for a supplier's declaration on a product, or a technical inspection report for one on a service. The route is INMETRO's Orquestra system, task P061, where you enter the data, attach what Portaria 258/2020 and the object's own portaria require, pay the GRU, and the case goes to analysis.

For toys INMETRO says it directly: the supplier must register the product, and presenting the certificate is a necessary condition for doing so. As a general rule that follows from the structure of Registro de Objeto rather than from a sentence covering every category. On timing, the services page updated in December 2025 gives three stages, the last of up to 55 calendar days, while an older INMETRO FAQ PDF gives payment within 30 days and analysis within 15 days of confirmed payment. The two do not reconcile, and the PDF is older, so plan against 55 days.

Official fees, and the numbers nobody publishes

These are the published amounts, and they are the only official prices in the process.

Fee	Amount
Granting the registration of an object whose conformity has been assessed	R$ 53,53
Initial follow-up verification (verificação de acompanhamento inicial)	R$ 1.352,74
Import anuência where non-automatic licensing applies	R$ 53,53

They come from Anexo II of Lei 9.933/1999 as updated by Portaria Interministerial nº 44 MF-MDIC, de 27 de janeiro de 2017. A warning on the middle row: INMETRO's fee FAQ labels R$ 1.352,74 as the initial follow-up verification, while the government services card attaches the same figure to the registration of a service. Confirm what you are paying for before generating the GRU.

The cost of certification itself is not published. OCPs work on their own commercial terms, and INMETRO regulates their accreditation, not their pricing. There is no published norm for how long an OCP certification takes either. Budget by structure rather than by a made-up range: laboratory testing, a factory audit where the model calls for one, the OCP's fee, R$ 53,53 for the registration, and R$ 53,53 per LPCO for the anuência.

Personal protective equipment goes somewhere else

If the product is PPE, INMETRO is not the finishing line. Sale or use as Equipamento de Proteção Individual requires a Certificado de Aprovação from the Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego through the CAEPI system, under NR-6 and Portaria/MTP nº 672, de 8 de novembro de 2021. The applicant is the manufacturing or importing company and needs a CNPJ, while testing laboratories still have to be accredited by INMETRO. The service is stated at 30 to 60 business days and it is free. Certificates are searchable in the public CAEPI register, and PPE entries appear in the INMETRO list with MTE in the regulator column.

Import: anuência, LPCO and claiming an exemption

INMETRO grants anuência for LPCO documents and import licences covering products it regulates on a mandatory basis, but only where those products fall under non-automatic licensing. That is why the Siscomex check matters more than the list check: a product can be regulated and still need no anuência at the border.

The published sequence is to determine the NCM in Sistema Classif, check the administrative treatment in the Portal Único simulator, find the object in the list and read its portaria, register the licence in Portal Siscomex with a detailed description, then request the anuência through Orquestra, process P070. The governing acts are Portaria Inmetro nº 137/2022 for the procedure, nº 159/2021 for the licensing module and nº 161/2021 for tacit approval deadlines.

LPCO model	Covers
I00013	Mandatory certification, without registration
I00014	Products subject to Registro de Objeto
I00015	Programa Brasileiro de Etiquetagem, transformers in insulating liquid
I00016	Regulated measuring instruments
I00039	Samples, including own use and warranty returns
I00040	Mandatory certification by batch
I00041	Registro de Objeto by batch
I00160	Tyres subject to registration

Where the product is registered or certified under the mandatory regime, analysis is automated and the LPCO can be granted within one day of the GRU payment being recognised. Samples, own use, warranty returns and batch operations are analysed by hand. The anuência service averages about 16 days, and the document is valid for 90 days, extendable once by another 90.

Exemptions work differently from what importers expect. Where the importer has enough technical data to conclude the product is exempt or out of scope, no LPCO is filed at all: in the licensing reference field you select option 04, produtos dispensados de controle pelo Inmetro. Correct characterisation of the product is then the importer's responsibility, based on technical specifications and the regulation in force. Nobody countersigns that judgement in advance, and the sanctions in articles 8 and 9 of Lei 9.933/1999 sit on the other side of it. A filing on this basis needs the number, year and articles of the portaria granting the exemption, plus a technical catalogue with photographs, so the exemption has to be found inside a specific act. No threshold for small consignments and no separate research and development category appear in the official sources used here.

Registers you can check against

Register	What it holds
registro.inmetro.gov.br/consulta	Registrations granted, the documents that authorise sale
registro.inmetro.gov.br/objetos	Products and services for which registration is required
registro.inmetro.gov.br/taxas	The fee table
inmetro.gov.br/prodcert	PRODCERT, certificates assessed against INMETRO requirements
inmetro.gov.br/organismos	Accredited certification and inspection bodies
inmetro.gov.br/laboratorios	Accredited testing and calibration laboratories
inmetro.gov.br/legislacao	Portarias, searchable by keyword or by number and year
caepi.trabalho.gov.br	Certificados de Aprovação for PPE, Ministry of Labour

These are the addresses INMETRO publishes on its current gov.br pages. The legacy domain did not respond while this page was prepared, so the contents were not inspected.

What to settle before you ship

Run the NCM through both Portal Único queries and keep the screenshots. Read the list entry for the mechanism and the regulator, then ignore the portaria number printed there and find the act in Sistema Inmetro de Legislação. Decide who holds the certificate and the registration, because that answer needs a CNPJ and an e-CNPJ before anything else starts. Ask the OCP which model your object's requirements assign, whether it includes a factory audit, and whether foreign test reports from an ILAC or IAAC accredited laboratory can be used. Confirm whether Registro de Objeto applies and allow up to 55 calendar days for it. Fix the marking step at the factory, since outside model 1b the mark goes on before the goods enter Brazil. If you claim an exemption, get the portaria number, year and article in writing, and accept that the qualification risk sits with the importer. If the product is PPE, put it on the Ministry of Labour track from day one.

Sources

• Legal framework: Lei nº 5.966/1973 (articles 2, 4, 5) and Lei nº 9.933/1999 (articles 2, 3, 5, 8, 9), planalto.gov.br, plus Lei nº 12.545/2011 as referenced in the notes to Lei 9.933/1999. Primary sources.
• Conmetro's role: INMETRO's Conmetro page, published 20 August 2020. Primary, though the ministry name it gives predates the 2023 renaming, which is why the chair is not named here.
• The list of mandatory programmes, its structure and its date: INMETRO's programas compulsórios page, marked "Atualizado em 25/01/2022 18h25". Primary. At least 116 numbered entries were retrieved; the full extent of the table was not, because the extraction truncated.
• Superseded acts in that list: INMETRO FAQ on toys, updated 27 May 2024, which itself describes Portaria 563/2016 as revoked by Portaria 302/2021, and INMETRO FAQ on the conformity mark for electrical wires and cables, published 23 November 2023, for Portaria 131/2022. Both primary.
• No official count of mandatory programmes: absent from the list page and from the Agenda Regulatória Dconf 2026 to 2027. Recorded as no data rather than estimated.
• Certification procedure, models, laboratories, OCP requirements and the conformity mark: RGCP, Portaria Inmetro nº 200/2021, official PDF on gov.br/inmetro, clauses 6.2.1.2, 6.2.4.3, 6.2.6.3, 8.4.1, 9.2, 10.1.1 and 11.1 to 11.3. Primary. Accreditation from the Cgcre pages on gov.br/inmetro, updated February 2025 and May 2026; the number of accredited OCPs is not published and is not stated here.
• Definition of Fornecedor and the applicant's documents: INMETRO FAQ PDF on registro.inmetro.gov.br. Primary, but an older version of the document, which still quotes a superseded fee, hence the caveat above.
• Registro de Objeto: INMETRO's registro de produtos e serviços page and its FAQ on filing, updated 22 April 2026, both citing Portaria 258/2020 as current, and the gov.br/servicos Registrar Objeto card, updated 15 December 2025, for the stages and the 55 day figure. Primary, and in conflict with the older FAQ PDF as noted.
• Fees: INMETRO FAQ on the Taxa de Avaliação da Conformidade, updated 7 April 2026, and the gov.br/servicos anuência card. Primary. The differing labels applied to R$ 1.352,74 are reported rather than resolved.
• Import anuência, LPCO models and deadlines: INMETRO's anuência pages updated 19 and 20 August 2026, the LPCO deadline FAQ updated 9 June 2026, the gov.br/servicos anuência card, and INMETRO's page on NCM codes under control that meet exemption or scope exclusion criteria, published 20 August 2026. All primary.
• PPE: gov.br services card for Obter CA de EPI, updated 15 December 2025, referencing NR-6 and Portaria/MTP nº 672/2021. Primary.
• Not obtained while preparing this page: the INMETRO answer on whether licensing is required before shipment, which returned an error on repeated attempts; the tail of the programmes table beyond entry 116; the contents of the registers on the legacy inmetro.gov.br and registro.inmetro.gov.br domains. Nothing above rests on any of them.

Facts on this page were checked on 7 September 2026. The list of regulated objects is dated January 2022 and the acts behind individual entries change without the list being updated, so confirm the current portaria for your own product before acting on anything here.