Official data from the U.S. Department of State shows that the issuance of F-1 visas fell by a third in calendar year 2025 compared with 2024. Brazil, however, remained relatively flat, declining by only 1% over the same period.
Looking at more recent TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language) data, the volume of Brazil-based candidates increased in fiscal year 2026, which further demonstrates Brazil’s resilience as a source market compared with other regions of the world.
What partly explains this resilience is that Brazilian students are gradually broadening their perspectives on international education programs, both in terms of educational pathways and in relation to desired destinations.
The latest edition of the annual survey by the Brazilian Educational & Language Travel Association (BELTA) polled 74 agency groups and more than 2,200 students and found significant changes. Higher education programs now account for 23.6% of Brazilians interested in studying abroad, in comparison with the 12.7% reported one year ago.
Also, language programs as the main objective for education abroad decreased from 38.6% to 25.8% among those surveyed, which might indicate that Brazilian students are gradually adapting to visa policy changes while finding more options to advance their language proficiency at home.
Additionally, the survey shows new names climbing behind the traditional destinations still holding the top of the table: Spain moved from 9th to 7th, Italy from 11th to 9th, and the United Arab Emirates entered the ranking for the first time, at 13th.
TOEFL internal data also demonstrates a 20% increase in the number of Brazilian higher ed candidates aiming at Canada, although Canada still ranks second after the US.
Now, if wider perspectives make Brazilian candidates more resilient, they also highlight the importance of designing a long-term application strategy. Since each destination sets its own English requirements, and Brazil unfortunately still lacks effective nationwide English language assessment policies, families and schools need a reliable starting point such as the TOEFL family so they can plan their next steps.
It turns a vague ambition into a sequence of steps, and it moves the conversation from “Can we?” to “What do we need to do, and by when?”
The lack of national English assessment standards becomes even more apparent when we look at ETS’s 2026 Human Progress Report, a global survey spanning 18 countries. It found that 87% of Brazilians think their country does not adequately measure what students learn at school, the highest figure anywhere in the study. Another 86% say the country lacks the assessment systems needed to track how students are progressing.
This is why a student’s English level matters long before the application does.
A student who knows where they stand in English at 15 makes different decisions from one who is tested only at 22, in the middle of an application. Not because a test changes anything by itself, but because evidence changes how a family plans. It turns a vague ambition into a sequence of steps, and it moves the conversation from “Can we?” to “What do we need to do, and by when?”
These questions significantly affect how families in Brazil will choose the domestic high school programs in which their children will enrol.
As Omar Chihane, Global General Manager at TOEFL, recently wrote, “The future may offer learners more paths than ever before.
Our responsibility is to help them choose those paths with confidence and prepare them to keep learning wherever their education takes them.”
