Did every CRAF expire on July 21, 2026?

No. That was the expectation under the prior reading of the rules, and it is what this page originally reported. It did not happen. Instrução Normativa DG/PF nº 330, published 9 April 2026, replaced the single deadline with a staggered 12-month renewal calendar. Deadlines run from 31 August 2026 through 2 August 2027, assigned by the holder’s birth month.

Which CRAFs does IN 330/2026 actually cover?

It applies to CRAFs held by sport shooters, collectors and exceptional hunters that were granted before 21 July 2023 and remained valid on 20 July 2026. A CRAF outside those conditions is governed by the ordinary rules, not by this transition calendar.

Is a CAC whose birth month has not arrived yet irregular?

No, and this is the practical point most summaries get wrong. While the assigned month has not arrived, the CRAF remains regular in SINARM for all legal purposes. Irregularity begins only if the holder misses their own assigned deadline. The staggered regime exists precisely to prevent a mass simultaneous lapse.

What should an EP firm actually do now?

Map each Brazil-registered CAC on the detail to their birth-month deadline under the IN 330 calendar rather than to a single date. Confirm each renewal is filed inside its own window, noting that the procedure can begin up to 30 days early. The audit is still name-by-name; what changed is that it is now twelve small checks spread across a year instead of one cliff.

How does this affect a foreign principal being protected in Brazil?

Less than the original framing implied, but it is not nothing. Details that lean on Brazilian CAC personnel for a lawful-carry layer now face a rolling schedule of individual renewal dates rather than one shared deadline. That is easier to manage and easier to let slip quietly, because no single date forces the conversation.

Is this the same as the Portaria COLOG 260/2025 story?

No. They are separate regulatory threads. CREDN approved on 8 April 2026 a legislative decree project to suspend Portaria COLOG 260/2025 on CAC weapons management, and that proposal still requires CCJ, Plenary and Senate. The IN 330 renewal calendar runs on its own clock and is unaffected by that debate.

The CRAF cliff didn’t happen. Here’s the calendar that replaced it.

Correction — July 23, 2026

The original version of this page, published 2 May 2026, stated that every CRAF issued under the prior rules would expire on 21 July 2026 and that the deadline was not subject to extension. That was wrong. The Polícia Federal had already published Instrução Normativa DG/PF nº 330 on 9 April 2026, three weeks before we published, replacing the single deadline with a staggered calendar. We did not revise the page in time. The text below has been rewritten from the regulation; the URL is unchanged so existing references still resolve.

What happened to the July 21, 2026 CRAF deadline?

It was superseded before it arrived. IN DG/PF nº 330, published 9 April 2026, created a transition regime for CRAFs granted before 21 July 2023 and still valid on 20 July 2026. Instead of one expiration, renewals were spread across twelve deadlines running 31 August 2026 to 2 August 2027, assigned by the holder’s birth month. Until the assigned month arrives, the CRAF stays regular in SINARM.

The English-language story about the CRAF was built around a single date. July 21, 2026 was going to be the day every certificate issued under the prior rules lapsed at once, taking with it the holder’s CR and the regularity of every firearm registered to them. It was a good story. It was not what the regulation said.

On 9 April 2026 the Polícia Federal published Instrução Normativa DG/PF nº 330, which deals specifically with the CRAF renewal procedure for sport shooters, collectors and exceptional hunters. It reaches certificates granted before 21 July 2023 that were still valid on 20 July 2026, and it distributes the renewal filing across twelve months. Each holder has their own deadline, set by birth month, and may begin the procedure up to 30 days before it.

The IN 330/2026 calendar

Holder’s birth month	Deadline to file the renewal
August	August 31, 2026
September	September 30, 2026
October	November 3, 2026
November	November 30, 2026
December	January 4, 2027
January	February 1, 2027
February	March 1, 2027
March	March 31, 2027
April	April 30, 2027
May	May 31, 2027
June	June 30, 2027
July	August 2, 2027

Source: IN DG/PF nº 330, 9 April 2026. The procedure may be started up to 30 days before the assigned deadline.

The distinction that matters most in practice

While the assigned month has not arrived, the CRAF remains regular in SINARM for all legal purposes. The holder does not become irregular merely by not having renewed yet. Irregularity begins only if they miss their own deadline. The staggered regime exists precisely to prevent the simultaneous lapse the earlier reading predicted.

For anyone running protective details, this trades one risk for another. A single cliff was alarming, but it was visible: a date on the wall forces the conversation. Twelve individual deadlines spread across a year are far more manageable and far easier to let slip quietly, because no one date compels anybody to review the whole roster.

What to do now

Map by person, not by date. For every Brazilian CAC who forms part of the detail’s lawful-carry layer, record the birth month and the matching deadline from the table above. The audit is still name-by-name; only its shape changed.
Check eligibility before assuming the extension applies. The calendar reaches only CRAFs granted before 21 July 2023 and valid on 20 July 2026. Outside those conditions the ordinary rules apply, and assuming otherwise is the expensive mistake here.
Confirm the filing, not the intention. Ask for confirmation that the renewal was filed inside the holder’s window, not a promise that it will be. Twelve separate dates produce exactly the kind of gap nobody notices until they need that person on duty.

Office desk with open Brazilian regulatory bulletin, magnifier, and audit notebook — Name-by-name audit: the operational hygiene that matters.

Why Vanguard does not run on this clock

Vanguard Attaché is a directing operator: we run the intelligence, the planning and the command of the operation, and the armed component is executed under our command by Brazilian companies authorised by the Polícia Federal. Those companies and their personnel carry their own regulatory standing as a contractual obligation, verified by us, and it does not rest on any individual’s personal CAC registration. That is a structural difference rather than a rhetorical one: a detail assembled around individually-registered CACs inherits each person’s renewal calendar, and a detail run through an authorised company does not.

Request the audit template

If you want a one-page template for mapping your local protective staff’s CRAF/CR status against the IN 330 calendar, email Arthur direct. We send the same internal template Vanguard uses with partner companies, now reorganised by birth month. No newsletter sign-up wall.