The authorities in Brazil granted more working visas to qualified Chinese than to applicants of any other nationality last year, the Brazilian International Migration Observatory says.

The observatory, a government body, says in a document published last month that the authorities granted the next-highest numbers of working visas to Americans, then Japanese, and then French people.

Of the foreigners granted visas for work or investment in Brazil last year, only Filipinos outnumbered Chinese, the observatory says.

It says the authorities granted qualified foreigners 21.8 per cent fewer visas last year than the year before.

The observatory says the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the number of immigrants to Brazil last year to half the number the year before.

Among the immigrants last year, the highest number settled in the northwestern city of Boa Vista, and the next-highest numbers settled in another northwestern city, Manaus, and in the southern metropolis of São Paulo, the Brazilian International Migration Observatory says.