El Salvador or Venezuela
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| El Salvador | Venezuela | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | 5 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 983 · estimate | $ 784 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 31,4 | $ 33,9 |
| Life expectancy | 72.3 | 72.67 |
| Homicides/100k | 3.3 | 13.81 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 5.6 | 5.9 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: El Salvador — 28, Venezuela — 15. Types present in both: work, study, family and investment. El Salvador adds: retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
El Salvador: fees range from 50 to 690 USD. Routes with no fee: 3. Venezuela: the fee is 50 USD wherever it is published. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 1,200 USD a month.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: El Salvador after 3 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: El Salvador after 5 years; the other country publishes no term.
El Salvador in brief
Residence status is granted under the Ley Especial de Migración y de Extranjería (Decree No. 286 of 02 April 2019): the work category (up to 2 years; paid activity requires a separate ruling from the Ministry of Labour), rentista and pensionado (1 year each, requiring foreign income of at least 4 and 3 minimum wages of the trade and services sector respectively — as of 1 June 2025 that is from US$1,635.20 and US$1,226.40 per month respectively), and shareholder and individual entrepreneur categories for non-Central Americans (from US$10,000 and US$2,500 in investment). Permanent residence generally requires 3 years of continuous temporary status; for rentistas, pensionados, and spouses of Salvadoran citizens, 1 year. Naturalisation takes 5 years for most nationalities (1 year for Spaniards and persons of Latin American origin, 2 years upon marriage to a citizen of the country); separately, natives of the states of the former Federal Republic of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) obtain citizenship not through naturalisation but 'by birth', by simple application, with one year of permanent residence, which is in turn granted to them immediately upon entering the country. The official currency is the US dollar (since 2001). Bitcoin held the status of legal tender from June 2021 (Ley Bitcoin, Decree No. 57); the January 2025 reform (Decree No. 199) preserved that status but made acceptance of bitcoin by businesses voluntary instead of mandatory, and repealed provisions on paying taxes in bitcoin and on state conversion infrastructure. A state-of-emergency regime (Régimen de Excepción, Decree No. 333/22) has been in effect since 27 March 2022 and is extended monthly by the Legislative Assembly; the homicide rate fell sharply over this period, reaching 3.3 per 100,000 people in 2024 (UNODC) — one of the lowest rates in Latin America. The largest cities are San Salvador, Santa Ana, and San Miguel; a notable share of inbound tourism goes to the Pacific coast (surf destinations such as El Tunco and El Sunzal) and to colonial Suchitoto on Lake Suchitlán. The country lies in a zone of high seismic and volcanic activity, with active volcanoes near the largest cities.
Venezuela in brief
Venezuela has the lowest rule-of-law score in this set and a high seismic risk. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, rule of law stands at −2.20, political stability at −1.74, control of corruption at −1.59 and government effectiveness at −1.47. Life expectancy is 72.67 years, health spending 185.99 dollars per person per year, basic access to water reaches 93.33 per cent of the population, and mean PM2.5 concentration is 19.2 micrograms per cubic metre. Homicides run at 13.81 per 100,000 and road deaths at 13.2 per 100,000. Overall natural risk is 5.9 out of 10 on INFORM, and it is varied: earthquakes at 8.1 are among the highest figures in this set, coastal risks 6.7, floods 5.7, cyclones 5.6, tsunami 5.4, while droughts sit at just 1.9. The immigration system is split between two authorities: the visa is issued by a consulate abroad, while status inside the country is administered by SAIME. Statuses divide into transients, carrying letter codes by ground of stay — work, private income, family, study, religion — and residents. The work category is arranged so that the work authorisation is issued by the labour ministry rather than the migration service. The private-income category names an income threshold: the equivalent of 1,200 US dollars a month. The family category is unusually broad: the status covers a spouse, minor children, parents and parents-in-law. What this data does not contain, and why: neither SAIME nor the foreign ministry publishes statutory processing times or fees — the ministry's visa page refers applicants to the specific consulate for the fee. The qualifying period for permanent status is set by the Aliens and Migration Act, whose text is on no accessible official platform, so the number of years is left empty even though permanent status itself exists. The population of Caracas is not given: the official statistics institute does not respond from the checking machine, and the capital district cannot be mixed with an agglomeration spanning two federal subjects.
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This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.