Paraguay

Visa speed

The National Directorate of Migration publishes no standard processing time for any residence at all. The pages of all eleven grounds carry a list of documents, a scale of charges and the term for which the card is VALID — and nowhere is it said how long a decision takes. The only published term in the whole catalogue belongs to the border-neighbour transit document: 72 working hours. The waiting, though, is arranged more gently than in many countries: while an application for temporary residence is under consideration the applicant holds the status of “precarious resident” (residente precario), and that status already allows leaving and re-entering the country, studying and working. The hard deadlines in the catalogue are not about decisions but about filing. A change of category to permanent residence is filed in the last three months of the temporary card's validity; if the card has expired, a month remains for it plus a fine for the overstay, and after that only an extension of temporary residence is available — no later than six months after expiry and likewise with a fine. An application for MERCOSUR permanent residence is filed in the last ninety days of the MERCOSUR temporary card's validity: whoever misses that, the directorate writes, loses the right to be documented under the agreement at all. Four services run through the state portal paraguay.gov.py — an extension of transitory stay, the certificate of settlement, the record of border crossings and the payment of fines, the last of which opens 48 working hours after the fine is issued. Everything else the directorate accepts in person and on paper; the applicant or their legal representative may follow the progress of the file.

Degree required

no

Language at work

There are two official languages, Spanish and Guaraní; official paperwork is in Spanish. Most of the population speaks Guaraní day to day, cities included.

Visa types: Temporary residence under Migration Law No. 6984/2022 — for foreigners arriving with the intention of settling and pursuing a lawful activity. The card is valid for up to 2 years and renewable for the same period; while the application is processed the applicant holds "precarious resident" status, which already allows leaving and re-entering the country, studying and working. The fee is 2,926,925 guaraníes · Permanent residence comes by changing category after two years of temporary status. The application must be filed in the final three months of the temporary card's validity. The permanent card is indefinite in status and is reissued every 10 years

Collected on 24.08.2026 from the site of the National Directorate of Migration (migraciones.gov.py): the catalogue of services, the scale of charges in force from 1 July 2026 and the table of visa-waiver agreements. **A visa to enter and a visa to apply for residence are different things, and that is the first thing worth knowing.** The directorate's own table has a column headed “visa for an extension of stay, for residence or for gainful activity”, and “no visa required” stands in it for exactly eight states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay — the very ones that signed the MERCOSUR residence agreement. Everyone else, including those who enter as tourists without a visa for ninety days — Germany, Austria, Spain, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Iceland, the Czech Republic and dozens of others — is marked “visa required” in that column. Visa-free entry, in other words, confers no right to apply for residence: a consular visa is needed, and to it the list of documents for almost every ground adds a verification of that visa by the Paraguayan foreign ministry. Spain's line carries a note of its own: the visa will be free. **Charges are set not in guaraníes but in day-wages.** The scale has been in force since 1 July 2026 (Decree 6225/2026, DNM Resolution 478/2026) and is tied to the statutory minimum day-wage — 117,077 guaraníes against a minimum monthly wage of 3,044,000 — so the amounts are recalculated whenever the minimum wage is. Permanent and temporary residence cost 25 rates each, MERCOSUR temporary residence 20, an extension of temporary residence 11, spontaneous residence 8, an extension of stay and the replacement of a resident's card 5 each, the renewal of a permanent card 4, and the certificate of settlement, the record of border crossings, the cancellation of an application and a change of particulars 2 each; the fines for an overstayed stay and for having no record of entry are 6 each. Cash is accepted in guaraníes only; debit and credit cards cost more, and the surcharge is taken not by the directorate but by the payment company. For citizens of Ecuador, under the visa-waiver agreement of 13 July 1967 brought into effect by DNM Resolutions 200 and 273 of 2023, any of these grounds — an extension of stay, spontaneous, temporary and permanent residence, an extension of temporary residence, both MERCOSUR routes and the SUACE investor route — costs two day-wages. **There is exactly one money requirement in the catalogue, and it carries no figure.** Only those applying for permanent residence — by change of category and under MERCOSUR — must prove their means. The annex to both pages divides applicants into twelve categories and for each lists not a threshold but a way of proving it. Professionals and technicians: a diploma registered and endorsed by the ministry of education, plus a certificate of insurance with the Social Security Institute, or an employment contract endorsed by the ministry of labour, or VAT returns for three months or an income-tax return for the year together with a certificate of tax compliance; the diploma alone, it is stated separately, is not enough. Employees: a social-security certificate or a contract. The self-employed in trade and services: registration as a taxpayer and returns. Remote workers and digital nomads: a certificate from the employer stating both the income and the channel through which it arrives. Owners of real property: title registered at least two years earlier. Shareholders and partners: incorporation documents or the share register. Farmers and cattle raisers: title to productive land or evidence of sales. Ministers of religion: registration of the congregation and its letter undertaking to bear the costs. Pensioners: a pension certificate stating the amount and the channel of payment. Dependants: a document of kinship and the identity document of whoever supports them. Students: proof of enrolment and paid receipts covering the two years of temporary residence — and study alone is not enough: an income of one's own or proven transfers from relatives is required as well. Not one of the twelve categories is named as a number, and Paraguay therefore has no income threshold; it has a requirement to prove that an income exists. **There is no separate ground for digital nomads, yet the rules name them.** Remote work is the fifth of the twelve categories of means — a way of proving income when moving to permanent residence, not a visa of its own. A remote worker's road is the same as everyone's: two years of temporary residence, then a change of category. **Four routes bypass the two-year step.** The ordinary path is temporary residence for up to two years, then a change of category to permanent; the directorate states outright that temporary residence is a precondition of permanent. Without it, permanent residence is granted to the foreign relatives of a repatriated national, to children and spouses of Paraguayans under Act 2193/2003, to citizens of Uruguay under Act 6774/2021 and to investors admitted to the SUACE regime. **The repatriation certificate lifts the fees, but it is not the migration authority that issues it.** The certificate is issued by the secretariat for repatriated nationals and refugees (SEDERREC). For foreign relatives of a repatriated national it is compulsory and stands first in the list of documents, and it removes the fee entirely. For children and spouses of Paraguayans under Act 2193/2003 it is optional — which is why the table of charges for that ground carries two lines at once: “no cost” with the certificate and the full 2,926,925 guaraníes without it. With the certificate the exemption extends to Paraguayan consulates and to the foreign ministry as well. **Documents from abroad.** Everything issued abroad must be legalised or apostilled and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator — Paraguayan or foreign, though in the second case the translation is itself apostilled or legalised. There is one exception: documents in Portuguese issued by Brazil need no translation. Criminal-record certificates are required from the age of 14 — from the country of origin or from the country where the applicant lived for more than a year out of the last three; Mexican certificates are required in two forms, federal and state, by DNM Resolution 1272/2024; for adolescents aged 15 to 18 from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Resolution 858/2024 abolished them altogether — those countries issue no such certificates to minors — and an adolescent from any other country is exempt on producing a document showing that the same is true there. Those who have lived in Paraguay for more than three years may replace the foreign certificate with one from the judiciary plus a sworn statement; and if the person does not appear in the register of border crossings either, a summary of witness evidence from the justice of the peace for their place of residence will do. **Children are processed together with a parent and are exempt from the money requirements.** Foreigners aged 0 to 17 are set apart in a category of their own, “children and adolescents” (NNA); that is what is entered in the boxes for profession and occupation. Means are not proved for them — the legal representative assumes that. Both parents sign the application, and at least one must either already hold valid residence or be applying in the very same act. Where there is one parent, a court order or a notarised consent from the absent parent is needed; where the child is with third parties, a court order on guardianship, and the guardian must be a Paraguayan or a resident in good standing. **The border-neighbour transit document (DTVF) is not residence.** Under Act 7261/2024 and DNM Resolution 496/2026 it is issued to nationals of MERCOSUR member states domiciled in linked border localities of Brazil. It is valid for five years and renewable for the same term, costs two day-wages, is issued within 72 working hours at the admissions office of Ciudad del Este, and is good at two crossings — the Friendship Bridge and the Integration Bridge. It replaces neither the passport nor migration control, and it confers no right to live in Paraguay at all: it is about crossing the border, not about settling.

Permanent residence after

2 years

Citizenship after

3 years

Language

article 148 of the Constitution contains no language requirement; official business is conducted in Spanish

Dual citizenship

not allowed

Dual citizenship: Article 149 of the Constitution: multiple nationality is admitted only by international treaty or by constitutional-level reciprocity between the states concerned. Separately, article 150: a naturalised Paraguayan loses nationality on voluntarily acquiring another. Naturalisation here is therefore a replacement of the passport, not an addition. Articles 146, 147 and 149 are implemented by law No. 7052.

Absence limits: Permanent residence is lost through unjustified absence from the country for more than three years. For naturalised citizens, article 150 of the Constitution sets the same ground for losing nationality: unjustified absence of more than three years, established by a court.

Article 148 of the Constitution: legal adulthood, at least three years of settled residence, good conduct and the regular pursuit of a lawful activity. The starting point matters: the three years run from the grant of PERMANENT residence, and two years of temporary residence come before that — so about five years pass between arrival and the citizenship application, not three.

Document certification

apostille

The country is party to the 1961 Hague Convention: a degree or certificate is authenticated with a single apostille in the country that issued it.

Limit

5

Quarantine

no

Antibody titre test

not needed

Preparation

~1 months

SENACSA requirements: an international veterinary certificate (CVI) from the health authority of the country of departure. A clinical examination and vaccination record from a private vet within 10 days before the CVI is issued. The rabies vaccination must be current and no more than a year old; after a first vaccination there is a 21-day wait. An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory and its number must match across all documents. Internal and external parasite treatment within 15 days of travel. Up to five dogs and cats count as companion animals; from six it is a commercial import. No antibody titre is required. There is no quarantine for animals that meet the requirements. The documents are presented to the SENACSA veterinary inspector at the point of entry — at Silvio Pettirossi airport or a land crossing.

Life expectancy

74 years

Bread, 500 g

$ 0,99

Milk, 1 l

$ 1,11

Eggs, 12

$ 2,16

Chicken breast, 1 kg

$ 4,12

Cheese, 1 kg

$ 7,87

Rice, 1 kg

$ 1,03

Potatoes, 1 kg

$ 1,16

Apples, 1 kg

$ 2,39

Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l

$ 2,07

Total

$ 22,9

The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.

Rent, 1 bedroom

$ 414 a month

Rent, 3 bedrooms

$ 756 a month

Utility bills

$ 41,1 a month

Home internet

$ 19,3 a month

Monthly transport pass

$ 38,7 a month

Single transport ticket

$ 0,66

Petrol, litre

$ 1,16

Cold medicine

$ 7,43 for a week

Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.

Life expectancy

74 years2024

Homicides

6,9 per 100k2024

Road deaths

21 per 100k2021

Unemployment

4,8 %2025

Unemployment, ages 15–24

11,7 %2025

Inequality (Gini)

44,22024

Health spending per person

$ 527 a year

Air pollution, PM2.5

15,3 µg/m³2023

Access to clean water

99,6 %2024

Internet, fixed line

146,9 Mbit/s2026

Governance

Political stability

below average · -0,1

Control of corruption

low · -1

Rule of law

below average · -0,6

Government effectiveness

below average · -0,4

World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

0,1 out of 10

River floods

5,6 out of 10

Coastal floods

0 out of 10

Tropical cyclones

0 out of 10

Droughts

3,9 out of 10

Tsunamis

0 out of 10

Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.

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