As of October 2022, the process for getting Permanent Residency in Paraguay is as follows:
(1) Get Temporary Residency, which comes with a residency permit valid for two years
(2) After two years, convert to Permanent Residency, which comes with a residency permit valid for ten years
The only difference between these permits are the duration that the residency permit/cards are valid for. Just like a passport, driving licence, or other type of ID, there is an expiry date - and then you need to renew it. This means that the government makes some more money from charging another round of fees, and it also makes sure the photo on your ID is relatively recent.
Renewing your ID - which includes converting it to Permanent Residency - is a straightforward process, very similar to the process of obtaining Temporary Residency in the first place, with one main difference: You don't need any Apostilled documents from any other countries when converting from temporary to permanent residency in Paraguay.
Instead of needing a Birth Certificate and a foreign Police Record, you'll be using your Paraguayan ID and a Paraguayan Police Record - and these just need to be legalised in Paraguay, and do not need to be Apostilled by any other country.
Requirements to convert Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency
You need to make sure that during the two years between getting your Temporary Residency and getting your Permanent Residency, you are not out of the country for more than 12 months at a time. This means that if you are not actually living in Paraguay, you will have to visit Paraguay at least once during those two years - less than 12 months after you left.
There are no restrictions or requirements on how long you physically need to be in Paraguay, just that you do not leave for more than 12 months. If you want to, you can leave Paraguay as soon as you have completed the in-person process to obtain the Temporary Residency, and come back to Paraguay 364 days later, for a few minutes, just to get a stamp in your passport to show you that you didn't leave for more than one year - then immediately leave, and come back again 364 days after that, to convert your Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency.
Of course, you can also live here, and still travel as frequently as you like. You'll just need to be able to prove that you didn't spend more than one full year out of the country on any trip. The easiest ways to do this are with passport stamps, or if you're actually living here and never leave, with bank statements, tax payments, or other documentation which "proves" you were here at various times within the two years, without a 12-month gap in documentation at any time.
Once you're a Permanent Resident, the same principle applies to keep your residency valid, but the maximum time away changes from one year to three years - i.e. you just need to make sure that you're never out of the country for more than three years at a time. As soon as you re-enter the country, the timer resets to zero, and simply starts again (from zero) when you exit the country again in future.
The process for converting Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency
Just like the original process, you have to:
(a) Prepare the Documentation
This is basically the same as before, except that because you're already a residency of Paraguay, all the documents you need to obtain and get legalised are all issued by Paraguay. You don't need anything from outside Paraguay. Plus, we can do all of this for you, so you don't actually have to do anything at all, if you're hiring us to convert your Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency.
(b) Meet the Government
(c) Collect your Permanent Residence Card
Congratulations - you are now a Permanent Resident of Paraguay!
(d) Meet the Government (again)
You'll need to update your Cedula (National ID Card), as you're now a Permanent Resident. This is exactly the same process as before. If you're hiring us, again we'll be there with you and make sure this can all be done on one day.
Our fees for converting Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency
As the process is basically the same as obtaining Temporary Residency in the first place, it takes the same amount of time, and the Government fees are exactly the same, our price is the same. However, we will give a discount to those people who hired us to get their Temporary Residency - partly as a "thank you", and partly because it's slightly easier for us - we already know you and already have your details and documents on file.
So the prices are as follows:
(a) For people who hired us to obtain Temporary Residency originally: $1,250 (USD)
(b) For people who didn't previously hire us to obtain Temporary Residency: $1,450 (USD)
Benefits of converting Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency
Basically the benefit is "to keep your Paraguayan Residency". The law allows you to renew your Temporary Residency once, for an additional two years, if you want to, but we see no point in anyone doing this, because you're then going to have to either convert to Permanent Residency at the end of the second 2-year period or lose the residency status anyway, so there's no point in paying an extra round of fees, and doing a very similar process unnecessarily, in our opinion.
Once you have Permanent Residency, the only real changes are that you can now leave the country for up to three years at a time instead of up to one year at a time, and you have a 10-year residency card, instead of a 2-year one. These are both solid improvements, so assuming that you want to keep your Paraguayan Residency, just get it done.
Everything else is exactly the same, and there's nothing you can do as a Permanent Resident that you can't do as a Temporary Resident - you're still a "Resident of Paraguay" in both cases, which is all that counts for everything except the expiry dates on the official documents.
How long it takes
You need to wait for two years after getting your Temporary Residency, then it takes the same amount of time as before to convert it to Permanent Residency - just a few weeks, if you're hiring us.