We do our best to make it easy for you to pay us, so if you would like to pay in a way that isn't listed here, feel free to ask. However, we have our preferred ways of being paid, which are listed here, along with payment methods we cannot accept, and some general information and advice about how things work here in Paraguay when paying for things.
Our two preferred payment methods are as follows:
(1) Cash, in USD
For most people, this will be the lowest cost option, because there are no fees involved by any third parties. We strongly recommend bringing cash, in USD, from whichever country you are travelling from - you can legally bring in up to $10,000 per person without needing to declare it - and we definitely suggest obtaining new, crisp, $100 notes.
USD is widely used as the "second" currency in Paraguay (with the first being Guarani, PYG), and is often used for higher priced items (including property etc), as well as some items in shops. Many ATM's will let you withdraw USD, just beware that many of the ATM's with this functionality often don't have any notes left to withdraw, and all of them only let you take out $200 at a time, with a maximum of two withdrawals per 24 hours (so maximum $400 per day, if they have enough notes).
The spread on USD/PYG is always lower than other currency pairs here, although you can find reasonably low spreads on EUR, and sometimes GBP - if you already have PYG, which you probably don't. It will definitely be cheaper for you to buy USD in whatever country you're in, than it will be to bring any other currency here to Paraguay to exchange, or obtain cash here in any other way.
Note that you cannot open a bank account in Paraguay until you have your Cedula, and most ATM's here have a maximum withdrawal of PYG 1,500,000 per transaction (approximately $200 USD), along with a fee of PYG 25,000 (approximately $3.50) per transaction. Western Union is super-expensive for larger amounts, and it is difficult to turn cryptocurrencies into cash for anything less than 7% (unless you personally know someone here who wants to buy cryptocurrency with cash).
For day-to-day spending, you can pay with any credit or debit card in most places, and withdraw from ATM's for smaller amounts with no issue, but for larger expenses (anything above a couple of hundred dollars), you will save a lot of money and drama by bringing USD cash if you can.
(2) International Bank Transfer
Another easy option is a bank transfer from any non-sanctioned country to our USD company account. If you already have a USD account in another country, this might be the cheapest option - you'll just have to make sure that you, the remitter, pays whatever fees your bank charges for international transfers, so that we receive the full $1,450.
Please note that you must send the payment in USD, so if your bank account is not in USD, you are going to be charged for the currency exchange by your bank, in addition to the fee for the international transfer. Depending on your bank, this may be more expensive than exchanging cash via a specialist currency dealer in whatever country you are currently in.
If you want us to prepare your residency application before you arrive in Paraguay, to keep the time it takes to complete the process to an absolute minimum, paying by bank transfer is the way to go. You can also pay by bank transfer after you arrive in Paraguay, if you want to meet us first, as long as your bank allows you to send international payments via internet banking without you needing to be physically present in a branch of your bank (check, because some require this).
Generally speaking, it takes 2 or 3 working days for international payments to arrive here, because a correspondent bank is often used as an intermediary.
Payment methods we can sometimes accept:
(3) Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are used here in Paraguay, there is a "Bitcoin Shop" near one of the larger shopping malls, but the infrastructure for on-ramps/off-ramps is not very well developed. As a result, whilst it's very easy to convert some cryptocurrencies to cash, and vice versa, it costs 7-10%(!), requires ID, and has a maximum of $5,000 value per person per month (from the businesses that operate this here).
You can find people willing to either buy or sell cryptocurrencies for cash, but you will have to actually find them, which is the difficult part, and often these are individuals with a specific need at a certain time, rather than being an always-open business that you can trade with at any time.
Sometimes, one of our team, or one of our friends/family/clients etc, wants to buy cryptocurrency, and are happy to pay cash with no spread, simply because it's cheaper for them than using a debit or credit card with a major cryptocurrency exchange. In these circumstances, we can put you in touch, and they can deliver your cash to us for the legal fees. At other times, we're happy to accept cryptocurrencies, but will need to pass on the cost of converting it to cash - which at the moment, is 7%. If you ever discover a cheaper way of doing this here in Paraguay, please let us know!
Generally speaking we prefer stablecoins such as USDT, BUSD, USDC. We can also accept BTC, ETH, XMR etc, but will usually need to pass on the cost of converting it to fiat currency.
Other payment methods
Payment methods we cannot currently accept:
(a) Cheques/Checks and bankers drafts
(b) Credit/Debit cards
(c) Any other cash currency except USD
(d) Gold, silver, or other metals/commodities
(e) Bonds, equities, derivatives, or other financial instruments
Summary
Please pay us in either USD cash, or by USD bank transfer. Cryptocurrencies may be accepted, probably with an additional cost.