How to Get Residency in Paraguay: A Comprehensive Guide

The Process, Step 1: Prepare Your Documents

In addition to a digital (i.e. not printed - to be sent by email) passport-style photo on a white background, there are two documents required, which you absolutely need to get Apostilled (no exceptions), in order to obtain residency in Paraguay. These are:

(1) Your Birth Certificate - this must be Apostilled by the country that issued the Birth Certificate (i.e. the country of your birth). For most people, this is the same country that issues your Passport, but if you were born in a different country, or hold multiple nationalities, you still must get the issuing country to Apostille your Birth Certificate.

Example: If you are British, but you were born in Italy, and therefore have a Birth Certificate from Italy, you must get Italy to Apostille your Italian Birth Certificate, even if you don't have an Italian Passport.

(2) Your Police Record - this can be from your home country (i.e. your country of nationality, who issues your passport), or your country of birth (i.e. where your Birth Certificate is from), or from any other country you have lived in for at least the last five (5) years.

If using a police record from any country which is not also issuing your Passport or Birth Certificate, the Police Record must show that it covers a time period of at least five years, and you must have one form of photo ID issued by that country (such as a residency permit, driving license, or national ID card, which you also then need to get Apostilled by the issuing country). In most cases, Police Records from most countries, for foreign nationals, show the date that you first started living in that country. As long as this date is more than five years ago, you can use it to obtain residency in Paraguay.

Example: If you have only ever officially lived in France, your Police Record must come from France, and be Apostilled by France.

Example: If you are German, but have lived in Mexico for more than five years, you have two options. You can use a Police Record from Germany without any further requirements other than it being Apostilled by Germany. Or, you can use a Police Record from Mexico, instead of one from Germany, as long as (a) it shows a start date of more than five years ago; (b) is Apostilled by Mexico; and (c) you have some form of official photo ID issued by Mexico, which you have also got Apostilled by Mexico.

Example: If you are Portuguese, and have lived in India for more than five years, and can get a Police Record from India, but do not have any photo ID issued by India, you still have to get your Police Record issued and Apostilled by Portugal.

How to get documents Apostilled

Click here for full information on how to get documents Apostilled. Please note that Apostilled documents have a validity of six (6) months from their date of issue.

How to get your Apostilled documents translated into Spanish

This can be done before or after you arrive in Paraguay. Please refer to our full article on this topic - click here for full information on getting your Apostilled documents translated into Spanish for residency in Paraguay.

The Process, Step 2: Enter Paraguay

(1) Check if you need a visa in advance - the rules changed in July 2023, and most nationalities now need to obtain a visa

(2) Make sure your passport is stamped when you enter Paraguay

Whilst these two things might seem obvious to you, it's important to note that in some areas, the border with other countries is fully open (i.e. there is no passport control at the actual border), and in other cases, even at an airport, the immigration official checking your documents might not stamp your passport, if it is not technically needed at that time. Examples of this include if you are entering Paraguay using a passport which does not require a visa to enter Paraguay as a tourist, or if you are already a resident of another Mercosur country and can enter using your Cedula (ID card) rather than needing a passport at all.

Part of the process of obtaining residency in Paraguay is checking that you entered Paraguay legally - and this means proving it, beyond all doubt. The way to do this is to make sure your passport is stamped at the point of entry, by a Paraguayan immigration official.

Additionally, nationals of most countries now need to have obtained a visa to be able to get residency - note that this doesn't necessarily mean you need a visa to enter the country generally, but you may need to obtain a visa to be able to obtain residency.

Is a visa needed to enter Paraguay?

This depends on your nationality. There are three broad categories:

(a) Nationalities which do not need a visa to enter Paraguay, and can simply show their passport when they arrive, whether coming to get residency or just for a holiday etc

(b) Nationalities which do not need a visa to enter Paraguay generally, but do need one if they want to obtain residency, which can be easily obtained from a Paraguayan embassy in another country

To check whether or not you need a visa to enter Paraguay, and what the relevant processes are, please refer to our full article on this topic: Nationalities that need a visa to enter Paraguay.

The Process, Step 3: Meet The Government

You will have to appear at several different government offices in person, to do things such as have your fingerprints taken, have a photograph taken, and sign some documents. That's basically it.

Some of these offices are very close to each other (walking distance), others are a short car journey away, and all are in Downtown Asuncion, relatively close to the Presidential Palace, Congress, Central Bank, etc. We can arrange for all of this to be done on the same day - you can expect it to take a few hours, from mid-morning to mid-afternoon - and we're doing this with our clients several days a week anyway, so you'll have plenty of choices when deciding which particular day is most convenient for you. You can expect to be in a small group of other residency applicants - typically 2 - 8 people at a time, so you'll probably have a chance to meet some other people from around the world who are also new residents of Paraguay.

The absolute earliest this can possibly be done is the day after you arrive in Paraguay, if you planned it with us in advance, and couriered your Apostilled documents to us and paid the fee in advance. If you're not in quite so much of a hurry, we can usually book you in for this day with between 1-to-2 weeks' notice, depending on how many slots we have available over the coming days (and your own availability).

Once this in-person day of meeting the government is complete, you can leave Paraguay if you wish, and come back again at any time within the next six months to collect your Residency Card and complete the rest of the residency process. Alternatively, you can stay in Paraguay and enjoy yourself like everyone else here.

Preparing for meeting the government

It's important to note that there are quite a lot of things which need to be done in preparation for this day, mostly paperwork. However, we will do all of this for you, so you don't need to do anything other than turn up in the right place at the right time.

Some of the things that we will be doing for you include:

(a) Completing all the relevant forms (in Spanish)

(b) Making the right number of copies for all your documents and forms, getting them certified by public notaries with the right level of authority, and putting them in the correct order for civil servants to make things happen quickly

(d) Making sure you sign documents in the right places, at the right time (some need to be witnessed, some don't)

(e) Massively reducing the time you need to spend doing things in person

(f) Checking everything done by each civil servant, so that any mistakes by them at any stage of the process are fixed immediately, rather than a different civil servant in a different government department discovering them at some point in future and slowing everything down

All fees - government fees, public notary fees, photocopying fees, our own fees, etc - are included in the one overall price of $1,450 per person that you pay to us at the start of your residency application process. There are no additional costs for anything.

The Process, Step 4: Collect Your Residency Card

Literally the only part to this step is "Collect Your Residency Card", which is as simple as it sounds. You don't even have to go to a government office for this - we can collect it for you, and then meet you somewhere to give it to you. We can meet you at our offices in downtown Asuncion, or at any other mutually convenient place, at any mutually convenient time.

How long it takes
This stage (waiting to collect your Residency Card in Step 4, after you've completed Step 3) is currently the longest stage. By law, the government department responsible for issuing your Residency Card has a maximum of 60 working days - i.e. approximately three months - to get it done, as long as everything has been completed perfectly (if it hasn't been completed perfectly, you could be waiting many more months or even years, which is one of the main reasons to hire an expert lawyer in the first place).

We can get this stage completed within 4 weeks maximum. We can sometimes get it done even more quickly - such as within 2 weeks - but for the purposes of managing expectations and planning the next steps, allow 4 weeks. Part of the reason for this is we always get the documentation and processes done perfectly, and part of the reason is we know how to make sure that your application doesn't get forgotten about or misplaced in a pile of paperwork on a desk somewhere in a government office.

There is currently a proposed change to this stage, which would significantly reduce the maximum time limit the government department has to get this done - if implemented, the waiting time for this stage will be massively reduced. Currently the proposal is to cut the time limit from three months to just three weeks - which in turn may significantly reduce the time it takes us to get it done in practice. We will update this page as and when (a) any improvements are confirmed and implemented, and (b) when we know, through experience, how long it will realistically take. For now, it's 3-to-4 weeks.

Once you have your Paraguay Residency Card, technically the residency process is complete - you can now enter Paraguay without needing a visa, and can stay here as long as you like. But there's more you need to know, and more things included with our service.

The Temporary/Permanent Residence Cards
In October 2022, the Government of Paraguay updated the rules for obtaining residency in Paraguay. Previously, everyone got Permanent Residency immediately, and was issued a Residency Card which was valid for 10 years (and then needed to be renewed, just like a passport or driving license needs to be renewed every few years).

Now, everyone first gets Temporary Residency, and is issued with a Residency Card which is valid for 2 years, which then needs to be renewed, and is replaced with a Residency Card valid for 10 years.

There is no difference to what you can actually do with the Residency Card(s) - everyone has exactly the same rights whether they currently have Temporary or Permanent Residency - you can still live here, still get your Cedula, and still do everything else - it just adds in an extra process, generates a bit more money for the government through another round of fees, and encourages people to either live in Paraguay for more of the year, or at least visit more regularly.

To learn more about the process for obtaining your 10-year Permanent Residency Card - which you cannot do for nearly two years after your 2-year Temporary Residency Card is issued - please refer to our full article on this topic: How to convert your temporary residency card to permanent residency in Paraguay.

The Process, Step 5: Meet The Government – Again

This stage is basically the same as Step 3 (Meet The Government), in terms of what you actually need to do - show up in person to a couple of different government offices, have your fingerprints taken again, have some photographs taken again, and do a few signatures again on various documents and digital scanners.

The actual offices are different (they're different government departments than those you visit in Step 3, and are in different locations), the paperwork involves different forms etc, but it's basically the same experience for you. If you're wondering why you need to repeat things you've already done before, the answer is "because the law says this is the process", and therefore these things need to be done again.

Just like before, we will make sure this all happens on the same day, and just like before, we will take care of all the paperwork requirements, pay the fees, collect the receipts, and generally make everything easy for you, and easy for the government officials involved with issuing your Cedula.

The offices you will need to visit are located in Downtown Asuncion, and secondly near Villa Morra. Generally speaking, these are a 15-20 minute Uber or taxi ride away from each other, and you can expect the cost to be approximately $3 to $4 (USD) for the ride.

As before, you can expect to be finished by mid-afternoon, after starting mid-morning.

As before, there are no additional costs for anything other than your own transport to the government offices - all government fees, public notary fees, photocopying fees, and our fee, is already included in the $1,450 you pay at the start of the process.

The Process, Step 6: Get Cedula, And Everything Else

Within approximately two weeks, you will have your Cedula - your Paraguayan National ID card. With this, you can now do anything else you want to do, such as:

(1) Get a tax number (RUC) - you need this if you want to become a full tax resident

(2) Open a bank account

(3) Get a mobile phone contract/post-paid SIM card

(4) Rent a property long-term (in most cases, the landlord will only want to rent to someone with a Cedula)

(5) Get utilities (electricity/water/internet etc) in your own name at a property that you rent or own

(6) Get a Paraguayan driving license

(7) Get a job

(8) Set up any type of Paraguayan company or other legal entity

(9) Own/lease a car/motorbike

...and many more. Basically, pretty much anything which is "official" in any way, or is recorded somewhere, or forms the basis of a legal contract, usually requires your Cedula information.

If you would like any help with any of the above, our team will introduce you to people in our network that specialise in whatever it is that you want to do.

Your residency process is now complete - congratulations! Enjoy Paraguay