The full Paraguay residency guide. From boarding pass to cédula, country by country.

Step 0

Which nationalities can enter Paraguay visa-free in 2026?

Before residency, you need to enter Paraguay legally. This guide is for citizens who can enter without applying for a consular visa first.

The Visa de Residencia is OPTIONAL for visa-free nationals. US, Canadian, EU, UK, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, and most Latin American passport holders can skip it entirely: enter Paraguay visa-free as a tourist, then file Residencia Temporal directly at DNM in Asunción. Visa-free nationals may file the MRE Visa de Residencia for paperwork tidiness, but it is not a legal requirement. Citizens whose nationality needs a tourist visa first — notably China, Cuba, and most African passport holders — must request the residency visa online via MRE before flying; for them it is mandatory.

Visa-free for tourism

Visa-free entry runs on per-country treaties and decrees, so allowances vary. Most clusters below get 90 days; a few get 30:

• Americas (90 days) United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Peru
• European Union (90 days) Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Greece, Czech Republic, and others
• Asia & Middle East (90 days) Japan, Israel, United Arab Emirates
• CIS (90 days) Russia, Ukraine
• 30-day visa-free South Korea

Need a tourist visa first

China, Cuba, India, most African countries. If you fall in this group the guide still applies — you just request the residency visa online before flying (see the China lane in Step 2).

Step 1

What do you actually do at MRE after landing in Asunción?

After landing, your task is converting the tourist stamp into a right to file for residency.

Where to go

• Authority Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (MRE) — Dirección de Pasaportes y Servicios Consulares (DPSC)
• Address Eduardo Víctor Haedo 386, Asunción
• Hours 08:00 – 14:30 weekdays
• Phone (+595 21) 414-8771

What you do at MRE

You file an application for the Visa de Residencia on the basis that you are already in Paraguay legally as a tourist (or that you qualify for it from a visa-free country).

Visa fee — by nationality

• United States USD 160 10 years
• Canada USD 150 Passport validity
• Russia / Ukraine / EU USD 100 90 days

Paid on site. Validity above is for the residency visa itself; the actual TR/PR card runs longer (see Step 4).

Decision in 15 working days. The answer arrives by email.

China lane

If you carry a PRC passport.

PRC citizens can't enter visa-free, so the path runs through the consulate before you fly:

1. 01Apply online for the residency visa via the MRE portal: mre.gov.py/visas-comparecencia-new/.
2. 02Pick a Paraguayan consulate to collect the visa — Beijing, or a neighbouring country (Seoul is common).
3. 03Receive the visa stamp in your passport.
4. 04Fly to Paraguay with the residency visa already in hand.

Step 2

Which documents do you need from your home country, by nationality?

The most common failure point of the whole process is documents going stale or apostilled wrong. Below is the by-country lane for the seven clusters that show up most often. Universal rule: every document must be issued in the last 3–6 months, translated into Spanish in Paraguay by a sworn translator (traductor público matriculado), and apostilled.

• US United States

  • Police clearance (the key document)

    FBI Identity History Summary Check

    Where: Via an FBI-approved Channeler (24-hour turnaround) or directly at the FBI CJIS Division.

    Apostille: ONLY at the US State Department's Office of Authentications in Washington DC. State-level apostilles are NOT accepted by Paraguay.

  • Birth certificate

    State-issued Certificate of Live Birth

    Where: Department of Vital Records of the state of birth.

    Apostille: Secretary of State of that state.

• CA Canada

  • Police clearance

    RCMP Criminal Record Check (fingerprint-based)

    Where: Local police or an RCMP-accredited fingerprinting agency.

    Apostille: Global Affairs Canada — joining the Hague Convention pushed the timeline to 2–3 months. Start very early.

• EU European Union (Germany & France worked examples)

  • Birth certificate

    Geburtsurkunde (DE) · Acte de Naissance (FR)

    Where: Germany: international form. France: copy from the town hall of birth.

    Apostille: Germany: federal-state authority (Land). France: Cour d'appel of issuing region.

  • Police clearance

    Führungszeugnis (DE) · Extrait de casier judiciaire — Bulletin n°3 (FR)

    Where: Germany: online via Bundesamt für Justiz, posted to your address. France: online via casier-judiciaire.justice.gouv.fr.

    Apostille: Germany: Land authority. France: Cour d'appel.

• CN China

  • Birth certificate

    出生医学证明 or 出生公证书 (notarised)

    Where: Notary office (公证处) in China — they also handle consular legalization.

    Apostille: China is not a Hague Convention apostille party for these purposes; documents go through consular legalization at a Paraguayan consulate.

• RU Russia

  • Birth certificate

    Свидетельство о рождении

    Where: ZAGS at place of birth, or any MFC office.

    Apostille: Apostille on the original or on a notarised translation, at the regional ZAGS office.

  • Police clearance

    Справка о наличии (отсутствии) судимости

    Where: Gosuslugi portal (electronic, requires QES) or MVD.

    Apostille: Apostille only on the paper certificate from the MVD.

• UA Ukraine

  • Birth certificate

    Свідоцтво про народження

    Where: RAGS office. If yours is the old laminated form, request a duplicate on the green new-format blank — the old laminated certificates are not accepted.

    Apostille: Regional Ministry of Justice.

  • Police clearance

    Довідка про притягнення до кримінальної відповідальності, відсутність (наявність) судимості або обмежень

    Where: MVD service centre or the Diia app.

    Apostille: Same Ministry of Justice.

• SR MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia)

  • Special preferential regime

    MERCOSUR residency framework

    Where: Either a clearance from your home country or the local Antecedentes para Extranjeros from the Paraguayan National Police.

    Apostille: TR is up to 2 years renewable, simpler paperwork than the standard track. Discounted government fee: US$ 360 (Gs. 2,230,040) vs the US$ 450 (Gs. 2,787,550) standard.

Step 3

File the package in Asunción.

Once you're in Paraguay with the apostilled originals, you can run the local-document leg in roughly 5–7 working days.

Government offices you'll visit

• DNM (Migraciones) Av. Caballero c/ Manuel Domínguez — main DNM office, where the residency package is filed.
• Identificaciones (cédula) Av. Boggiani y R.I.2 Ytororó — Departamento de Identificaciones de la Policía Nacional.
• Interpol Asunción Inside the National Police complex — Interpol clearance is mandatory for every applicant aged 18+.

Procedure & fees

• Local certificates Interpol, National Police antecedentes, Vida y Residencia, medical exam — all done in dedicated Asunción offices over 1–3 days.
• DNM filing fee Gs. 892,016 (eight jornales) for Residencia Espontánea u Ocasional.
• Cédula issuance ≈ Gs. 10,000 (~ USD 1.5).
• Cédula production time 1–2 weeks. Your TR is already active during this wait.

MigraMóvil mobile sessions (2026 schedule on migraciones.gov.py) compress the residency + cédula combo to under 5 days when you can travel to a session.

Step 4

How do you convert temporary residency to permanent in Paraguay?

Permanent residency is the natural follow-on to the 2-year TR. Mind the filing window:

• When to file Either 90 days BEFORE your TR expires, or within 30 days AFTER expiry (with a small late fee).
• What to file An updated set of essentially the same documents + your active TR + valid cédula.
• PR validity 10 years, renewable.
• Statutory basis Article 9, Law 6984/2022.

Step 5

Which investor routes let you skip Paraguay's 2-year temporary residency?

If you don't want to wait 2 years for permanent residency, two programs grant PR directly:

• SUACE

  suace.gov.py ↗

  Sistema Unificado de Apertura y Cierre de Empresas — open a Paraguayan company through the single-window portal.

  • Capital threshold USD 70,000+ committed to the company.
  • Hiring requirement 5 Paraguayan jobs created.
  • Outcome Permanent residency immediately — no 2-year temporary stage.

• Paraguay Investor Pass (Resolución MIC 283/2026)

  ip.gov.py ↗

  Four investment categories under the new 2026 framework. The first overlaps the SUACE pathway above and still requires 5 hires; the other three skip the hiring rule entirely. Fully digital filing, with the standard US$ 450 (Gs. 2,787,550) PR fee.

  • Manufacturing / trade / services USD 70,000 + 5 jobs + business plan. Equivalent to the SUACE flow above.
  • Tourism USD 150,000 + business plan + ongoing monitoring. No hiring requirement.
  • Stock market USD 200,000. Investment must be held ≥ 2 years.
  • Commercial real estate USD 200,000. Cannot be used for personal or family residence.
  • Dividend tax — not a pass perk The 8% IDU dividend rate is the standard resident rate under Ley 6380/2019, available to any Paraguayan tax resident. It is not specific to the Investor Pass; non-residents pay 15%.
  • Timing The 5-business-day rule covers only the CIE investor certificate; permanent residency itself is filed separately and runs roughly 3–6 months. A single physical visit is required to collect the cédula.

• Marriage to a Paraguayan citizen (Ley 2193/2003)

  policianacional.gov.py ↗

  Direct PR for foreign spouses of Paraguayan citizens — uniquely, the cédula is issued before the residency carnet, then the carnet must be applied for within 90 days of cédula issuance.

  • Step 1 — SEDERREC certificate Certificado de Repatriación from SEDERREC confirming the family link to a Paraguayan citizen. Free.
  • Step 2 — Cédula first Cédula de Identidad issued at Identificaciones (free for first-time issuance).
  • Step 3 — PR carnet within 90 days File for Carnet de Admisión Permanente at Migraciones. Standard US$ 450 fee may be waived for marriages contracted abroad. Missing the 90-day window triggers penalties.
  • Citizenship still 3 years Marriage does NOT shorten the 3-year naturalisation clock — Constitution Art. 148 has no spousal exception. Total path to passport: ~3 years from PR.

All government fees, in one place

Cost summary — every official charge.

Every line below is a real Paraguayan government fee or a market-rate professional service. USD figures use the BCP referencia rate of Gs. 6,095.94/USD (22 May 2026); the Gs. amount is the statutory figure under Decreto 4122/2025 + DNM Resolución 513/2025.

DIY vs lawyer

What it costs to file alone vs with help.

Numbers below assume the standard Residencia Temporal track for a single adult. 3 documents apostilled, 6 pages translated.

End-to-end timeline

How long does the full path from decision to Paraguayan citizenship take?

Minimum and realistic ranges for each stage, including the wait between stages most relocators don't account for.

Total path to a Paraguayan passport: ≈ 5 years minimum, 6 – 8 years realistic.

FAQ

Paraguay residency — common questions