Moving to Paraguay from the United States

Step 1

The documents a US citizen assembles

Paraguay's Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) expects a specific, modest set of documents. As an American you gather these at home, before you fly:

• A US passport valid well beyond your planned travel — check the expiry date now, not at the airport.
• Your US birth certificate — a certified copy from the issuing state's vital-records office. A hospital certificate is not accepted.
• An FBI Identity History Summary — the federal criminal-background check. Request it directly from the FBI, or faster through an FBI-approved Channeler. This is the police record Paraguay expects from US citizens.
• Your marriage certificate, if you are married and applying as a couple.
• Every one of these documents must then be apostilled — see Step 2 — and later translated into Spanish by a sworn translator in Paraguay.

Step 2

Apostilles — the step Americans get wrong

The United States belongs to the Hague Apostille Convention, so Paraguay accepts an apostille and you skip consular legalization entirely. The catch: the US has no single apostille office. Which authority you send each document to depends on who issued it — and getting this wrong is the most common delay for American applicants.

• Federal documents — your FBI Identity History Summary — are apostilled by the US Department of State, Office of Authentications, in Washington, DC.
• State documents — your birth and marriage certificates — are apostilled by the Secretary of State (or equivalent authority) of the state that issued them. A Texas birth certificate goes to Texas; a Florida one to Florida.
• Send an FBI report to a state office, or a birth certificate to the federal office, and it returns unprocessed — weeks lost.
• Sworn translation into Spanish happens after apostille, by a translator matriculated with Paraguay's Supreme Court. It is done in Asunción, and getting it right the first time matters.

Be honest with yourself

Your US taxes do not end when you land

This is the section most relocation marketing quietly skips. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income no matter where they live — one of only two countries on earth that does. Becoming a Paraguay tax resident does not end your obligation to the IRS. You will still file a US federal return every year. You will likely still file an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) for foreign bank accounts that together exceed $10,000, and FATCA reporting may apply. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion can shelter a band of earned income — the word earned matters; it does not cover investment or rental income — indexed annually — around $132,900 for the 2026 tax year — so confirm the current figure for your year. Foreign tax credits exist, but Paraguay's low territorial tax means there is little foreign tax to credit against. The honest summary: Paraguay can genuinely cut your cost of living and give you a stable second residency, but for a US citizen it is not, by itself, a way to stop paying US tax. Speak to a US cross-border accountant before any tax-driven decision.

Getting there

Flights, timeline, and your first weeks

A realistic picture of the move itself:

• There are no direct flights from the United States to Asunción. Common routings connect through Panama City (Copa Airlines), São Paulo, Lima, or Buenos Aires — budget a full travel day each way.
• Document preparation — ordering records, two tracks of apostilles, courier time — typically runs 4 to 10 weeks from the US, paced by your slowest apostille office.
• You do not currently need a visa to enter Paraguay as a US tourist — the United States is covered by a visa waiver for tourism and business, a renewable arrangement most recently extended to 2027 rather than a permanent regime. You begin the residency process in person, after you arrive, at the DNM.
• Paraguay keeps consulates in Washington DC, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles if you need a document checked or a question answered before you fly.

FAQ

Moving to Paraguay from the USA — FAQ