Paraguay Residency Visa Rules Changed in July 2026 — Income Now Decides
PARAGUAY · RESIDENCY
A Paraguay residency visa no longer turns on a bank deposit. Since July 2026 it turns on income that can be traced, month by month.
Key facts
What happened — Paraguay scrapped its old bank-deposit residency route in 2022 and tightened the income test in July 2026.
Who decides — Migraciones, Paraguay’s national migration directorate, grants residence. The supreme court grants citizenship later.
What it costs — The permanent-residence fee ran between 2,787,550 and 2,926,925 guaraníes during 2026, about US$467 to US$490.
How long it takes — Two years of temporary residence come first, and practitioners describe four to eight months of paperwork.
The catch — Permanent residence can be cancelled after more than three consecutive years of unjustified absence from Paraguay.
What comes next — The new proof-of-income criteria apply to every file entered from 6 July 2026 onward.
Paraguay rewrote its migration law in 2022 and its money test in 2026. A Paraguay residency visa now rests on income a clerk can follow back to its source.
Two Doors, and Only the Narrow One Opens First
Paraguay issues two residence permits to foreigners. Temporary residence comes first, and permanent residence is built on top of it.
Law 6984 of 2022 grants temporary residence for up to two years. It can be extended once for the same period.
Permanent residence is not granted to someone who has never held the temporary card. That sequence is the spine of the whole system.
One route skips the queue. The Investor Pass, launched in 2026, sends qualifying investors straight to permanent residence.
ABC Color reported on 21 May 2026 that the programme asks for at least US$150,000 invested in Paraguay. The paper wrote in April that property and stock-market investors face US$200,000, with tourism projects at US$150,000.
Everyone else waits out the two years before the change of category. ABC Color described the Investor Pass as the exception that confirms the ordinary rule.
The Deposit That Disappeared in October 2022
For years the Paraguayan route had a price rather than a process. An applicant placed roughly US$5,000 in a Paraguayan bank and received permanent residence outright.
Law 978 of 1996 carried that arrangement, as a solvency deposit held to the order of the migration authority. IMI Daily put the sum at 32 million guaraníes, about US$4,500 at the time.
That law is gone. Ley 6984 of 2022 repealed it in full and took effect on 18 October 2022, the day after the president signed it.
EY Paraguay told clients that month that Law 978 of 1996 had been wholly repealed. Migraciones stopped accepting deposit-based files from that point.
Nothing replaced the deposit with another payment. What replaced it was time, and now proof of earnings.
The Paper Chain Starts Where You Are Leaving
None of this begins in Asunción. It begins at a records office in the country the applicant is leaving.
Migraciones set out the temporary-residence list through the state news agency IP on 4 May 2026. It reads as a chain, not a pile.
The file needs a birth certificate, an Interpol criminal-record certificate and a police certificate for foreigners issued inside Paraguay. Minors need parental authorisations and proof of kinship.
Sworn declarations carry the rest. The applicant promises to obey Paraguayan law, names the activity to be pursued and gives an address in the country.
Every foreign document must be apostilled or legalised at a consulate. Migraciones states that without qualification, and a file without the stamp does not move.
The agency’s own residence checklist adds a second step. Documents in another language need a sworn public translator, and that translation needs legalisation of its own.
What the Solvency Test Now Asks For
The change that matters most in 2026 carries a number instead of a name. Resolución DNM 407, signed on 28 May 2026, governs how solvency is proved.
Migraciones announced on 25 June 2026 that the criteria apply to files entered from 6 July. RSM Paraguay, the audit firm, summarised the shift in a single line.
Income must be real, consistent with the declared activity and fully verifiable. Documents on their own no longer carry an application.
The resolution sorts applicants into twelve categories, each with its own evidence. A pensioner, a salaried employee and a freelancer are no longer treated as one kind of person.
GoParaguay put the practical effect plainly in June 2026. A qualification alone stopped counting, and a Paraguayan tax number became part of the proof.
Polystate wrote in July 2026 that the test also reaches the Mercosur route. A Brazilian or Argentine passport exempts nobody from showing income.
No published figure ties solvency to a fixed multiple of the minimum wage. Paraguay raised that wage by five percent on 1 July 2026, to 3,044,000 guaraníes a month (about US$510).
The Fee Depends on Which Page You Read
Paraguay publishes its migration fees, and the published amounts do not agree across the year. Two figures circulate for the same permanent-residence file.
A Migraciones page showed 2,787,550 guaraníes (about US$467) for permanent residence, change of category included. ParaguayResidence quoted the same amount from the official table on 25 June 2026.
N30 Paraguay, a residency service, put the cash fee at 2,926,925 guaraníes (about US$490) from 1 July 2026. The two amounts sit either side of a mid-year update.
The Mercosur temporary route splits the same way. IP gave 2,230,040 guaraníes (about US$373) on 4 May 2026, and N30 listed 2,341,540 guaraníes (about US$392) in September.
Payment method moves the total as well. Viaparaguay reported in May 2026 that paying by card raised the figure to 2,864,208 guaraníes (about US$480).
Rates move, so the dollar figures here rest on one day. All conversions use 5,972 guaraníes to the US dollar, the mid-market rate on 16 September 2026.
The Cédula Is the Card That Actually Works
Residence is a status. The cédula de identidad, Paraguay’s national identity card, is the object that opens doors.
The Departamento de Identificaciones of the National Police issues it, not Migraciones. Two offices, two queues, one file.
Banks ask for the card before they ask for anything else. So do mobile operators, utility companies and most landlords.
The identification department has not posted a public fee notice for the foreigner cédula. Residency services quote 8,500 guaraníes (about US$1.40) for a renewal.
One guide puts the card’s validity at ten years. Nothing on the police site confirms that span, and the date printed on the card is the safer guide.
How Long It Takes, and Who Is Waiting
Migraciones has not published a binding deadline for a residence decision. The law sets the categories, not the calendar.
Practitioners describe a range instead of a date. One 2026 guide puts the full path at sixteen to thirty-two weeks, from filing to cédula in hand.
There is a reason behind that range, and the reason is volume. IP reported on 30 July 2026 that Migraciones granted 29,765 residences in the first half of the year.
The same period of 2025 produced 16,456. An office handling eighty-one percent more files does not get faster while it does so.
Nothing in the process runs in parallel. The apostille waits for the certificate, the translation waits for the apostille, and the cédula waits for the residence.
Staying Is Part of the Permit
Permanent residence in Paraguay is not a document to file away. Migraciones treats prolonged absence as grounds to cancel it.
The agency reminded foreigners on 8 April 2026 that more than three consecutive years of unjustified absence can end the status. Cancellation comes by reasoned resolution.
That is a generous window by regional standards. It is also a real one, because entries and exits are logged at the border.
The practical effect is plain. Someone who buys residence as an insurance policy and never returns will eventually lose it.
The rule cuts the other way for people who actually live there. Time in the country is the cheapest evidence anyone can accumulate.
Three Years, and a Court at the End
Citizenship sits three years past permanent residence. Paraguay’s constitution sets that minimum in Article 148.
The decision does not belong to the migration directorate. The Corte Suprema de Justicia, Paraguay’s supreme court, grants naturalisation.
Applicants show a profession, trade, science, art or industry, and good conduct. Those are the constitutional words, and they leave the court room to judge.
Guides also mention a Spanish or Guaraní language element. The court has not published a language test, a syllabus or a pass mark for one.
Paraguay asks nobody to surrender a first nationality. That silence is part of why a three-year clock draws attention abroad.
What the Next File Will Look Like
The direction of travel in Paraguay is toward evidence, not away from it. The 2022 law removed the deposit, and the 2026 resolution put earnings in its place.
That trade has two sides. A retiree with a traceable pension files more easily than in 2021, and a buyer with a one-off balance files less easily.
IMI Daily wrote in July 2026 that Paraguay has tied long-term residence to active income, unless the applicant invests. The Investor Pass is the door that capital still opens directly.
Fees will move again, and the published tables will lag behind the counter. The number that binds is the one a cashier quotes on the day.
For most people the timetable is the real cost. Two years of temporary residence, then a solvency file, then a court three years after that.
More: Paraguay news in English
Sources: Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, Agencia IP, ABC Color, EY Paraguay, RSM Paraguay, IMI Daily, Infobae. https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/2026/05/04/the-paraguayan-migration-authority-details-requirements-and-procedures-for-temporary-residency/ and https://migraciones.gov.py/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/RESOLUCION-DNM-Nro-407-28.05.2026-ACREDITACION-DE-SOLVENCIA-ECONOMICA-PARA-RESIDENCIA-PERMANENTE-1.pdf and https://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/2026/06/25/atencion-extranjeros-estos-son-los-cambios-para-acceder-a-la-residencia-permanente-en-paraguay/ and https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/2026/07/30/paraguayan-directorate-of-migration-granted-nearly-30000-residencies-to-foreign-nationals-in-the-first-half-of-2026/ and https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/2026/04/08/unjustified-absence-from-the-country-leads-to-revocation-of-residency-for-foreigners-officials-remind/ and https://www.imidaily.com/latam-linc/paraguay-ties-long-term-residency-to-active-income-unless-you-invest/ and https://www.abc.com.py/economia/2026/05/21/investor-pass-residencia-permanente-en-paraguay-para-inversores-extranjeros/
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