New conditions for permanent residency in Paraguay (from 6 July 2026)

From 6 July 2026, Paraguay applies stricter rules for permanent residency. The Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) has tightened two things at once: mandatory residency visits are now being strictly enforced, and — under DNM Resolution N° 407 of 28 May 2026 — every applicant for permanent residency must now actively prove economic solvency (real income). The new solvency criteria apply to all permanent-residency files submitted on or after 6 July 2026, and to both the national route (Law 6984/22) and the MERCOSUR route alike — MERCOSUR nationals are not exempt.

If you are a temporary or permanent resident of Paraguay, or you are currently in the immigration process, read on: these changes affect when you have to visit and what documents you now need. For the complete step-by-step overview of the whole residency process, see our main guide: Up-to-date information on obtaining temporary and permanent residence in Paraguay.

And if you have capital to invest, there is a way around all of this: since April 2026 the Investor Pass (Resolution MIC N.° 0283/2026) grants permanent residency directly — you skip the two-year temporary stage and this entire conversion file, including proving solvency under Resolution 407/2026. Entry starts at US$70,000 (business), US$150,000 (tourism) or US$200,000 (real estate or securities). We cover it in depth here: Paraguay residency in 2026: Investor Pass vs the classic route.

1. Mandatory visits are now strictly enforced

Formally mandatory annual visits (for temporary residents) and triennial visits (for permanent residents) are now strictly enforced. This means that as a temporary resident of Paraguay you cannot be outside Paraguay for more than 365 days, and as a permanent resident of Paraguay, for more than three years.

This rule itself is not new — it rests on Article 55 of the Migration Law (Ley N° 6984/22): residency is cancelled for an unjustified absence of more than one year (temporary residents) or more than three years (permanent residents). What has changed is that it is now actually being enforced. Two things are worth remembering: any single entry into Paraguay resets the clock, and if you know in advance that you will exceed the limit, you can ask DNM for prior authorisation (autorización previa) to preserve your status.

DNM now also applies this limit retroactively when you actually apply for permanent residency. As it reviews your file, it checks whether you have been outside Paraguay for more than 365 consecutive days since you obtained temporary residency — that is, without a single entry to reset the clock. If you have, permanent residency is not granted; instead you receive a two-year extension of temporary residency (prórroga), and you have to apply for permanent residency again later, once you can show you stayed within the limit.

In practice this is the end of “one-trip” permanent residency. You can no longer fly in once, file, and leave with permanent status — before it is granted you have to genuinely maintain your presence (entries within the limit) throughout the temporary-residency period. Be wary of any provider still promising “one-trip” permanent residency; under the current enforcement it is no longer possible.

Permanent residency is also not a document you can simply forget about. The permanent-residency carnet is issued with a 10-year validity and has to be renewed once it expires. So alongside the absence limit (no more than 3 consecutive years outside Paraguay, with any entry resetting the clock), budget for this bit of administrative upkeep — it is not demanding, but watch your carnet’s expiry date the same way you watch your passport’s.

2. You now have to prove your income (economic solvency)

Until now, an application for permanent residency in Paraguay required one mandatory visit (within 365 days of the last visit, or of the date the temporary residency was approved) and either a university degree or a RUC tax number — and, in practice, you could get by with zero monthly IVA/VAT declarations plus a generated “Cumplimiento Tributario” (tax-compliance certificate).

That is no longer enough. Under Resolution N° 407/2026, every permanent-residency applicant must prove solvency — actively, with documents. Economic solvency is never presumed: a diploma or title on its own is no longer accepted, and you must show both income and the genuine exercise of the activity you declared (it must also be consistent with what you declared for your temporary residency).

You can prove your income in one of two ways:

• Local income declared in Paraguay — through the tax authority (SET), with non-zero IVA/VAT activity (at least the 3 most recent monthly IVA returns showing real activity), or income tax (IRP) for the last year.
• Foreign income — documented and then notarised, apostilled and translated into Spanish. Note: if the documents are apostilled and translated abroad, the Spanish translation itself must also be apostilled (not only the original document).

Zero monthly IVA/VAT declarations will no longer be accepted, as they were until now. A clean tax-compliance certificate backed by empty filings is not, by itself, proof of solvency.

There are many legitimate ways to show non-zero income / solvency, depending on your situation. For example:

• Own real estate in Paraguay? You can declare your rental income.
• A digital nomad or remote worker? You can submit a foreign employment contract with an apostille (a document proving you have income abroad).
• Earning locally in Paraguay? You will need at least the 3 most recent IVA/VAT returns showing real (non-zero) activity.

Resolution 407 sets out twelve applicant categories — professionals, technicians, employees, independent entrepreneurs (trade and services), remote workers / digital nomads, property owners, shareholders / partners, farmers and ranchers, religious workers, retirees / pensioners, dependents and students — and you choose one. Each has its own document list. You will find the exact, category-by-category checklist of documents here: Permanent residency in Paraguay — proving economic solvency (client checklist, PDF).

One more change worth knowing: the profession/activity field is being removed from the printed residency card (carnet). The data stays in DNM’s internal system, so it has no effect on your rights — but it does mean you should remember which activity you declared at the temporary stage, because it must stay consistent when you apply for permanent residency.

Income is the most visible novelty, but the conversion file does not consist of income documents alone. DNM also standardly asks for a current Paraguayan police record (antecedentes policiales) and an INTERPOL certificate (for applicants over 14) — both are obtained locally in Paraguay, not from abroad — and you will also need your original temporary-residency carnet when you file. Plan your stay in Asunción so that you can pick up these certificates shortly before filing.

Finally, treat every document seriously: the whole application has the character of a sworn statement (declaración jurada). DNM may request additional documents at any time and verifies their authenticity, and any false or incomplete information can lead not only to rejection but to referral to the public prosecutor (Ministerio Público). The rule of thumb is simple — prove what is real, and do not invent income you cannot back up with documents.

Importantly, the law does not specify a minimum income amount. What that means in practice is the subject of the next section.

3. What our local lawyers say (the honest version)

We asked our partner lawyers in Paraguay for the practical detail. Their candid answer: it is all written in the regulation, but in practice nobody — not even the DNM staff applying it — yet knows exactly how every case will be judged. Our level of certainty here is the same as theirs. For now, the only thing anyone can rely on is common sense: the spirit of the law is simply that you genuinely prove you are solvent. With that caveat, here is their current reading.

• How much income do I need to show? The law names no amount. As a rule of thumb, expect to declare at least the Paraguayan minimum wage — ₲3,044,000, roughly USD 400 a month (from July 2026) — and, to be safe, ideally a little more, on the order of USD 600 a month. (This is a common-sense benchmark from our partners, not a figure written into the resolution.)
• What counts as proof of foreign income? A contract that states what you do, how much you earn and what your activity is — apostilled — backed up by a bank statement showing that you actually receive the income you claim.
• Does cryptocurrency income count? Unclear. For now, our partners do not expect crypto-only income to be accepted as proof of solvency.
• I’m married — what about my spouse? A married applicant brings the marriage certificate. If your spouse is already a permanent resident, the marriage certificate is essentially all that is additionally required (the resident spouse acts as the provider). If both spouses apply at the same time, one spouse can act as the provider/guarantor for the other.
• Where do applications fail most often? Partly on formalities — a missing apostille or sworn Spanish translation — and partly on money that cannot be traced: claimed income that never appears on the statement, arrives irregularly, in amounts that do not match the contract, or from a different sender. Transfers must be verifiable and consistent — regular, in amounts matching your documents, and from a clearly identifiable sender. A single large deposit right before you file will not convince anyone.
• When do I file, and how long does it take? Permanent residency is filed in the final stretch of your two-year temporary residency — in practice from about month 21 up to month 24, before the temporary carnet expires (leave a margin — filing roughly 90 days before expiry is prudent). Once DNM accepts the file, expect processing of around 3–6 months. These are practical timelines reported by local agencies, not periods fixed by Resolution 407 itself.

4. How to declare local income in Paraguay — step by step

If you choose the local-income route, you (or your accountant) will need to issue invoices and file monthly IVA declarations in Paraguay’s online tax system (Marangatu, run by SET). We have translated the full practical procedure into English, with screenshots of every step — requesting the timbrado, issuing an invoice, imputing it, filing the monthly IVA declaration, generating the payment slip, and downloading the tax-compliance certificate, the RUC constancia and the cédula tributaria:

In practice this route is cheap and predictable. You declare income at the recommended level of around USD 600 a month (a little above the ₲3,044,000 ≈ USD 400 minimum wage), which at the 10% IVA rate costs you only about USD 60 a month in tax. You do not need a full year of it: the rule asks for the 3 most recent monthly IVA returns, so it is enough to start invoicing and filing in the three months before you apply — for example, file for September, October and November if you convert in December. That is roughly USD 180 in total for solid, locally-issued proof of solvency.

The tax bill can be even lower than that. In a written reply to our direct inquiry (June 2026), DNM confirmed that Resolution 407/2026 makes no distinction between activity taxed at the 10% IVA rate, at the reduced 5% rate, or exempt from IVA — what is assessed is whether the documents you file demonstrate your real economic activity (movimiento económico). For an independent worker (trade and services) those documents are the taxpayer registration (Constancia de Persona Física) and the last 3 monthly IVA returns — or last year’s IRP return — together with the tax-movement report (Constancia de Movimiento Tributario). So if your activity falls under the 5% rate (for example residential rent) or is exempt from IVA altogether (as services invoiced to foreign clients and used abroad generally are), your returns count just the same — you simply pay correspondingly less IVA on them.

One timing caveat: leave yourself some margin. Some local agencies (June 2026) report that in practice DNM expects your RUC to have been active for at least 4 months before you file — a month more than the 3 monthly IVA returns themselves cover. The resolution states no such period explicitly and our lawyers have not yet had it confirmed, but the insurance is cheap: if you know when you will apply, register your RUC at least 4 months ahead (something we can genuinely handle for you remotely), and if you want extra certainty, start invoicing a month earlier as well — at the recommended income of around USD 600 a month, that extra month costs you only about another USD 60 in tax.

To be clear, all of this — the RUC, the monthly IVA returns, the 4-month timing — applies only if you take the local-income route. If your income is entirely foreign (a foreign pension, a salary or dividends from a non-Paraguayan company, or remote work invoiced abroad) and you declare no economic activity in Paraguay, you do not need a RUC at all — your proof is the apostilled, translated foreign documentation described in section 2, not a Paraguayan tax filing. Register a RUC only if you actually intend to invoice locally.

This is usually the route we recommend, and not only because it is inexpensive. Your proof is then a record issued by Paraguay’s own tax authority (SET) — an officer reviewing your file can hardly dispute the government’s own records, whereas a foreign employment letter or contract can always be questioned, and you depend on someone abroad to write, apostille and translate it on time. Filing locally also keeps you in control: the evidence is generated automatically through the system, on your own schedule, without waiting for anyone.

• 📋 Document checklist: Permanent residency in Paraguay — proving economic solvency (PDF)
• 🧾 Step-by-step guide: How to generate the documents for permanent residency in Paraguay (SET / Marangatu)

Need help?

These rules are brand new and still settling in practice. If you are planning a move to Paraguay, or you are mid-process and worried about a missed visit or the new income requirement, get in touch. At Liberation.Travel we help with the entire permanent-residency process — including issuing invoices and filing the monthly IVA, so that your economic solvency is properly documented well before you apply.