My Paraguay Permanent Residency Experience

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The end is near!

I’ve almost completed all the steps for permanent residency in Paraguay.

Here are some of the highlights of the process, for those of you considering doing the same thing.

Keep in mind, that the process is almost never exactly the same for each person.

Preparations before applying for permanent residency

The first thing was finding a recommended person to assist with my permanent residency application.  Two different people gave the name of the same person, and he charged a reasonable fee.  So that’s who I went with.

I checked with him, to get the latest requirements, and got my documents prepared.

Since I was already living outside of my home country, I needed to send some things back to the US, for legalization.  I also had a few extra steps in getting my FBI background check completed while living outside of the US.

The application

Some people claim they can submit your application in just a few days.  I don’t know how they do this, since there were some steps that needed to be completed in a certain order, and each one took a day or two to complete.  For instance, I couldn’t open a bank account until I had my local police background check done, which required fingerprinting at Interpol.

If you plan to apply for residency in Paraguay, I suggest you allow at least ten days, if not two weeks, for you to get everything submitted.

Once you’ve submitted everything, you are en tramite (in process).  That generally means that you can stay in the country, and not worry about any limits on your visa.

The waiting

As the song says, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

At this point, I could have left Paraguay.  But, I like it here, and the cost of living is low, so I stayed.

If you stay in Paraguay, you should get out and start meeting people.  In South America, your life will go much easier if you have friends.

Many expats worry about paying higher “gringo” prices.

I have to wonder if the problem is really that they are sometimes just paying the normal price, and not getting the lower “friends and family” price that many of the locals would get – because they already have a connection.

The final steps

After around seven months, I found out my Admisión Permanente card was ready.

With my non-Paraguayan passport, and my Paraguayan permanent admission card, I should always be able to come into Paraguay.  It’s good for my lifetime.

Then there was one more trip to the Immigration office.  This was to get my Paraguayan cedula (ID card).

In order to get your Paraguayan cedula, you need to be physically present in Paraguay.  At this final step, I was fingerprinted again (on an inkless fingerprinting machine), had to sign my application (electronically), and photographed for my cedula.

They said I should get my cedula within 30 days, although a friend got his in about a week.

I’ve heard some people claim they can go to Paraguay, submit their application in a week, then leave the country and have their cedula mailed to them.  Based on what I went through, I don’t see how that can happen.  I expect that what would be mailed to you is your Admisión Permanente card, which uses a photo that was taken during your application submission.

I could be wrong, but that seems like the most likely situation.

With a Paraguayan cedula, you can now do some things that may have been difficult up to this point – like opening a bank account.  You can also use the “Citizens/Residents” line when you come back in to Paraguay.

Just remember, you need to renew your Paraguayan cedula after ten years.  If you’re out of the country when it expires, it’s going to be more difficult to renew, once you come back to Paraguay.  One friend needed to get affidavits that he was really living in Paraguay.

Overview of the Paraguayan permanent residency process

It’s taken about seven months to get this far, and should be 100% complete (my cedula in my hands) within a month.  That’s a little longer than I had originally expected.  However, the previous Director of Immigration retired, and the new one took office right before the Christmas holidays.  So it’s not unreasonable.

There may be some place that has a faster, smoother permanent residency process, but this wasn’t too bad.  It’s also one of the most affordable ones to get, and can be useful in other South American countries, since Paraguay is part of Mercosur.