Would you like to acquire a permanent residence permit in Paraguay? Would you like to eventually become a full citizen of the country? Here we are going to describe the second stage of Paraguay residence acquisition. At this stage, the applicant for residence has to visit the country and file the application documents to the local immigration authorities. Comprehensive legal support will be available throughout the process.
International Wealth portal publishes materials that can be of interest to ‘perpetual travelers’ and those who are looking to relocate to a foreign country. If you are interested in relocating to Paraguay, we suggest that you should read this article first: Acquiring Legal Residence in Paraguay: Stage 1 and then go on with this text. Because we have a lot of information to share, we have divided the material related to acquiring legal residence in Paraguay into three parts.
Let us remind you that you have to send all the required application documents 8 to 10 days prior to your visit to Paraguay. The law firm in Asuncion will have to check the documents for conformity to the requirements before they can be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Please also bear in mind that you will have to make the second payment of 7000 USD before you go to Paraguay but after you have finalized the dates of your visit.
You can catch a plane from Milan, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris or London to Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo and then fly to Asuncion. There are few direct flies to Paraguay from Europe but getting there from North America is easier.
We will gladly advise you on the flight to Paraguay that you might want to catch if you wish. We can also recommend a nice hotel in Asuncion where you can stay while in Paraguay.
When you arrive in Asuncion, your Paraguayan lawyer will meet you at the airport. Please mind that the lawyer will speak English, Spanish or German. If you need translation into a different language, it can be arranged. The translator’s services are going to cost you 150 to 200 euros.
Residence in Paraguay: submitting the application documents in Asuncion
The second stage of acquiring legal residence in Paraguay can be divided into the following steps:
- A visit to Asuncion for 8 business days.
- Submission of the application documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a personal visit to the office.
- Passing the due diligence procedures and submitting your fingerprints to the Paraguayan Interpol office.
- Signing a pledge for the immigration authorities and a power of attorney in the name of the Paraguayan lawyer in front of a notary public.
- Opening an account in a local bank.
If you need a visa to enter Paraguay, you should make sure that it remains valid for the time of your visit to the country.
We would like to stress the importance of arranging your visit in advance. You do not want to come to Paraguay and see that all the banks and government offices are closed due to some national holidays.
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Residence in Paraguay: things to do in Asuncion
We suggest that you should arrive in Asuncion on a Saturday or Sunday to start the application process on Monday next week. The lawyer will pick you up at the hotel in the morning and accompany you to the notary. In the notary’s office, you will have to have your passport and photographs notarized as the notarized copies are going to be required for various purposes.
After that, you will have to go to the Foreign Ministry where your passport will be authenticated regardless of whether you need a Paraguayan visa or not. The authentication process will normally take about two hours only. Then you will have to pay a visit to the local Interpol office. There they will see if the international police have anything against you and then take your fingerprints.
The next step is a visit to the Asunción Paraguay National Development Bank (Banco de Fomento) to open an account there. You can make a deposit in the local currency, the US dollars, euros or Swiss francs. It is going to be a six- or twelve-month fixed-term deposit of US$ 5,200 (or the equivalent in another currency). Please bring cash to Paraguay as the local ATMs allow withdrawing cash in limited amounts.
You will not be making a donation: the money will remain in your possession even though no interest is going to be paid on it. You can have your money back after you obtain a Permanent Residence Card (cédula). The account is going to be blocked until that time.
After that, you will have to pay a visit to a notary public to sign two documents in front of him/ her:
- A sworn statement for the Head of the immigration service: you will have to pledge to abide by the Paraguayan constitution (this is mandatory for all applicants for residence permits in the country).
- A Power of Attorney in the name of the lawyer that you will have already met. He or she will go through all the formal procedures on your behalf when acquiring a residence card for you. This will save you a lot of trouble as the lawyer holding the Power of Attorney will submit all the application documents to the immigration authorities and pick your cédula when it is ready. In this way, you can minimize the number of trips to Paraguay that you will have to make when obtaining the residence permit and then the passport of the country (if all goes well).
The next step is a meeting with the immigration service officer. You will have to be personally present when submitting the application documents for Paraguayan residence.
We must note that your lawyer will have to go through a number of other formal procedures submitting and obtaining various documents while acquiring a Paraguayan residence card for you. Above we have described the routines that require your personal presence. Practice shows that seven to eight days will be enough to complete all the tasks.
The third payment for legal services (the outstanding 7000 USD) has to be made after obtaining the Paraguayan residence card. Please read the article titled Acquiring Legal Residence in Paraguay and Citizenship of the Country: Stage 3 to find out what you have to do to become a full citizen of Paraguay.
Acquiring residence of Paraguay – possible changes to the requirements
Please note that the information given above is subject to change. Regrettably, the bureaucratic procedures involved in acquiring legal residence in Paraguay are becoming more and more burdensome. You will certainly appreciate your lawyer’s assistance with paperwork.
If you would like to ask us any questions related to acquiring legal and tax residence and/ or citizenship of Paraguay, please write to info@offshore-pro.info without any hesitation. We will promptly reply to you.
You are also welcome to apply for a professional consultation on the matter. Please note that we will have to know your motives for relocating to Paraguay to be able to provide consultations to you.
