How to get Paraguay residency in 5 days in 2026

More than 50,000 applications in ten months, and the 2025 record was gone by September. Paraguay's migration service is answering with MigraMóvil pop-up offices: file on Monday, collect your residence card on Saturday. The next one runs November 16-20, 2026 in Pedro Juan Caballero.

In detail

You can get Paraguay residency in 5 days. Not everywhere, though. It happens at MigraMóvil, the mobile office of Paraguay's National Directorate of Migration, which travels a few times a year to the towns with the longest queues. File on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and you pick up your residence card on Saturday of that same week. Assuming your documents are clean. The next session is November 16-20, 2026 in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city on the Brazilian border.

Why the rush? The queue. In the first nine months of 2026 foreigners filed 49,538 residency applications. The whole of 2025 produced 47,687. By early November the count had passed 50,000, and the busiest stretch of the year is still ahead.

Who is moving to Paraguay, and why so many

Mostly the neighbors. Brazilians filed 31,706 applications between January and September. Look at the curve: 12,409 in 2022, 14,365 in 2023, 17,139 in 2024, 23,526 in 2025. Close to double in two years. Far behind come Argentines (about 3,500 applications), Spaniards (1,600) and Americans (740).

Jorge Kronawetter, who runs the migration service, told a radio interviewer that stories about offices being flooded the day after Brazil's election were false. Demand, he said, has been climbing steadily for years. The numbers back him up.

The pull is easy to see. A low bar to get in, territorial taxation, cheap living, and a passport a few years down the road. We went through the upsides and the catches in should you move to Paraguay, and the big picture sits on our Paraguay page.

How MigraMóvil works, and where the 5 days come from

MigraMóvil puts in one hall what is normally spread across several buildings: applications for temporary and permanent residency, card replacements and other migration paperwork. The service planned 22 of these trips for 2026. The calendar is provisional and dates do move.

The last one ran November 2-6 in Ciudad del Este, at the Mangoré cultural center, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. People queued from the night before, some with tents. Next stop is Pedro Juan Caballero, Monday November 16 to Friday November 20.

One catch. The five days start when you file, not when your plane lands. Turn up without your papers and that week becomes a month. For life on the border there is our guide to Ciudad del Este, and for choosing a base, the best cities to live in Paraguay.

What to prepare if you want it done in a week

Nearly everything happens at home, before you fly. Every foreign document needs an apostille (an international certificate confirming a document is genuine for use abroad) or consular legalization, plus a sworn translation into Spanish.

• At home: a valid passport, birth certificate, marriage or divorce record, and a criminal record certificate from your country of citizenship. Everyone aged 14 and over needs one. If you lived in another country for more than a year in the last 3 years, you need a certificate from there too.
• In Paraguay: the entry stamp in your passport, an Interpol certificate and a National Police certificate for foreigners, and notarized copies of everything.
• On filing day: you in person, two sworn declarations (that you will respect Paraguayan law and what you plan to do in the country), and the fee.

The Interpol and police certificates take a couple of days. So a realistic plan for Pedro Juan Caballero looks like this: arrive late the week before, collect the local certificates, be at the door when it opens on Monday. You must file within your 90 days of visa-free stay. Overstaying costs a $123 fine.

Filing is in person only. Nobody can stand at the window for you, though a representative can handle the case afterwards. The full document list and the rules for children are on our Paraguay residence permit page and in how a family can get Paraguay residency.

How much Paraguay residency costs in 2026

Fees are pegged to the minimum daily wage and reset every July 1. The figures below come from the fee table approved by migration service resolution No. 478/2026, converted at 5,754.5 guaraníes to the dollar and rounded up.

No family discount. Everyone pays, kids included. On top come apostilles, translations, the notary, certificates and somewhere to sleep while you file.

What temporary residency gives you, and what happens after 2 years

The temporary card lasts up to 2 years. It lets you live, work and study, get a national ID card from the National Police (a separate step after the migration service), open a bank account and register a business. All of this sits under Migration Law No. 6984/2022.

Now the part nobody mentions at the pop-up office. Nobody checks your income on the way in. But in the last 3 months of the temporary card you have to apply for permanent residency, and there you prove income with documents under one of 12 categories. Since July 6, 2026 that is the main hurdle. So in your activity declaration, write what you can back with paperwork two years from now. Calling yourself an investor without bank statements will only hurt.

The second trap is time away. Temporary status is cancelled if you spend more than a year outside the country. The card is not a souvenir. Paraguay expects you to actually live there.

There is a shortcut. An investor putting at least $70,000 into a business with 5 jobs gets permanent residency straight away, no temporary stage, and the three-year clock toward citizenship starts on day one. Details on Paraguay permanent residency. The road to the passport itself is covered in Paraguay citizenship cost, and founders should also read doing business in Paraguay.

If Paraguay is not the right fit

Paraguay is a cheap way in, but it is not for everyone. If you want a big job market, look at Brazil residency. If Buenos Aires is the dream, there is Argentina residency. And if stability matters more than speed, Uruguay residency is worth a look. Families expecting a baby should read about Paraguayan citizenship by birth.

Our Paraguay residency services

Murblz experts take clients from the first certificate at home to the ID card in Asunción or a border town. The goal is simple: you reach the migration window with a complete file and leave with the card.

After the card comes ordinary life: a bank, moving money, the ID. We explained how to bring funds into the country in how to send money to Paraguay. And after what happened to ueno bank, pick your bank calmly and keep a backup. Planning to live in the capital? Start with our guide to Asunción.

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