Short answer: Paraguay offers the most accessible residency among those that genuinely work for a founder who wants to live under a territorial tax system. As of 15 September 2026 the framework is this: Law 6984/2022 requires a two-year temporary residency before permanent residency; the only way around it is to invest, through SUACE or through the Investor Pass the Ministry of Industry and Commerce created in April 2026 (from $70,000). The official fee is about $475 and a temporary residency file closes in two to four months. What almost nobody has caught up with are two changes: since October 2024 Spain and Paraguay have a tax treaty in force, and since July 2026 Paraguay demands proof of real income to convert temporary into permanent. Both change the order in which things should be done. This page is the map; each piece has its own guide.
What Paraguay residency actually is
Three words that ads glue together need separating. Migratory residency is the permit to live in the country: the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM) grants it and it materialises as a residency card and the Paraguayan cédula issued by the National Police. Tax residency is Paraguay treating you as its taxpayer: it is evidenced with a RUC (tax number) and cédula before the DNIT, under General Resolution 65/2020, which sets no day count. And ceasing to be tax resident where you live now is a third fact, decided by your current tax authority under its own tests. This guide is mostly about the first, but it is written for people who want all three, which is the only combination that lowers the bill.
I have lived in Paraguay for four years and have watched plenty of people buy the cédula the way you buy insurance: get it, fly home, and assume they are “out”. They are not. The cédula is the cheap, fast piece of the puzzle. The expensive one is moving.
The three routes, and which one is yours
Article 44 of Law 6984/2022 recognises three sub-categories: spontaneous or occasional residency (up to 90 days, for one-off activities, counting for nothing), temporary and permanent. For a European or North American founder, the real routes are these.
Temporary, then permanent. The default, and the one I use with most clients. You apply in Asunción with the article 50 documents (passport, apostilled birth and civil-status certificates, police clearance from your home country plus Interpol and the Paraguayan National Police, two sworn declarations and the fee). While it is processed you hold a precarious residency card for 90 days that already lets you leave, re-enter, work and study. Temporary residency is granted for up to two years and permanent is requested in the three months before it expires. Details in temporary vs permanent residency and the full checklist in requirements, fees and timelines.
By investment. Article 46 exempts from the temporary stage anyone who proves an investment under Law 4986/2013 (SUACE): the classic version is around $70,000 over ten years in tangible assets of a Paraguayan company plus five formal jobs. In April 2026 the MIC widened it with the Investor Pass (Resolution 283/2026): $70,000 in productive investment, $150,000 in an approved tourism project, or $200,000 in income-producing real estate or in financial instruments. Direct permanent residency and a ten-year cédula. It has its own page: Paraguay Investor Pass.
By family link. Spouses and children of Paraguayans, family of repatriated Paraguayans (article 48) and Mercosur nationals get permanent residency without the temporary stage. If that is not you, there is no shortcut; people ask me whether “being Hispanic” helps. It does not.
The table above summarises timelines and costs. If your question is which to pick: temporary if you have no real investment project; Investor Pass if you have liquidity, a deadline and an economic use for the money; SUACE if you are building a company with actual employees.
What changed in 2026
Three updates that make most of the guides you will find obsolete.
Fees went up on 1 July 2026. Decree 6225/2026 and DNM Resolution 478/2026 set temporary and permanent residency at Gs. 2,926,925 each, the temporary extension at Gs. 1,287,847, permanent card renewal at Gs. 468,308 and the overstay fine at Gs. 702,462. At September rates (about 6,150 guaraníes to the dollar) the residency fee is roughly $475. Pages still quoting Gs. 2,787,550 are describing the previous schedule.
Conversion to permanent requires real income since 6 July 2026. DNM Resolution 407/2026 created twelve categories of economic solvency (professional, technician, employee, self-employed, remote worker or digital nomad, property owner, shareholder or partner, farmer or rancher, religious minister, retiree, dependent and student), each with its own documents. A university degree alone no longer counts; you must show effective activity and verifiable income, with foreign documents apostilled and translated. For the founder with an LLC there is a purpose-built category, remote worker: a contract or certification from the payer and proof of the payments received. No RUC and no Paraguayan company required. But it requires paperwork most people do not keep, so start keeping it from month one.
The Investor Pass has existed since April 2026. Before, “residency by investment” meant SUACE with five employees. Now there is a real-estate track and a financial track that hire nobody. It is a young programme and practice is still settling; we confirm current amounts before a dollar moves.
Not sure how this applies to your case?
Eleven questions and we tell you whether the LLC fits, and if it does not, that too.
If you are leaving Spain, the order matters
Cheq’s Spanish-speaking clients are mostly people leaving Spain, and almost everything published for them predates 14 October 2024, when the Spain–Paraguay double tax treaty entered into force (signed in Santo Domingo on 25 March 2023, published in the BOE on 29 July 2024). Until then, if both countries claimed you, there was no referee. Now there is: article 4 breaks ties first by the permanent home at your disposal, then by the centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality. Article 26 adds a principal-purpose anti-abuse test.
Two readings. The bad one for shortcut-seekers: a flat in your name in Madrid and a family there keep you in Spain, cédula or not. The good one for anyone who actually moves: the treaty gives a predictable framework to prove the change to the Spanish tax agency, sets low withholding rates (dividends 5 or 10%, interest and royalties 5%) and assigns pensions to the country of residence (article 17). Paraguay is also absent from Spain’s tax-haven list (Order HFP/115/2023), so no five-year quarantine applies, and a dual-nationality convention from 1959 means naturalising does not cost you the Spanish passport.
The full exit playbook (form 030, the Paraguayan tax residency certificate, the article 95 bis exit tax for anyone holding shares above four million euros) is in Paraguay residency from Spain. If you are leaving another country, the mechanics are in tax residency for founders.
How it fits a US LLC
Paraguay taxes individuals by source: the IRP (8, 9 and 10%) reaches Paraguayan-source income, and article 48 of Law 6380/2019 confines capital returns to placements in the country. Your US LLC, transparent for tax purposes, invoices clients abroad; its profit is attributed to you; and if you are a Paraguayan tax resident and the work is performed outside Paraguay, that profit is not taxed here. That is the architecture we build: the LLC handles the company and USD-banking flag; Paraguay handles the residency flag.
The catch is the word “outside”. The DNIT treats a service rendered from Paraguay as Paraguayan-source, so if your real office is in Asunción and you do the LLC’s work from there, that income falls under the IRP. Still 8–10%, which against a 45–50% marginal rate in Europe is not a tragedy, but it is not zero, and you want to know before an audit tells you. The articles are in tax residency in Paraguay, and the calculator runs the number on your profit.
There is a second fit that became practical in 2026: Resolution 407 admits the remote worker as a solvency category for permanent residency. Your LLC’s payments to you (or your clients’ payments to the LLC) are exactly the evidence it asks for. A properly run LLC, with a services agreement and bank statements, is also your immigration file.
The map of this guide
The child pages, in the order someone starting from zero would read them: first the types of residency so you know what you are applying for; then requirements and the step-by-step; if you have capital, the Investor Pass and where to invest; if you are moving with a family, living in Paraguay; and for the tax close, leaving Spain or tax residency for founders, and Paraguayan tax residency. Every page carries its verification date and the rule it cites, because this topic moves and undated guides do the most damage.
How we do it at Cheq
We design the route, prepare the file with our of-counsel legal partners in Asunción, accompany you on the filing trip and coordinate the residency with your company and banking structure. What we do not do is promise “zero tax” or “permanent residency in 90 days” without an investment. The exact budget comes on a viability call, once we know where you start from.
In short
- Two years temporary, then permanent; only investment or a family link skips the stage.
- Official fee about $475 since July 2026; the rest is apostilles, cédula and professional fees.
- Since 6 July 2026 permanent residency requires real income; the remote worker with an LLC has a category of their own.
- For anyone leaving Spain, the treaty in force since October 2024 decides residence: home and centre of interests, not the cédula.
- The LLC and Paraguayan residency fit if the work is performed abroad; otherwise IRP at 8–10%.
Explore the full guide
Frequently asked questions
Can I get permanent residency in Paraguay directly, without the temporary stage?
Only through one of the exceptions in the law: an investment certified via SUACE (which includes the Investor Pass), being the spouse or child of a Paraguayan, being family of a repatriated Paraguayan, or holding the nationality of a Mercosur country. Everyone else starts with the two-year temporary residency (articles 46 and 47 of Law 6984/2022). Anyone selling you "permanent residency in 90 days" without an investment is selling the 1996 law.
How much does Paraguay residency cost in 2026?
The official fee at the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones is Gs. 2,926,925 for temporary and the same for permanent residency (in force since 1 July 2026), roughly $475 at September rates. Add apostilles and translations ($200–500), the cédula, and the fees of a lawyer or agent, which run $1,500–3,000 per adult in the market. We give you an exact budget on the viability call.
Do I have to live in Paraguay to keep the residency?
Not much, to keep it: temporary residency is cancelled after an unjustified absence of more than one year, permanent after more than three (article 55, Law 6984/2022). Converting temporary into permanent is different: since July 2026 it requires proof of real activity and income. And whether your current country stops treating you as tax resident is a third question entirely, decided by where you actually live, not by the cédula.
Does Paraguayan residency get me out of my home country tax system?
Not by itself. You leave a tax residency when you stop meeting that country's tests (days, permanent home, centre of interests, family) and can prove it. For Spain, that is article 9 of the personal income tax law, and since 14 October 2024 the Spain–Paraguay treaty adds a tie-breaker based on permanent home and centre of vital interests. A cédula in your pocket and a family in Valencia leaves you resident in Spain.
Is Paraguay blacklisted as a tax haven?
Not by Spain: it is absent from the Spanish list of non-cooperative jurisdictions (Order HFP/115/2023), so moving there does not trigger Spain's five-year quarantine, and since 2024 there is a full double tax treaty with an exchange-of-information clause. Other countries keep their own lists; check the one that applies to you.
How long until Paraguayan citizenship?
The Constitution (article 148) asks for three years of settled residence plus a trade or profession and good conduct; the Supreme Court decides, slowly and with discretion. In practice the clock runs from permanent residency, so the standard route is five to six years from arrival and the investor route about four. Spanish nationals keep their Spanish nationality under the 1959 dual-nationality convention.
Can I do everything remotely?
The preparation, yes: apostilles, translations and choosing the route. The application itself is personal, at the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones in Asunción: at least one trip of three to five working days, and a return (or a proxy) to collect the cédula. The Interpol and National Police clearances are issued there.