A Paraguay Citizenship and Tax-Free Residence Opportunity

I have been all over Europe on business recently and did something that you probably have never done: five countries in one day! Living on the road, I needed an official base. Besides, I recommend citizenship programs to clients, and I need to try them first. This is an update on my Uruguay residence application, which I’m going through with a view to obtaining the coveted Paraguay Citizenship after a few years. I am bagged right now, but I can summarize what has happened to date.

I am now a permanent resident of Uruguay. My ID card has been pick up for me by my lawyer. Here is the process that I have gone through up to this point.

In my case I had to get a police report ‘legalize’ (stamp) by the Uruguay consulate in both Canada and England, because a report is mandatory for every place that you have lived for the past five years. A legalization is also require for your birth certificate. Note that when applying for these documents, if you tell the consulate that this is for immigration purposes, by Uruguayan law there is no fee involve for this.

The final document required is the proof of income letter. This was issue by my Uruguay local company that I set up. Many if not most expats set up a local company, for reasons that will become clear. Anyway, if the letter comes from Uruguay, then you do not need to explain the source of the money, and this is a good selling point for this program.

My documents were then sent to Uruguay for translation. The client does not need to get them translate beforehand, which is another good service that my lawyers there can provide.

I then contacted my people there and they set up the appointment with the government office. Everything else was book around that date. It normally takes about 6 weeks for the appointment, but I was lucky and got mine in 3 weeks.

The day prior to this my people scheduled the medical exam. This must done in Uruguay, so one needs to go to either Montevideo or Punta del Este. The medical process took about 90 minutes. First you fill in an application. Then they give you a blood test. Next they give you a 30 second dental exam where the dentist simply looksin your mouth with a mirror. She said my teeth were perfect — and I have not been to a dentist in 8 years!