Paraguayan Citizenship: The Real Timeline

The sequence, in order

1. Temporary residency. Valid for up to two years and renewable for equal periods. This is the ordinary entry point under Ley N° 6984/2022. See temporary residency.
2. Permanent residency. Applied for in the three months before the temporary card expires, under the change of category route, or directly through one of the other published permanent routes. See the three-month window.
3. Three years of permanent radicación, counted from the date of the permanent admission resolution.
4. The naturalisation petition, filed with the Corte Suprema de Justicia.
5. The court's decision, and the Carta de Naturalización if granted.

Add those together and the honest range for a general-route applicant is four to five years at a minimum before a petition can even be filed, plus judicial processing time. Someone who enters directly on a route that grants permanent residency without a prior temporary period, such as the Investor Pass or the family routes, starts the three-year clock earlier.

What Article 148 actually requires

The petition itself

Naturalisation is a judicial process, not an administrative one. It is handled by the Corte Suprema de Justicia through its Secretaría Judicial II, under the procedure regulated by Acordada 464/07.

The documents the judiciary publishes for the petition include authenticated copies of the Paraguayan identity card and passport, a legalised birth certificate, police and criminal record certificates, documentation of employment, commerce or study, a curriculum vitae, a sworn declaration, and legal representation by special power of attorney. The published judicial fee is ₲43,051. Documents not in Spanish must be translated.

The applicant must appear personally to sign the sworn declaration. That is worth noting for anyone who has been told the whole thing can be handled remotely.

The language question

This is where published sources and market claims diverge, so we will be precise about what we found.

What a Paraguayan passport is and is not

Paraguayan nationals hold a MERCOSUR passport with the mobility that comes from Paraguay's own visa relationships. Those relationships change, and any specific count of visa-free destinations you see quoted is a snapshot of an index rather than a legal fact. We do not publish passport rankings, for the same reason we do not publish crowd-sourced safety indices: the number is precise-looking and the methodology is doing all the work.

What can be said without a ranking: Paraguay is a MERCOSUR member, which carries regional benefits, and Paraguayan nationality is acquired through an ordinary constitutional route rather than purchased through a citizenship-by-investment programme. Paraguay does not operate a citizenship-by-investment programme, and any offer described that way should be treated as a warning sign. See residency scams and red flags.

Dual citizenship

Whether you can keep your existing nationality when naturalising in Paraguay is decided by your current country, not by Paraguay. Some countries permit dual nationality freely, some permit it with notification, and some treat voluntary acquisition of another nationality as grounds for loss. Check your own country's rule before you file, because the naturalisation is the trigger.

The honest summary

Paraguayan citizenship is a genuine, ordinary, constitutional route with a short minimum period by international standards. It is also a route that assumes you actually live here, work here and behave here, over a period of years, and that is assessed by a court rather than granted on a fee schedule.

For most readers the practical answer is: get the residency right first, convert to permanent on time, live here, and revisit citizenship in year four. The residency is the product that changes your life now. The passport is a consequence of having actually used it.