Paraguay Entry Requirements and Visas: Who Needs One, and the 90-Day Stay

Three ways in, and when you need an entry visa

The Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (MRE, Paraguay's foreign ministry) publishes the list of nationalities that do not need a visa. Its instruction is blunt. If your country is not on the list, you need a visa. The Ley N° 6984/2022 De Migraciones sets the same rule from the other side: to enter as a visitor you must present a valid passport or identity document and hold an entry visa issued by the foreign ministry "in the cases where one is required" (Article 41).

Visa-free nationalities

As published by the foreign ministry and read on 23 September 2026, ordinary passport holders of the following countries do not need a visa:

• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay.
• North and Central America and the Caribbean: Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, United States.
• Europe: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
• Asia: Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates.
• Africa: South Africa.
• Oceania: Australia, New Zealand.

The same page lists some countries where only diplomatic, official or service passports are exempt. It states that ordinary passports from these countries still need a visa: Cuba, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Qatar, Vietnam, Egypt and Morocco. EU membership as such confers nothing. Every European state that does not appear above needs a visa.

The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand

These four are visa-free because of a statute, not a reciprocal treaty. Ley N° 6790/2021 told the executive to drop the visa requirement for their citizens entering for tourism for stays of up to 90 days, as a temporary measure lasting three years. Ley N° 7314/2024, published on 13 August 2024, extended it for three more years from publication. Two consequences follow. The exemption is expressly for tourist entry, and it has an expiry date unless Congress renews it again.

Visa on arrival for other nationalities

For every other nationality, a visa on arrival is an exception. It needs justified reasons why you cannot apply at a consulate and an inviting person or company domiciled in Paraguay, filed at least 30 days before arrival. The ministry says expressly that having no Paraguayan consulate in your country is not enough on its own. Do not plan a relocation around it.

Consular visas

If you need a visa, you apply online through the foreign ministry's portal and then attend an interview at a Paraguayan embassy or consulate. Honorary consulates cannot take applications. For a tourist visa the ministry asks for a letter of invitation from someone domiciled in Paraguay, proof of economic solvency and a legalised or apostilled criminal record, as well as your passport, a photograph, an accommodation booking and an itinerary. It recommends applying at least 30 days before travel. It also warns that a visa does not guarantee entry, which the migration authority decides at the border.

Article 46 of the Ley De Migraciones lets the foreign ministry issue a consular visa specifically for residency applicants, so tell the consulate that you intend to apply.

Entering with a national ID card: MERCOSUR nationals

Under the MERCOSUR Agreement on Travel Documents (Decision CMC N° 46/15), the signatory states accept each other's national identity documents as valid travel documents. The agreement's annex lists them:

• the Argentine DNI;
• the Brazilian identity card;
• the Bolivian, Chilean and Uruguayan cédula de identidad;
• the Colombian and Ecuadorian cédula de ciudadanía;
• the Peruvian DNI.

A national of these countries can therefore enter Paraguay with an ID card and no passport. The Ley De Migraciones reflects this: its general entry rule asks for a valid identity document, or a passport with a visa where one is required (Article 25).

Nationals of these countries are also the ones who can use the MERCOSUR residency route.

90 days, and one extension

Article 42 of the Ley De Migraciones is the rule. A visitor may stay "up to 90 (ninety) calendar days". The stay can be extended once, at your request, for no longer than the period first granted, at the migration authority's discretion. When the authorised stay ends, the visitor "must leave the national territory or apply for residency in the country". If they do neither, fines and other sanctions apply.

Article 43 adds that these deadlines are perentorios, meaning final. Any extension or change of category has to be filed before your permitted stay runs out.

The Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (DNM, the migration authority) handles the extension as a prórroga de permanencia transitoria, in person or online through the paraguay.gov.py portal. It asks for your identity document, your visa where one was required, and your proof of entry, each as an original plus an authenticated copy. The fee published on the DNM's page on 23 September 2026 is Gs. 585,385. That is the five jornales (daily minimum wages) that Article 100 of the law sets for a prórroga de permanencia, and it will move whenever the minimum wage does. Online payment carries an extra commission.

The entry stamp is a residency document

This is where entry and residency meet. The DNM's document list for temporary residency includes proof of migratory entry, either the migration slip or the passport stamp, as an original plus an authenticated copy. Where your nationality needed a visa, the list also includes that visa, certified by the foreign ministry. See the residency requirements and the document checklist.

In practice:

• Enter through a staffed migration control post. The law allows entry and exit only through authorised control posts (Article 35). An entry that avoids migration control counts as irregular (Article 37). At some land crossings it is easy to pass without being processed. If you cross by land, make sure you are.
• Check the stamp or slip before you leave the desk. Its date starts your 90 days.
• If you enter on an ID card, keep the migration slip. With no passport to stamp, the slip is your proof of entry.
• If you needed a visa, keep it valid and have it certified. The residency file asks for the visa itself, not just the fact that you were admitted.

Health requirements

The only official health entry requirement we have found is for yellow fever. Under Resolución S.G. N° 268/2025 of the Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social (the health ministry), foreigners arriving from a yellow fever risk area must show an International Certificate of Vaccination against yellow fever, on paper or in digital form. In January 2026 the ministry said this applies to people aged 1 to 59. It also said the vaccine must be given at least 10 days before travel. The risk areas are defined region by region, not country by country. The ministry's January 2026 list was:

• Bolivia: Santa Cruz.
• Brazil: Amazonas, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Roraima.
• Colombia: Caquetá, Huila, Nariño, Putumayo, Vaupés and Tolima.
• Guyana: Boa Vista and Siparuni.
• Peru: Huánuco, Junín, Madre de Dios, San Martín and Ucayali.

The ministry calls this list dynamic. Check it again shortly before you travel, especially if you are arriving overland from Brazil or Bolivia.

We have found no other officially published health requirement for tourist entry.

Why most applicants arrive as tourists

Paraguayan residency is applied for in person, in Paraguay. The usual way to get there is an ordinary visitor entry. The law allows for exactly this: at the end of an authorised stay you must "leave the national territory or apply for residency". Once your application is admitted you receive precarious-resident status, which the migration authority states lets you remain, leave, re-enter and work while the file is processed. See temporary residency for what follows.

Two cautions. The four-country exemption is written for tourism, so answer the border officer's questions truthfully. And the clock matters: late documents, or an appointment booked for day 89, leave you relying on a discretionary extension that the law allows only once.

What we would actually do

1. Check your nationality against the foreign ministry's current list the week you book, not the month you start planning. If you appear on more than one list, or on none, email visas@mre.gov.py and keep the reply.
2. If you need a visa, apply at a real consulate at least 30 days out, and say you intend to apply for residency. The visa goes into your residency file, certified by the foreign ministry.
3. Pick one identity document and use it for the whole process. If you hold a MERCOSUR ID card and a passport, enter on the one you will file with. That way your entry record and your identity document match. If you enter on the card, keep the migration slip.
4. If you are arriving from a listed yellow fever area, get vaccinated at least 10 days before travel and carry the certificate.
5. At the border, get the stamp and check the date. Photograph it that evening.
6. Arrive with your apostilled and translated documents already complete and your filing appointment inside the first 90 days. Treat the one-time extension as a reserve, not a plan.

This is general information on Paraguay's published entry rules, not legal advice. Admission is always decided at the border.