- Paraguay has launched a new Investor Pass Golden Visa program providing immediate permanent residency status.
- Investment options start at $70,000 for business setups or $200,000 for real estate and securities.
- The program offers a path to citizenship in 3 years for those meeting physical residency requirements.
(PARAGUAY) — Paraguay launched a new residency-by-investment program in May 2026, offering international investors what officials call an Investor Pass that grants direct permanent residency (PR) and opens a potential path to citizenship after 3 years.
The program, widely described as a Golden Visa, has drawn attention from Indian nationals looking for alternatives to long U.S. immigrant visa queues. Its core appeal is speed: approved applicants skip the temporary residency stage and receive permanent residency directly, typically in 2–6 months.
Officials formally unveiled the framework on April 17, 2026, through Paraguay’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the National Directorate of Migration. The launch set out a four-track system for investors and tied residency approval to a Foreign Investor Certificate, or CIE.
Marco Riquelme, Paraguay’s minister of industry and commerce, said on April 20, 2026 that the Investor Pass was designed to address the “need to offer greater flexibility to investors”. He added that many international investors “seek to settle in Paraguay first and subsequently develop their investment projects.”
Two days later, the National Directorate of Migration said the program provides “direct access to permanent residency via the Foreign Investor Certificate (CIE), bypassing the temporary residency stage entirely.” That language marked the clearest official confirmation that the route offers direct PR rather than a probationary residency period.
An implementation memo, Resolution N° 0283 dated April 21, 2026, codified the four investment tracks and added anti-money laundering controls. Applicants must file a sworn declaration of the “legal origin and traceability of funds.”
The highest-profile routes require $200,000, or about ₹1.92 crore using an exchange rate of ~₹96 per USD. One is tied to real estate and one to regulated Paraguayan securities, putting the entry cost for the two most passive options at the same level.
The real estate pathway requires an investment linked to economic activities, and applicants can file once they have made a 30% payment. The stock market pathway also starts at $200,000, or ₹1.92 crore, and requires investors to hold regulated Paraguayan securities for at least 2 years.
A third route targets tourism projects at $150,000, or about ₹1.44 crore. It covers hotels and infrastructure projects and requires a business plan.
The lowest entry point is the productive, or SUACE, category at $70,000, roughly ₹67 lakh. That track requires a business setup and the creation of 5 local jobs, making it the least expensive path but also the most operationally demanding.
Successful applicants receive permanent residency that remains valid for 10 years and can be renewed. Paraguay’s standard immigration route normally requires 2 years of temporary residency before permanent status, but the Investor Pass bypasses that stage.
Citizenship becomes available after 3 years of permanent residency, provided the applicant meets physical presence and language rules. Those rules include residence in Paraguay for 183 days/year and knowledge of Spanish or Guaraní.
Interest from Indian investors has risen against a U.S. immigration backdrop that remains tight. The May 2026 U.S. Visa Bulletin showed stagnation in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories for Indians, while the EB-5 unreserved category for India was nearing its limit, raising the prospect of retrogression.
That climate has given the Paraguay offer a role as a fallback for people stuck in employment-based lines, including H-1B workers and families waiting on green card movement. Paraguay also markets a low-tax environment through a territorial tax system and passport access to more than 140 countries, including the Schengen Area and the UK.
Residency maintenance is less demanding than the citizenship track. Paraguay does not impose a strict full-time residence requirement to keep permanent residency, and visiting once every three years is often sufficient, while naturalization requires actual relocation and regular physical presence.
Paraguay’s primary public sources for the program are the [Ministry of Industry and Commerce](https://www.mic.gov.py) and the [National Directorate of Migration](https://www.migraciones.gov.py). U.S. visa backlog data that shape demand for such programs appear in the [U.S. Department of State’s Visa Bulletin](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html), while DHS and USCIS do not issue official statements on foreign residency programs such as Paraguay’s Golden Visa or Investor Pass.
