Philippines and Paraguay Sign Visa Waiver Agreement for Ordinary Passports During State Visit

(MANILA, PHILIPPINES) — The Philippines and Paraguay signed a Visa Waiver Agreement on May 11, 2026, removing visa requirements for holders of ordinary passports during Paraguayan President Santiago Peña Palacios’ two-day state visit to Manila.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro and Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano signed the deal. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and President Santiago Peña Palacios witnessed the signing.

The agreement makes visa-free travel mutual for ordinary passport holders from both countries. Philippine officials said it would institutionalize visa-free privileges to speed business travel, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

Manila and Asunción also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Cooperation in Diplomatic Training. The pact aims to expand skills development and academic exchanges between their diplomatic corps.

Marcos said the new arrangement would formalize a channel both governments see as economic and political. “The Visa Waiver Agreement institutionalizes the mutual provision of visa-free privileges for ordinary passport holders, expediting business, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges between our two countries.”

Peña tied the visit to a wider foreign policy push in Asia. “Accession to the [Treaty of Amity and Cooperation] is not a symbolic act. It is a strategic declaration that positions Paraguay as an actor committed to stability and multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific.”

The Manila visit marked the first by a Paraguayan head of state to the Philippines since diplomatic relations began in 1962. Both governments used the visit to present the agreement as part of a broader effort to deepen ties between Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Earlier travel rules already gave Filipinos some access to Paraguay. As of December 2025, Paraguay had unilaterally allowed Filipino tourists a 30-day visa-free stay.

The new May deal makes that arrangement reciprocal and permanent for ordinary citizens. That changes the legal footing from a one-sided privilege into a bilateral commitment.

Marcos cast the relationship in trade terms as well as diplomatic ones. He described the Philippines as the gateway to Asia and Paraguay as the gateway to Latin America, and said easier travel could lift commerce between ASEAN and MERCOSUR.

Philippine exports stand to gain if business travel becomes easier. Officials identified tuna, sardines, and milkfish as products that could benefit from stronger access to Paraguay.

Paraguay, for its part, wants to ship grains and agro-industrial products to the Philippines. The visa waiver is expected to give companies, officials, and trade delegations fewer administrative hurdles when arranging visits.

The pact sits outside U.S. immigration policy, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and USCIS do not typically issue statements on bilateral visa treaties between third countries. Paraguay has still drawn attention in Washington because of a separate asylum arrangement with the United States.

On August 14, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a bilateral Safe Third Country Agreement with Paraguay. A DHS notice published on December 23, 2025 said Paraguay had agreed to accept the transfer of certain third-country nationals seeking asylum in the United States so they could pursue claims there instead.

DHS framed that policy as part of an effort to share the “burden of managing illegal immigration while shutting down the abuse of the U.S. asylum system.” The department outlines its separate U.S. travel framework on its [Visa Waiver Program Information](https://www.dhs.gov/visa-waiver-program) page.

That U.S.-Paraguay arrangement has not moved smoothly. As of April 22, 2026, Paraguay had begun rejecting some migrants slated for relocation because of documentation failures.

Nothing in Monday’s Manila signing changed that U.S. policy. The new Philippines-Paraguay Visa Waiver Agreement covers ordinary passport travel between the two countries, not asylum processing or migrant transfers.

The distinction matters for how the agreement will operate in practice. It targets routine cross-border travel by citizens, business visitors, and tourists, while the U.S. arrangement concerns third-country nationals seeking protection.

Officials in Manila presented the accord as a bilateral travel and economic measure rather than a migration-control tool. The language around the signing focused on tourism, business, diplomatic exchange, and closer official contact.

That framing also fits the diplomatic training memorandum signed alongside the travel deal. Expanding exchanges between foreign service institutions gives both sides a mechanism to build regular contact beyond summit meetings.

Peña’s visit gave Paraguay a rare presidential platform in the Philippines. For Manila, the ceremony offered a chance to show that its foreign policy push extends beyond long-standing partners in Asia and the West.

The agreement could also reduce friction for smaller business missions that often avoid long-haul exploratory trips when visas add cost or delay. Direct travel without a prior visa can make short commercial visits easier to schedule.

Tourism officials in both countries also stand to gain a simpler pitch. A reciprocal waiver for ordinary passports turns what had been a narrow exemption into a clearer rule travelers can understand without checking for one-sided exceptions.

Ordinary passports are the center of the agreement’s scope. The ceremony highlighted ordinary citizens rather than special categories of travelers.

Marcos’ office outlined the visit in a press statement on the state visit, while U.S. immigration agencies continue to publish separate material through the [USCIS Newsroom](https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom). Those tracks run in parallel, with one focused on bilateral diplomacy and the other on U.S. screening and asylum policy.

Monday’s signing leaves the Philippines and Paraguay with a formal travel accord that both governments cast as a platform for broader ties. In a relationship that has existed since 1962 but rarely drawn much public attention, the first Paraguayan presidential visit to Manila produced a concrete change: visa-free entry for holders of ordinary passports traveling between the two countries.