2026-10-04Finding

CA-4 is two instruments, and almost everything written about it conflates them

Three researchers read the Central American instruments separately and all three landed on the same distinction. It is not the one the phrase "CA-4 free movement" suggests.

The first instrument is free movement for the four countries' own nationals - Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. It rests on presidential agreements, taken into the Central American integration system in 1991 and extended from land travel to air by a vice-ministerial resolution in 1997. It is not a ratified treaty and no single document states it in full.

The second is the Central American Single Visa, a treaty of 30 June 2005. It governs how the four treat nationals of everywhere else: one harmonised classification, ninety days for the region granted at the first outer border, extendable once.

The regional manual that implements the treaty is the document most often cited as proof of CA-4 free movement, and it is addressed to third-country nationals from its first line. Searched for the words for identity card and for nationals of the member states, it contains neither. It is not about the four countries' own citizens at all.

What the treaty does say, in article VII, is that the single visa carries no implied residence. The manual adds that a visitor may not work, and that even a resident of one member state may not work in another they are visiting. So membership of this bloc means a person may move. It does not mean they may stay, work or settle - everything beyond movement is each country's own law.

One more set is routinely mistaken for this one. Several Central American constitutions privilege nationals of the republics of the former Central American Federation for nationality purposes, and that set includes Costa Rica. It is wider than these four, and it does a different thing: it shortens the road to citizenship rather than opening a border. Guatemala's migration code reaches wider still, saying simply centroamericanos, subject to reciprocity.

Sources3 · all accessed 2026-10-04

consolidates
Convenio Centroamericano de Libre Movilidad (CA-4) - OCAM, Secretaría General del SICA
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
consolidates
Resolución CA-4 de los Viceministros de Gobernación o del Interior
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
consolidates
Convenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana, art. VII - quoted for what the group does NOT confer
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source