Residency Under a Regional Treaty
Bolivia is in both South American blocs at once - a full member of the Andean Community and, since 2024, a full member of Mercosur - and it runs a separate residence route for each. Both give two years of temporary residence converting into permanent residence, and both cost 450 UFV at each stage, against 2510 UFV for ordinary permanent residence after three years. Which one is open to you depends on your nationality, and the lists are narrower than the phrase "Mercosur associated state" suggests: the migration directorate publishes the Mercosur route for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay only.
At a glance
- Blocs Bolivia belongs to
- Andean Community and Mercosur, both as a full member
- Temporary stage, either route
- 2 years
- Permanent stage
- Indefinite, applied for in the 90 days before the temporary permit expires
- Fee at each stage
- 450 UFVas of 2026-09-27
- Compared with the ordinary route
- 3 years and 2510 UFV for permanent residence
- Income test at the temporary stage
- None on either route
- Mercosur route published for
- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
- Andean route published for
- Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Requirements
- Nationality of a country covered by one of the two instruments Bolivia applies - the Andean Migration Statute or the 2002 Residence Agreement
- A passport, identity card or certificate of nationality from a consul of your country accredited in Bolivia
- Record certificates from your country of origin or wherever you lived in the five years before arriving, plus Bolivian ones
- A sworn declaration before the migration authority of having no international criminal or police record
- At the permanent stage: proof of lawful means of support and the current two-year permit
- The migration status you entered on does not matter, and neither route charges the fines an irregular stay would otherwise attract
In detail
Two treaties, one border, and they do not cover the same people
A Peruvian, a Colombian or an Ecuadorian moving to Bolivia uses the Andean Migration Statute, Decision 878, and nothing else: the migration directorate publishes no Mercosur route for them, even though all three are Mercosur associated states. An Argentine, Brazilian, Paraguayan, Uruguayan or Chilean uses the 2002 Residence Agreement, and no Andean route is open to them. Nobody gets a choice between the two, which is how it works in Ecuador and Peru but not here.
Why Chile is in and Colombia is out
The agreement Bolivia applies is the one titled "for nationals of the States Parties of Mercosur, Bolivia and Chile", signed in Brasilia in 2002 by the four Mercosur members plus those two. Its signatory list, not the modern category of associated state, is what decides who is covered. Chile signed it; Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname did not, and the migration directorate's procedure catalogue matches the signatory list exactly.
What the treaty routes are actually worth
Two years instead of three to permanent residence, no income test at the temporary stage, 450 UFV instead of 2510 at the permanent one, and - under both instruments - the right to apply whatever migration status you are currently in, with fines waived. Against that, both ask for proof of lawful means of support at the permanent stage, which the ordinary route also asks for.
Country-level policy
Bolivia does not set migration fees in money. It sets them in Unidades de Fomento a la Vivienda, an inflation-indexed unit whose value in bolivianos is published daily, and you pay the boliviano equivalent on the day you pay. Every figure on this country's pages is therefore a number of UFV: quoting it in bolivianos without saying so would be publishing a number that goes quietly stale.
Bolivia cancels a residence permit for absence, and the test is different at each level. A temporary permit allows 90 days a year out of the country, counted whether the days are consecutive or scattered. A permanent permit allows two continuous years. The two are not the same kind of rule: the temporary one is an annual quota, so four separate trips of a month each breach it, while the permanent one only bites on an unbroken absence.
Whatever route you take, the migration directorate attaches the same condition to it: you have to file a sworn statement of your current address on its online platform. The notice appears word for word on every residence procedure Bolivia publishes, from a 30-day tourist extension to naturalisation, and it names the decree that introduced it.
On 30 March 2026 Bolivia created a government-wide deregulation programme called Tranca Cero. It builds a single national catalogue of procedures and provides that, once that catalogue is fully in place, no requirement outside it may be demanded. The migration directorate has put a notice at the top of its own procedures page saying its published requirements are the ones currently in force and that the changes coming out of the programme will be added when the implementing rules appear. Everything on Bolivia's pages should be read against that.
Exceptions by origin
Andean Migration Statute - Two Years to Permanent Residence
Colombians, Ecuadorians and Peruvians get the Andean route, and only the Andean route. Two years of temporary residence with no income test, then permanent residence applied for in the ninety days before it expires, at 450 UFV each. The migration directorate runs it as a pair of procedures named for Decision 878, and it does not publish the Mercosur route for these nationalities even though all three are Mercosur associated states.
- Nationality of Colombia, Ecuador or Peru
- A sworn declaration form stating the intention to establish Andean temporary residence in Bolivia
- A valid passport or national identity document with at least six months to run, being the one you entered on
- A certificate showing no police, judicial or criminal record in your country of origin or wherever you lived in the five years before arriving
- Bolivian police and criminal record certificates - CUDAP from the anti-crime force and REJAP
- A sworn declaration before the migration authority of having no international criminal or police record
- A current photograph and proof of payment
- At the permanent stage: the current two-year Andean permit, plus proof of lawful means of support through work or family documents
Mercosur Residence Agreement - Two Years, Then Permanent
Argentines, Brazilians, Paraguayans and Uruguayans use the 2002 Residence Agreement: two years of temporary residence on identity and a clean record, converting into permanent residence in the ninety days before it expires, at 450 UFV each stage. The migration directorate publishes it as a separate bilateral procedure for each country rather than as one route with a list.
- Nationality of a country that signed the 2002 Residence Agreement
- A sworn declaration form applying for the temporary residence
- A valid passport, identity card, or certificate of nationality issued by a consul of your country accredited in Bolivia
- Where a family link has to be proved to start the procedure: a birth or marriage certificate certified by that consul
- If you took your nationality by naturalisation: the document granting it, certified or legalised
- A record certificate from your country of origin or wherever you lived in the five years before arriving; a Bolivian criminal record certificate if you declare you were here irregularly in those five years
- A sworn declaration before the migration directorate of having no international criminal or police record
- A current photograph and proof of payment
- At the permanent stage: the current two-year permit, a Bolivian criminal record certificate, and proof of lawful means of support
Chileans: the Mercosur Route, Plus a Free Bilateral One
Chile is the only Mercosur associated state whose nationals Bolivia gives the Residence Agreement route to, because Chile signed the 2002 agreement itself. On top of that Bolivia runs a bilateral migration cooperation agreement with Chile that grants the same two years of temporary residence and charges nothing at all, against 450 UFV for the Mercosur version.
- A sworn declaration form applying for the two-year temporary residence under the Bolivia-Chile migration cooperation agreement
- A valid passport, identity card or certificate of nationality issued by a Chilean consul accredited in Bolivia
- A certificate showing no judicial, criminal or police record in your country of origin or wherever you lived in the five years before arriving - not required under 14
- A Bolivian criminal record certificate, REJAP - not required for minors
- A sworn declaration before the migration authority of having no international criminal or police record
- A current photograph
Argentines: a Bilateral Route at Six Units of Account
Alongside the Mercosur route, Bolivia runs a bilateral agreement with Argentina with its own pair of procedures. The temporary one costs the same 450 UFV. The permanent one costs 6 UFV - about one four-hundredth of what the ordinary permanent residence costs, and one seventy-fifth of the Mercosur equivalent. It is the cheapest residence grant in Bolivia's published catalogue by a wide margin.
- A sworn declaration form applying for the temporary residence under the Bolivia-Argentina bilateral agreement
- A valid passport, national identity document or certificate of nationality issued by a consul accredited in Bolivia, or a copy of one authenticated by the Argentine consulate
- A marriage certificate certified by that consul, for married applicants
- A certificate from the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia or from the Argentine Federal Police, or an equivalent from wherever you lived in the five years before arriving
- A Bolivian criminal record certificate if you declare you were here irregularly in the last five years - not required under 14
- A sworn declaration before the migration authority of having no international criminal or police record
- A current photograph
What the law says
«La permanencia también podrá ser concedida según los Acuerdos y Convenios Internacionales, ratificados por el Estado.»Our translation - not official
The stay may also be granted in accordance with International Agreements and Conventions ratified by the State.
One sentence is the whole statutory basis for both treaty routes. Everything else comes from the instruments themselves.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A labour-law database that holds national gazettes' own PDFs. Used here only where a country's gazette and consolidator were both unreachable, so that the artefact quoted is still the gazette's own file even though the host is not the gazette.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the law as currently in force. A record is created once and holds the text as enacted; later amending instruments are not reflected in the file, so anything taken from it must be checked against a consolidator before being treated as current. Its own page rendering also splits words inside sentences, so quotations must come from the attached PDF rather than from the page.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
«Es la autorización para residir o permanecer en el país de manera definitiva, otorgada a las personas migrantes extranjeras que cuenten con una permanencia mínima de tres (3) años y así lo soliciten expresamente.»Our translation - not official
It is the authorisation to reside or remain in the country permanently, granted to foreign migrant persons who hold a minimum stay of three (3) years and expressly apply for it.
Quoted here because the year the treaty routes save is measured against this rule, not against anything in the treaties.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A labour-law database that holds national gazettes' own PDFs. Used here only where a country's gazette and consolidator were both unreachable, so that the artefact quoted is still the gazette's own file even though the host is not the gazette.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the law as currently in force. A record is created once and holds the text as enacted; later amending instruments are not reflected in the file, so anything taken from it must be checked against a consolidator before being treated as current. Its own page rendering also splits words inside sentences, so quotations must come from the attached PDF rather than from the page.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
«La República Argentina, la República Federativa del Brasil, la República de Paraguay y la República Oriental del Uruguay, Estados Partes del Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR), la República de Bolivia y la República de Chile, Estados Asociados.»Our translation - not official
The Argentine Republic, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, States Parties of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Republic of Bolivia and the Republic of Chile, Associated States.
Two separate agreements were signed in Brasilia on the same day: one among the four Mercosur members, and this one, which adds Bolivia and Chile by name. Bolivia's Mercosur residence route comes from a treaty it signed as an associated state in 2002, not from the membership it acquired in 2024. Read at Uruguay's official legal publisher, which prints both texts as annexed to the law approving them; we could not retrieve a Bolivian copy.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Uruguay's official information centre, holding the consolidated text of Uruguayan law including the migration statute, Ley 18.250.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Ley 18.250 delegates the actual periods of stay to regulation, so the numbers a traveller cares about are not in the statute and will not change when it does. Reading only the law here gives the structure and not the durations.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Los Países Miembros de la Comunidad Andina son Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú y los que se adhieran al Acuerdo de Cartagena.»Our translation - not official
The Member Countries of the Andean Community are Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and those that accede to the Cartagena Agreement.
The membership of the Andean Community stated by the Community's own instrument in its official gazette.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Where a decision of the Andean Community takes effect. The source for the Andean Migration Statute and for who the member countries are.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for how any member state actually implements a decision: Bolivia's own practice on tourist days diverges from the statute it is bound by. Note also that a scraper's rendering of its gazette silently dropped the opening clause of an article, so quotations should be taken from the PDF's own text layer.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«El Protocolo de Adhesión de Bolivia al MERCOSUR fue firmado por la totalidad de los Estados Partes en 2015. El Instrumento de Ratificación fue entregado por Bolivia en julio de 2024 y tiene un plazo de hasta 4 años para incorporar el acervo normativo del bloque.»Our translation - not official
Bolivia's Protocol of Accession to MERCOSUR was signed by all the States Parties in 2015. The Instrument of Ratification was delivered by Bolivia in July 2024, and it has up to 4 years to incorporate the bloc's body of rules.
Bolivia is listed as a State Party, not as an associated state. The four-year window for taking on the acquis is why Bolivian practice can still lag behind what membership implies.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The bloc's own institutional pages, and the only authority on who its member and associated states currently are - which is not the same question as who is party to the Residence Agreement.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for treaty texts. Its document pages are stubs whose download links do not resolve, and its normative database refuses automated readers. Membership is all it establishes; whether an agreement reaches a given nationality in a given country is a matter for that country's own sources.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«costo: 450 UFVs»Our translation - not official
cost: 450 UFV
About this source
The migration directorate. Runs the migration system and publishes the requirement and fee catalogue for every procedure, differentiated by the applicant's nationality - which is how the difference between an Andean, a Mercosur and an ordinary applicant becomes visible at all.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the text of any instrument: it paraphrases and mis-titles them, calling SEGIP's counterpart the "Dirección Nacional de Migración". Cannot be cited for the visa-group lists, which it never publishes, nor for how tourist requirements differ by nationality - its tourist rows are identical for every country and demand a consular visa even of visa-exempt ones, which contradicts Decision 878. Two of its requirement fields ship with developer placeholder text still in them. The citable text is a JSON feed on a non-standard port, so a publisher-origin match will not find it.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«costo: 450 UFVs»Our translation - not official
cost: 450 UFV
The same figure on both treaty routes, read from two different nationalities' catalogues.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Runs the migration system and publishes the requirement and fee catalogue for every procedure, differentiated by the applicant's nationality - which is how the difference between an Andean, a Mercosur and an ordinary applicant becomes visible at all.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the text of any instrument: it paraphrases and mis-titles them, calling SEGIP's counterpart the "Dirección Nacional de Migración". Cannot be cited for the visa-group lists, which it never publishes, nor for how tourist requirements differ by nationality - its tourist rows are identical for every country and demand a consular visa even of visa-exempt ones, which contradicts Decision 878. Two of its requirement fields ship with developer placeholder text still in them. The citable text is a JSON feed on a non-standard port, so a publisher-origin match will not find it.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«costo: 2510 UFVS»Our translation - not official
cost: 2510 UFV
The ordinary permanent-residence fee the treaty routes are being compared with.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The migration directorate. Runs the migration system and publishes the requirement and fee catalogue for every procedure, differentiated by the applicant's nationality - which is how the difference between an Andean, a Mercosur and an ordinary applicant becomes visible at all.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the text of any instrument: it paraphrases and mis-titles them, calling SEGIP's counterpart the "Dirección Nacional de Migración". Cannot be cited for the visa-group lists, which it never publishes, nor for how tourist requirements differ by nationality - its tourist rows are identical for every country and demand a consular visa even of visa-exempt ones, which contradicts Decision 878. Two of its requirement fields ship with developer placeholder text still in them. The citable text is a JSON feed on a non-standard port, so a publisher-origin match will not find it.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«dentro de los noventa (90) días anteriores al vencimiento de la Residencia Temporal Andina»Our translation - not official
within the ninety (90) days preceding the expiry of the Andean Temporary Residence
The 2002 Residence Agreement fixes the same ninety-day window in its article 5, so the two instruments happen to agree.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Where a decision of the Andean Community takes effect. The source for the Andean Migration Statute and for who the member countries are.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for how any member state actually implements a decision: Bolivia's own practice on tourist days diverges from the statute it is bound by. Note also that a scraper's rendering of its gazette silently dropped the opening clause of an article, so quotations should be taken from the PDF's own text layer.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«tiempo_procesamiento: 24 horas desde la presentación de todos los requisitos, tanto por la Plataforma Web, Estado Digital ED-9 o de manera presencial en nuestras oficinas.»Our translation - not official
processing time: 24 hours from the submission of all the requirements, whether through the Web Platform, Digital State ED-9 or in person at our offices.
About this source
The migration directorate. Runs the migration system and publishes the requirement and fee catalogue for every procedure, differentiated by the applicant's nationality - which is how the difference between an Andean, a Mercosur and an ordinary applicant becomes visible at all.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the text of any instrument: it paraphrases and mis-titles them, calling SEGIP's counterpart the "Dirección Nacional de Migración". Cannot be cited for the visa-group lists, which it never publishes, nor for how tourist requirements differ by nationality - its tourist rows are identical for every country and demand a consular visa even of visa-exempt ones, which contradicts Decision 878. Two of its requirement fields ship with developer placeholder text still in them. The citable text is a JSON feed on a non-standard port, so a publisher-origin match will not find it.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The migration directorate does not publish a Mercosur residence route for nationals of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana or Suriname. We checked each of those nationalities against its procedure catalogue and none of them returns one.
Each Mercosur procedure is published bilaterally - "Bolivia and Argentina", "Bolivia and Brazil", and so on - rather than as one route with a list of qualifying nationalities. That is unusual and is worth remembering when comparing with Argentina or Uruguay, which publish a single route and a list.
Bolivia additionally runs a bilateral agreement with Argentina and a migration cooperation agreement with Chile that sit alongside the Mercosur route and are cheaper still.
We did not read the instrument by which Bolivia ratified the 2002 agreement, nor any Bolivian decree implementing Decision 878. What is recorded here is the treaty text, the Andean Decision, and what the migration directorate publishes.
- reportsLey N° 370 de Migración de 8 de mayo de 2013 (Gaceta Oficial, via ILO NATLEX)
Gaceta Oficial del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia (copy held by ILO NATLEX)
About this source
A labour-law database that holds national gazettes' own PDFs. Used here only where a country's gazette and consolidator were both unreachable, so that the artefact quoted is still the gazette's own file even though the host is not the gazette.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the law as currently in force. A record is created once and holds the text as enacted; later amending instruments are not reflected in the file, so anything taken from it must be checked against a consolidator before being treated as current. Its own page rendering also splits words inside sentences, so quotations must come from the attached PDF rather than from the page.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
- consolidatesAcuerdos sobre Residencia para Nacionales de los Estados Partes del MERCOSUR y del MERCOSUR, Bolivia y Chile - texto anexo a la Ley N° 17.927
Dirección Nacional de Impresiones y Publicaciones Oficiales (IMPO), Uruguay
About this source
Uruguay's official information centre, holding the consolidated text of Uruguayan law including the migration statute, Ley 18.250.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Ley 18.250 delegates the actual periods of stay to regulation, so the numbers a traveller cares about are not in the statute and will not change when it does. Reading only the law here gives the structure and not the durations.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- issuesGaceta Oficial del Acuerdo de Cartagena N° 4239 - Decisión 878, Estatuto Migratorio Andino
Secretaría General de la Comunidad Andina
About this source
Where a decision of the Andean Community takes effect. The source for the Andean Migration Statute and for who the member countries are.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for how any member state actually implements a decision: Bolivia's own practice on tourist days diverges from the statute it is bound by. Note also that a scraper's rendering of its gazette silently dropped the opening clause of an article, so quotations should be taken from the PDF's own text layer.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- reportsMERCOSUR - Países
MERCOSUR
About this source
The bloc's own institutional pages, and the only authority on who its member and associated states currently are - which is not the same question as who is party to the Residence Agreement.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for treaty texts. Its document pages are stubs whose download links do not resolve, and its normative database refuses automated readers. Membership is all it establishes; whether an agreement reaches a given nationality in a given country is a matter for that country's own sources.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- administersTrámites Migratorios Internacionales - catálogo para nacionales de Colombia
Dirección General de Migración (Bolivia)
About this source
The migration directorate. Runs the migration system and publishes the requirement and fee catalogue for every procedure, differentiated by the applicant's nationality - which is how the difference between an Andean, a Mercosur and an ordinary applicant becomes visible at all.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for the text of any instrument: it paraphrases and mis-titles them, calling SEGIP's counterpart the "Dirección Nacional de Migración". Cannot be cited for the visa-group lists, which it never publishes, nor for how tourist requirements differ by nationality - its tourist rows are identical for every country and demand a consular visa even of visa-exempt ones, which contradicts Decision 878. Two of its requirement fields ship with developer placeholder text still in them. The citable text is a JSON feed on a non-standard port, so a publisher-origin match will not find it.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source