Becoming Salvadoran
This replaces the general rule for you
Central Americans Become Salvadoran by Birth, Not by Naturalisation
This is not a faster naturalisation, it is a different status. The Constitution lets anyone from the states that made up the Federal Republic of Central America declare before the competent authorities that they wish to be Salvadoran, with no renunciation of their own nationality required, and the result is Salvadoran by birth. The migration law adds a year of permanent residence and domicile in the country, and the fee schedule charges a hundred and fifty dollars against seven hundred for naturalisation. The difference between the two statuses is not cosmetic. A naturalised Salvadoran loses the nationality after two consecutive years back in the country of origin or five years anywhere abroad, and permanently on a final conviction for a serious intentional crime. A Salvadoran by birth loses it only by express renunciation and may recover it by asking. The constitutional route also reaches further than the CA-4: the Federal Republic was El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Five years of residence for anyone, one year for Spaniards and Spanish Americans, two for the spouse of a Salvadoran - and separately, for Central Americans, a route that is not naturalisation at all but a declaration of Salvadoran nationality by birth. The Constitution sets the periods and the migration law repeats them, with one difference that matters: the Constitution says 'residencia' and the law, since the 2023 rewrite, says 'residencia definitiva' for the one-year Spanish and Spanish American route while counting temporary and permanent residence together for the five-year and two-year ones. The 2023 rewrite also added a fifth ground the Constitution does not contain, for foreigners meeting the requirements of government investor or donor programmes. The requirement most likely to stop an application is documentary rather than temporal: the file must include a certificate from the applicant's own country stating that that country permits dual nationality. Naturalised status is the weaker kind - it is lost by two consecutive years back in the country of origin or five years anywhere abroad, and by a final conviction for a serious intentional crime, after which it can never be recovered.
At a glance
- Ordinary qualifying period
- 5 years of residence
- Spaniards and Spanish Americans
- 1 year of permanent residence
- Spouse of a Salvadoran
- 2 years of residence
Constitution article 92 ordinal 4 and article 156 numeral 3 of the migration law, both quoted in full on the marriage record.
- Central Americans
- Nationality by birth after 1 year of permanent residence
Not naturalisation. Constitution article 90 ordinal 3 and article 155 of the migration law.
- Does temporary residence count
- Yes, for the five-year and two-year routes
- Renunciation of the previous nationality
- Not required, but dual nationality must be permitted by the other country
- Naturalisation fee
- USD 700
- Central American nationality fee
- USD 150
From the same fee schedule, on the line reading "Otorgamiento de la nacionalidad salvadoreña a los centroamericanos de origen de $ 150.00", quoted in full on the regional-treaty record.
- Loss by residence in the country of origin
- 2 consecutive years
- Loss by absence from El Salvador
- 5 consecutive years
- Permission to be absent
- Up to 7 years, on application
Article 280 of the migration law caps the period that may be asked for at seven years.
- Loss by serious criminal conviction
- Permanent, cannot be recoveredas of 2026-03-23
Requirements
- Five years of residence in the country for a foreigner of any origin, counting temporary and permanent residence
- One year of permanent residence for a person from Spain or a Spanish American country
- Two years of residence for the spouse of a Salvadoran, before or after the wedding, counting temporary and permanent residence
- A permanent residence card
- A birth certificate, and a current passport
- A Salvadoran police clearance and criminal record certificate
- A certificate from the embassy or consulate of the country of origin stating that that country permits dual nationality
- Marriage and spouse's documents where married
- Payment of the fee
How the process runs
- Step 1
Hold permanent residence
The file needs a permanent resident card, whatever the ground and however the qualifying time was accumulated.
- Step 2
Get the dual-nationality certificate
Embassy or consulate of the country of origin
From your own country's embassy or consulate, stating that it permits dual nationality.
- Step 3
File with the migration directorate
Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería
Form F39 for naturalisation or F38 for the Central American route, with the birth certificate, passport, Salvadoran police clearance and criminal record certificate, marriage documents where relevant, and the fee receipt.
- Step 4
Edict and objections
The law provides for an edict and for anyone to report an impediment, then a hearing on any impediment raised.
- Step 5
Resolution, oath and publication
A resolution of naturalisation, a date fixed for the oath and protest, and publication.
Country-level policy
El Salvador adopted the United States dollar as legal tender by a decree of November 2000, and the statutes written since then state money in dollars with no national unit behind it: a thousand dollars of duty-free goods, fifteen thousand dollars CIF of household effects, a seven-hundred-dollar naturalisation fee, a six-thousand-six-hundred-dollar exempt band. Nothing on this country's pages needs converting, and a figure that looks converted has been mishandled. Two residues are worth knowing about. The Social Security Law of 1953 still fixes the State's annual contribution in colones, a currency that no longer circulates, because nobody has amended that sentence. And since 2021 bitcoin has also been legal tender - amended in January 2025 so that acceptance is voluntary and only private persons may accept it, with the obligation to accept, the state conversion mechanism and payment of taxes in bitcoin all repealed.
El Salvador applies four different presence tests and they do not agree with each other, so which one binds depends on the status held. A temporary resident must be in the country at least ninety calendar days a year, consecutive or added up - a presence quota introduced in March 2026 and the newest rule of the four. A pensioner or rentista loses the status after six months away, consecutive or cumulative in a calendar year. A permanent resident may be away two years outright, then up to one more with permission and further extensions on application. And someone trying to regularise after ten years of irregular stay has their clock broken by six months' absence. For tax, two hundred consecutive days make you domiciled, and once domiciled for more than a calendar year you may be away a hundred and sixty-five days without losing it. A plan built on one of these figures is not safe against another.
Most countries in this region put their migration fees in a ministerial schedule that can be reissued without anyone noticing, and several of them write the amounts in an index unit rather than in money. El Salvador does neither: article 325 of the migration law is a fee schedule running to several dozen lines, stated in dollars, and it can only be changed by amending the law. That has a second consequence worth knowing. The schedule charges a non-Central American roughly twice what it charges a Central American for the same service, line after line - a hundred and forty dollars against seventy for a year of temporary residence, three hundred and forty-five against a hundred and thirty-five for first-time permanent residence, sixty against a hundred for permission to be absent. Humanitarian cases may be exempted from the fees altogether.
What applies to you
Central Americans Become Salvadoran by Birth, Not by Naturalisation
This is not a faster naturalisation, it is a different status. The Constitution lets anyone from the states that made up the Federal Republic of Central America declare before the competent authorities that they wish to be Salvadoran, with no renunciation of their own nationality required, and the result is Salvadoran by birth. The migration law adds a year of permanent residence and domicile in the country, and the fee schedule charges a hundred and fifty dollars against seven hundred for naturalisation. The difference between the two statuses is not cosmetic. A naturalised Salvadoran loses the nationality after two consecutive years back in the country of origin or five years anywhere abroad, and permanently on a final conviction for a serious intentional crime. A Salvadoran by birth loses it only by express renunciation and may recover it by asking. The constitutional route also reaches further than the CA-4: the Federal Republic was El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
- Origin in one of the states that constituted the Federal Republic of Central America
- Domicile in El Salvador
- One year of permanent residence
- An application declaring the wish to be Salvadoran by birth
- No renunciation of the nationality of origin
What the law says
«1º.-Los españoles e hispanoamericanos de origen que tuvieren un año de residencia en el país;»Our translation - not official
1. Spaniards and Spanish Americans by origin who have one year of residence in the country;
The Constitution says 'residencia' without qualifying it. Article 156 numeral 1 of the migration law, as rewritten in 2023, says 'residencia definitiva' - permanent residence - which is a narrower reading of the same ground.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
El Salvador's legislature, which publishes the consolidated Constitution and individual decrees.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its Constitution PDF must not be quoted across an article heading or a rule line: the text extracts with literal backslash escapes around headings, and our normaliser strips asterisks and underscores but not backslashes, so a correct quotation spanning one of them fails verification. Quote inside the body of an ordinal instead.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«2º.-Los extranjeros de cualquier origen que tuvieren cinco años de residencia en el país;»Our translation - not official
2. Foreigners of any origin who have five years of residence in the country;
About this source
El Salvador's legislature, which publishes the consolidated Constitution and individual decrees.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its Constitution PDF must not be quoted across an article heading or a rule line: the text extracts with literal backslash escapes around headings, and our normaliser strips asterisks and underscores but not backslashes, so a correct quotation spanning one of them fails verification. Quote inside the body of an ordinal instead.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Los extranjeros de cualquier origen que tuvieren cinco años de residencia en el país, contando las residencias temporales y definitivas.»Our translation - not official
Foreigners of any origin who have five years of residence in the country, counting temporary and permanent residences.
Reform (1): Decreto Legislativo 918 of 20 December 2023, Diario Oficial 5, Tomo 442, of 9 January 2024. The words 'contando las residencias temporales y definitivas' are the rewrite's contribution and they settle a question the Constitution leaves open.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Certificación emitida por la embajada o consulado del país de origen del interesado, que exprese que ese país permite la doble nacionalidad.»Our translation - not official
A certificate issued by the embassy or consulate of the applicant's country of origin stating that that country permits dual nationality.
The hardest requirement in the list, and it is not about El Salvador. A consulate that does not issue statements of its own country's nationality law leaves the applicant with nothing to file, and the article's escape clause - the directorate may waive requirements - is written for numerals 1 and 3 only, and only for the spouse of a Salvadoran.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Carnet de residente definitivo.»Our translation - not official
A permanent resident card.
Naturalisation is reached from permanent residence, not from temporary residence - even where the qualifying time was counted on a temporary permit.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Por sentencia ejecutoriada, en aquellos casos que se obtenga una condena por la comisión de delitos dolosos graves. Quien pierda así la nacionalidad, no podrá recuperarla.»Our translation - not official
By a final judgment, in cases where a conviction is obtained for the commission of serious intentional crimes. Whoever loses nationality in this way may not recover it.
Reform (3) in the consolidated text's legend: Decreto Legislativo 531 of 17 March 2026, Diario Oficial 57, Tomo 450, of 23 March 2026. The constitutional ground at article 94 ordinal 2 says only 'en los casos que determine la ley'; this is the law determining them.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«1º.-Por residir más de dos años consecutivos en el país de origen o por ausencia del territorio de la República por más de cinco años consecutivos, salvo en caso de permiso otorgado conforme a la ley;»Our translation - not official
1. By residing more than two consecutive years in the country of origin, or by absence from the territory of the Republic for more than five consecutive years, except where a permission has been granted in accordance with the law;
Two years in the old country, five anywhere else - the asymmetry is in the Constitution itself, and it applies only to the naturalised. A Salvadoran by birth, including a Central American who took the article 90 route, is not reached by it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
El Salvador's legislature, which publishes the consolidated Constitution and individual decrees.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its Constitution PDF must not be quoted across an article heading or a rule line: the text extracts with literal backslash escapes around headings, and our normaliser strips asterisks and underscores but not backslashes, so a correct quotation spanning one of them fails verification. Quote inside the body of an ordinal instead.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Otorgamiento de la nacionalidad salvadoreña por naturalización $ 700.00»Our translation - not official
Grant of Salvadoran nationality by naturalisation, $700.00
The most expensive single item in the migration fee schedule, and more than four and a half times the $150 charged for the Central American route to nationality by birth.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Constitution lists four naturalisation grounds and the migration law lists five. The fifth, for foreigners meeting the requirements of government investor or donor programmes, was added by Decreto Legislativo 918 of 2023 and has no counterpart in article 92. The third constitutional ground - nationality granted by the Legislative Assembly for notable services to the Republic - has no counterpart in article 156. We record the difference without taking a view on it: both texts are in force and we have read neither any ruling on the point nor any Assembly practice.
The naturalisation file is assembled against article 159, which we read in full. The dual-nationality certificate at numeral 7 is the requirement we would expect to defeat most applications, because it has to be issued by a body El Salvador does not control.
Nothing here is a route for a descendant of a Salvadoran: that person is already Salvadoran by birth under article 90 ordinal 2 and the question is registration, not naturalisation.
- issuesConstitución de la República de El Salvador
Asamblea Legislativa de la Republica de El Salvador
About this source
El Salvador's legislature, which publishes the consolidated Constitution and individual decrees.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its Constitution PDF must not be quoted across an article heading or a rule line: the text extracts with literal backslash escapes around headings, and our normaliser strips asterisks and underscores but not backslashes, so a correct quotation spanning one of them fails verification. Quote inside the body of an ordinal instead.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLey Especial de Migración y de Extranjería, consolidated text with reform legend
Centro de Documentacion Judicial, Corte Suprema de Justicia (El Salvador)
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersNacionalizaciones y naturalizaciones - formularios
Direccion General de Migracion y Extranjeria (El Salvador)
About this source
Decides every Salvadoran migration application and publishes the numbered application forms applicants work from.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for anything about the law. Its service pages are a sentence and a link, and the law, the regulation, the visa-required country list and all forty-five forms sit on Google Drive - which cannot be stored or compared, so a change there is invisible to us. Its own copy of the migration law is a 2020 snapshot predating three reforms, and every service page read carries a 2020 date while the statute has moved in 2023, 2025 and 2026. It cannot be cited for the visa-required nationalities at all.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source