Country-wide policy
Every Figure in Salvadoran Law Is Already a Dollar
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may accept it, with the obligation to accept, the state conversion mechanism and payment of taxes in bitcoin all repealed.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
- Opening a bank account
- Access to healthcare
- Driving and licence exchange
- Bringing your belongings
What it requires
- Read every amount in Salvadoran law as a United States dollar amount
- Expect no exchange rate anywhere: there is no national currency in circulation to convert from
- Treat a figure stated in colones as an unamended residue of a pre-2001 text
- Expect bitcoin to be legal tender but voluntary, and accepted only by private persons and companies
At a glance
- Currency
- United States dollar
- Adopted
- By legislative decree, in force from 2001
Decreto Legislativo 201 of 30 November 2000, published in Diario Oficial 241, Tomo 349, of 22 December 2000, identified by the recital quoted here. We have not read that decree itself.
- Conversion needed on any figure here
- None
Read from the Salvadoran instruments quoted across these pages, which state money in dollars with no national unit behind them. The one residue is article 29 of the Ley del Seguro Social, quoted here, which still fixes the State's annual contribution in colones.
- Bitcoin
- Legal tender, voluntary acceptance
- Who may accept bitcoin
- Natural persons and wholly private entities only
What the law says
«Que bajo el Decreto Legislativo n.° 201, del 30 de noviembre del año 2000, publicado en el Diario Oficial n.° 241, Tomo 349, de fecha 22 de diciembre de 2000, se adoptó el dólar de los Estados Unidos de América como moneda de curso legal.»Our translation - not official
That under Legislative Decree No. 201 of 30 November 2000, published in Official Gazette No. 241, Volume 349, of 22 December 2000, the United States dollar was adopted as legal tender.
The recital identifies the dollarisation decree by number and gazette, which is the citation to follow if the underlying instrument is ever needed. We have not read Decreto Legislativo 201 itself.
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
«Únicamente las personas naturales, o jurídicas con total participación privada, podrán aceptar Bitcoin, como forma de pago cuando así le sea ofrecido por quien adquiere un bien o servicio o para el pago de cualquier obligación monetaria.»Our translation - not official
Only natural persons, or legal persons with wholly private participation, may accept Bitcoin as a means of payment when it is offered by whoever acquires a good or service, or for the payment of any monetary obligation.
Reform (1): Decreto Legislativo 199 of 29 January 2025, Diario Oficial 21, Tomo 446, of 30 January 2025. Article 7 as enacted obliged every economic agent to accept bitcoin; what is left is a permission for the private sector.
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
«El Estado deberá aportar una cuota fija anual no menor de cinco millones de colones»Our translation - not official
The State must contribute a fixed annual amount of not less than five million colones
A sentence written in 1953 and never amended for dollarisation. It is the clearest sign that an old Salvadoran statute may still carry colón figures while every current threshold is in dollars.
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