Country-wide policy
The Migration Fees Are in the Law Itself, in Dollars
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.
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 marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- Expect the fee for a migration service to be in article 325 of the migration law rather than in a ministerial tariff
- Expect the Central American rate to be roughly half the rate for everyone else
- Expect no index unit and no conversion: the amounts are dollars
- Expect an exemption on duly qualified and proven humanitarian grounds
At a glance
- Where the fees live
- In the migration law itself
Article 325, a schedule of several dozen lines inside the statute rather than in a ministerial tariff.
- Unit
- United States dollars
- Temporary residence, one year
- USD 70 Central American, USD 140 otherwise
- Temporary residence, two years
- USD 130 Central American, USD 260 otherwise
- First permanent residence
- USD 135 Central American, USD 345 otherwise
- Permanent residence under a government programme
- USD 690
- Naturalisation
- USD 700
- Central American nationality by birth
- USD 150
- Humanitarian exemption
- Available
What the law says
«Temporal para centroamericanos hasta un año $ 70.00
Temporal para centroamericanos hasta dos años $ 130.00
Temporal para no centroamericanos hasta un año $ 140.00
Temporal para no centroamericanos hasta dos años $ 260.00»Our translation - not official
Temporary for Central Americans up to one year, $70.00. Temporary for Central Americans up to two years, $130.00. Temporary for non-Central Americans up to one year, $140.00. Temporary for non-Central Americans up to two years, $260.00.
Four consecutive lines of the residence block, and the doubling is visible in them: every non-Central American rate is exactly twice the Central American one.
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
«Definitiva para centroamericanos por primera vez, hasta por un año $ 135.00
Definitiva para no centroamericanos por primera vez, hasta por un año $ 345.00
Definitiva para personas extranjeras según el numeral 13) del Art. 152, hasta por un $ 690.00»Our translation - not official
Permanent for Central Americans for the first time, up to one year, $135.00. Permanent for non-Central Americans for the first time, up to one year, $345.00. Permanent for foreign persons under numeral 13 of article 152, up to one year, $690.00.
The third line wraps in the publisher's layout, with the word 'año' falling to the next line after the amount. It was added by Decreto Legislativo 286 of 2025 along with the category it charges for.
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 razones humanitarias debidamente calificadas y comprobadas, las personas podrán exonerarse del pago de servicios migratorios.»Our translation - not official
On duly qualified and proven humanitarian grounds, persons may be exempted from payment for migration services.
Article 109 already exempts five classes of temporary resident - refugees and the stateless, trafficking victims, humanitarian cases, failed asylum seekers at risk and protected witnesses - from the fees and from the general requirement lists.
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
«Otorgamiento de la nacionalidad salvadoreña a los centroamericanos de origen de $ 150.00»Our translation - not official
Grant of Salvadoran nationality to Central Americans by origin, $150.00
The line below it charges $700 for naturalisation, which is the comparison that makes the Central American route worth naming separately.
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
«Otorgamiento de la nacionalidad salvadoreña por naturalización $ 700.00»Our translation - not official
Grant of Salvadoran nationality by naturalisation, $700.00
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