Central Americans: Free Movement on an Identity Card, and a Shorter Road to Everything Else
Two different things travel under the name CA-4 and only one of them is about residence. The older one is free movement for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, who cross between the four on an identity card rather than a passport; it was extended to air travel in 1997 and it is movement, not settlement. The newer one is the 2005 Convenio creating the Central American Single Visa, which is about third-country nationals and which says in terms that it does not carry residence. What actually gives a Central American a place in El Salvador is the country's own law, and it is generous at every step: the labour-market opinion is waived, temporary residence runs two years for any lawful activity, permanent residence is available directly on regular entry with no prior temporary residence at all, the permit fees are half the foreigner rate, and after a year of permanent residence a Central American can become Salvadoran by birth - not naturalised - without renouncing anything.
At a glance
- Countries in the group
- El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
- Document needed to cross
- Identity card, not a passport
- Air travel inside the group
- Also on an identity card, since 1 November 1997
- Temporary residence for a Central American
- Up to 2 years, any lawful activity
- Labour-market opinion
- Waived
- Permanent residence
- Direct, no prior temporary residence
- Temporary residence fee, two years
- USD 130
Against USD 260 for a non-Central American on the same permit.
- Permanent residence fee, first time
- USD 135
Against USD 345 for a non-Central American.
- Time to Salvadoran nationality
- 1 year of permanent residence
- Kind of nationality obtained
- By birth, not by naturalisation
- Renunciation of the original nationality
- Not required
- Fee for that nationality
- USD 150
Against USD 700 for ordinary naturalisation.
- What the single visa does not give
- Residence, temporary or permanent
Requirements
- For entry and movement: a valid identity document or travel document, as determined by the regional agreements
- For temporary residence: a valid passport or identity document, and a foreign police or criminal record certificate authenticated or apostilled - and nothing else the general article demands
- For a work permit: nothing from the Ministry of Labour; the migration directorate grants the work and stay permit itself
- For permanent residence: entry in regular form, with no prior temporary residence needed
- For Salvadoran nationality by birth: domicile in El Salvador, one year of permanent residence, and an application stating the wish to be Salvadoran
In detail
What the single visa is for
The 2005 Convenio is not about Central Americans at all. It defines 'extranjero' as a national of a third State and creates a harmonised classification of every other country into category A - visa exempt, B - consular visa, and C - visa requiring prior authorisation. A national of a category A country can enter through any peripheral border post of the four and move between them freely. A category B national can do the same once a visa has been issued by any of the four. A category C national can only enter and move in the territory of the state that issued their visa. The permission to stay is decided by the first state entered and travels with the holder; leaving the region through any peripheral post ends it.
What it does not give
Article VII is explicit: the single visa does not imply temporary or permanent residence. The regional manual that implements it is explicit about work as well - a foreigner entering any party state may not carry out commercial activities or paid work in the territory visited, and a foreigner resident in one party state may not work in another. The maximum stay in the region is ninety days, extendable once. So the arrangement is about crossing borders, not about living or earning on the other side of them.
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.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«Las personas centroamericanas podrán ingresar al territorio nacional, mediante la presentación de su documento de identidad o de viaje vigente determinado por los acuerdos regionales respectivos; sin perjuicio de aplicar el principio de reciprocidad.»Our translation - not official
Central American persons may enter the national territory by presenting their valid identity document or travel document as determined by the respective regional agreements, without prejudice to the application of the principle of reciprocity.
The law does not itself say which document; it points at the regional agreements, which is how a 1990s presidential accord ends up governing a 2019 statute.
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
«Extender la libre movilidad de los nacionales de los Países del CA-4 que actualmente se realiza por la vía terrestre, para que se implemente por la vía aérea, para lo cual se requerirá únicamente la presentación de la Cédula o Tarjeta de Identidad vigente;»Our translation - not official
To extend the free movement of nationals of the CA-4 countries, currently carried out by land, so that it is implemented by air, for which only the presentation of a valid Identity Card will be required;
The resolution's fourth operative paragraph adds that the CA-4 form is to carry a clause restricting it to internal movement between the four, which is the limit of what the arrangement does.
Read it at the sourceAbout 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
«Los centroamericanos de origen podrán solicitar residencia temporal con ingreso y salida múltiple para realizar cualquier actividad lícita descrita en la anterior sub-clasificación, por un plazo de hasta dos años prorrogables.»Our translation - not official
Central Americans by origin may apply for temporary residence with multiple entry and exit to carry out any lawful activity described in the above sub-classification, for a term of up to two years, renewable.
A Central American does not have to fit one of the twenty-three grounds; any lawful activity among them will do, at the longest term the article gives.
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
«Si la persona es originaria de un país centroamericano, los requisitos a solicitar son:»Our translation - not official
If the person is from a Central American country, the requirements to be asked for are:
A separate and shorter requirement list than article 110's. It drops the proof of economic solvency and the employer's letter of commitment, leaving the identity document, the foreign police certificate and whatever the regulation adds.
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
«Los centroamericanos por nacimiento que ingresen al país de forma regular, sin que previamente haya adquirido la residencia temporal.»Our translation - not official
Central Americans by birth who enter the country in regular form, without having previously acquired temporary residence.
Permanent residence on arrival. No qualifying period, no prior status, and nothing to show but a regular entry.
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
«Las personas extranjeras originarias de los demás Estados que constituyeron la República Federal de Centro América podrán adquirir la nacionalidad salvadoreña por nacimiento, cuando teniendo domicilio en El Salvador acrediten un año de residencia definitiva en el país y manifiesten a través de una solicitud su voluntad ser salvadoreño por nacimiento ante la autoridad competente»Our translation - not official
Foreign persons from the other States that constituted the Federal Republic of Central America may acquire Salvadoran nationality by birth when, having domicile in El Salvador, they can show one year of permanent residence in the country and declare by application their wish to be Salvadoran by birth before the competent authority
'Por nacimiento' is the whole point. The route does not naturalise a Central American, it declares them Salvadoran by birth, which under article 91 of the Constitution cannot be lost except by express renunciation - unlike naturalisation, which article 94 lets the state withdraw.
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
«3º.-Los originarios de los demás Estados que constituyeron la República Federal de Centro América, que teniendo domicilio en El Salvador, manifiesten ante las autoridades competentes su voluntad de ser salvadoreños, sin que se requiera la renuncia a su nacionalidad de origen.»Our translation - not official
3. Those from the other States that constituted the Federal Republic of Central America who, having domicile in El Salvador, declare before the competent authorities their wish to be Salvadoran, without renunciation of their nationality of origin being required.
The constitutional text names no qualifying period at all; the one year of permanent residence is added by article 155 of the migration law. The states meant are Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which with El Salvador made up the Federal Republic - a wider set than the four of the CA-4.
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
«La Visa Única Centroamericana no conlleva implícita la residencia temporal o permanente en el territorio de las Partes. En consecuencia, los extranjeros que deseen gozar de un status diferente al de ingreso deberán cumplir con los requisitos establecidos por la legislación de cada una de las Partes.»Our translation - not official
The Central American Single Visa does not carry with it temporary or permanent residence in the territory of the Parties. Consequently, foreigners who wish to enjoy a status other than that of entry must meet the requirements laid down by the legislation of each of the Parties.
Ratified for El Salvador by Decreto Legislativo 793 of 24 August 2005, published in Diario Oficial 176, Tomo 368, of 23 September 2005; the instrument of ratification was published in Diario Oficial 224, Tomo 369, of 1 December 2005.
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»Our translation - not official
Permanent for Central Americans for the first time, up to one year, $135.00
The line immediately below it charges a non-Central American $345 for the same thing.
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 next line charges $700 for naturalisation. The schedule's own wording continues 'conformidad al Art. 90 ord. 3º de la Constitución', the constitutional ground.
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
El Salvador applies the regional ADE/RESERVA measure in its own regulation. Article 27 lets the directorate cut the stay granted at a land border to someone who arrives on time given by Guatemala, Honduras or Nicaragua where that person is living, working or studying without authorisation, or carrying out unaccredited activities. This is the mechanism that defeats the border run, and it is in national law rather than only in the regional manual.
The free-movement arrangement for nationals of the four rests on presidential accords and ministerial resolutions rather than on a ratified treaty, which is why the migration law refers to 'los acuerdos regionales respectivos' instead of naming an instrument. The 1997 resolution read here is the one that extended it to air travel; we have not read the original land-border accord.
Two different sets of countries are in play and they are easy to conflate. The CA-4 is El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The constitutional nationality route at article 90 ordinal 3 refers to the states of the former Federal Republic of Central America, which also takes in Costa Rica.
- consolidatesConvenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana, with the SG-SICA certification and El Salvador's instrument of ratification
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
- reportsManual Regional de Procedimientos Migratorios de la Visa Única Centroamericana CA-4
Observatorio de las Migraciones Internacionales en Honduras, UNAH
About this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCA-4 - Comisión Centroamericana de Directores de Migración
Secretaria General del Sistema de la Integracion 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
- consolidatesResolución CA-4 de los Viceministros de Gobernación o del Interior, 16 de septiembre de 1997
Secretaria General del Sistema de la Integracion 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
- 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