Residence in Guatemala Through Investment
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of South Korea on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match South Korea to Guatemala · Residency through investment
The investor residence is a temporary one of up to five years, and the test is a single amount: the applicant has to show membership of one or more commercial structures and/or investment in the acquisition of movable or immovable property, for an amount of a hundred thousand dollars. The regulation does not prescribe a particular vehicle. It takes registry certifications, title to securities, invoices for property, plant and equipment, evidence of where the funds came from, or anything else, and it asks for a notarised sworn statement describing the economic activity and how long the applicant expects to stay. Renewal needs only a further sworn statement that the activity has continued, with documents behind it.
At a glance
- Investment required
- 100,000 dollars
The regulation says "cien mil dólares" without naming a country's dollar and without saying whether the figure is per applicant or per family. Every other amount in the same regulation is expressed as dollars of the United States of America.
- Status granted
- Temporary residence
- Maximum term
- 5 years
- Qualifying assets
- Commercial structures, movable or immovable property
- Guatemalan guarantor
- Not listed among the investor requirements
- Residence fee, three to five years
- USD 500.00
- Route to permanent residence
- 5 years of temporary residence
Requirements
- Membership of one or more commercial structures and/or investment in movable or immovable property for the stated amount
- A notarised sworn statement detailing the economic activity and the expected length of stay
- At least one of: registry certifications, title to securities, invoices for property, plant and equipment, evidence of the origin of the funds, or other supporting documents
- The general temporary-residence papers: form, passport with the entry stamp, police clearance, migration-movement certificate, proof of payment
- For renewal, a notarised sworn statement that the activity has continued, with supporting documents
In detail
One number, and almost no rules around it
Compared with the investor routes of its neighbours, Guatemala's is strikingly unspecified. There is no list of approved sectors, no minimum holding period, no requirement that the money be new or come through the banking system, no job-creation condition and no reinvestment undertaking. What the regulation asks is that the applicant be part of a commercial structure or have bought property for the amount, say in a sworn statement what they will do and how long they expect to stay, and produce whichever of five kinds of document fits. The breadth cuts both ways: it leaves a great deal to the institute's field-verification unit, which article 35 lets it send out whenever it doubts the papers.
The currency is not stated the way the rest of the regulation states it
Everywhere else in the same instrument - the rentista floor, the pensioner floor, the migrant worker's foreign remuneration - the regulation names United States dollars in full, and in the migrant-worker case it adds the figure in brackets as well. Article 17 says only "cien mil dólares". The natural reading is that it means the same currency as the rest of the regulation, and we have recorded it as a hundred thousand dollars with that caveat rather than silently converting it into a figure the text does not carry.
Country-level policy
Guatemala charges in quetzales but writes its migration fees in United States dollars. The fee schedule sets each amount in dollars and then authorises the migration institute to fix, once a quarter, the reference exchange rate at which those dollars are converted - an average of the Banco de Guatemala selling rate over the first twenty days of the last month of the previous quarter. So a residence permit has a fixed price in dollars and a price in quetzales that moves four times a year, and any quetzal figure quoted anywhere has a shelf life of three months.
On 21 May 2025 the director of the migration institute issued three new regulations at once - on visas, on residence permits and on the register of ordinary migration status - and the National Migration Authority approved them two days later. In October the fee schedule was rewritten to match. The old visa and residency regulations, from 2022 and 2023, were repealed outright. Nothing written about Guatemalan immigration before the autumn of 2025 is describing the rules that now apply, and the practical consequences are real: the income thresholds for a foreign-employer worker and for a rentista, the hundred-thousand-dollar investor test and the separate Central American price for permanent residence all live in the new texts.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of South Korea
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«d) Inversionistas: Las personas extranjeras que realicen inversiones en el país, se les autorizará por un plazo no mayor de cinco años.»Our translation - not official
d) Investors: foreign persons who make investments in the country shall be authorised for a term of no more than five years.
The Code sets no amount. The amount is in article 17 of the 2025 residence regulation, which is where it can be changed without going through Congress.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Las personas extranjeras que deseen obtener residencia temporal para inversionistas en Guatemala, según lo establecido en el artículo 75, literal d) del Código de Migración deberán acreditar que forman parte de una o varias figuras mercantiles y/o inviertan en la adquisición de bienes muebles o inmuebles, por un monto de cien mil dólares.»Our translation - not official
Foreign persons wishing to obtain temporary residence as investors in Guatemala, as established in article 75 literal d) of the Migration Code, must show that they form part of one or more commercial structures and/or invest in the acquisition of movable or immovable property, for an amount of one hundred thousand dollars.
The amount is written in words and the currency is given only as "dólares". The five supporting documents that follow are open-ended: the fifth is "others not detailed in this section".
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«En caso de prórroga de residencia temporal para inversionistas, deberá presentar además de los requisitos generales de prórroga de residencia temporal, acta notarial de declaración jurada que detalle la continuidad de la actividad económica que ha realizado en el país y documentación de soporte que la compruebe.»Our translation - not official
In the case of renewal of temporary residence for investors, in addition to the general renewal requirements a notarial record of a sworn statement must be filed detailing the continuity of the economic activity carried on in the country, with supporting documentation proving it.
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«a) Han sido residentes temporales por un período igual o mayor de cinco años.»Our translation - not official
a) They have been temporary residents for a period equal to or greater than five years.
The investor route reaches permanent residence the ordinary way. Article 27 of the residence regulation adds that someone who held an investor temporary residence may bring dependants in at that point, noting the continuation of the investment on the record.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3.3.3. 3 a 5 años, quinientos dólares de los Estados Unidos de América (500.00 USD);»Our translation - not official
3.3.3. 3 to 5 years, five hundred United States dollars (500.00 USD);
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Dependants of an investor are dealt with by cross-reference: article 17 sends them to whatever the regulation says about migrant workers, as applicable, rather than setting out their own requirements.
Nothing in the Migration Code or the 2025 residence regulation gives an investor a shorter path to permanent residence. The five-year rule in article 78 literal a) is the one that applies, which makes the Guatemalan investor route slower to permanence than the rentista route it sits beside.
This is a reading of the Migration Code and of the 2025 residence regulation, articles 1 to 60 with no gaps. Guatemala has separate investment and free-zone legislation that we did not read, and a tax or company-law incentive there would not show up in these two instruments.
- issuesCódigo de Migración, Decreto número 44-2016 del Congreso de la República
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesReglamento de Residencias Guatemaltecas, Acuerdo IGM-016-2025 aprobado por Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional AMN-05-2025
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesTarifario de Servicios Migratorios del Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración y sus reformas
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source