The Central American Route Into Guatemala
There is a regional residence route into Guatemala, but it is not the one people name. CA-4 is about movement: its convention says in terms that the single Central American visa does not carry residence with it, and its manual regulates the entry and stay of people who are not nationals of the four countries at all. What actually shortens a Central American's path to residence is Guatemalan domestic law. Someone born in another Central American country reaches permanent residence after one year of temporary residence instead of five, and pays two hundred dollars less for it. Entry is on a national identity card rather than a passport, on a reciprocity basis, and for CA-4 nationals the identity card has worked by air as well as by land since 1997.
At a glance
- Temporary residence needed first
- 1 year
- Everyone else
- 5 years
- The test is
- Place of birth, not nationality
- Permanent residence fee for Central Americans
- USD 500.00
- Entry document
- National identity card, on reciprocity
- Tourist stay
- 90 days, extendable once
- What CA-4 itself gives
- Movement, not residence and not work
- Identity card by air
- Since 1997
Requirements
- For entry: an original national identity document or a valid passport, on the principle of reciprocity
- For the shortened permanent residence: a valid birth certificate showing birth in a Central American country
- One year as a temporary resident in Guatemala, evidenced by a certificate of the migration status register or of the temporary residence decision
- A notarised sworn statement of the activity to be carried on in the country
- The general permanent-residence papers and the reduced fee
In detail
What the CA-4 manual actually covers
The manual's own statement of objectives is the clearest thing in it: to regulate the issue of the single Central American visa for temporary entry to the territories of the Party States, for people who are not nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras or Nicaragua, and to regulate the stay and movement of those non-nationals. Everything in it follows from that. It harmonises three visa categories across the four countries, sets the standard entry requirements, grants a regional stay of up to ninety days at the first peripheral post, extendable once, and makes that stay lapse the moment the traveller leaves the region. It gives no right to work: section IX forbids commercial activity and paid work on a visitor's stay, and forbids it even to a person resident in one Party State who is visiting another. And the convention it implements says in terms that the visa does not carry residence.
Free movement for the four countries' own nationals is a separate, older thing
The arrangement people mean when they say "CA-4" - a Salvadoran or a Honduran crossing into Guatemala on an identity card - is not in the 2005 convention or in the unified manual, both of which are addressed to third-country nationals. In the documents we hold it rests on presidential agreements summarised by the SICA secretariat and on the 1997 vice-ministerial resolution that extended identity-card movement from land crossings to air travel from 1 November 1997. Guatemalan law reaches the same result independently, through article 67 of the Migration Code, and that article is wider: it says "centroamericanos", not "the CA-4 four", subject to reciprocity.
Which countries count is not the same question twice
Three different groupings appear in three instruments and they do not coincide. CA-4 is Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. The Constitution's article 145 names the republics that constituted the Federation of Central America, which adds Costa Rica and excludes nobody else. The Migration Code says "centroamericanos" and "otros países de Centro América" without defining either, so whether a Panamanian or a Belizean can use the one-year route is left to the institute. Anyone relying on the shortened route should expect to have that question asked of their birth certificate rather than of their passport.
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.
Guatemala treats nationals of its Central American neighbours differently at every stage, and the preferences are scattered across four instruments rather than gathered in one. At the border a Central American enters on a national identity card. After one year of temporary residence - not five - someone born in another Central American country can apply for permanent residence, and pays two hundred dollars less for it than anyone else. The labour code's rule that nine in ten employees must be Guatemalan can be relaxed where Central Americans by origin are concerned. And the Constitution goes further than any immigration rule could: a national by birth of a republic of the old Central American Federation who takes up domicile in Guatemala and says before the authorities that they wish to be Guatemalan is a Guatemalan of origin, keeping their first nationality.
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
«Los centroamericanos pueden ingresar al país como turistas portando su documento de identidad nacional en original, o bien su pasaporte vigente, atendiendo al principio de reciprocidad, hasta por noventa días de permanencia, prorrogable por una única vez.»Our translation - not official
Central Americans may enter the country as tourists carrying their original national identity document, or their valid passport, on the principle of reciprocity, for up to ninety days of stay, extendable once only.
The Code says "centroamericanos" and does not name the countries. The reciprocity condition means the answer for any one nationality depends on what that country does for Guatemalans.
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
«d) Los nacidos en otros países de Centro América cuando han sido residentes temporales por un período de un año.»Our translation - not official
d) Those born in other countries of Central America when they have been temporary residents for a period of one year.
Literal a) of the same article sets five years of temporary residence for everybody else, which is what makes this the shortened route.
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
«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 ordinary route, quoted here so the one-year Central American rule can be read against it.
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
«Podrán aplicar a la residencia permanente los nacidos en otros países de Centroamérica, que acrediten haber sido residentes temporales por un periodo de un año, según lo establecido en el artículo 78 literal d) del Código de Migración, debiendo presentar además de los requisitos generales, lo siguiente:»Our translation - not official
Those born in other countries of Central America who can show that they have been temporary residents for a period of one year may apply for permanent residence, as established in article 78 literal d) of the Migration Code, filing the following in addition to the general requirements:
The three documents that follow are a birth certificate establishing birth in a Central American country, a notarised sworn statement of the activity to be carried on, and a certificate of the migration status register or of the temporary residence decision covering the year.
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
«3.7. Residencia Permanente para centroamericanos, quinientos dólares de los Estados Unidos de América (500.00 USD);»Our translation - not official
3.7. Permanent Residence for Central Americans, five hundred United States dollars (500.00 USD);
This line is in the schedule but not on the migration institute's own published fee page, which shows only the seven-hundred-dollar permanent residence and the four-hundred-dollar rentista rate.
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
«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 estatus diferente al de ingreso deberán cumplir con los requisitos establecidos por la legislación de cada una de las Partes.»Our translation - not official
The Single Central American Visa does not carry with it temporary or permanent residence in the territory of the Parties. Consequently, foreigners wishing to enjoy a status other than that of entry must comply with the requirements established by the legislation of each of the Parties.
The single most load-bearing sentence in the CA-4 instruments, and the one that settles what the arrangement is not.
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 extranjeros que ingresen a cualquier Estado Parte, no podrán ejercer actividades comerciales o labores remuneradas en el territorio que visite durante su permanencia, salvo que estén facultadas, según resolución de la autoridad competente a lo interno del país donde se encuentre.»Our translation - not official
Foreigners entering any Party State may not carry on commercial activities or paid work in the territory they visit during their stay, unless they are authorised to do so by a decision of the competent authority within the country where they are.
The same section adds, at numeral 5 literal A.4, that even a foreigner resident in one Party State may not carry on paid or commercial activity in another that they visit.
Read it at the sourceAbout 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
«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;
Dated 16 September 1997 and made effective from 1 November 1997. This resolution, not the 2005 convention or its manual, is where free movement of the four countries' own nationals is set out in the documents we hold.
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
«También se consideran guatemaltecos de origen, a los nacionales por nacimiento, de las repúblicas que constituyeron la Federación de Centroamérica, si adquieren domicilio en Guatemala y manifestaren ante autoridad competente, su deseo de ser guatemaltecos.»Our translation - not official
Also considered Guatemalans by origin are nationals by birth of the republics that constituted the Federation of Central America, if they acquire domicile in Guatemala and declare before a competent authority their wish to be Guatemalan.
The constitutional route runs past residence altogether and is dealt with under becoming a citizen.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's labour ministry, which administers work permits for foreigners through its own department and republishes the Constitution and the Labour Code in its legislation library.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited as the publisher of anything it merely hosts. The Constitution and the Labour Code here are a ministry's library copies, and our reading of the Constitution shows why that matters: twenty-seven article headings did not survive extraction, one article is absent and another breaks off mid-sentence, so no negative claim about the Constitution may rest on this source. Nor may it be cited for migration status, which belongs to the migration institute.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The reduced permanent residence fee for Central Americans is in the schedule in force since October 2025 but does not appear on the migration institute's own published fee page, read the same day. The discrepancy is worth raising at the counter rather than assumed either way.
CA-4 confers no right to work anywhere in the region and no residence anywhere in the region. Any claim that it does is contradicted by article VII of the convention and by section IX of the manual.
The manual was read in the copy held by the migration observatory of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. The text carries photo captions that extracted as noise, but the body is a clean text layer; the convention and the 1997 resolution were read separately at the SICA secretariat and agree with it.
- 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
- consolidatesConvenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana para la Libre Movilidad de Extranjeros
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración 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 de los Países miembros del Grupo CA-4
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración 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
- reportsManual Regional de Procedimientos Migratorios de la Visa Única Centroamericana CA-4
Observatorio de las Migraciones Internacionales en Honduras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
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