Country-wide policy
The 2025 Rules for the Residence the Law Left Undefined
Article 21 of the migration law ends with a numeral that lets the ministry authorise residence in duly justified cases, without saying what a justification is. On 29 July 2025 the ministry published what it now asks for, and the reasoning it gives is candid: the open numeral had attracted an excessive pattern of distortion, and leaving it without requirements put the properly specified categories at a disadvantage. Four routes are now written down. Someone who falls short of the rentista, pensioner or investor figures may apply with at least half of them. Someone who has used up five years of permits, or broken their continuity, may apply. Someone who works in Honduras may apply after two years of continuous lawful residence with a work authorisation and the employer's labour-quota certificate. And anyone else may apply after a hundred and twenty days on humanitarian, public-interest or special family grounds, including being the child of Honduran parents born abroad. None of it is a right: the instrument says the ministry may accept, refuse or shelve the application without liability and without creating any acquired right.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through investment
- Residency through work
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- Half the rentista, pensioner or investor threshold, where the shortfall is the reason for applying
- Two years of continuous lawful residence, a work authorisation and the employer's quota certificate, where work is the reason
- A hundred and twenty days of continuous lawful residence, where the reason is humanitarian, public interest or a special family link
- The documents and the payment required for the category the applicant could not reach
- An acceptance that the decision is discretionary and creates no acquired right
At a glance
- Instrument
- Acuerdo Ministerial 374-2025
The instrument's own number, as printed in La Gaceta.
- Signed
- 29 July 2025
The date given at the foot of the instrument, 29 July 2025; it was published in La Gaceta on 23 August 2025.
- Published
- 23 August 2025
La Gaceta no. 36,924.
- Shortfall route
- At least 50% of the category's threshold
- Work route
- 2 years of continuous lawful residence
- Other grounds
- 120 days of continuous lawful residence
- Applications already filed
- Decided under the earlier practice
Except where the justification is an employment relationship, in which case the two new work documents are added.
- Nature of the decision
- Discretionary, with no acquired right
What the law says
«Podrán optar a esta calidad migratoria, quienes por no cumplir con los requisitos esenciales de las calidades migratorias comprendidas en los numerales 1, 2, 3, 4 y 5 del artículo 21 de la Ley de Migración y Extranjería, no califiquen para una de estas.»Our translation - not official
Those who, by not meeting the essential requirements of the migration statuses in numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of article 21 of the Migration and Alien Affairs Law, do not qualify for one of them, may apply for this migration status.
The route is defined by failure to qualify elsewhere, and the applicant must still produce the documents and the payment of the category they could not reach.
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
«Cuando la justificante sea no llegar a los montos requeridos para ser rentista, pensionado o inversor, deberán comprobar que cuentan con al menos el 50% de lo exigido a cada una de estas calidades migratorias»Our translation - not official
Where the justification is not reaching the amounts required to be a rentista, pensioner or investor, they must prove that they have at least 50% of what is required for each of these migration statuses
The instrument reproduces articles 23, 24 and 33 numeral 2 in its own footnotes, so the three thresholds and the percentage sit in the same document.
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
«Podrán optar a esta calidad migratoria, quienes trabajen el país y sustenten o justifiquen en ello su petición, para lo cual deberán acreditar:»Our translation - not official
Those who work in the country and base or justify their application on that may apply for this migration status, for which they must prove:
Three documents follow: two years of continuous lawful residence, a work authorisation from the labour ministry or the migration institute, and the employer's certificate of compliance with article 11 of the Labour Code.
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
«En otros casos, tener al menos 120 días de residir de forma continua y legal en el país»Our translation - not official
In other cases, to have at least 120 days of continuous and lawful residence in the country
The grounds that follow are humanitarian reasons, public interest, special family links such as economic dependency or relationship by affinity, children of Honduran parents born abroad, and any other duly accredited exceptional circumstance.
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
«La autorización de residencia, que alude el artículo 21, numeral 8, no constituye una obligación para el Estado»Our translation - not official
The residence authorisation referred to in article 21, numeral 8 does not constitute an obligation on the State
The clause continues: it is subject to the ministry's exclusive analysis, assessment and judgement, and the ministry reserves the right to accept, refuse or shelve the application without liability and without creating any acquired right.
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
«Tener al menos 2 años de residir de forma continua y legal en el país;»Our translation - not official
To have at least 2 years of continuous and lawful residence in the country;
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
Practical notes
The half-threshold amounts in dollars - USD 1,250, USD 750 and USD 25,000 - are our arithmetic. The instrument states a percentage, and the figures it is a percentage of are quoted in its own footnotes.
This is the only Honduran migration instrument we found that postdates 2004. It is the best single indication of how the ministry is currently thinking about residence, and a good trigger for re-reading the country.
The instrument instructs the Secretaría General to turn these lineamientos into a clear and simplified list of requirements. We have not found that list published anywhere.